Finished Film

Vimeo Link:

http://vimeo.com/82372563

How its made

I ended up doing all of the sound design in Logic and Soundtrack Pro, as this meant I could work from home, and I'd also had some issues with access privileges in Pro Tools. I had intended to draft the piece in STP and then re-edit a final mix in protools, however due to an oversight in exporting and some naivety on my part this would have more trouble than it was worth. When exporting edited clips I hadn't noticed that the submix was set to 5 channels for surround sound.

This wouldn't normally be a problem ,as in STP you can alter the channel so the clips will become mono or stereo, and each track can contain any sort of clip,

whereas Pro tools requires specific mono and stereo track designation from the outset. I had also foolishly hoped to be able to drag clips straight out of STP to Pro Tools, which was wishful thinking.

For the first act my directors notes were 'no woodland sounds!', 'low hum' and 'high contrasting tone. When trying to record atmos tracks I had found the overhead planes infuriating however in this instance I decided to enhance the sound by manually automating the lower frequencies of the EQ in Logic with the latch function, and applied some reverb as well, creating a whooshing motion that compliments the slow-mo of the footage shot at 50fps.

The higher tone was made by sustaining a note on the Sculpture Modeling synths' Wind Cyborg preset, and I again used Sculpture to create the faint flute motif using the aptly titled forest atmosphere preset. I originally didn't to use any sort of melodic score, relying instead on building an atmosphere tonally, however this fit nicely, and I also automated the volume and modulation as I played it so it did not impede too much, and it ended up blending well with the other tones to almost sound like forest ambience itself.

The final enhancement to act 1 was to accentuate the swinging of the characters thurible, which was done using a 'swoosh' sound effect, transposed in pitch and fed through a tremolo with a 1/16 rate with minimal smoothing and mixed in at 69%

All of these sounds build to a mild crescendo that peaks as the character blacks out the screen before the title appears.

The Kill List (2011) inspired title drum was made on the ESX24 by making the attack and sustain as short as possible to give it a percussive edge.

I wanted the second act to be naturalistic whilst building suspense through the ambience of the forrest itself. The only artificial element is the creaking tree sound effect, which I had tried to capture using a contact mic naturally, but failed to get a satisfactory result. The sound instead used was a creaking door, shifted down in pitch with EXS24 sampler. 

It works effectively to make the forest feel alive. My atmos tracks were a little lacking due to how sparse the trees had become. Though you could faintly hear owls and other birds in the distance I added in a few owl effects to enhance the off-screen presence. Though I didn't want the day time atmos to be too busy it was still a little lacking, so I added tracks of crickets and popping wheat to give it a greater texture, and chirping birds once the camera was closer to the trees.

I also added rustling leaves to suggest something is moving off-screen, and a sudden caw from a crow and the fluttering of wings to accompany a whip pan of the camera, adding a P.O.V element.

The fluttering was slightly extended and panned to follow the direction of the camera.

The ritual scene is preceded and introduced by the echoing beat of a drum that gets gradually louder, and continues to accent each cut until the climax. This is the section I was really able to go to town on, and I wanted to create as much sonic discomfort for the viewer as possible. To do this I wanted to create extreme dissonance without really using music, so I built frenetic layers of sound effects over a gradual drone. Many of the sound effects are percussion sound effects, reversed on Logic's Ultrabeat drum kits drag and drop samples function.

The xiaoluo sound in particular sounded very creepy reversed, and was used several times at different pitches with the EXS24. Another repeated sound is a recording I made hitting a wok with water in it and swilling it reversed. 

This compliments the steady drone of tibetan bells that become gradually more intense. I also included sound effects from the mise en scene, such as horrific pig squeals reversed, and the sound of a blade being drawn, which had the dry signal turned down completely and the wet reverb at 100% in space designer, also boosting the low frequency EQ the second time its played.

