Video and Sound Production / Project 1

29.08.23 - 06.12.23 / Week 2 - Week 3

Name: ALYSSA AISYAH BINTI 'ARIEF NASRAN (0364017)
Bachelor of Design (Hons) in Creative Media
Video and Sound Production (VSP60104) / Section 1

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LECTURES

Week 1

Week 2

Week 3

Week 4

Week 5

No class

Week 6

Week 7

Week 8

Independent learning week

Week 9

Week 10

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INSTRUCTIONS

  

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PRACTICAL

Sound Dubbing

In the first exercise of Video and Sound Production, we are to edit a video in Adobe Premiere Pro by syncing audio with each scene. We must watch the video on the timeline and then create a spreadsheet that lists each scene and the sound effects it needs. After that, we are to record voice-overs using a phone recording app and find additional sound effects online to put these audio files on the timeline and organize them into four tracks for dialogue, one for each character, and three tracks for sound effects and background sounds.

Process

To start, I first watched the video and created the spreadsheet in accordance to what I observed and listed down all the sound effects, ambience, and character dialogue for reference to record and edit later on in Premiere Pro.

Fig 1.0 Sound Dubbing Spreadsheet

I then recorded all the voice lines on my phone using an app called "Voice Record" and did a few takes for each line so I could pick between them and choose the best sounding version to use in the video. For the male voices, I had tried deepening my voice as well slightly and made it sound more gravely to mimic the natural bass and tone of a male voice which I would later enhance in pitch in Premiere Pro. All best selected voice recordings were then send to my google drive for download.

Fig 1.1 Voice Recordings

This was then followed by the deposit of the best chosen recordings into Premiere Pro following the time stamps in the video where dialogue can be seen, adjusting it to the exact timing and duration. I have also cut clips down to where only the sound is heard to avoid extra background/white noise. I have also made 10 tracks exactly, 3 for ambience, 3 for sound effects, and 4 for dialogue, each track for 1 character.

Fig 1.2 Adding Dialogue + Creation of 10 Tracks

Then, referring to my spreadsheet, I went online to search for the following sound effects and ambience, downloaded them, and imported them into the timeline into their own respective tracks. I paid a great deal of attention as well to ensuring that each sound matched the exact timing and duration it appeared to in the video- for this I had to re-watch countless scenes on repeat to spot visual cues that would give me information on where to start and end/cut the sound at. I mainly used the site "freesound" to find my SFX and ambience from. I have also adjust the gain level for each sound in accordance to the video as well, depending on the distance of a person/object was from the camera, what the material was made up of, and determining by approximation and imagining how loud that specific sound would be in real life.

Fig 1.3 Adding SFX & Ambience

For the ambience, there are two main tracks that play throughout the video, one of indoor ambience, and one of outdoor ambience, the third being additional SFX ambience of things such as passing cars and people cycling. At first I had tried listening to the track without indoor ambience as I wondered if it needed it, though it felt "empty" and unrealistic, and certain sound effects did not flow as well as they did until I added ambience. Although the change in ambient sound may not be too obvious, I cut it in accordance to the video- whenever the indoor scenes played, so did the indoor ambience, and vice versa for outdoor scenes.

Fig 1.4 Adjustment of Ambience

Next, to make each character sound more like themselves and what they look like, I adjusted the pitch using the pitch shifter effect and applied it to all dialogue as I will need to give each of them their own unique voices and pitch. To create an adult-male-sound for the male characters, I turned the semi-tones down by a few notches (-4 to -7). Each male had this semi-tone adjustment, just in different numbers to illustrate and differentiate different individual characters. For the female child, with the same effect using the pitch shifter, I did the opposite, turning the semi-tone slightly up to create a higher-pitched more kid-sounding voice.

Fig 1.5 Adjusting Pitch of Male Characters

Fig 1.6 Adjusting Pitch of Female Character

Following that, I then went on to adjust some of the SFX in the timeline by splicing them up to sound more audibly accurate and consistent with the video by cutting up the sound to where it appears like the object/person is still and moving it around in the timeline to act in exact auditory accordance to what appears in the video as well such as having the SFX footsteps match the footsteps in the video in when her foot lands the ground and in pace.

Fig 1.7 Splicing & Adjusting Sound

For some sounds, I have also adjusted their sound level in distance and made the sound gradually more louder or quieter as the sound progresses based on what happens in the video, such as how far a person is, and making their footsteps louder as they become closer to the camera.

Fig 1.8 Adjusting Sound Level Progression

Some sounds I have also adjusted the gain level of to make them more louder/quieter based on what appears in the video, and have an effect applied to them as well, such as the exponential fade on certain sounds that require it or cut out too abruptly and sound unnatural.

Fig 1.9 Adjust Gain level + fade

Lastly, for certain scenes, when I was unable to find 1 sound effect that could match the scene, I downloaded a few sound effects to layer on top of each other to create a more accurate sounding sound, such as the last scene with the apartment explosion. I was unable to find an explosion sound which came with more glass destruction, thus I had layered the sound of an explosion with 2 instances of breaking/exploding glass SFX.

