Thursday, 18 December 2014

SOUNDTRACK PRODUCTION EVALUATION

TASK 5D



For task 5 my partner,Noran and I had chosen a scene from the popular TV show 'Game of Thrones' to base our moving image soundtrack on. This was chosen as our choice for TV DIALOGUE DRAMA.
An interview of Kim Kardashian, a celebrity socialite on the red carped was our clip of choice for the LIVE FACTUAL TV INTERVIEW. For our VOX POP clip we decided on a vox pop survey taken place in Nigeria on women's personal reasons for marriage. The clip was titled '' Do women marry for love or money''

TV DRAMA DIALOGUE- GAME OF THRONES

PREPRODUCTION: For the 'Tv Drama Dialogue' aspect of the task, the TV show Game of Thrones was our choice of moving image to incorporate our Automated Dialogue Replacement. After choosing our clip and the preferred 30-40 second dialogue we wished to replace, we replayed that particular section over numerous times ensuring we understood clearly what the characters were saying so as to script their lines to precisely match them. After the script was finalised and we made sure it matched the characters dialogue we began with our recordings.
PRODUCTION: Our production process involved having to record ourselves using a voice recorder with a built in condenser microphone. Using a condenser microphone that is uni-directional allows sound to be picked up in every direction which includes background and surround sound that gave off an atmospheric quality to the overall outcome of a recording. This could be used as an advantage or disadvantage depending on ones intention, however this microphone worked in our favour as we intentionally wanted our recording to possess the atmospheric quality that distinctly matches the location setting of the clip which was set outdoors. Hence our recording was outdoors with slight wind noise was recorded as well as mine and my partners footsteps because we recorded ourselves saying the lines while walking so as to imitate the action of the characters to an extent so as to produce a more realistic outcome.
POST-PRODUCTION: After recording our voices  for our chosen scene it was then time for us to progress onto the post production stage and edit our voices as well as the clip and merge them together to produce our intended successful ADR. The clip was downloaded from a website ( www.clipconverter.cc) and converted into a MP4 format of which we then saved and imported onto Garage Band straight away. We then proceeded to upload our voice recordings and chose the best one out 5 takes. That recording was then uploaded onto Reaper for us to compress and normalise.

Compressing our recording allowed for the sound to be described as 'wet' rather than an uncompressed recording of which would be 'dry' and not as clear or crisp as we would want it to be for achieving a professional standard. To normalise our recording on a Apple Mac computer we had to press Cmd+Shift+N and to compress our recording we clicked 'FX' which was on the left side of the rerecording under the Track bar, then from the Cockos list we selected the Reacomp compressor. A box pops up allowing to change the Ratio,Knee,Attack,Release,Threshold and Make up gain of which we changed according to the following : Ratio- 3:1,Knee- 20dB, Attack-20ms, Release-100ms,Threshold-10dB bellow peak level, Make up gain- 0dB. After the compression of our voices we rendered the track and incorporated it onto Garage Band onto the project we had already added our clip to. Now that our Garage Band project had both our chosen Game of Thrones clip, aswell as the original soundtrack that came with the moving image clip, it also had the track of mine and Norans voices of which we had initially edited on Reaper. What we had to now, was our major concern, was to synch our voices in time with the characters lip movement. Ensuring what Noran and I said matched with our characters, Danearys and Missandei lip movement. This was done by splitting our voice track and cutting out unnecessary pauses at relevant timings to ensure lip movement was precise. Not only did we continuously split up our voice track but we also had to move the track in time with the characters lines, another contributing step to ensure precise synchronization and a successful ADR. Though majority of the clip was of diegetic sound whereby sound is visually present, there were a few parts whereby the characters dialogue was of non-diegetic, their dialogue was not seen visually in terms of not witnessing them speak their lines , instead they were just solely heard.
Once our voice track was synchronized with the moving image, we muted the original soundtrack, saved the project, finalized it and exported it.

LIVE FACTUAL TV INTERVIEW- KIM KARDASHIAN ON THE RED CARPET

PREPRODUCTION: For the 'Live Factual Tv Interview' aspect of the task, an interview with  Kim Kardashian on the red carpet was our choice of moving image to incorporate our Automated Dialogue Replacement. After choosing our clip and the preferred 30-40 second dialogue we wished to replace, we replayed that particular section over numerous times ensuring we understood clearly what the characters were saying so as to script their lines to precisely match them. After the script was finalised and we made sure it matched the characters dialogue we began with our recordings.
PRODUCTION: Our production process involved having to record ourselves using a voice recorder with a built in condenser microphone. Using a condenser microphone that is uni-directional allows sound to be picked up in every direction which includes background and surround sound that gave off an atmospheric quality to the overall outcome of a recording. This could be used as an advantage or disadvantage depending on ones intention. In our case for this clip we wanted the recording to be in a Indoor location where sound will not have any atmospheric, surrounding or wind noise that is often heard when recording outdoors. We used this condenser microphone despite our intentions and ensured it was placed in a position that was neither too close whereby our voices would sound too ''breathy'' or distorted , or too far whereby our voices were unclear and too distant. So as to produce a more realistic outcome, Noran and I recorded our dialogue in American accents to match not only their lip movement but also their tongue movement which we noticed is distinguishable American as compared to our British accents of which our mouth and tongue movement when we speak is much more short and sharp. We noticed the difference in recording in accents when we initially spoke in our British accents of which was too fast and not in pace with Kim Kardashians toungue and lip movement of which we believed the problem to be down to accents. Because of this dilemma, we studied the way Kim Kardashian spoke and pronounced her words and rerecorded our dialogue in American accents and found that this was more successful and in synch with her lip movement as compared to when we spoke in our British accents.
POST-PRODUCTION: After recording our voices  for our chosen scene it was then time for us to progress onto the post production stage and edit our voices as well as the clip and merge them together to produce our intended successful ADR. The clip was downloaded from a website ( www.clipconverter.cc) and converted into a MP4 format of which we then saved and imported onto Garage Band straight away. We then proceeded to upload our voice recordings and chose the best one out 5 takes. That recording was then uploaded onto Reaper for us to compress and normalise.

