Specialist Techniques FILM: Sound

I wanted to take some time to look at sound ... Unlike my film I made before I should pay as much attention to sound as i do to the images...

Why should I use sound? a silly question probably but sound never even crossed my mind when I decided to look into film. Sound and film go hand in hand I know I can use sound to help show where and when the film is set, draw attention to  things in the film, create an atmosphere or set a mood, depict a character, warn that something is about to happen...

I found these tips online : 

( http://learnaboutfilm.com/making-a-film/film-sound-basics/ )

If you can’t record good live sound, fake the sound. It’s better to put your soundtrack together on the computer when you edit rather than have bad sound.

Use a separate microphone. You could use a directional microphone or a tieclip (‘lavalier’) microphone. Or you could use a separate audio recorder and sync the sound up afterwards.

If you have to use an in-camera or on-camera microphone, get in close. Zoom out and get as close as you can to your subject.

Get the sound levels right. Very loud sound can distort; very quiet sound can have ‘hiss’.

Use sound like you use closeups.Instead of just recording what your on-camera microphone picks up, build up your soundtrack from individual sounds. Try getting close or using a separate audio recorder to do this.

Listen BEFORE you shoot. Get everyone to be quiet and wait for a minute before you start recording, so you can hear if there’s any distracting background sound.

Listen WHILE you shoot. Use headphones to monitor the sound while you’re recording if you can. If not, record a test bit and play it back to check that it’s OK.

Shoot away from distracting sounds. If there’s a lot of background sound you can’t avoid, set up your shot so that it’s behind you.

Use a wind gag. If you’re filming outside you almost certainly need a furry windshield. Wind noise can make your video unlistenable.

Record silence. Get some ‘room tone’: a minute or so of the background sound from the location with nothing happening. It’s really useful for covering gaps and glitches when you edit.

Use sound to help the edit flow.Changing the sound at a different time to the picture (called ‘split edits’, ‘sound bridges’, ‘J-cuts’ or ‘L-cuts’) makes the editing seem less obvious.

Adjust the sound levels when you edit.Don’t have sound suddenly getting louder or quieter from shot to shot. Reduce background sounds and music if you need to so that dialogue is audible.

Clear music rights before you use the music. If you want to use a particular piece of copyright music in your film, make sure you can get the rights – it’s not always possible.

So with this in mind i started looking at sound and how i can use it, i decided to use the film i made and just experiment with different things. I started by taking phone recorder and recording loads of noise around me in the street, canteen and in my class i mixed this with some of the sounds that come with I movie, i wanted to create sound that really contrasted the content of the video. So busy and full of movement in contrast to the stillness and silent feeling i was trying to capture in the video.

I wanted to think about how sound effects image, and i wanted to create sound that could express that idea. I decided to go with something sort of ... suspenseful and eerie. So i played around with different sounds on i movie.

 

i find it so interesting that these are both the same video but have completely different moods and give you a completely different feeling about the imagery.