There is also a pitch shifted dry ice sound effect used to herald the characters approach. An idea i came up with early on was to include some sort of chant or whispers to accompany the ritual, and I wanted to homage Jocelyn Pook's 'backwards priests' composition from Eyes Wide Shut (1999) since our characters cultish attire is so similar to those on display there. The end result was something of an in-joke, I recited children's nursery rhyme 'this little piggy' in German which I found to be an amusing reference that no one would really understand when reversed.

Dieses kleine Schweinchen ging zum Markt,
  Und dieses kleine Schweinchen blieb zuhaus,
 Dieses kleine Schweinchen hatte Roast Beef,
Und dieses kleine Schweinchen hatte keins
 Und dieses kleine Schweinchen machte 'Wee wee wee' den ganzen Weg heim

This was also made to sound a little more demonic, as a nod to Evil Dead (1981), by pitch shifting it several semitones down, and extreme panning was applied to make it more disorientating.

What keeps the piece sustained and drives the crescendo home is the drone of the sculpture synth's ambient intrigue, which was double tracked with one note unchanging whilst the other gradually increases in pitch over an octave. I altered the bender range to twelve notes and manually automated it, making a few adjustments in the hyper editor to alter any mistakes.

This was in some part inspired by Hans Zimmer's theme for the Joker in The Dark Knight (2008).

This was also manually panned in 5.1 as I had originally wanted to do the piece in surround sound, with the build up of sounds coming from all directions, however as you can't monitor surround in STP I settled for a stereo mix for now.

AV13 Playlist Contribution

For AV13 myself and Jordan took on playlist duties for the intervals in-between the film blocks. It mainly comprised of easy going instrumental trip-hop songs, with some indie and 80's thrown in there for some variety. I also provided a HDMI to mini display port adaptor to connect the mac to the projector at the screening.

Tremolo Score Idea

Listen Here:

https://soundcloud.com/skudsounds/tremolo-synth-idea

Whilst experimenting with a tremolo on Sculptures crystal pad I came up with an ominous score Idea I may use next year or commission to someone else, inspired By Cliff Martinez' score for Drive (2011), Vangelis' Music for Bladerunner (1982) and the Baseball furies theme from The Warriors (1979)

It was recorded live on my MIDI keyboard adjusting the modulation as I went, with a few alterations to velocity afterwards.

The Tremolo rate was set to 1/16 with virtually no smoothing and a depth of 69% was used so it wasn't entirely a choppy staccato sound. 

Surreal/Experimental Inspirations

Eraserhead (1977)

Lynch's dark film atmospheres are often fuelled by a lot of Low frequency tones as evidenced in this clip, with heavy reverb increasing the ambient level.


Tetsuo the Iron man (1989)

Another surreal industrial horror, this clip features and ominous droning bell like sound which is built up along with some technoesque percussion.

ROLI Seaboard

A dream piece of kit (and with its price it will remain just that), the Seaboard takes the layout of a piano and turns it into a soft continuous surface, allowing you to modulate the pitch, volume and timbre through one seamless motion, similar to the control surface of a Kaoss Pad. Sensitive to pressure, the polyphonic pitch-bend and vibrato functions give it action similar to a guitar, whilst the sustained notes respond to the subtlest alteration of touch, fluctuating from harder crescendos to soft resonance.

This would be a fantastic tool for scoring films with its intuitive design allowing for very expressive playing, especially when combined with further FX such as Delay, reverb and tremolo to enhance the already superb ambient quality. Sadly, with the full piano scale costing $8.888, and just three octaves costing $1.999 I won't be getting to play one anytime soon.

Glass Works

http://www.soniccouture.com/en/product/g14-glass-works/

I've been contemplating for a while what upgrade to my arsenal I will acquire before the start of second semester, new monitors, hardware instruments (Akai's MPC drum machines and Korg's Electribe caught my eye) new software (Pro Tools), but I think I've found a winner.