Compressing our recording allowed for the sound to be described as 'wet' rather than an uncompressed recording of which would be 'dry' and not as clear or crisp as we would want it to be for achieving a professional standard. To normalise our recording on a Apple Mac computer we had to press Cmd+Shift+N and to compress our recording we clicked 'FX' which was on the left side of the rerecording under the Track bar, then from the Cockos list we selected the Reacomp compressor. A box pops up allowing to change the Ratio,Knee,Attack,Release,Threshold and Make up gain of which we changed according to the following : Ratio- 3:1,Knee- 20dB, Attack-20ms, Release-100ms,Threshold-10dB bellow peak level, Make up gain- 0dB. After the compression of our voices we rendered the track and incorporated it onto Garage Band onto the project we had already added our clip to. Now that our Garage Band project had both our chosen Interview clip, aswell as the original soundtrack that came with the moving image clip, it also had the track of mine and Norans voices of which we had initially edited on Reaper. What we had to now, was our major concern, was to synch our voices in time with the characters lip movement. Ensuring what Noran and I said matched with our characters, Kim Kardashian and Interviewers  lip movement. This was done by splitting our voice track and cutting out unnecessary pauses at relevant timings to ensure lip movement was precise. Not only did we continuously split up our voice track but we also had to move the track in time with the characters lines, another contributing step to ensure precise synchronization and a successful ADR. Though majority of the clip was of diegetic sound whereby sound is visually present, there were a few parts whereby the characters dialogue was of non-diegetic, their dialogue was not seen visually in terms of not witnessing them speak their lines , instead they were just solely heard.
Once our voice track was synchronized with the moving image, we muted the original soundtrack, saved the project, finalized it and exported it.

VOX POP

PREPRODUCTION: For the 'Vox Pop' aspect of the task, the clip of our choice for our moving image to incorporate our Automated Dialogue Replacement was of a Vox Pop style questionnaire on womens thoughts on marriage; whether or not they marry for love or money. This vox pop takes place in Nigeria. After choosing our clip and the preferred 30-40 second dialogue we wished to replace, we replayed that particular section over numerous times ensuring we understood clearly what the characters were saying so as to script their lines to precisely match them. After the script was finalised and we made sure it matched the characters dialogue we began with our recordings.
PRODUCTION: Our production process involved having to record ourselves using a voice recorder with a built in condenser microphone. Using a condenser microphone that is uni-directional allows sound to be picked up in every direction which includes background and surround sound that gave off an atmospheric quality to the overall outcome of a recording. This could be used as an advantage or disadvantage depending on ones intention, however this microphone worked in our favour as we intentionally wanted our recording to possess the atmospheric quality that distinctly matches the location setting of the clip which was set outdoors. Hence our recording was outdoors with slight wind noise. So as to produce a more realistic outcome, Noran and I recorded our dialogue in Nigerian accents to match not only their lip movement but also their tongue movement which we noticed is distinguishably Nigerian as compared to our British accents of which our mouth and tongue movement when we speak is much more short and sharp. Our decision to record ourselves in Nigerian accents was due to the experience we had when recording the ADR  interview with Kim Kardashian of which we realised we had to change the way we spoke from speaking in our British accents to American so as to precisely match the mouth and tongue movement of the moving image.
POST-PRODUCTION: After recording our voices  for our chosen scene it was then time for us to progress onto the post production stage and edit our voices as well as the clip and merge them together to produce our intended successful ADR. The clip was downloaded from a website ( www.clipconverter.cc) and converted into a MP4 format of which we then saved and imported onto Garage Band straight away. We then proceeded to upload our voice recordings and chose the best one out 5 takes. That recording was then uploaded onto Reaper for us to compress and normalise.

Compressing our recording allowed for the sound to be described as 'wet' rather than an uncompressed recording of which would be 'dry' and not as clear or crisp as we would want it to be for achieving a professional standard. To normalise our recording on a Apple Mac computer we had to press Cmd+Shift+N and to compress our recording we clicked 'FX' which was on the left side of the rerecording under the Track bar, then from the Cockos list we selected the Reacomp compressor. A box pops up allowing to change the Ratio,Knee,Attack,Release,Threshold and Make up gain of which we changed according to the following : Ratio- 3:1,Knee- 20dB, Attack-20ms, Release-100ms,Threshold-10dB bellow peak level, Make up gain- 0dB. After the compression of our voices we rendered the track and incorporated it onto Garage Band onto the project we had already added our clip to. Now that our Garage Band project had both our Vox Pop clip, aswell as the original soundtrack that came with the moving image clip, it also had the track of mine and Norans voices of which we had initially edited on Reaper. What we had to now, was our major concern, was to synch our voices in time with the characters lip movement. Ensuring what Noran and I said matched with our characters lip movement. This was done by splitting our voice track and cutting out unnecessary pauses at relevant timings to ensure lip movement was precise. Not only did we continuously split up our voice track but we also had to move the track in time with the characters lines, another contributing step to ensure precise synchronization and a successful ADR. Though majority of the clip was of diegetic sound whereby sound is visually present, there were a few parts whereby the characters dialogue was of non-diegetic, their dialogue was not seen visually in terms of not witnessing them speak their lines , instead they were just solely heard.
Once our voice track was synchronized with the moving image, we muted the original soundtrack, saved the project, finalized it and exported it.




