SD4P - Formative Assignment - 15 Oct. 2012

Title:  EVACUATION FOOTAGE

Film clip link :    http://youtu.be/71UZgdIucwg

RE : PLAYBACK & AUDIO
Please listen (if possible ) to the video with your headphones on.  This will then give you the correct cross-fade direction for the dialogue spoken. The passers-by move from right to left . The helicopter sound is from far left to middle  then to left and far left where it then resides with a slight increase again in volume. Thx :) .

Sound Design for Picture 

Formative assignment

15 October 2012

The original video outside the CAB offered only rain and a few passers-by.

Although there  was a variety of sound going on ; rainfall from sky, rainfall from the building’s overhang,  female & male voices and footsteps ( differing velocities/pitches), the rustle of clothing bags, umbrellas being opened/closed  not all of this is actually audible on the film clip.

The image was captured on a phone and therefore has quite  a rough and ready feel. The sounds too lacked any great definition or place in the stereo field. All-round a fairly lo-fi experience.

As the idea for the clip was to make it into a news item, a lot of the sounds of the un-folding chaos were sourced from my own sound libraries.
Such samples were : 
London Riots 2011 - Tottenham, N.London - afternoon.
Helicopter approach and landing -  airshow  (USA)
Chinese language speakers   -  Chinese language instruction course

Foley sounds were used : the creak of a coat and a bag as a person passes by the camera.  The constant ‘rain’ was in fact a pair of trainers  under running water in a bath.

The soundscape felt fairly drab. I wanted to up the emotional content and elicit a certain response from the viewer. Therefore I did some intro and outro frames that put the scene into context.  Namely, that an un-specified emergency was taking place and that this formerly innocuous film clip took on a greater import as it was deemed to be ‘ recovered footage’ from the scene as it un-folded.

Technically, the sound processing and  production was not particularly involved.

The idea was to up the drama content but to retain the lo-fi quality to make it believable as evidence of the scene and the way in which it was captured and thus preserved.

The attempt here was to create a ‘cinema verite’ style clip.
The emphasis being on authenticity and brevity. Which is typical of this style of film. The audience is left wanting more  but  there is no more ; only this witness and its limited scope.  
  [ A prime example of this would be Abraham Zapruder’s film of the assassination of President John F. Kennedy in Dallas, 22 November 1963].