Linked Above is Sonic Couture's Glass works, a software instrument that combines the ethereal tones of Le Cristal Baschet, the Glass Armonica and a set of Crystal Bowls, all exceedingly rare but beautiful instruments.
Some of the other soft/hardware synths I've looked at with an eye geared more towards music production than film composition, but this is ideally suited to creating celestial, haunting cinematic textures.
It offers the kind of ambient crystalline quality I'd had in mind for my score for our horror film next semester, at times comforting and at others extremely unnerving.
I cannot stress enough how much I love the haunting moods Cliff Martinez sows into his Solaris (2002), Drive (2011) and Only God Forgives (2013) scores, and his influence is sure to continue to carry into my future works. All of the above films feature the use of Le Cristal Baschet, an instrument played by running wet fingertips over glass rods amplified by fibreglass cones, creating a gentle tambre that can quickly become ominous when the bass octaves are projected. This and the Glass Armonica were so rare that they were recorded by seemingly the only man to own them, French musician Thomas Bloch, seen below demonstrating what the Baschet can do. The softly-tuned percussive Crystal bowls proved so rare to find (they were originally used in laboratories to track subatomic particles apparently!) that the samplers had to build their own set for use in this software.

I'm very excited at the prospect of being able to incorporate sounds like this into my work, and that thankfully a midi keyboard doesn't require the refined complexity necessary to master the real thing.


Update: I managed to download a version but sadly its only a demo and times out after 15 minutes or so. It looks promising enough to invest in the full thing however.

Night Time Atmos attempt

After finishing a late shift at work I set about trying to record a nighttime atmos so I cycled up to Whitely woods at 6am with a Zoom H2N to try my luck. Though I could hear owls off in the distance there was not a great deal of activity owing to how sparse the trees had become with winter, and I didn't go too deep in as it was pitch black and my vision was limited. With the sensitive mic picking up the tiniest of rustlings it was quite an unnerving experience recording in a dark woods, but I couldn't get too immersed as the silence was broken too regularly by distant early morning commuters. Around 7am as it began to get light there was a greater activity of bird calls.

In future I will plan to find a more isolated wood and go to greater lengths to travel out of urbanised areas.

Freelance Work

Earlier this year a friend on a different Film course asked me to make hime some original music for an advert he was making for a local tapas bar/restaurant.

http://www.mojobarandtapas.co.uk/index.html

The song can be heard here:

https://soundcloud.com/skudsounds/sodson-super-salsa-snack

Though some of the drums are taken from a sample pack the rest is composed by me, I watched a tutorial to get an idea how to play salsa piano and went from there. I was only given a deadline of a day or two, and would have liked to have recorded a real guitar as the Logic one sounds rather artificial, but did not have the time. I also removed a trumpet as it did not sound authentic enough.

A friend recently started his own gaming company, with the intent on designing and selling flash based arcade style games. He asked me if I would be willing to make some sound effects and music for 20% of the games profits. I would happily do it for free as it has been great practice and taught me a lot about Logic.

You can play the full game here:

http://www.newgrounds.com/portal/view/626135

You listen to the full song here:

https://soundcloud.com/skudsounds/density

I wanted the piece to reflect the floating nature of the gameplay and objects onscreen and have an ambient quality whilst also retaining the aesthetics of an arcade style game. Several of the instruments used have different kinds of delay and reverb on them.
The piano ostinato was one of the first ideas I came up with, and I used delay designer to repeat the note three times, with each echo become quieter.

The analog percussion synth already had a preset stereo delay, which i then altered by turning on the beat synth function, and increasing the level of panning in the echos. This synth plays the sustained bass note progression and is looped throughout the piece, whilst the delay gives it a percussive edge with the initial attack.

Another great delay preset was the one on the Ultrabeat's 'Ghost Town' kit, which leaves each beat ringing out atmospherically. The snare is also quite distorted and has the perfect 16-bit game quality I had hoped to emulate.

Also featured is a Sculpture Synth vibraphone, with an ostinato inspired by a melody from Tensnake's 'Coma Cat', which I had been enjoying at the time over the summer.

