Foley – Research

Callum Price

Before beginning the Foley process, I looked into some of the basics of Foley recording.

Recording Foley and Sound Effects: The Fundamentals

This article by premium beat gives a basic overview of many different parts of recording Foley.  They talk about what objects are useful for emulating certain sounds and the importance of microphone placement. This is especially useful for us as we wanted to create an environment for the objects. Having distance from the mic allowed them to breathe a bit more helping create this naturally.

Rode also have a fantastic article talking about the fundamentals of Foley recording.

http://www.rode.com/blog/all/a-quick-guide-to-recording-foley-effects

I also looked at many youtube videos regarding foley recording and different foley artists.

Gary Hecker is a foley artist who has worked on films such as Hancock and 300. He has a video where he shows some examples and techniques.

All of these had a significant impact during the recording process.

Meeting with Phil Stevens (Media Tutor)

Callum Price

We met with Phil Stevens who is the media groups tutor for this project.

The media group had expressed some issues with syncing the audio. We were asked to come to a meeting to resolve the issues being faced.

While in the meeting Lee Gretton our tutor from last semester looked over our audio just to confirm the error had not been from our side. Lee mentioned that normalising the audio would be useful to the media group during the editing process. Joe and I spoke about this after looking at the waveforms in Premier Pro and determined it would not be necessary as it really didn’t make a difference.

Other than that the meeting was very focused on the media group. It was useful to have Phil back us up as it did help things move along quicker.

Media Meetings – February

Callum Price

We met with the media group to talk about the location and filming dates. They told us we were filming at Harlaxton Manor in Grantham and gave us a list of the dates.

They showed us the actors profiles and explained a bit more about the script and how they were planning to film parts.

We asked them if there were any particular audio sequences required so that we could begin planning them.

They were unsure at the time of what was needed but said they would let us know.

Dave Meetings – February

Callum Price

We met with Dave to discuss our roles within the film crew. I decided to go down the more technical route of being in charge of the 633. Joe wanted to improve his boom operation, so this worked out quite well.

We both planned to follow this route for the whole project with Joe doing more of the practical and with me looking at more of the recording aspects.

We talked about tailoring our learning outcomes to follow this theme. I would talk more about using effects, post production and the recording process whereas Joe would go more into the practical. This allowed being more accurate in our tasks.

 

Thoughts on the Filming process

Callum Price

As this was my first time recording on set, I wasn’t sure what to expect.

The location was fantastic and versatile in so many ways. Both actors were fantastic to work with and were professional throughout the whole process.

I feel the media crew is where a lot of the problems were. The script did not match the location very well at all. The script talks about them coming home and working together, yet they live in this mansion. A few tweaks to the script could have added so much more to the film.

The organisation of the days was rather non-existant as well. We were told to arrive at 10 yet filming wouldn’t start till 12.

I personally feel one of the problems is how little the media team understood our job. This didn’t lead to many issues as after the first day they left us too it.

Overall this process could have been a lot better. The organisation was poor and I think that will reflect in the final product. Some scenes weren’t shot purely to save time and this will hinder the final product.