TASK 6C- SOUND EFFECTS


TV DRAMA DIALOGUE- GAME OF THRONES

PREPRODUCTION: For the 'Tv Drama Dialogue' aspect of the task, the TV show Game of Thrones was our choice of moving image to incorporate our Automated Dialogue Replacement. After choosing our clip and the preferred 30-40 second dialogue we wished to replace, we replayed that particular section over numerous times ensuring we understood clearly what the characters were saying so as to script their lines to precisely match them. After the script was finalised and we made sure it matched the characters dialogue we began with our recordings.
PRODUCTION: Our production process involved having to record ourselves using a voice recorder with a built in condenser microphone. Using a condenser microphone that is uni-directional allows sound to be picked up in every direction which includes background and surround sound that gave off an atmospheric quality to the overall outcome of a recording. This could be used as an advantage or disadvantage depending on ones intention, however this microphone worked in our favour as we intentionally wanted our recording to possess the atmospheric quality that distinctly matches the location setting of the clip which was set outdoors. Hence our recording was outdoors with slight wind noise was recorded as well as mine and my partners footsteps because we recorded ourselves saying the lines while walking so as to imitate the action of the characters to an extent so as to produce a more realistic outcome.
POST-PRODUCTION: After recording our voices  for our chosen scene it was then time for us to progress onto the post production stage and edit our voices as well as the clip and merge them together to produce our intended successful ADR. The clip was downloaded from a website ( www.clipconverter.cc) and converted into a MP4 format of which we then saved and imported onto Garage Band straight away. We then proceeded to upload our voice recordings and chose the best one out 5 takes. That recording was then uploaded onto Reaper for us to compress and normalise.

Compressing our recording allowed for the sound to be described as 'wet' rather than an uncompressed recording of which would be 'dry' and not as clear or crisp as we would want it to be for achieving a professional standard. To normalise our recording on a Apple Mac computer we had to press Cmd+Shift+N and to compress our recording we clicked 'FX' which was on the left side of the rerecording under the Track bar, then from the Cockos list we selected the Reacomp compressor. A box pops up allowing to change the Ratio,Knee,Attack,Release,Threshold and Make up gain of which we changed according to the following : Ratio- 3:1,Knee- 20dB, Attack-20ms, Release-100ms,Threshold-10dB bellow peak level, Make up gain- 0dB. After the compression of our voices we rendered the track and incorporated it onto Garage Band onto the project we had already added our clip to. Now that our Garage Band project had both our chosen Game of Thrones clip, aswell as the original soundtrack that came with the moving image clip, it also had the track of mine and Norans voices of which we had initially edited on Reaper. What we had to now, was our major concern, was to synch our voices in time with the characters lip movement. Ensuring what Noran and I said matched with our characters, Danearys and Missandei lip movement. This was done by splitting our voice track and cutting out unnecessary pauses at relevant timings to ensure lip movement was precise. Not only did we continuously split up our voice track but we also had to move the track in time with the characters lines, another contributing step to ensure precise synchronization and a successful ADR. Though majority of the clip was of diegetic sound whereby sound is visually present, there were a few parts whereby the characters dialogue was of non-diegetic, their dialogue was not seen visually in terms of not witnessing them speak their lines , instead they were just solely heard.
Our next process was to add in effects. Our main aim for this clip was to create a mood by using enhancing music so as to keep the audience entertained while also contributing to the emotional quality . Thus we added music that we believe suited the theme of the scene which was very gladiatorial and quite traditional which not only emphasised the time our characters are in but also their personality in terms of one of them being strong willed, determined and powerful. To enhance the realisim of the scene we  are also added footsteps, that when heard, can be clearly and distinguishably distinct that they are walking on possibly a sandy concrete with sandals. To enhance our audiences viewing experience even further, we 'panned' the dialogue of this moving image. To ensure this was successful it was agreed that out of the two characters, one would be heard mainly left and the other mainly right. We did this by creating an entire new track above our Voice track. We copied our voice track onto this 'New Track' so we had to tracks of the same content, played at the same time. We then labelled one track Daenarys and the other Missunndei, the name of the characters in the show. I was the voice of Daenarys while my partner, Noran was the voice of Missundei. We then proceeded to ensure the Daenarys track contained only my voice so we cut out Missundei's dialogue. We did the same to Missundei's track where by we cut out Danarys dialogue. What we were then left with were two voice tracks, one of Daenarys dialogue and one of Missundei's dialogue.

Once our voice track was synchronized with the moving image, we muted the original soundtrack, saved the project, finalized it and exported it. These two tracks can be easily told apart by their alternate pattern with one voice on the top and the other at the bottom. This separation  ensured the panning would not only be easier to perform but also the outcome would be much more equal in terms of the quality. As mentioned earlier, we panned one dialogue to the left, the other to the right. Our setting for this was +10 for the right side and -10 for the left. My partner and I strongly believe that the outcome of this clip turned out professional and successful with regards to achieving our aim of wanting to ensure that not only did our ADR match the movement of the moving image image but also that the effects added to the clip portrayed mood and enhanced realism.

LIVE FACTUAL TV INTERVIEW- KIM KARDASHIAN ON THE RED CARPET

PREPRODUCTION: For the 'Live Factual Tv Interview' aspect of the task, an interview with  Kim Kardashian on the red carpet was our choice of moving image to incorporate our Automated Dialogue Replacement. After choosing our clip and the preferred 30-40 second dialogue we wished to replace, we replayed that particular section over numerous times ensuring we understood clearly what the characters were saying so as to script their lines to precisely match them. After the script was finalised and we made sure it matched the characters dialogue we began with our recordings.
PRODUCTION: Our production process involved having to record ourselves using a voice recorder with a built in condenser microphone. Using a condenser microphone that is uni-directional allows sound to be picked up in every direction which includes background and surround sound that gave off an atmospheric quality to the overall outcome of a recording. This could be used as an advantage or disadvantage depending on ones intention. In our case for this clip we wanted the recording to be in a Indoor location where sound will not have any atmospheric, surrounding or wind noise that is often heard when recording outdoors. We used this condenser microphone despite our intentions and ensured it was placed in a position that was neither too close whereby our voices would sound too ''breathy'' or distorted , or too far whereby our voices were unclear and too distant. So as to produce a more realistic outcome, Noran and I recorded our dialogue in American accents to match not only their lip movement but also their tongue movement which we noticed is distinguishable American as compared to our British accents of which our mouth and tongue movement when we speak is much more short and sharp. We noticed the difference in recording in accents when we initially spoke in our British accents of which was too fast and not in pace with Kim Kardashians toungue and lip movement of which we believed the problem to be down to accents. Because of this dilemma, we studied the way Kim Kardashian spoke and pronounced her words and rerecorded our dialogue in American accents and found that this was more successful and in synch with her lip movement as compared to when we spoke in our British accents.
We also recorded crowd sound by heading into the canteen that was crowded at the time and stood at the entrance with our voice recorder.
POST-PRODUCTION: After recording our voices  for our chosen scene it was then time for us to progress onto the post production stage and edit our voices as well as the clip and merge them together to produce our intended successful ADR. The clip was downloaded from a website ( www.clipconverter.cc) and converted into a MP4 format of which we then saved and imported onto Garage Band straight away. We then proceeded to upload our voice recordings and chose the best one out 5 takes. That recording was then uploaded onto Reaper for us to compress and normalise.