The main melody is also played on Sculpture, with some lines using a call and response form with the piano. I originally wrote the piece in three sections, the intro, breakdown and final section, which was then also incorporated into the first section before the breakdown, as it is more lively and the designer wanted the first minute of gameplay to get players hooked.

I spent a good while mastering the track, especially getting a good mix of the drums, which was a little unnecessary as I would only be exporting a low quality file at around 128 kbs, owing to the small overall filesize requirement of the game, however it was good practice to relearn the basic principles of EQing and the right place to pan instruments, and the use of compression and limiters.

AVOID/FLUXXIL

The game is still in development, but you can listen to the full song here:

https://soundcloud.com/skudsounds/avoid

Inspired by future disco songs such as

Similar to Density in terms of it's sections, with a gradual build up in the first section breaking down into a sparse middle before building up again for the final act. This piece however features a much greater range of instruments and sounds, with beats taken from 6 drumkits, and around 8 synthesisers used.

The melodies used are all derived from an earlier demo I made for the game, https://soundcloud.com/skudsounds/avoid-demo-1 , which was a lot more frantic and arcadey, and may still be used in the more hectic higher levels. Rob asked for something upbeat with two melodies that play at different speeds, so I came up with an arpeggio somewhat inspired by Cliff Martinez' 'Wanna Fight' from the score of Only God Forgives (2013).

The song didn't entirely fit with the slower early levels however and I had wanted to try my hand at a future disco track for a while, so I opted for something with a tempo of 110bpm with a more funky disco vibe.

I created the highpass filter effects using the ES P synth and an autofilter, with the cutoff set at 50% with a resonance of 32%, going at a rate of 3 bars.

I again used a delay designer on one ES2 synth which I had molded from scratch to get the glittery quality I was after.

The delay recurred eight times, with each one alternating between extreme panning and gradually decreasing in volume.

I also assigned an arpeggiator to a snare to create an automated drum roll, at 1/8 length with a resolution of 1/32. This was again applied to the sustained chords of the EXS24 blue carpet synth in the outro, creating a nice sweep of notes spanning three octaves, with a length of 1/64 and a resolution of 1/16.

This synth is also soft throughout until the final section when I used the modulation wheel to crank up the cut off.

Both of the Saw synths are set to the legato function, with one playing a variation of the main melody from the early demo.

I have learned a great deal about the Functions of Synthesis and various effects through the creation of these scores, and it is a good and convenient working relationship that benefits us both that I look forward to continuing into the future.

Crickets

http://www.trueactivist.com/gab_gallery/someone-recorded-crickets-then-slowed-down-the-track-and-it-sounds-like-people-singing/

A came across very interesting recording, a stretched out track of crickets, that sounds like an angelic choir. The natural track is also played over the top for comparison. Recorded and produced by Jim Wilson, this raises interesting questions about the nature of animal communication and consciousness.

Directors notes

Above are the notes I was given in post by Jordan. As with our previous films he has allowed me a great deal of creative freedom and leaves me to get on with it, satisfied that we share a similar vision for the end result. 

Shoot Diary

Day 1

I arrived late to the shoot having had to wait on the torches to be delivered. Though I did bring sound gear the lack of dialogue/sync sound freed me up to lend and extra hand and I was chosen to play the hooded character as I was taller and also not wearing wellies, which would somewhat detract from the creepiness of the character.

Despite spraying it black the robe still looked like a cheap halloween costume, which it was. The Following day I brought along a sith dressing gown/robe to wear over it which was an improvement.

I was also able to provide a Moroccan dagger for the art department, which looks ideally sacrificial with its modestly ornate wooden hilt and rusted blade.

Day 2

We had all been looking forward to this as it featured a pigs head on a spike. I recorded the sound of the head as it was placed on the stick but it did not produce the gory impalement I had hoped for.

We found an ideal clearing, which already had partially erected fences made out of branches. Amy did a great job adding to the existing enclosure, creating a unique symbol on the ground that combined the iconography of pagan, celtic and satanic worship.