Fig 2.0 Layering Sounds

Once I had finalized everything, I went through each sound and listened carefully for any discrepancies in auditory accuracy in relation to the visuals and made a few minor adjustments such as moving tracks in the timeline to sync better with an action in the video or adjusting the gain level of a sound to be more loud/quiet. When I had finished rendering and confirmed everything sounded good, I then exported the video.

Final Outcome

Fig 2.1 Final Audio Dubbing MP4

Audio Editing: Sound Shaping With EQ

 

Project 1 Exercise 2 involves sound shaping via EQ manipulation using Adobe Audition. For this exercise, we were instructed to record a short voice line of 5-10 seconds saying anything of our choice, and we were then to import the recorded audio into Adobe Audition- then editing it in 5 different ways which are the following:

• Phone call
• Inside of closet
• Inside of a toilet/bathroom
• Underground cave
• Alien/Orc voice

Since we were allowed to say anything of choice, I decided to use a line from one of my favourite games, Resident Evil, said by my favourite character in that game, Ada Wong. The line goes:

"So cute. You're really confused by all this, aren't you, Leon? It's kind of fun to watch."

- Ada Wong, Resident Evil 6

Due to me having had experience with voice acting before, imitating her voice wasn't much trouble. I recorded the voice line using the "Vocolo" app on my phone in a separate empty room on campus so there would not be any distracting background noise and my voice could be picked up more clearly. After, I then sent it to my google drive for download so I could then import and edit in Adobe Audition. I first created a multitrack, deposited the voice recording, and the duplicated it into 5 of their own tracks.        

Fig 2.2 Creating Multitrack + Deposit of Recording + Duplication

I first started on editing the voice of a phone call. To do this, I used the parametric equalizer, and brought down the bass and treble raised the mid range between 500Hz to 2kHz. 

Fig 2.3 Editing Sound for Phone call

To create a sound of someone inside of a closet, I used the same trick to create a "muffled" sound by having the bass remain, but moving the treble to the bottom, and raising the middle range to the top.

Fig 2.4 Editing Sound for Inside of a closet

To create the sound of someone inside the toilet/bathroom, I applied the reverb effect and adjusted the decay time and wet output to be higher to shorten the reverb and make it less intense as most bathroom reverbs are subtle, and brought down the dry output to create a "spacey" sounding effect. I tinkered around with the effects here until it sounded convincing enough

Fig 2.5 Editing Sound for Toilet/Bathroom

For the cave, I used another instance of the reverb effect here but made it much more obvious and intense by increasing the decay time, pre-delay, and dry output level to create the auditory illusion of emptiness and a mass amount of space. Mainly I tinkered around with the effects here until it sounded convincing enough.

Fig 2.6 Editing Sound for Underground Cave

Lastly, for the Alien/Orc sound I used the flanger effect and played around with the characteristics of the delay times, stereo phasing, and modulation rate, increasing or decreasing them until I had something that sounded sci-fi like and resembled an alien-sounding voice. Mainly I tinkered with the Stereo phasing and modulation rate the most as I wanted my voice to not sound "separate" from the effect.

Fig 2.7 Editing Sound for Alien/Orc

Once done with editing each track, I then exported them individually.

Fig 2.8 Export of Edited Audio

Final Outcome

Phone Call:

Fig 2.9 Phone Call MP3

Inside of a Closet:

Fig 3.0 Inside of a Closet MP3

Toilet/Bathroom:

Fig 3.1 Toilet/Bathroom MP3

Underground Cave:

Fig 3.2 Underground Cave MP3

Alien/Orc:

Fig 3.3 Alien/Orc MP3

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REFLECTION

The two exercises, audio dubbing and sound shaping really highlighted the intricacies of audio-video synchronization, sound editing/rendering, and overall the meticulous process of creating a harmonious auditory result. I had always known it was a complex process as when I had watched shows, I could audibly hear many sounds being layered on top of each other, but what I did not know to the full extent how complex the process really was. There are many things to consider, such as the length of the audio and how long it should go for, the timing, and transitions that are logical- the entire process was much more detailed than expected. The hardest parts however, was finding suitable sounds for each action as it had to fit what could be visually observed in the video, so finding sounds that mirrored it was quite challenging as we had to find and search for random ones, and through editing make it fit into the video. 

I had the most fun with the second exercise, as we had more creative freedom due to us being able to record any voice line we desired, and edit it however we saw fit. It was fun and exciting to engineer my voice in different ways and listen to the outcomes of them. Although for both exercises, the recording of voice lines presented a unique challenge, as it required multiple takes to capture the nuances of each character's dialogue. Nonetheless, I still had fun with it.

In conclusion, these two exercises gave me a better nuanced understanding and appreciation in the world of audio engineering. It is a labour of love that requires planning, attention to detail, and creative problem-solving, it is much more of a technical skill than one would think, as it isn't as easy as just importing sound into a video.