Compressing our recording allowed for the sound to be described as 'wet' rather than an uncompressed recording of which would be 'dry' and not as clear or crisp as we would want it to be for achieving a professional standard. To normalise our recording on a Apple Mac computer we had to press Cmd+Shift+N and to compress our recording we clicked 'FX' which was on the left side of the rerecording under the Track bar, then from the Cockos list we selected the Reacomp compressor. A box pops up allowing to change the Ratio,Knee,Attack,Release,Threshold and Make up gain of which we changed according to the following : Ratio- 3:1,Knee- 20dB, Attack-20ms, Release-100ms,Threshold-10dB bellow peak level, Make up gain- 0dB. After the compression of our voices we rendered the track and incorporated it onto Garage Band onto the project we had already added our clip to. Now that our Garage Band project had both our chosen Interview clip, aswell as the original soundtrack that came with the moving image clip, it also had the track of mine and Norans voices of which we had initially edited on Reaper. What we had to now, was our major concern, was to synch our voices in time with the characters lip movement. Ensuring what Noran and I said matched with our characters, Kim Kardashian and Interviewers  lip movement. This was done by splitting our voice track and cutting out unnecessary pauses at relevant timings to ensure lip movement was precise. Not only did we continuously split up our voice track but we also had to move the track in time with the characters lines, another contributing step to ensure precise synchronization and a successful ADR. Though majority of the clip was of diegetic sound whereby sound is visually present, there were a few parts whereby the characters dialogue was of non-diegetic, their dialogue was not seen visually in terms of not witnessing them speak their lines , instead they were just solely heard.
 Our next process was to add in effects. Our main aim for this clip was to create a realistic atmosphere so that when our audience view this clip they would be able to distinguish the clip is an interview taken place in a crowded area. Background presence can be heard amongst the crowd sound of which Noran and I recorded. Unlike our voice recording we decided not to compress this recording of the crowd as we personally think that the ambience and unclear muffles of chatter heard enhances the background presence in the clip itself. We had also initially planned to include a sound effects of papazzi's calling out to celebrities and camera flashes and camera sounds going off but to our dismay we could not find a sound effect that was to our liking online and so dismissed the idea completely.

We also panned this track but made the entire dialogue constant due to the recording of the original dialogue recorded on uni directional condenser microphone as seen in the clip thus this meant that the dialogue sound would be of equal surrounding sound. Once our voice track and crowd sound track was synchronized with the moving image, we muted the original soundtrack, saved the project, finalized it and exported it.

VOX POP

PREPRODUCTION: For the 'Vox Pop' aspect of the task, the clip of our choice for our moving image to incorporate our Automated Dialogue Replacement was of a Vox Pop style questionnaire on womens thoughts on marriage; whether or not they marry for love or money. This vox pop takes place in Nigeria. After choosing our clip and the preferred 30-40 second dialogue we wished to replace, we replayed that particular section over numerous times ensuring we understood clearly what the characters were saying so as to script their lines to precisely match them. After the script was finalised and we made sure it matched the characters dialogue we began with our recordings.
PRODUCTION: Our production process involved having to record ourselves using a voice recorder with a built in condenser microphone. Using a condenser microphone that is uni-directional allows sound to be picked up in every direction which includes background and surround sound that gave off an atmospheric quality to the overall outcome of a recording. This could be used as an advantage or disadvantage depending on ones intention, however this microphone worked in our favour as we intentionally wanted our recording to possess the atmospheric quality that distinctly matches the location setting of the clip which was set outdoors. Hence our recording was outdoors with slight wind noise. So as to produce a more realistic outcome, Noran and I recorded our dialogue in Nigerian accents to match not only their lip movement but also their tongue movement which we noticed is distinguishably Nigerian as compared to our British accents of which our mouth and tongue movement when we speak is much more short and sharp. Our decision to record ourselves in Nigerian accents was due to the experience we had when recording the ADR  interview with Kim Kardashian of which we realised we had to change the way we spoke from speaking in our British accents to American so as to precisely match the mouth and tongue movement of the moving image.
POST-PRODUCTION: After recording our voices  for our chosen scene it was then time for us to progress onto the post production stage and edit our voices as well as the clip and merge them together to produce our intended successful ADR. The clip was downloaded from a website ( www.clipconverter.cc) and converted into a MP4 format of which we then saved and imported onto Garage Band straight away. We then proceeded to upload our voice recordings and chose the best one out 5 takes. That recording was then uploaded onto Reaper for us to compress and normalise.