While this was set up we went to get a pick up of the previous day, my character walking past the first torch with a smoking thurible. To create the smoke we heated pingpong balls wrapped with a foil chimney, which gives out a dense but short lasting burst. The first tested bomb dissipated in the wind nicely, which left me unprepared when I didn't hold my breath as the second in the thurible shot straight up in my face, giving me a dose of mustard gas. This coupled with me tripping up over a branch make for an amusing gag reel.

The ritual scene itself proved difficult, as the torches were hard to control, with the lighter used instead of oil evaporating too quickly. This meant that it got too dark before we could complete all the shots, and so another day of shooting will be required.

Day 3

The final pick-up day was efficient as everyone knew what shots were still needed and the limited time frame we would have. The new pigs head was an improvement, with a nasty gash on the top of its skull making it all the more unpleasant, and we used oil in the torches this time so they stayed alight much longer.

During the clearing set-up I wandered off to try and capture some atmos tracks, using the Zoom again. These were an improvement over my previous attempts at Whitely woods, though it is possible to make out the sounds of a very distant road. There were also planes flying overhead fairly frequently, but this time I captured the low rumble in the hopes of enhancing it with EQ to ominous effect. The birds also sounded better here, and I captured the caw of a crow which I had hoped to find someway or another.

One of the downsides of having better lit torches was that when it came to filming the shot of them extinguishing themselves we were left waiting sometime. The final shot is of my character stood by the torch as it goes out. Given the potential time we would be waiting I decided it could be more menacing to extinguish the torch myself. To aid me in this I doused my glove in water to help starve the flame, though it still took several attempts to perfect (one more for the gag reel!)

Cinematic Inspirations for characterising an isolated/haunted woodland

What follows are brief analyses of the films that first sprang to mind for research once we had come up with our treatment, and ways in which they may inform our film.

EVIL DEAD (1981)

The audience is introduced to the evil that inhabits the woods during the opening titles, when a swooping point of view glide-cam (a camera mounted on a piece of would with two operators running with it) veers between trees and over the leaf strewn, misty ground. Suspense is subsequently built through the score in fairly traditional horror style, with string drones increasing in pitch to a crescendo point to accentuate the (false?) tension. Reverberated percussive shakes and taps are also used to spook as well as the sound of crickets and whispers combined with low oscillated tones and winds. Once the mayhem begins it becomes a truly uncomfortable experience to watch. The gross-out levels of gore, whilst a little ridiculous and over the top, combined with an unrelenting score and the incessant screaming of the possessed characters becomes a barrage on the senses that, like the characters' isolated situation. is inescapable .

As a side note I can remember seeing a countdown of the greatest horror films in my early teens featuring an interview with either the sound designer or Sam Raimi explaining how an apple was used in place of an ankle when it is stabbed with a pencil to create that awful crunching sound, one of my first insights into the trickery of sound design.

EVIL DEAD (2013)

Upon watching the remake I realised the opening scene bares great similarity to a sequence in the script for our 10 minute film, though Jordan hasn't scene it so it is purely coincidental. It opens with a girl running through the woods before she is knocked out by the butt of a rifle. We are then taken to a basement where she is locked up and tortured by a family member, for having killed another. This is strikingly similar to what happens in ours so a slight rewrite may be considered to alter ours. The opening does feature some good camera techniques, with sun rays piercing through misty trees, and close ups shifting in and out of focus, with a low angle track from behind the character, something we have used in our 5 minute piece. There is also a homage to the original film in the form of the evil glide cam. Musically it is farely standard horror fare that echoes the original, with drones increasing in pitch to a crescendo and typical piano lines that switch between eerie and emotive as necessary. During the tree-rape scene the branches sound elasticated as they constrict, it sounds a little unnatural but something more subtle would be useful in bringing our own forest to life. This film makes up for the lack of bizarre humour inherent in the original with excessive amounts of bloody gore, and stands up well enough in its own right.

