Video & Sound Production | Project 1

6.5.2024 - 23.6.2024 || Week 3 - Week 9
Yong Zhen Xing || 0359473
Video & Sound Production || Bachelor of Design (Honours) in Creative Media / Taylor's University
Project 1

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Contents

1. Lectures 

2. Instructions

        Week 4
            Sound Dubbing
                    Planning
                    Editing Process
            Final Outcome

        Week 9
            Sound Shaping
                    Recording
                    Process
            Final Outcome

3. Reflection

4. Further Reading

Note : Lectures and Further Reading are documented and will link to my exercises page.

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Instructions

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Week 4 : Project 1 Exercise 1 

Sound Dubbing

This exercise is a good test on how familiar we are when it comes to sound design. We needed to voice-over the characters in the given clip, add sounds effects as well as ambient sounds so that it feels as if we were watching the actual movie. 

 

Planning :

But before any of that is achieve, we also needed to prepare a breakdown sheet about all the different sounds and the things that are happening in the scene. Specific time of each scenes also needed to be included.

 

On week 3, we were put into random groups of 5-6 and needed to work on the breakdown of the video clip together. Me and my group had a shared spreadsheet, so we all worked on it together.

After that class, we needed to work on finding our own sound effect, so I went into Freesound to find my sound effects (some of the sound effects has been changed during editing because some didn't fit). Most of the info on the spreadsheet has also been edited (since the week 3 group work) to be worded better. Fig 1.1 shows my final breakdown for my sound dubbing exercise.

fig 1.1, Sound Dubbing Breakdown Spreadsheet [PDF] (10/5/2024)

 

Note: The sound effect links in the PDF does not work. So click here instead, to view the full spreadsheet with clickable links.

 

First things first, I needed to do the voice-over for the video. So I had my computer in front and I recorded my voice with my phone. I tried my best to sync up my voice with the character's mouth. Below shows the attempts for the voice-over.

 

fig 1.2, Voice-over Attempts (16/5/2024)

 

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Editing Process :
Next, I begin importing the video and lining up the clip with my voice-overs.

 

fig 1.3, Importing My Voice-over (17/5/2024)

Then it was just a process of adding sound effects appropriately. And as mentioned earlier, some of the effects were changed to better fit the scene. Transitional sound effect were added to fade in and fade out some of the sound effects so it doesn't stop or start randomly. Some of the sound effects were also layered on top of each other for a better sound effect.

 

fig 1.4, Adding Sound Effects 1 (17/5/2024)

 

fig 1.5, Adding Sound Effects 2 (17/5/2024)

 

fig 1.6, Adding Sound Effects 3 (17/5/2024)

 

 

Here, I added pitch-shifter to my voice-overs to sound more feminine for the 2 characters and deeper for the other.

 

fig 1.7, Adding Pitch-Shifter (17/5/2024)

 

Lastly, I added ambient sounds to fit the environment that the characters were in.

 

fig 1.8, Adding Ambient Sounds (17/5/2024)

Below shows the full timeline of the video with all the different sounds used.

 

fig 1.9, Full Timeline View (17/5/2024)

 

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Final Outcome

Below shows the final sound dubbing for the video.

 

fig 1.10, Final Sound Dubbing Exercise (17/5/2024)

 

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Week 9 : Project 1 Exercise 2

 

Sound Shaping

In this exercise, we explored on shaping sound on a recording to make the audio sound as if were in a certain environment. This exercise required us to record a 5-10 second audio and we were to shape the sound to create :

1. Voice of phone call
2. Voice coming from inside of closet
3. Voice of toilet/bathroom
4. Underground cave
5. Alien/Orc voice
   

 

Recording :
I first begin by recording a short voice of myself. Since we could say anything in the voice, I decided with "Hey, can you get back to me soon? I just made a breakthrough! I can't wait to tell you all about it!". I did a few takes before only choosing the best one.

 

fig 2.1, Final Sound Dubbing Exercise (30/6/2024)

 

fig 2.2, Recording Selected for Sound Shaping (30/6/2024)

 

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Process :

I first begin by importing the audio to Adobe Audition.

 

fig 2.3, Importing audio to Adobe Audition (30/6/2024)

 

 

Then, I started editing the sound to the required sounds. For the phone call and muffled closet voice, I used 'parametric equalizer', for the toilet and underground voice I used a 'reverb' and the alien/orc voice was edited using 'pitch shifter'. For all of the edits, I had to play the audio over and over again and adjust the audio based on my understanding to match the sound required. I have also lowered the audio for each edits as it was peaking too much.

fig 2.4, Edit 1: Phone Call Voice (30/6/2024)

 

fig 2.5, Edit 2: Voice from inside a closet (30/6/2024)

 

fig 2.6, Edit 3: Voice of Toilet/Bathroom (30/6/2024)

 

fig 2.7, Edit 4: Underground Cave Voice (30/6/2024)

 

fig 2.8, Edit 5: Alien/Orc Voice (30/6/2024)

 

Note: The final export for reverb edited sound effects extends the duration longer than the rest.

 

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Final Outcome 

Below shows the final sound shaping audios.

 

fig 2.9, Audio 1: Phone Call Voice (30/6/2024)

 

 fig 2.10, Audio 2: Voice from inside a closet (30/6/2024)

 

fig 2.11, Audio 3: Voice of Toilet/Bathroom (30/6/2024)

 

fig 2.12, Audio 4: Underground Cave Voice (30/6/2024)

 

fig 2.13, Audio 5: Alien/Orc Voice (30/6/2024)

 

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Reflection

Week 4
Sound Dubbing :
This was the most challenging exercise so far. The easiest part I would say was definitely recording the voice-over for the characters. Every other part of the exercise was pretty difficult. Finding the sound effect for was fun at first, just listening and thinking "yeah that will work". Only to find out during editing that the sound you chose was not that well suited for it. Then it's back to searching for the sound effect, which could get annoying. It also gets a bit tedious just lining up the sound effects with the video too, but once you place it on the right timeline and the right sound effect, it is very satisfying. Overall while could get tedious, it was certainly an important exercise to understand how sound works!

 

Week 9
Sound Shaping : 

This was a short and simple exercise that experiments with changing how audio sounds to different environments. I found it surreal that you can just adjust audio to a certain environment but I can understand the reasons for it. The hardest part of the sound shaping was trying to imagine how sound is in environments I haven't been to such as an underground cave or how my voice would sound as an alien/orc. However, even not knowing how it sounds like, I think the outcome sounds as realistic as I could make it! All and all, a relatively interesting exercise!

 

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My Other Video & Sound Production Tasks :

Exercises

Project 1 (Current)

Project 2

Final Project

Final Compilation