Compressing our recording allowed for the sound to be described as 'wet' rather than an uncompressed recording of which would be 'dry' and not as clear or crisp as we would want it to be for achieving a professional standard. To normalise our recording on a Apple Mac computer we had to press Cmd+Shift+N and to compress our recording we clicked 'FX' which was on the left side of the rerecording under the Track bar, then from the Cockos list we selected the Reacomp compressor. A box pops up allowing to change the Ratio,Knee,Attack,Release,Threshold and Make up gain of which we changed according to the following : Ratio- 3:1,Knee- 20dB, Attack-20ms, Release-100ms,Threshold-10dB bellow peak level, Make up gain- 0dB. After the compression of our voices we rendered the track and incorporated it onto Garage Band onto the project we had already added our clip to. Now that our Garage Band project had both our Vox Pop clip, aswell as the original soundtrack that came with the moving image clip, it also had the track of mine and Norans voices of which we had initially edited on Reaper. What we had to now, was our major concern, was to synch our voices in time with the characters lip movement. Ensuring what Noran and I said matched with our characters lip movement. This was done by splitting our voice track and cutting out unnecessary pauses at relevant timings to ensure lip movement was precise. Not only did we continuously split up our voice track but we also had to move the track in time with the characters lines, another contributing step to ensure precise synchronization and a successful ADR. Though majority of the clip was of diegetic sound whereby sound is visually present, there were a few parts whereby the characters dialogue was of non-diegetic, their dialogue was not seen visually in terms of not witnessing them speak their lines , instead they were just solely heard. Our next process was to add in effects. Our main aim for this clip was to create a realistic atmosphere so that when our audience view this clip they would be able to distinguish the clip is a form of questionnaire taken place in a public area, along the road whereby cars and background sound is heard.We obtained this sound effect our cars and ambience as well as background surrounding sound online and converted it into MP3 formatting before downloading it and adding it with our other tracks on Garage Band. Once our voice track was synchronized with the moving image, we muted the original soundtrack, saved the project, finalized it and exported it. 

In conclusion,the sound effects used throughout our Tv Drama Dialogue, Live Interview, and Vox Pop consisted of crowd sound which included ambience and background presence, Footsteps, music, outdoor roadside where cars driving past can be heard. My partner and I strongly believe that the aesthetic and technical aspects of our moving images were successful in achieving a precise ADR but also creating realistic atmosphere that was further enhanced through our chosen sound effects. 

TASK 7C- ADDING NON DIEGETIC MUSIC

TV DRAMA DIALOGUE- GAME OF THRONES

PREPRODUCTION: For the 'Tv Drama Dialogue' aspect of the task, the TV show Game of Thrones was our choice of moving image to incorporate our Automated Dialogue Replacement. After choosing our clip and the preferred 30-40 second dialogue we wished to replace, we replayed that particular section over numerous times ensuring we understood clearly what the characters were saying so as to script their lines to precisely match them. After the script was finalised and we made sure it matched the characters dialogue we began with our recordings.
PRODUCTION: Our production process involved having to record ourselves using a voice recorder with a built in condenser microphone. Using a condenser microphone that is uni-directional allows sound to be picked up in every direction which includes background and surround sound that gave off an atmospheric quality to the overall outcome of a recording. This could be used as an advantage or disadvantage depending on ones intention, however this microphone worked in our favour as we intentionally wanted our recording to possess the atmospheric quality that distinctly matches the location setting of the clip which was set outdoors. Hence our recording was outdoors with slight wind noise was recorded as well as mine and my partners footsteps because we recorded ourselves saying the lines while walking so as to imitate the action of the characters to an extent so as to produce a more realistic outcome.
POST-PRODUCTION: After recording our voices  for our chosen scene it was then time for us to progress onto the post production stage and edit our voices as well as the clip and merge them together to produce our intended successful ADR. The clip was downloaded from a website ( www.clipconverter.cc) and converted into a MP4 format of which we then saved and imported onto Garage Band straight away. We then proceeded to upload our voice recordings and chose the best one out 5 takes. That recording was then uploaded onto Reaper for us to compress and normalise.

Compressing our recording allowed for the sound to be described as 'wet' rather than an uncompressed recording of which would be 'dry' and not as clear or crisp as we would want it to be for achieving a professional standard. To normalise our recording on a Apple Mac computer we had to press Cmd+Shift+N and to compress our recording we clicked 'FX' which was on the left side of the rerecording under the Track bar, then from the Cockos list we selected the Reacomp compressor. A box pops up allowing to change the Ratio,Knee,Attack,Release,Threshold and Make up gain of which we changed according to the following : Ratio- 3:1,Knee- 20dB, Attack-20ms, Release-100ms,Threshold-10dB bellow peak level, Make up gain- 0dB. After the compression of our voices we rendered the track and incorporated it onto Garage Band onto the project we had already added our clip to. Now that our Garage Band project had both our chosen Game of Thrones clip, aswell as the original soundtrack that came with the moving image clip, it also had the track of mine and Norans voices of which we had initially edited on Reaper. What we had to now, was our major concern, was to synch our voices in time with the characters lip movement. Ensuring what Noran and I said matched with our characters, Danearys and Missandei lip movement. This was done by splitting our voice track and cutting out unnecessary pauses at relevant timings to ensure lip movement was precise. Not only did we continuously split up our voice track but we also had to move the track in time with the characters lines, another contributing step to ensure precise synchronization and a successful ADR. Though majority of the clip was of diegetic sound whereby sound is visually present, there were a few parts whereby the characters dialogue was of non-diegetic, their dialogue was not seen visually in terms of not witnessing them speak their lines , instead they were just solely heard.
Our next process was to add in effects. Our main aim for this clip was to create a mood by using enhancing music so as to keep the audience entertained while also contributing to the emotional quality . Thus we added music that we believe suited the theme of the scene which was very gladiatorial and quite traditional which not only emphasised the time our characters are in but also their personality in terms of one of them being strong willed, determined and powerful. To enhance the realisim of the scene we  are also added footsteps, that when heard, can be clearly and distinguishably distinct that they are walking on possibly a sandy concrete with sandals. To enhance our audiences viewing experience even further, we 'panned' the dialogue of this moving image. To ensure this was successful it was agreed that out of the two characters, one would be heard mainly left and the other mainly right. We did this by creating an entire new track above our Voice track. We copied our voice track onto this 'New Track' so we had to tracks of the same content, played at the same time. We then labelled one track Daenarys and the other Missunndei, the name of the characters in the show. I was the voice of Daenarys while my partner, Noran was the voice of Missundei. We then proceeded to ensure the Daenarys track contained only my voice so we cut out Missundei's dialogue. We did the same to Missundei's track where by we cut out Danarys dialogue. What we were then left with were two voice tracks, one of Daenarys dialogue and one of Missundei's dialogue.