Eyes Wide Shut (1999)

This is among my favourite moments in cinema, and is in equal parts haunting, disturbing and beautiful.
When the inclusion of a cloaked, venetian masked wearing character swinging a thurible was suggested for our piece my memory instantly flashed to the master of ceremonies in this chilling scene, and it is almost a verbatim copy. The camera enters the ceremony with Tom Cruises character and begins to circle the ritual of naked women. The eerie music and chanting gives the effect of being diagetic, with the blindfolded keyboardist seen to be playing the stark string sections. There is also underlying timpani percussion which cannot be seen however and the creation of what I originally thought to be some kind of bile chanting leaves the possibility of its diegesis dubious. Jocelyn Pook's composition features a Romanian Orthodox Divine Liturgy played backwards.
An English Translation:
And God told to his apprentices...I gave you a command...to pray to the Lord for the mercy, life, peace, health, salvation, the search, the leave and the forgiveness of the sins of God's children. The ones that pray, they have mercy and they take good care of this holy place.
This generally creates an ethereally morbid atmosphere, although the moments when it shifts into a major key do give it a more heavenly tone appropriate to the nature of this quasi-religious sex ceremony.
Beneath the veneer of the masks the sinister nature of this secret society is heavily implied throughout the rest of the film, to the extent that conspiracy theorists believe Kubrick's death five days after completing his cut can be attributed to his insightful depiction of illuminati symbology and practices.


Kill List (2011)

What really sets Kill List apart from other horrors is the believable realism grounded in its first act, through the authentic deliverance of naturalistic dialogue by actors perfectly cast in their respective roles. With its unhurried realist approach allowing for the tense relationship between Jay (Neil Maskell) and his Wife (MyAnna Buring), and later his former partner Gal (Michael Smiley), to be explored with lingering close-ups and jump cuts there is little to indicate this will be anything other than a typical British social drama. The only sinister foreshadowings to sow the seeds of unease come in the form a few periodic ominous tones to keep one from getting too immersed in the nuanced family life, and the carving of a symbol in the back of a mirror, something easily missable and forgotten on a first viewing. The second act becomes bleaker however as the two hit men embark on a road trip to take out their targets. Their contractors are immediately intimidating, with their chosen meeting place being an imposing hotel that fills the frame in dominance. It's clear from their mannerism that they're powerful men, and the score begins to use disjunct strings and percussion to reflect the discomfort of the situation. After dispatching a target and uncovering a child porn stash they confront 'the librarian' responsible for the collection.

This scene is made all the more tense by its use of silence in the score, and the subsequent impact sounds are all the more painful in their loudness. The visuals are sparing with the close ups, leaving most of the hand-maiming to just out of frame until the money shot. As with Sightseers (2012) Martin Pavey's sound design in Wheatley's films leaves little to the imagination, with gore and impact sounds foregrounded prominently in the mix, something I tend to emulate in my own works.
The third act is where the film really devolves into a horror, with their final hit on a politician unearthing a human sacrifice ritual on his estate. On second viewing I realised the ritual scene is almost identical to how I envisioned ours, from the flickering torches visible through the trees to the gradual build up of haunting voices and tribal drums as they approach the clearing, so perhaps I need to rethink my approach a little, especially considering this is also filmed in and around Sheffield. The final twisted reveal of the film recalls not only Wickerman (1973), in that the main character has been manipulated from the off for the purpose of a cultish ritual, but also parallels the influence and menace of the clandestine powerful secret society in the aforementioned Eyes Wide Shut. 

