Part 1 – The problems
WWF miniature world video – foley problem
Radio problem
Part 2 – Understanding issues in sound design
1 – Glossary
Diegetic sound – Sound which is generated within the world of the film, such as characters talking, a vehicle moving or a gun being fired. An example would be the sounds of lightsabers in the Star Wars franchise.
Non-diegetic sound – Sound which isn’t generated by the world in the film, e.g. narration, music. This can be found in series’ such as Blue Planet, with narration provided by David Attenborough.
On screen sound – The source of the sound is visible within the frame. For example, when Indiana Jones is escaping the temple in Raiders of the Lost Ark, you can hear and see the concrete door sliding shut. 2.08 – 2.46 in the clip below.
Off screen sound – The source of the sound is out of frame/off screen. In the same scene in Raiders of the Lost Ark, you can hear the boulder incoming before it is actually shown on screen. This helps to build a tense atmosphere and warn the audience of the incoming danger. 3.01 in the clip below.
Sound bridge – Continuity technique to create smooth transitions between the scenes using audio. Sound from the next scene is heard before the imagery appears. In Scott Pilgrim vs the World, there is a scene (6 mins and 45 secs in) where we are in Scott’s house and hear the sound of a school bell tolling before we transition to the school, creating a sound bridge. Shown in this clip below at 0.45 seconds.
Ambient sounds – Background noises, sounds and atmosphere. An example of ambients sounds in film would be in Raiders of the Lost Ark when Indy escapes the temple in the prologue and finds himself surrounded by natives in the jungle. The sudden ambient sounds change to jungle ambience, featuring animals making noises (such as birds and crickets) and the sound of running water from a nearby lake. 3.20 in the clip below.
Incidental sounds – Music that builds emotion in a scene. An example of this would be in the film 28 Weeks later, when the song In The House in a Heartbeat (by John Murphy) is used as we watch a man desperately run away from a horde of zombies, leaving his wife and child behind. The music used corresponds with the emotions of the character and is used to build tension and emotion.
Contrapuntal sounds – Music that contradicts the emotion of the action on screen – creates contrast, draws attention to action, can make the audience intentionally uncomfortable. An example would be the intro to the Watchmen, when the comedian is killed during a fight in his apartment and “Unforgettable” by Nat King Cole is playing. The contrast between the music and what is occurring on screen makes the sounds contrapuntal.
Stationary sound source – comes from a person or an object that is not moving. The sound of a stationary object has a constant quality, the pitch and volume don’t differ as the microphone pickup comes from the same spot. And example would be the TV from Shaun of The Dead in the first quarter of the movie, that explains subtly to the characters the gravity of the situation. 2.28 in the clip below.
A moving sound source – comes from a source that moves in any direction from the point where the sound is recorded. For example, the sound of the helicopter flying in Ex-Machina. 0.51 in the clip below.
Drama dialogue – The dialogue between characters. This is where boom mics are used, and there are usually several operators in order to capture different characters dialogues. An example would be the dialogue between Batman (Christian Bale) and The Joker (Heath Ledger) in The Dark Knight interrogation scene.
Presence – In film and tv production presence (or room tone) is the “silence” recorded at a location when no dialogue is spoken. This sound can be mixed so the audience can feel where the sound is coming from. An example of presence in film would be Moon or Buried where the film takes place entirely in one location and requires a certain feel to it. This lonely and isolated feeling is strengthened by the use of presence.
External diegetic sound – Along the same lines as non-diegetic sound, as it is put into the scene outside the shot but can be heard by both the characters and audience. For example, foley sound.
Studio sound recording – where sounds are recorded in a studio or radio station, and can be used to capture voice overs. Recording in a studio is often better for tv shows, as the sound is clearer and more distinct. An example would be the voice overs recorded in a studio for The Nightmare Before Christmas.
Location sound recording – Recording on location is in the name. It usually occurs in a location that isn’t specialised for sound optimisation so there a certain things you can use to get the best out of the audio.
Foley – The recording of all the little sounds that provide depth to what we see on screen. Most of the sounds in our foley project will be diegetic but we will still have some non-diegetic sounds to add some depth. There will also be a good mix of both on-screen and off-screen sounds in our foley project.
