Sound and foley

We were shown different examples of the use of foley sound in films and the importance it brings into creating an audible description of the scene to the viewer.

Our main task was to create foley sound to Norman McLaren's Neighbours. We had an hour in which to practice then we had to perform.

So. We first thought outside of the box, using conventional methods in which to create realistic sounds in which to accompany the image.  We used a variety of different techniques, which included, pre recorded sounds of sites like youtube and foley sites. A mixture of audio blended together in final cut, then our live audio.
Now for the live audio we used objects such as desk chair ran quickly against the carpet in order to create the sound of the deck chairs moving against the earth in the video. Others like the plant raising out of the ground, we used a ruler rubbing against multiple CD cases to create a unusual but recognisable sound of something rising.

A wild track was created for the background audio using a combination of pre recorded sounds. E.g. birds tweeting away, wind rustling through the trees and through grass. All to give the ambient sound that the background needed.

The feed back we got from our performance was very good. Stating we had thought very clearly about the sound we had produced. All of this which had been a blend of Diegetic and Non diegetic sound to bring meaning to the visual images.

007 Daniel Craig Trilogy Trailer

Here is an edit for a trailer i made over the recent weekend. The trailer is for the new 007 film Skyfall


The music i used in this trailer is from the original Skyfall teaser trailer. Unlike the trailers for the film that are out there already, i wanted to create a trailer contain all 3 of Daniel Craig's Bonds.
To start the trailer off we begin at Casino Royale through to Quantum Of Solace then onto Skyfall.

I graded each film to reflect the tone and nature of the story. For example, Casino Royale

Examples of the grading of Casino royale below

 Casino Royale has a very washed out and slight monotone look still retain a slight bit of colour to it. I did thiult for him with the death of the women he loved.

I did this to show that the events in the film happened in the past and were a part of Bonds life that was difficult for him with the death of the women he loved.







Moving onto Quantum Of Solace. The film is essentially a story of Revenge. Now the original film i felt lacked the meaning of Bonds revenge as the film was very bright in its colouring, i would of expected it to be more darker in tone.

Here are some examples below.

 Now originally this shot was very bright in the film. By lowing the blacks and slightly raising the whites when reducing the saturation slightly, the shot feels more darker, like Bond will have no hesitation to kill this man.

Here by keeping Bonds face in the dark it shrouds him in a shadow of not knowing how far he will go to get his revenge.






The main thing i wanted to do with the colouring of Quantum was to show the darker side to Bond.

For the final part of the trailer i kept the last part in from the original skyfall teaser, keeping the colours the same by not changing them to show that this is now the present.

Using Final Cut Pro X

(Picture from http://www.premiumbeat.com/blog/wp-content/uploads/2011/06/final-cut-pro-x.jpg. used at the final cut pro 10 demonstration by Apple)




Having been a user on final cut 7 for over 3 years i was interested to hear about the release of the new final cut software, 10. Having used the software previously before starting university, i was not as keen on the latest version as i was on final cut 7.
Having now attended tutorials on how to use final cut 10, i am still more comfortable with final cut 7.

During the tutorials i was shown a number of new features in 10 that have been updated from 7 and other features that are completely brand new. For example colour grading had been improved by being able to use a feature called colour match were you can match the colour between two shots. New features included like being able to sync check the audio in a clip, a useful feature i admit, syncing audio in a clip is one of the biggest pains i have encountered when editing.

Another feature i was shown in the tutorial was how to turn the scrubbing tool off, where you hover the mouse over the timeline and the clip sequence or clip begins to play. This feature was something that had been annoying me for a while and being able to find that you can turn it off has made it easier for me to edit.

We were given clips to practice editing on the software with. Despite all these good new features and the ability to turn scrubbing off, i still cant use the software. I can physically use it, however its the fact that 10 feels too much now like iMovie or pinnacle studio that i cant get comfortable in using it after getting used to using the old final cut layout of final cut 7, or using Avid.