Wickerman (1973)

One cannot hope to make a film with any sort of cultish ritual without paying Wickerman its due. One of my favourite horrors, though it doesn't build scares in the same ways others in the genre do, instead there is a constant air of strangeness as the mystery unfolds amongst the quaint townsfolk. The score is used in a manner that both evokes the pagan nature of the villagers whilst underpinning the uncertainty of the protagonists investigation, using a mixture of English and Scottish folk music, with flutes, fiddles, bagpipes, harps and traditional drums primarily used at intervals as a new plot element is discovered.
The day of the Mayday celebrations becomes increasingly sinister, as the detective fails to start his plane and is watched from afar by the townsfolk, now adorning somewhat terrifying animal masks, who duck away behind the wall before they can be seen.

After infiltrating the parade it turns out (shock horror) that he is in fact the intended sacrifice and has been played from the offset, and the film iconically ends in a fervorous sing song for all concerned as he is burned alive in the titular pyre. There is an ominous marching drum played as he is lead before the wickerman and realises in horror what his fate will be that is very befitting of the build up to such an execution.

In the 2006 remake the eerie build up of suspense through the peculiarly benevolent behaviour of the townsfolk in the wake of a disappearance/murder was instead replaced by one of Nicolas Cage's most outlandish performances, with no woman (or bee) safe from his rampage. Enjoy.

Sleepy Hollow (1999)

The ever theatrical Tim Burton shrouds the western woods of Sleepy Hollow with gratuitous amounts of smoke and lightning. The camera navigates the tree lines with side-angle tracking shots at various distances, sometimes swaying behind trees adding a voyeuristic element. The trees themselves are bare and wintery, often silhouetted against the sky, which is also reflected in the desaturated use of colour. Little is done sonically to characterise the woods, and suspense is drawn instead from Danny Elfman's typically gothic score, both dark and humorous, that compliments Burton's directing so well.


The Lord of the Rings: The Fellowship of the Ring (2001)

This scene gives the impression of approaching evil through a camera trick by zooming in whilst tracking away from the focal point, which would be an effective way for us to enter our woods/ritual scene. The leaves are also blown with an accompanying wind sound and the earsplitting screech of the ring wraith that can only mean something bad is about to emerge.  

Harry Potter and the Philosophers Stone (2001)

This scene is swathed in blue lighting to evoke nighttime, however it comes across as a little too artificial, or at least extremely well moonlit. Again there is a great deal of mist shrouding a menacing hooded character. I'm a big fan of the way it silently glides across the forest floor before becoming upright, however this menacing effect is somewhat diminished when you realise that for Voldemort to approach Harry like that, Professor Quirrell would have had to have been walking backwards. This scene features a typical John Williams full orchestra score that makes everything feel bold and dramatic, but in the case of building a magical world of wonder he was the right man for the job.

Whitley woods sound recording recce

Equipment:
                   Zoom H4N Recorder
                   Wendt Audio Mixer
                   Sennheiser 416 Microphone
                   Aquarian Hydrophone

Having been several times before I chose to come here based on its proximity to my house and for the fantastic entrance formed by branches entwined into an arching tunnel, something I thought could perhaps be incorporated into our film.

The problem with it being in close proximity to the city is the drone of traffic still carries through when trying to record an atmos. The built in mics on the Zoom are extremely convenient and negate the necessity for bringing along a Rode NT4 aswell as a 416 however. I think to capture a truly peaceful and isolated woodland atmos I will have to drive to somewhere far more remote and at night time to minimise the disturbance of passing cars. There were also frequent planes flying overhead which didn't help, and the birds seemed to have taken a vow of silence, so nothing usable was captured with regard to atmospheres.

Instead I set about obtaining sound effects of rustling bushes and snapping twigs with the help of a friend.

I gathered some usable material however I was made all the more conscious of the background drone of the city thanks to the superior headphone volume the Zoom has over the Marantz.

I had hoped to characterise the woods in our piece and stir unease through the creaking of the trees themselves, and attempted to record this using a contact mic on fallen trees whilst my assistant bent and crumpled the rotting bark. This did not quite have the desired effect of a drawn out groan, and my assistants movements were audible at times. I may need to research the types of trees with creaking properties or alternately manipulate creaking wood sounds with some EQ and pitch shifts.