2 – Choosing a microphone
3 – Target audience
BBC radio 4 reaches 11.55 ,million adults each week, 21% of the British population. Their audience is loyal, and on average a single listener will tune in for 11 hours a week. That’s over 127 million hours per week. Radio-wise, the news attracts the most listeners at around 10.3 million each week, while factual reaches 9.4m, drama reaches 6.96 million and comedy reaches 5.5 million listeners. Radio 4 attracts 1.8 million unique browsers to its site each week, and 86% of this lot consist of mobile/tablet users. The station has a consistency balanced audience in terms of gender, 49% male and 51% female. The average age of Radio 4 listeners is 56 years old. Their target audience is 35-54 ABC1, makes up 24% of the audience. According to Radio 4 the most people tune in Monday to Friday, with the most listeners tuning in around 7.45 – 8.00 am. Mine and Joes target audience for our radio drama are teens, aged 16-18. This is because it is based on characters that correspond with this age demographic, and deals with problems they can relate to. Many adults may not find interest in a radio drama that explores the lives of teenagers and may struggle to relate with the plot.
4 – Foley artist research
Foley work, is the reproduction of everyday sounds that are added to films and other media in post, to improve the audio quality. These sounds can range from footsteps, to squeaky doors to wind blowing and many more. The word “Foley” comes form sound-effect artist Jack Foley. He developed many techniques for sound effect recording that are still used today.
The title of sound designer was first given to Walter Murch by Francis Ford Coppola. He was given this title for his audio work on the 1969 film The Rain People. He has had quite a prolific career, working on films like American Graffiti, Apocalypse now and The Godfather trilogy. His first Academy Award nomination was for the 1974 film The Conversation, and won an Academy Award for Apocalypse Now in 1979. He also won two Oscars in 1996 for best sound and best editing for The English Patient. He was the original sound designer and along with other designers such as Ben Burtt, and helped to elevate the importance and beauty of sound in film.
Copyright laws explored below.
Copyright laws:
Copyright owners of radio broadcasts have the right to record/copy the broadcast. Also, performers (musicians) who feature in the broadcast have performers rights.
sounds, both musical and non-musical are protected under copyright laws. Songs, audio books, sound effects and audio recordings (speeches, interviews, podcasts etc..) are all included under copyright law.
Radio broadcasts of audio recordings are protected by a different category of copyright laws. For example, if a song is played on the radio it will be protected as a sound recording, but an additional copyright is created for the broadcast. A broadcast recording would be protected as both a sound recording and a broadcast.
Radio station operators and broadcasters need to secure permission in order to play certain audio recordings. Licenses need to be acquired before the music is played, unless the songs are in the public domain or written by you.
Rights managed (RM)
Rights managed refers to a copyright license, which allows the one time use of a product, if the license has been acquired/purchased. If the user would like to use the product on several occasions, additional licenses must be acquired.
Royalty free (RF)
Royalty free material may be used by anyone, and does not require you to pay royalties or licensing fees to the publisher.
Creative Commons (CC)
A Creative Commons license is a public copyright license that allows the free distribution of work that would otherwise be copyrighted. A CC license can be used when the author wants to give other people the right to use, share and build upon their work.
5 – Foley plan
We will be recording our foley in the radio station at Exeter College, using the already set up facilities. Some of our Foley may also require us to use a shotgun mic attached to a Zoom for audio we cannot record in the radio station. We will be using audacity to record our audio and will edit it on final cut pro. Our foley project will definitely feature lots of ambient noise, as we will have to change the ambience for each different environment/location. We most likely not feature any incidental or contrapuntal music in our foley work, as we are not attempting to strengthen a narrative or contradict emotions with this project. I don’t think there will be any stationary sound sources in our foley work but there will be lots of moving sound sources, such as animals and fire. As our project centres around a fictional, miniature world filled with wild animals there will be no dialogue present. External diegetic sound will be present in our foley project, through things like birds chirping and fire burning. We will most definitely use studios sound recording in our project, as over half the sounds will come from recordings in the studio. However, we will probably feature little to no location recordings as any sound we cannot record in the studio we will source form libraries. We predict that it will take around 30 minutes to get all the audio recordings for our foley work.
Part 3 – Solving the problems
Foley problem
1 – Our clip
We chose to analyse the WWF miniature world animation
2 – clip analysis
3 – Sound recording + libraries (Above)
4 – main decisions
5 – sound collection
Radio problem
1 – Examples
2 – Research
3 – Synopsis + character profiles
Synopsis – Two stereotypical surfers, who are under the influence of marijuana, are chilling on a beach. Everything seems normal until one of them hears an eerie noise coming from the the woods behind them. This leaves them both curious and weary, but ultimately decide to go and investigate. They talk between themselves for a bit as they head towards the eerie sound. They venture into the woodland and are greeted by a variety of strange and confusing visions/hallucinations. As they are walking, a sudden flash of orange light emanates from a fire. They pull back the curtain of leaves and are in awe when they see a Sasquatch siting by the fire. Our radio drama is a satirical take on teen (16-25) dramas.
