This week we took our recorders to the street to begin learning about editing sound. Our group decided to combine with another group, because they were missing a group member, to make one awesome super group! Our topic was the attention young people pay to their media devices.
I found editing this audio to be really quite fun. We had a lot of content, because we understood that everyone would want to go in different directions when editing, but we made sure that all of the audio related to the story that we wanted to tell.
I decided to take a comedic approach, mostly because of the music I found. I also find it difficult to hear my recorded voice so making it more comedic made sense in my mind. The story of ‘Young People and their Media Devices, Grrr’ is so played out at this point that it’s difficult to take it seriously, especially when you are one of the young people. I was quite surprised with how quickly I was able to edit it together. I assumed it would take a long time, but it only took about 30 minutes. While it’s slightly disjointed, I think that that works in it’s favor, helping to play up the comedy aspects while still telling two stories of mobile devices causing issues within society. I may be seeing this through rose-tinted glasses, though, because I found it so much fun to make.
And I used to hate audio editing. It’s amazing how much changes in a year.
We’re going to be doing a bit of a throwback this week!
Last year, as a part of my Diploma of Screen and Media, I had to complete a course on audio design. A majority of the work I’d done thus far was for live audio. I had done (so many, like, too many) audio set ups, with microphones and speakers, for live gigs. I’d also used a mixing desk on live performances and recordings. I’d also had some experience as a mic technician and had a professional gig as an audio designer/technician/other stuff for Victorian Youth Theatre’s 2015 production of Babe: The Sheep Pig.
But last year… everything changed. We had to become sound designers for film, tv, and audio books. One of the designs was a hypothetical design for a short film we were making at the time. One of the designs was re-dubbing all of the audio for a scene in Game of Thrones, which I would upload if it weren’t for copyright issues. You’re missing out though. I forgot to get actors so all the characters have my voice at different pitches it’s ridiculous.
The final task was creating an audio book for children. This was different in that we would be designing the sound for another student to put together.
This is what I ended up making…
(Please don’t laugh)
What I learned through this process…
-HIRE ACTORS! WHY DO YOU KEEP ON NOT HIRING ACTORS? YOUR VOICE SOUNDS THE SAME FOR EVERY CHARACTER AND ALSO SILLY! YOU DON’T EVEN HAVE TO PAY THEM! HIRE ACTORS!!!
-You are allowed to disagree with the designer, and offer other ideas. For example: when the narration says that a duck hatches out of an egg, and the designer wants a sound of an egg dropping rather than cracking, try correcting them
-Blending audio is your friend. Every time the story stops for a duck quack, a fairy dies
-When one sound is significantly louder than the others, that is a problem. This is a children’s storybook, not a horror film
-Multiple takes are your friend. In my defense, this was at the end of the year when no one cared anymore, but would it have killed me to rerecord some of the earlier lines so that there weren’t awkward cuts?
-I was better than I remember.
At the beginning of the semester, Brian told us that we would look back at the work we do and think ‘Wow, that was pretty good’, even if when we made it, we thought it was the worst thing ever made. We all thought that was a stretch, but it’s true. The beginning of this piece is shaky, but the last minute or so is actually pretty good (even the swan honks. It is not my fault they sound like that). The audio is blended together well, the storytelling gets better, and even my character voices get better.
I guess Brian was right. I can’t wait to think that I’ve done so far for Media 1 is good.
We got the opportunity to analyse an audio documentary called My Lobotomy. This was not something I was expecting.
My expectations were that the person who had the lobotomy would not be narrating (despite the title of the piece). The general perception of lobotomies is quite accurate, in that many victims have lost their former abilities, such as speech, motor skills, and intellectual capacity. Some, we assume, would have lost their life. Hearing a coherent, ‘complete’ person speaking about their own lobotomy was definitely a shock.
A majority of the audio was interviews, narration, and archived sounds. The editing style was definitely different to anything I’d heard before, where the narrator would fade out what an interviewee was saying to give exposition over the top. I honestly wasn’t too big a fan of this style, as I wanted to hear what the source had to say. However where the production shined was in the building of the story. The ordering of clips, and having us hear another lobotomy victim who was not as lucky as our narrator at the end really helped the audience feel the pain of the narrator, and those affected by lobotomies. There was also a gradual reveal of critical information. We learned early on that the narrator’s step mother was the one who was meeting with the doctor, but we don’t learn the truth (or as close as we could get to the truth) until towards the end.
After this, we got into our groups to delegate jobs and do more work on our projects. We have a more clear idea as to what we’re working towards now, and all three of us will be sourcing interviews (myself with a younger generation cosplayer, Patrick with a ‘comic book expert’, and Amber with a man who dislikes a lot of what superhero culture has become) and different types of audio from radio shows, conventions, and tv shows/films.
What I was going for in this project was to highlight my fears and insecurities (which are highlighted through my photos), and contrast these with my video and audio posts whiich are about comfort, joy, and excitement. The text at the end is where the two ends of my emotions/personality meet, and how they work together.
I’m not sure I like my execution. I had another idea early on which I was very much attached to, however it was too much of a risk and, as my photo pieces show, fear tends to hold me back. This other idea, however, continuously played on my mind while creating this piece, and I think that if I invested more into this idea rather than dwelling on another idea, it would have been executed far better. I was also physically unable to get some of the media I wanted to, and had to use stand ins (such as the shower audio in place of a storm). That being said, I really like my idea and several of the pieces (such as the cat purring audio, the waterfront video, and a majority of my photos).
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