This was not an all together successful outing but did prove an insightful learning curve.

Outibridge Recce

We set out a day later than originally planned, which was beneficial as it rained the entire day previously, however I had a prior engagement and had to leave earlier than the rest of group.

My initial thoughts were that the location was not isolated enough, as we wandered reasonably close to the town and could still see farmhouses nearby. It was not until after I had to leave that the group made their way up the hill to the more secluded woods, so I am unsure of their acoustic properties, however the pictures do look promising.

Sound Map

Treatment for Brief Exercise

Crew:
 Jordan Deakin – Director
Paul Manning – Producer
Luke Harrison – Cinematography
Joel Danby-Irons – Sound Design
Lewis Hague – Editor
Amy Jackson – Art Director

Working Title: Into The Woods Length: 5-7 Minutes

Premise: An exploration of an isolated woodland area and the secrets deep within.


Synopsis:
The film opens with an establishing wide shot of the open fields with the outskirts of the woodland area at the far side. Everything is calm and peaceful at first but a flickering light can be seen from within the depths of the woods. We follow this into the woods to reveal a flaming torch still alight, evidence that someone or something has been there.
In the background, further into the depths of the woods a second flickering light can be seen. Upon further investigation we realise a trail of beacons are leading deeper and deeper into the woods, eventually reaching a clearing. A circle of torches illuminates the clearing, highlighting a wooden spike in the centre of the circle. A rotting human head sits upon the spike, at the base of the spike a satanic symbol is displayed. It is apparent that a ritual for the occult has recently taken place. As we explore the area further the paraphernalia from the ritual can be seen scattered around the clearing; blood stains, strange markings on trees, and various weapons. As we are exploring the scene a strange presence can be felt, twigs snap, movements in the bushes and unsettling strange noises. Suddenly, one by one the torches of the circle extinguish, plunging the clearing into the embrace of the woods darkness. Looking back along the line of beacons that have guided us this deep into the woods, the torches that mark the path back to safety go out one by one, leaving us lost deep in the woods, with no way of escape.


Visual Realisation:
An exploration of a woodland area that will use both sound and camera to show it to an audience in a way it has not been seen. A minimalistic approach will help create and atmospheric and tense piece and the camera will utilise shooting at a higher frame rate so in the edit it seems to almost glide through the location. Dark and gritty in colour and in visual style.


Statement Of Intent:
To create a suspenseful piece that will keep the audience on their toes, guessing what will be displayed in front of them next.

Final Year

After six months of summer my brain finally seems to be coming out of hibernation, and a good thing too. New software, new hardware, the sound department has been spoilt with a multitude of new gear to wrap out heads around.
First up was the switch from Soundtrack Pro to Avid Pro Tools, a much superior piece of sound editing software. Repeating an exercise from last year, spotting in sound effects to a silent clip, familiarised us with some of the basic shortcuts and I can see in future it will be a much more efficient way to edit, however my reflexes are still currently wired to the apple edit suite controls. I did find the music capabilities interesting, with the option of layering up to three instruments together to form a single sound, however ultimately I think I'll stick with Logic for all of my beat-making requirements as it offers a greater range of plug-ins and ways to manipulate existing instruments.
I did find the news of apple suite's obsolescence a little frustrating at first as I'd spent the summer assembling a home-studio to work from the comfort of my bedroom, but learning Pro-Tools will have long term benefits as it is industry standard and will be worth investing in in the near future.
The news of of several edit booths rigged to master in 5.1 surround sound is also an exciting prospect I look forward to testing out. Also out our disposal is an array of new mixers and recorders. A likely candidate to replace the Marantz is the more compact handy Zoom H4N, with built in stereo X/Y condenser mics adjustable to 90° and 120° making it ideal for recording on the fly. It also features an SD card slot as well as the option to input jacks along with the XLRs. There are also some slightly intimidating Tascam Rercorder/mixer kits that will take a little longer to get to grips with, but I look forward to using this professional gear.