Adam Roller: Voice by Alex Roberts – An overall mellow person but is very oblivious/idiotic and often lies to get out of things.
Jack Kelsie: Voice by Joe Caines – More logical and mentally capable than Adam. Also a chilled out person but is more comedic and respectable than his friend.
4 – Script + recording
Below is a copy of the first 5 mins of our radio drama script, which we will be recording:
Script – BUD-ies
*Beach ambience*
Jack: “Ohhhh duuuuuuude, that’s sooooo strong”
Adam: *chuckles to himself* “I know right, I’m used to it now though”
*proceeds to cough uncontrollably*
Jack: “Bro, you good dude”
Adam: “Yeah I just” *coughs* “Lit it wrong”
Jack: “Yeah I feel you dude”
*Both fall back on their chairs and look up at the stars*
Adam: “When did the sky get so dark dude”
Jack: “What are you on about dude, its been dark for ages bro”
Adam: “I swear to god dude 2 minutes a go it was bright, bright light everywhere, blinding bright light.”
Jack: *interrupts Adam* “Bro your tripping out dude, calm down man.”
*Silence for 3 seconds*
Adam: “Ohhh bro did I tell you about the day I watched this documentary about pigeons”
Jack: “Nah bro tell me more”
Adam: “Yeah no I see where your coming from bro”
Jack: “Ummmmm…”
Adam: “If I’m being honest bro, I’ve been sitting here for centuries, searching and wondering, wondering and searching for the answer that I have not yet found”
Jack: “What are you talking bro, just sit back…” *Twig snaps in background* “in your chair…
*Adam interrupts*
Adam: “Bro did you hear that?”
Jack: “No your just tripping dude, you gotta re…”
*Another noise is heard, this time it is louder alerting both jack and Adam*
*Adam jumps to attention*
Adam: “Bro you had to hear that one”
Jack: “Yeah yeah I heard that too bro”.
Adam: “So what should we do?”
About 20 mins has passed and they are debating whether to investigate the sound or not.
Adam: “Nah man im not sure, im… im kinda scared”
Jack: “Bro think about it, what’s the worst that could happen, a T-rex comes and kills us”
Adam: “ummm what, A T-REX!”
Adam: “I hate T-rexes”
Jack: “Calm down bro there’s no T-rexes chill.”
Adam: “Then why would you say that dude”
Jack: “Bro I was joking dude, calm down”
Jack: “Seriously bro I think we should go in and see what we’re dealing with, nothing bad will happen trust me”.
Adam: “Ok dude, lets do it”.
Jack: “Nice bro, lets go.”
*Jack starts to head towards the sound*
Adam: “Yo bro”
Jack: “Ya”
Adam: “Can I hold your hand?”
Jack: “Nah bro”
*Enter temple run music*
Adam: “Duuude we’ve been walking for hours, my legs are tired”
Jack: “Nah bro we just left like a minute ago, look behind you man you can still see the beach.
Adam: “Oh, huh ok”
Jack: “Come on bro, we still gotta find out what that was”
*Jack and Adam walk towards the sound and jack begins to light a joint*
Jack: “You wanna hit bro”
Adam: “ Nah nah, I.. I’m good bro
Jack: “Why not bro?”
Adam: “that ain’t strong enough for me bro there’s no point:
Jack: “Yeah yeah of course bro” (sarcastic)
Jack: “Anyway bro, lets keep going bro”.
Adam: “Ok bro”
*As they head deeper into the jungle they start hearing faint echoes all around them*
Adam: “Dude, did you just hear that”
Jack: “Yeah bro, just keep going”
*Echo of faint laughter*
*They eventually arrive at an isolated part of the jungle that seems more remote and mysterious than before*
Jack: “This is starting to feel weird bro… it looks… different..”
*Adam cuts him off*
Adam: “Woah dude look over there, is that real”
Jack: “I dunno bro… looks pretty real to me”
*They head over to what appears to be a huge river, accompanied by a waterfall and brimming with wildlife*
Jack: “Dude is that a waterfall?”
Adam: “Looks like it dude”
Jack: “What are waiting for dude, lets jump in”
*Jack jumps in*
Adam: “CALAMARI”!!!!
*Adam jumps in*
Jack: “Do you mean Cowabunga bro” (Laughing)
Adam: “Nah”
*Pause for 5 secs)
Jack: “ok dude, right on”
*They swim around for about a minute having a great time*
Adam: “Dude, im so thirsty… this looks so good bro”
Jack: “Yeah dude go for it” (laughing)
*Adam cups his hands and drinks the fresh water*
*Adam coughing and splurting*
Adam: “Eughhh dude, this is mud”
Jack: “What do you mean bro?”