Once our voice track was synchronized with the moving image, we muted the original soundtrack, saved the project, finalized it and exported it. These two tracks can be easily told apart by their alternate pattern with one voice on the top and the other at the bottom. This separation  ensured the panning would not only be easier to perform but also the outcome would be much more equal in terms of the quality. As mentioned earlier, we panned one dialogue to the left, the other to the right. Our setting for this was +10 for the right side and -10 for the left.

To further enhance the mood of the scene, non diegetic music was added incorporated into this scene which we believed created a more enhancing impact to the audience and showed clearly the ultimate theme of the entire clip as it set the mood as being serious. My partner and I found this to be of a great struggle to us. The concept of creating music to us was already foreign and the idea to create it non diegetically proved to be even harder and difficult for us to create. We played around and explored the different instruments and notes available to us on Garage Band .My partner and I strongly believe that the outcome of this clip turned out professional and successful with regards to achieving our aim of wanting to ensure that not only did our ADR match the movement of the moving image but also that the effects added to the clip portrayed mood and enhanced realism. Also we strongly feel that this particular scene that we worked on was best at portraying mood and enhancing emotions when it came to the success of  aesthetic and technical effects compared to the other moving image we worked on which we believe is possibly due to not only the theme of the TV drama dialogue itself but also this clip has more effects in comparison to the rest. 

Tuesday, 16 December 2014

AUDIENCE THEORY

USES AND GRATIFICATION THEORY

The theory is an understanding of the audience independently interpreting a film. Its explores how audience use the media, rather than what the media does for/to them. The audience are in total control and freedom to determine how they interpret and act on the media they choose to acknowledge or not. Their reasoning behind what they watch and why vary from the following purposes:
1. Escape
2.Social interaction
3.Identity
4.Inform and educate
5.Entertain

The Uses and gratification theory was developed by researchers Bulmer and katz in 1948.


Thursday, 27 November 2014

SOUND PRODUCTION TASK 2


TASK 4 RECORDING A VOICEOVER

 My partner, Ian Williams and I have produced a voiceover of a scene taken from Shrek 2 scene- Are We There Yet. The clip we have chosen is a 30 second clip of dialogue conversation between Donkey and Shrek. Ian recorded as Shrek and I, Donkey as well as Princess Fiona.
 Our script is as follows:

SHREK:  The kingdom of far, far away, Donkey. That's where we're going. Far. Far. Awaaaaay
DONKEY: Alright, alright I get it. I'm just so darn bored.
SHREK: Well find a way to entertain yourself.
DONKEY :  ---Sigh---- x2 popping noise x3
SHREK: AARGH for five minutes, could you not be yourself ? For five minutes !
DONKEY --- Pop---
SHREK : AAARRGGHH are we there yet ?
PRINCESS FIONA: Yes !
DONKEY : Oh finally !

After recording our voices for our chosen scene it was then time for us to progress onto the post production stage and edit our voices as well as the clip and merge them together to produce our intended successful ADR. The clip was downloaded from a website                                          (www.clipconverter.cc) and converted into a MP4 format of which we then saved and imported onto Garage Band straight away. We then proceeded to upload our voice recordings and chose the best one out 5 takes. That recording was then uploaded onto Reaper for us to compress and normalise.Our Shrek voice over has been finalised. After many attempts, Ian and I had failed to record our voices in sync with the animations despite editing the recording numerous times on Reaper had compressed our recordings as well as equalised it but however struggled with the synchronizing of our voices to that of the animations lip movement. So as to move forward and solve the problem we decided to record our voices straight onto Garageband and then proceed to Compression and Equalisation on the programme itself . This enables us to have a well synchronized voice over that matched the animations lip movement in time, producing a clip that captured dialogue as well as sounds of different sources and environment that matched the narrative of the script and the visual effects of the moving image.



STAGES OF PRODUCTION 

Pre-Production: Choosing 30 seconds out of the 2 minute clip to record our voiceovers onto. Then proceeded to downloading the clip and converting it into a MP4 format.  The MP4 format of the clip was then imported on to Imovie of which we trimmed the clip to the 30 seconds we had chose to base our production on . While the clip was being rendered, we conducted our research for the script of that particular scene and printed it out , highlighting our various lines so as to make an clear indication of our roles.

PRODUCTION: Our production process involved having to record ourselves using a voice recorder with a built in condenser microphone. That picks up direct sound and ambient sound from the environment. Using a condenser microphone that is uni-directional allows sound to be picked up in every direction which includes background and surround sound that gave off an atmospheric quality to the overall outcome of a recording. 


POST-PRODUCTION : After recording our voices  for our chosen scene it was then time for us to progress onto the post production stage and edit our voices as well as the clip and merge them together to produce our intended successful ADR. The clip was downloaded from a website ( www.clipconverter.cc) and converted into a MP4 format of which we then saved and imported onto Garage Band straight away. We then proceeded to upload our voice recordings and chose the best one out 5 takes. That recording was then uploaded onto Reaper for us to compress and normalise.

