Consent Forms For "House Of Fun"

These are my consent forms for my short film, showing that the people acting in my film are okay with it being filmed.

Sound Editing

In a film, or any creative media, sound is one of the most important things to have. In the modern day, a film without sound is never seen, due to all the things that can be conveyed with it. Without the sound, you're only getting half of an experience. Sometimes however, sound is used, but not edited correctly. Poor editing on sound can really hinder an experience, and not only will it be unpleasant, but it will come off as being highly unprofessional. For example, if you record in a room with poor acoustics, the audio will be low quality. If no attempt is made to fix up the audio, the final product will be poor. When sound is edited and recorded correctly, it is tremendously effective and can have effects on the audience that the visuals alone would not be able to do.

Activity One

In this scene from Saving Private Ryan (1998), we are seeing the carnage on the beach from the perspective of a Captain. The Captain's hearing has been temporarily impaired by a loud blast, so everything he and the audience hears is faint. Bullets are quieter and yelling is silent. This creates a feeling of emptiness, as Soldier's cries for help aren't even being heard by those nearby. The shell-shock effect creates a sense of dread and hopelessness, as the audience is forced to watch the violence and slaughter from the perspective of a shocked man without the ability to hear. This is achieved by the editor adding all of the usual usual explosion and bullet sound effects, but then turning the volume down by a large amount. They likely added a low-pass filter effect, which makes the audio seem distant and echoey, exactly how it sounds here in the clip. Following an explosion, The Captain's hearing returns, and sound comes into the scene. Immediately following this is a barrage of loud explosions, bullets and blasts. This catches the audience off-guard due to the previous quietness, and is very overwhelming due to the sheer insanity off all the sounds playing at once. If the scene had started loud, the explosions wouldn't have the same shocking effect, and we would be without the dramatic look inside the perspective of a shell-shocked soldier. The sudden loudness is likely achieved b y having all the different sound effects played over one another for the chaotic effect, and they all likely have their gain turned up for extra volume. For the rest of the scene, the enemy are only shown once, and this is a shot of only one soldier from behind. This decision was made so that the audience is forced to follow the sound. They're being placed from the perspective of the soldier's storming the beach who are pinned down under a violent barrage from all angles, regardless of where they go. This makes the sound only indicator as to where danger is, so the sound is edited to be crisp and clear, while still chaotic and tremendously loud.

In the film Angst (1983), the main character, known as The Psychopath, enters a diner. When he arrives, he orders a sausage and starts to eat. In the editing for this scene, the sound of him eating is increased greatly. This is to fit the visuals of the character eating the food rather messily. The sound is rather squishy and wet, making for a displeasing experience. It was supposed to disgust the audience, and it does this very well due to the unnatural and uncomfortable sounds. The soundtrack is deliberately mixed to be quieter in this scene, so that the focus stays on the eating. When the character is narrating, he speaks softly, which has the same effect as the soundtrack. The eating stands out, in a very disgusting way. If the mixing had been any different, the eating would have been drowned out, which would have taken the disgust away from the scene in terms of audio, and it would have to be carried entirely by the visuals. Turning down the music also prevents it from being a distraction, but keeping the music prevents a feeling of emptiness. They mix it at the perfect amount so that it's audible, but not as audible as the eating sound's and the narration.

In this BBC interview, Jonathan Ross is interviewing Japanese Director Takashi Miike. Due to Miike's first language being Japanese, he isn't fully fluent in English, and he can't reply in English. The BBC allowed Miike to reply to questions in Japanese, and then they simply dubbed over him with the English translation. This is very common in interviews with people who don't speak English, as without it, the audience would have no idea what was being said and would be unable to follow the interview. The dubbing is also easier to follow than adding subtitles as it doesn't require any reading and is therefore more accessible to a wider audience of people. The dubbing is also a benefit as interviews rarely use their visuals to any advantage, so it's fine to listen to them while doing something else, which wouldn't be possible if subtitles were used. It could even be adapted to be played on the radio very easily, due to the dub.

Activity Two

In order to record sound effectively, you will need the correct equipment, which is also of a high quality. One of the most important and obvious pieces of equipment is a microphone. A good microphone can make a huge difference in editing, as recording with a bad microphone will result in a lot more fixing needing to be done. The audio will always need to be edited, but bad equipment will need an awful lot more. A mixing console is another handy piece of equipment, as you can edit specific sounds from different inputs as they are being recorded, something not every software allows. In terms of software, some famous ones are Audacity, Adobe Audition and Logic Pro.

Audacity is a free software and is the easiest to learn out of the three, but this is mainly due to it's minimalistic features and capabilities compared to the other two. Audacity has some good features though, and it has many drag and drop presets that can be easily edited, which are all great for adding different effects to sound. An issue with Audacity is that the interface has a very dated look to it, which doesn't make for pleasant viewing experiences. Also, while Audacity allows the user to export their audio in a decent array of file types, you need to download a third-party app in order to export your audio as an MP3. This is quite bizarre, as an MP3 is one of the most commonly used file types worldwide, and not everybody will want to download a second app just to be able to do something which should be available in the software to begin with.

Logic Pro is a very solid audio editing software as it is relatively easy to get used to but it also has many complex and useful features. It's very well known for it's immensely large library of virtual instruments and musical loops, which sound very realistic when compared to actual instruments. Logic Pro costs 199.99, which may seem like a very hefty sum, but for a one time payment of a software that shares features with applications costing a lot more, it's a very good deal, and isn't as expensive as it may seem. However, Logic Pro has a major negative in the fact that the program is exclusive to apple products like Mac. This means anyone editing sound on a different platform (E.g Windows) won't be able to use the software, and will require an alternative music editing software.

Adobe Audition is the main alternative, and while it's not regarded as being as easy to use as Logic Pro, it share's a lot of the same features. Adobe Audition also has the benefit of being part of the Adobe cloud, making it really easy to transfer audio to a program like Adobe Premiere Pro and keep the audio lossless while doing so. People familiar with Adobe software will likely prefer Adobe Audition due to it having a similar layout to other Adobe programs, perhaps making it easy for them to understand. If people still aren't pleased with the layout, they can actually switch it between numerous presets, which is a very handy feature for people trying to get everything where they like it. Unlike Logic, Adobe Audition is a subscription based service, costing £19.97 a month. While the price seems smaller, it'll add up over time for long term use, coming in at £238.42 for just one year of use, so having the software for a long while will really take a monetary toll.