*Adam proceeds to scoop up a handful of mud and chucks it at Jack*
Jack: “Euuuhhh, what the…”
Adam: “It’s mud bro, we’ve been swimming in mud”
Jack: “B..Bu…But dude what about the waterfall?”
*They turn and look at the waterfall that is no longer there*
Adam: “God dude none of it’s real, I think we hallucinated bro”
Jack: “I cant even remember why we’re here dude”
Adam: “ummm… I think there was some kinda noise bro.”
Jack: “oh yeah yeah… c’mon bro lets go look”
Adam: “Dude, what about the mud bro?”
Jack: “What about it bro?” (assertively)
Adam: “ yeah man sounds sick bro.”
Jack: “Wa.w ….what cmon bro lets go.”
Adam “okay dude chill.”
*They head out of the isolated area and re-enter the forest where they had been before*
*Cue temple run music again*
Adam: “uuuuuuuugggh Duuuuuude.”
Jack: “what Bro?”
Adam: “ive lost the keys.”
Jack: “ nah bro please tell me ur joking dude.”
(Adam panicky looking trough is pockets again.)
Adam: “nah bro I wish I was.”
Jack: “ shit shit shit shit what we gonna do”
Jack: “ I swear bro the sound was coming from this direction.”
Adam: “ This sucks dude ive lost my keys ive swam in mud and im pretty sure im dead.”
Jack: “ what u chatting bro u aint dead lets just find what ever this is.”
Adam “bro why are we even looking for whatever the thingie is what if it was something that wanted to eat us like a giraffe or something.”
Jack: “ what bro are u serious whats a giraffe gonna do.”
Adam: “ eat us like I said before are u deaf dude.”
Jack: “giraffe don’t eat humans.”
Adam: “yeah they do I saw it one blue planet.”
Part four – Evaluations solutions
1 – Target audience needs
BBC radio 4 wanted to get a larger audience of younger people. This is because the current audience who consistently tune in to the radio are primarily older individuals. So to correspond with the wants of the BBC, we developed our entire radio drama around two stereotypical and relatable (while slightly exaggerated) teenage boys. We wrote and recorded jokes and conversations that will be both comedic and relatable to a younger demographic. Our radio drama does not take itself seriously at all and borrows tropes from other buddy movies such as 21 Jump street, Superbad, Harold and Kumar, Kevin and Perry etc…. All of the lines and sound effects we recorded for our project were done in the Exeter College radio station, using audacity. I am fairly happy with the final product as nothing really went wrong during the exporting phase and most of what we wanted was in the final piece. The main inconvenience was when we had to redo the entire radio drama two weeks in. We had developed most of the script and had all of the equipment but when it came time to record we realised this idea was just not going to work. This left us with 2 weeks to write and develop a brand new script and concept, record it, edit it, and publish it. I found this quite overwhelming and annoying but in the end I am happy with how it turned out. I was also not a fan of the voice recording aspect as I am not a great voice actor.
2 – Foley solution
I am actually very pleased with the final edit of my foley solution. Considering i had no prior experience editing or recording sound properly i think it turned out really well. The diverse array of sounds used and ideas we could convey really made this video feel realistic and alive. Around 75% of the sound used in our foley project were recorded by us, and the other 25% we sourced from online libraries. My favourite part would be in the mountain habitat where there are a several birds flying alongside each other before diving into the water. The echos and layered bird calls paired with the mountain and ocean ambience combine to create this feeling of nature and coldness. The only part i was not too pleased with were the sounds of fish moving underwater. I was unable to record a sound or source one that accurately demonstrated the sounds i wanted to use, and therefore i find the fish scene somewhat disappointing and plain. Other than that one issue though i was very pleased with everything else.
3 – Types of sound
We created a wide variety of different sounds for our foley project. Joe Caines produced the majority of our sounds with one or two sounds coming from Lewis Eadie-Conway and Tom Onslow.
4 – Strengths and weaknesses
My roles
Foley – Editor, sound recorder, producer
Radio Drama – Producer, editor, voice actor, co-writer
Technical directions – should work with the dialogue, never be unnecessary, and describe the immediate sound pattern . Directions should be underlined.
Characters names – They are written in all caps with a colon. A character’s names is designated by either their first or last name, but a role designation may be used instead. A characters designated name should remain consistent throughout the script.
(OFF) – Indicates that the actor should speak away form the microphone
(LOW) – Indicates the actors should speak quietly, almost whispering.
(D) – Distort, indicates a character speaking through a mechanical device e.g. a radio.
Page numbers – Number all your pages. Page 1 begins with scene 1, not the title page.
BBC layout conventions –
Radio drama scripts and film scripts – Their formatting is different, as a radio drama is presented on
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