Compressing our recording allowed for the sound to be described as 'wet' rather than an uncompressed recording of which would be 'dry' and not as clear or crisp as we would want it to be for achieving a professional standard. To normalise our recording on a Apple Mac computer we had to press Cmd+Shift+N and to compress our recording we clicked 'FX' which was on the left side of the rerecording under the Track bar, then from the Cockos list we selected the Reacomp compressor. A box pops up allowing to change the Ratio,Knee,Attack,Release,Threshold and Make up gain of which we changed according to the following : Ratio- 3:1,Knee- 20dB, Attack-20ms, Release-100ms,Threshold-10dB bellow peak level, Make up gain- 0dB. After the compression of our voices we rendered the track and incorporated it onto Garage Band onto the project we had already added our clip to.

However we were not successful in lip-synching our recorder audio from Reaper onto the actual clip that we had downloaded on to Garage Band. Hence forth, we deleted the recorded track we had edited on Reaper and recorded straight off Garage Band, further processing it by compressing it onto Garage Band itself. We found this to be much more easier as we were then able to watch the video clip of Shrek and record our voices in sync. This visual help aided in the outcome of our final Shrek piece as our ADR was successfully in synchronization to the movement of the characters mouth movement.

Because of our change in method in producing the ADR for Shrek, we did not have to split our voices or edit our recording to match the time of the characters mouth movement. Simply because, as mentioned earlier, we had recorded our dialogue onto Garage band itself while looking watching the clip which ensure we spoke at the necessary time and included pauses in necessary intervals. Our next process was to add in effects. Our main aim for this clip was to create a mood by using enhancing music so as to keep the audience entertained while also contributing to the emotional quality. Our aim was to enhance comedic qualities and enhance humour to our intended audience of which are children.  We included a theme tune that sounded quite country like and bizzare that dismatched the grumpy and impatient mood of Shrek. This ironic juxtaposition we believe added to the humour of the scene, as our song of choice was extremely up beat and unconventional of the narrative to include.


To enhance the realism of the scene we also added horses footsteps by ensuring they sounded as horses hooves , as well as adding sound effects of wheels of a carriage moving , while also incorporating a horses sound effects such as noises that horse make ( nahys ) that when heard, can be clearly and distinguishably distinct that they are horses walking with a carriage and making their animal noises. Once our voice track was synchronized with the moving image, we muted the original soundtrack, saved the project, finalized it and exported it.












Tuesday, 25 November 2014

SCARFACE EVALUATION 26.11.14

Based in Miami a Cuban immigrant, Tony Montana takes over a cocaine drug syndicate through his motivation and dedication. His greed becomes his downfall blinding him of who in his life are loyal and trustworthy.The film holds a stereotypical representation of women in regards to them being sexually objectified and unimportant where by their role and purpose is to sexually please their men. Elvera was seen as the most beautiful women involved in the social circle of Tony Montana, because of this she was seen as a ''trophy wife'' especially since she was married to Frank Lopez, the boss of the cartel of which Tony took over from. Elvera's reputation and role as the ''trophy wife'' also derives to the contribution of her marry Frank, of whom I had mentioned earlier was the former boss of the cocaine cartel. Where hierarchy and power is concerned amongst social circles and business dealings, Frank was of the highest ranking, obtaining the power to tell to give Tony , as well as others, orders. Being Franks wife, this level of hierarchy was reflected on her but in a negative prospective of such that she was seen as a 'prize' for men to 'win' . This representation is seen as sexist as it portrays Elvera to be at the males beck and call. To do their bidding and not have a say in it. When Tony had his place in the business as the new boss, it was shown that he felt that he owned Elvera just because of the promotion he got by killing Frank. The use of violence is filmed consistently throughout the entire film due to the linear narrative itself being naturally of a violent origin whereby the Beginning, Plot, and End  involve mise-en-scene of guns,bullets,chainsaws, and drugs that used in the violent methods and actions of the narratives characters to seek revenge. Themes of the film include vengeance, trust,lust,wealth, power, greed, love,friendship and family. The violent scenes include :
1) Chainsaw scene
2)Death of Tony
3)Tony and Monolo killing for a green card
4)Assasination attempt of Tony
5)Car bomb of wife and kids
6)Suarez Helicopterath of Monolo
7)Death of Frank
8)Death of Monolo
9) Death of Tony

Theses scenes are made to be violent so as to entertain and attract the targeted audience of which are mainly males above the age of 18.This is based on their interest and maturity of being able to watch a film of such violence. 

Monday, 3 November 2014

HALF TERM SOUND PRODUCTION


I have chosen songs from this video due to its whimsical tunes that portray emotions of hope . Instruments vary but mainly include purcussions and harps, bells and triangles. Horns are used to introduce the theme of triumphancy. These songs will work well with my scene due to the genre being a fantasy based film. The songs are soothing and relaxing. Ranging from orchestric the sounds are also non diegetic and recorded in a studio. 

Tuesday, 21 October 2014

CRITICAL APPROACHES TO MEDIA PRODUCTS ASSIGNMENT 1

TASK 1



A2)

THE LIFT :

 http://gorillafilmmagazineblog.wordpress.com/2011/08/07/emotive-and-confined-marc-isaacs-short-documentary-lift/

http://www.openculture.com/2011/06/lift.html

http://www.imdb.com/name/nm1623991/bio?ref_=nm_ov_bio_sm

http://www.blackcountrycinema.com/interview-marc-isaacs/

BOWLING OF COLUMBINE :

http://www.rogerebert.com/reviews/bowling-for-columbine-2002

http://www.rottentomatoes.com/m/bowling_for_columbine/

http://www.bbc.co.uk/films/2002/10/28/bowling_for_columbine_2002_review.shtml

http://www.theguardian.com/film/movie/93922/bowling.for.columbine

http://www.nytimes.com/movie/review?res=9d02eedc173af932a25753c1a9649c8b63

http://blogs.wsj.com/speakeasy/2014/09/10/michael-moore-obama-interview/

http://www.theguardian.com/film/2002/nov/11/usforeignpolicy.guardianinterviewsatbfisouthbank

