SONIC DESIGN - FINAL PROJECT
30.06.2020 - 28.07.2020 (Week 12 - Week 16)
Helen Angelia (0336203)
Sonic Design
Project 3 - Silent Movie Audio
Module Information Booklet (MIB)
Week 12
To begin our final project, Mr. Razif first showed us how to do Band Lab. He taught us a demo on how to create music as it will be very useful for our final compilation. We were then instructed to try out this Band Lab and send it through Discord for everyone to hear later.
The lecturer told me to try an Indonesian patriotism song called "Halo Bandung" for my trial in Band Lab. Mr. Razif noticed that I took a keyboard/piano class before. He said it was nice, but I should make it faster as the national song has a faster tempo.
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| Fig 1.1 Band Lab Tryout: Halo Bandung |
Week 13
For this week, Mr. Razif shared with us the Google Drive Link where we can choose silent films we like to do for our final project. He also attached the audio storyboard planning to help us in separating where to place sounds easier.
For my silent film, I chose to do "The Haunted House".
Week 14
I did my storyboard draft and showed it to Mr. Razif. However, the lecturer said there were some revisions I needed to do. He told me that for the sound effects, I should make it one row for one sound. So I could just replace the SFX 1 - SFX 6 and so on to the audio names I have listed down below the tables.
Here are the audios I have used for sound effects:
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| Fig 1.2 The Haunted House SFX |
Week 15
By this week, I showed Mr. Razif the sound effects first attempt to the silent movie. Mr. Razif then gave me quite a lot of feedbacks:
- Put ambient noise inside and outside the house.
- Opening the music box sound.
- Ruffles of blanket for flapping cloth.
- Multiply the closing sound of the stairs.
- Make the footsteps sound varied in different rooms.
- Make the first bump of falling louder.
- Put different sounds of doors.
- Duplicate the broken vase sound, maybe 3 copies, and use pitch shifter.
- Add dialogue
I then immediately tried to revise all of them, including making the background music in Band Lab. I was really out of ideas about this actually. In silent films, usually, the music are really a fun and energetic classic music and well-arranged ones. However, I have not played the keyboard again since I was 9 years old, so it was already 11 years ago.
I tried to ask Mr. Razif if I can cover a song called "Entertainer" by Joplin, but Mr. Razif said the purpose of this Band Lab is for the students to figure out the music we will use in our final project. At this time, I was really confused of what to do.
Suddenly, I thought of the silent film I have chose as a comedy theatre kind-of-like. This reminds me of an Indonesian TV comedy show called "Opera Van Java" where there will be a band of musicians that will play live music according to the acting and behavior of the actors. This also reminds me of an American show called "Jimmy Fallon Show".
The music that was played in both of the shows were not usually in complete arranged ones. Usually, it was only the sound of a drum, keyboard, and really simple instrumental sounds. And that was what I am trying to do for my final project. I also consult this to Mr. Razif and he said I could give it a try.
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| Fig 1.3 Band Lab Progress |
Week 16
I showed Mr. Razif both of my final projects, one is only the sound effects and one more is with the background music I have created in Band Lab. The lecturer said I only need to add some dialogue and expression sounds. He also told me that the music is quite nice, it was what the lecturer was aiming for. Not making a song, but just tunes to make it more interesting.
So here are my final outcomes:
REFLECTIONS
EXPERIENCES
The final project is the hardest of all the things I did for the Sonic Design module. It was really hard since I could not download sound effects or music from someone else's creation. Mr. Razif was really nice to let me choose 2 audios that were not originally mine. They were the vase breaking sound and the night ambiance. The lecturer knew I could not get the night ambiance sound because my house is always crowded by chirping birds and breaking my mom's decoration vase or plate for example (she would definitely kill me). I was also lucky that I thought of making the gunshot sound from recording piles of papers or books fell down to the floor and I could create a quite impactful sound from that (because Mr. Razif didn't comment on it).
Also, thinking about the background music was actually stressing me out. I am not an arranger, I am not a composer and I did not know how to compose a piece of music. Luckily, I was reminded of the Opera Van Java and Jimmy Fallon shows for the music. I felt that I am very fortunate that I could think of something at the last minute and upload my work on time.
OBSERVATIONS
I felt that my observation and judgment of my audio work actually got better and better than before. I kind of knew which parts are lacking and which parts need to be improved, but of course, I also need help from Mr. Razif. If not, I would not ask his feedback. The lecturer certainly taught me how to make good audio and what kind of sounds I should put for the final project.
FINDINGS
Even though it was very tough and I need to think real hard for the solution of my problems while working on this project, I learned a lot. When I was doing the recording sound, especially for the footsteps, it was really funny, because I ran at the same time the actors running in the video. It was because I wanted to match the footsteps sounds and Mr. Razif said it was a correct thing to do, too.
Also, if it weren't for Mr. Razif telling me to use Band Lab for the background music, I would be completely speechless. I heard that the seniors did not need to put music for their final project in the Sonic Design module, but I imagined if there was no music, I think it would not be as nice as a real film that has everything in it. I am lucky to be in the current batch and glad to be able to finish this project.
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