LO4: Evaluate feedback to improve the soundtrack

The feedback given was to add more atmospheric audio to the product, and to add the whistling fall sound effect when the character Fred gets punched by Mr Grooper. These two suggestions will make the product more successful, since the audios narrative will become more clear, and the created world will seem more believable through the use of an atmospheric background sound.

The two sounds I decided to source for this task was:

A sound which represents wind - connoted ideas about space, since space is considered to be cold, and makes the scene more atmospheric as long as the wind's audio doesn't sound too intense and over power the dialogue. The link to this windy audio can be found here on the royalty free sound website Freesound.org:
https://freesound.org/people/InspectorJ/sounds/376415/

The sound that represent Fred being punched into out of space, in the form of a sound of a whistle. The link can be found here again on Fresound.org: https://freesound.org/people/Augdog/sounds/210205/

Both the of the audios were added on audition, the screen shot of their addition to the product can be found below:

Verses the previous file:

The improved product can be found here:

LO4: Present the soundtrack to an audience

My Final product was shown to a focus group through the format of a video with a still image of the two main characters. The feedback was positive to begin with, stating that the narrative was funny and interesting. 

The main criticisms was firstly, I whistling sound should have been used when the character Doopy was punched by Mr Grooper. This would have increased the comedic value of the product. Another criticism was that the product should have incorporated more atmospheric sounds, ones linked to ideas of space in order to fit more into the genre of the product.

The product shown to the audience can be watched here:

LO4: Carry out the post-production edits to the soundtrack.

To make the dialogue sound more like the recording of a believable event, the recorded dialogue was then taken into Adobe Audition, which is professional sound editing software which is used by professional business to edit their sound products.

During this process, I found a group of sound effects on the website Freesound.org, which allows me to download required sound effects which are royalty free, therefore using those sound effects will not land me in any copyright issues with my final product.

The sound effects used are listed below:

Willard by Gengis Attenborough - a guitar song I used to create the impression that the two characters were watching the end credits of a film, the song also gave the product more comedic value I believe to the obscure jazzy nature of the song.

LINK: https://freesound.org/people/genghis%20attenborough/sounds/212796/

Door-creeking-open-hinge-rusty by Stiffman - a sound of a door opening which is placed before Mr Grooper speaking in order for it to be clear to the audience that he has just entered the room.

LINK: https://freesound.org/people/stiffman/sounds/381963/

Punch-remake by Ekokubza123 - a song which sounds like a comical slapstick punch, to be used when Mr Grooper punches Fred out into space for insulting his TV.

The final visual edit of the sound product can be seen below:

All the audio was arranged in a way which prioritised the narratives timings, in order to increase the comedic value of the final product.

Adobe Audition also allowed me to lower the volume of certain tracks, in order to keep the sound more balanced, this was used in the second section of the soundtrack, where the music is turned down in order for Freddy and Doopys dialogue to be heard more clearly. The music however is completely cut off when Mr Grooper enters the room, in order to signify the sense of a authority in the narrative (since Mr Grooper is Freddy and Doopy's boss). A screen shot of me lowering the volume of that specific track can be seen below:

LO4: Carry out post-prodccution edits to the soundtrack

The audio I recorded of my own voice was first recorded using Garage Band, a free service supplied by apple on their own iMacs. The recording studio used a high quality microphone which allowed me to easily manipulate the sensitivity of the of the microphone, in order for different voices to sound more optimised, for example the character Mr Grooper uses a more shouty tone than the other two characters, which meant that the sensitivity was lowered in order for his voice not to sound overly distorted.

The screen shot of the original recorded file can be seen below:

This process only took 30 minutes to complete, since all the separate voices were created by myself, and the audio product has a very short narrative. 

LO4: Recording the voices for the audio product

Here is the raw un edited recorded voices for the narrative. The timings are not correct because the audio hasn't been edited using Audition yet.

LO3: Identify any issues and resolutions to legal and ethical issues

The legal and ethical issues I needed to consider, are the OFCOM BROADCASTING CODES, which are defined by Ofcom, a company that regularities broadcasted media such as the radio.

This includes ensuring that my audio product does not use any copyrighted materials. To ensure this I acquired all the extra sound effects that I didn't record myself, on Freesound.org, a website which contains a huge array of royalty free sound effects, which people have uploaded with the full knowledge that they are going to be used for free online by many people.

My audio product also doesn't contain any bad language, or anything that could be considered offensive to any type of audience. A possible issue I could have, is using the style of Buttheads voice from Beavis and butthead, which could be considered intellectual property of the people that make Beavis and Butthead (MTV).

LO3: Script for sound

The script for my audio narrative for GALEXACO will be as followed.

SFX: You can hear  a TV playing in the background. 

Fred:

[whiny] 

Many why do all the TV shows we watch really suck?

Doopy: 

[offended]

Err... I dunno. 

Fred: 

None of them seem to go anywhere good, all the TV shows we watch just end with someone dying. 

Doopy:

Interesting analysis Fred.

SFX: A door opening. 

Mr Grooper:

[Angry] 

Why is it that every time I turn my back on you two mother lickers! You always go and watch TV.

Doopy:

Err.. Fred said your TV sucks. 

Mr Grooper: 

Oh he did? Did He?

SFX: A punch is heard, and then the whistling sound of someone falling is heard.

Fred:

[faintly]

Arrrrrrrrghhhh! 

Doopy:

Err... where did Fred go?

Mr Groooper:

Far away Doopy, far away... 

LO2: Know the techniques and processes used to create sound effects

Ben Burtt is a sign designer, who designed the entire of the sound design for the Animation WallE, which was created with the intension of creating a sense of an entire new world for audiences to appreciate. The film WallE truly submerges audience into a world dominated by robots. Ben Burtt was the guy who designed the soundtrack for the first Star Wars films, and he is considered to be the father of sound design for science-fiction films.

He created foley sounds through the use of a slinky, that when stretched a part and then struck, creates the sound of a laser gun that we are all familiar with today. He also liked to record sounds from the real world, for example the flight/landing of a plane, which sounds like a spaceship from Star Wars.

Ben Burtt believed that creating sounds for animations should have a musical quality, since it fits with animated styles, because the fun audio matches the fun visuals. Musical sounds which are used for sound effects fit into the criteria of an animation, because it fits into the music timings of sounds, since sound design is just as much about when the sound is played as well as what particular sound is played. This is because animation relies on timing, in order for the comedy/charm of the feature to work better.

Foley Design is the process of sound design where real life sounds you are familiar with are mimicked in a more controlled environment. When Disney were creating their original style of animation, devices were built to mimic the sounds of draw bridges, and their chains, which consisted of three cylinders each surrounded by a hoop of chains, which was then turned slowly mimicking the noise imagined when a castle lowers its bridge across a mote.

Another technique of foley design which is famous, is the sound the penguin makes in the wrong trousers, when it pulls his chicken hat back with his flipper, the noise was mimicked simply through the use of a a balloon.

Microphones with a high sensitivity are always used in order to pick up the sound in as crisp a quality as possible, since the majority of these films were intended to be seen on the cinema, which would have a high quality sound system.