http://www.morphizm.com/recommends/interviews/mikecolumbine.html

http://www.popmatters.com/feature/moore-michael/

http://www.nytimes.com/movie/review?res=9d02eedc173af932a25753c1a9649c8b63


TASK 3

Bowling for Columbine is a documentary that explores the gun laws in America. Classified as an investigative documentary whereby the programme investigates the nature of the high figures of gun violence and crime in America with reference to the Columbine High School Massacre in 1999 and other acts of violence involving guns.
Due to the topic of guns being legal in America even until present, the documentary can also be classified as a Current Affairs Documentary because guns are discussed in depth throughout the entire film. The documentary was awarded with a 16+ classification despite the nature of the film being of an exploration of violence. Bowling for Columbines topic of documentary is extremely specific , thus I would classify their Target Audience to be Mainstream of which an audience whom are interested in politics, current affairs, guns, victims of gun crime or people whom are interested in gun laws in America will find this documentary extremely educational. It also appeals to those whom have no knowledge of guns, gun crimes and American laws and wish to educate themselves on the topic. Americans and Non-Americans will find this documentary appealing, however I personally think the majority of the audience watching the documentary out of interest will be Non-Americans whom are not familiar with American laws because it would be foreign to them . Because of the diverse possible audience the documentary appeals to, demographics will be irrelevant when choosing to target the audience. Instead I believe that targeting the audience for Bowling for Columbine should be based on socio-economic status where by an audiences gender, age, geographic location, interests and lifestyle plays a part in the classification.
Moreover, the classification of the documentary is of a ‘Current Affairs’ type of documentary. It instantly appeals to specific gender-male audiences. As mentioned earlier the Current Affairs Documentary type possesses contents of public affairs, politics, economics on both a local and global scale that appeals to audience worldwide but more specifically males due to them occupying more public space than domestic space of which females occupy thus their preference for such content is understandable as their awareness and knowledge for public world relations will prove to be necessary to them. Hence, the genre and type of documentary of Bowling For Columbine itself is one of the technique used by Michael Moore the director, to appeal to its targeted audience. 

Subjects in the documentary are sometimes seen talking directly into the camera during an interview of questions from Michael Moore. However Michael Moore is not seen asking the questions , nonetheless I will also classify the documentary as a Video Diary too because it possesses elements of editorial control of which is decided by the producer. In term of the cinematography techniques, Bowling for Columbine is extremely creative in their production with filming shots varying from Cut-aways, establishing shots and mid shots while also including  juxtaposition, non-linear footages, cctv footages,animation, actual footages while including figures and statistics throughout the entire film. These elements contribute to the mise-en-scene of both the documentary itself and documentaries as a whole. This, in turn appeals to a niche audience in their interests in filming techniques.

The Lift targeted audience differs to Bowling for Columbine greatly. Firstly The Lift was only aired in the United Kingdom due to the small budget and minimalistic resources. Its targeted audience falls under Alternative because of the documentary topic simply being to observe the residents of a flat in East London in a lift they share.

 The documentary films their behaviours towards each other as neighbours and towards him as a guest in their lift. An aspect of the documentary that is found to be appealing are the residences reaction of Marc Isaac's presence.

 I believe the documentary has a wide range of target audience which differentiates to Bowling for Columbine where their target audience is quite specific. For instance, the documentary targets residents living in that block of flats as well as other neighbouring blocks and neighbourhoods. Having chosen to film in a location amongst a certain residence reflects an aspect of appeal to their target audience as it provides their targeted audience a sense of familiarity of which they may find to be relatable. In general I believe the documentary targets the United Kingdom of all demographics despite the demographic of the filming location ranging from people of C2 ,D and E as other demographics could watch the documentary out of curiosity of another social background, residences, and county in the U.K that varies from their own so as to compare lifestyles. When watching the documentary it is observed that the people of this demographic have a distinguishable quality about them that ranges from the way they communicate in terms of their language and dialect, their behaviour, and their personal circumstances such as being a widow or a having been diagnosed with mental health issues. Based on The Lifts content, the documentary naturally sparks a sense of curiosity and interest amongst its audience which, I believe is to be another contributing factor to appealing to their audiences through its content.  Due to the diversity and behaviours witnessed in the documentary, it can be said that The Lift targets a niche audience of who are interested in social economics or sociology.
Shot entirely from a ‘point of view shot’ the cinematography techniques used in The Lift not only establishes the documentary type as a Video Diary but it also poses as an appeal to their target audience of those interested in documentaries that take advantage of the realistic and personal aspects this particular shot provides. In addition to the cinematography techniques used to film The Lift, the type of documentary it upholds represents that of a Video Diary of which the subject has editorial control over the content to a certain extent of which the producer will decide as to the degree of freedom is allowed. The Video Diary type of documentary also contributes to the audiences emotions by showcasing a personalised view of the subjects’ surroundings, again emphasising realism.

I want to lay emphasis on a point I made earlier, The Lift targets a diverse audience range based on different reasons as to why the documentary appeals to them. In summary, The Lift appeals to audiences such as:

-Residences in that particular flat that was filmed, residences in that particular neighbourhood.
-Audience living within London and the U.K
-Demographics of C2, D and E
-Audience of any demographic whom are simply just curious of the lifestyle those filmed lead.
-Adults or Parents whom only have time to watch documentaries that last 30 minutes or shorter due to their personal time constraints.
-Teenagers of who possess short attentions spans.
-Audience interested in a more personal and realistic documentary
-Audience interested in the social status and behaviour of other for educational purpose. Possibly those interested in Sociology and Social Sciences.

Appealed to them due to the following reasons:

-Filming location of documentary
-Relatable lifestyles
-Curiosity of wanting to know about other social backgrounds and classes.
-The Documentary is less time consuming lasting about 30 minutes.
-The cinematography allows audience to be educated through a personalised viewing experience, confirming the entire content to be realistic.
-Curiosity for people living in a different county of the U.K
-An educational study of social behaviour.
-How alternative the documentary is as compared to the documentaries of which are very specific with regards to its content and intention.

- The overall content of the documentary.