[4D] Assignment 2 – Task 2: Research and Process

Be sure to watch my final work here before proceeding.

Content

Foley Sounds Research
Ideation
Making of Foley Sounds
Post-Production

Part 1: Foley Sounds Research

Foley is the reproduction of everyday sound effects that are added to film, video, and other media in post-production to enhance audio quality.

Image source: Wall-E. (2017). PIXAR. Retrieved 9 October 2017, from http://pixar-animation.weebly.com/wall-e.html

The reference that I looked to is Ben Burtt. He is the sound designer for iconic films such as Star Wars, Indiana Jones film series, E.T. the Extra-Terrestrial, WALL-E, and Star Trek. He is responsible for creating many of the iconic sound effects heard in the Star Wars film franchise, including the voice of R2-D2, the lightsaber hum, the sound of the blaster guns, and the heavy-breathing sound of Darth Vader, which he made by breathing into a scuba regulator.

Here are 2 videos of him sharing about his process of creating the sounds for Pixar’s ‘WALL-E’, in which he also gave insights on the importance of sounds and how to use them to enhance the mood of the films. (Part 1 | Part 2)

These are some key points that I picked out from the videos:

Wall-E sound design:

Wall-E is a multitude of motors and sounds were deliberately picked out for each of its movements. They can orchestrated together to punctuate the emotions with sounds that are justifiable as part of his function.
Eve has soothing, high-tech, quiet tonality – gives her an air of mystery and enchantment with her.
All have an array of sounds that are character-based.

Importance of sound design:

Because there isn’t much dialogue, more emphasis is put on the seemingly insignificant sounds (the squeaks and squawks). All of them need to mean something.
We should be in complete control of whether there should be sound, how many sounds there are and when they happen.
Make the right choice, for the right sound, for the right moment.
Figure out what’s the overall language for the movie and its characters, how they fit into the overall soundscape
If the sound is realistic but doesn’t convey the mood, the emotional sound can be used instead.
The more inventive sounds get, the more they become subjective and they become sounds in the ears of the beholder.

Part 2: Ideation

Possible Story Structures:

Our story mainly employs the technique of contrast, as it compares the past events with the present events.

Contrasting a past event with a current event, then repeating this throughout video

Clarity in terms of storytelling aspect, as audience will be able to make the connections in the differences immediately

2. Showcasing all the past events first, then reveal what happens in the present

Can be a chronological or flashback sequence in our story
A twist waiting to be revealed

3. Showing all the present events first, then reveal what happens in the past

Flashback sequence

The story structure that I decided to adopt is number 2. As the past events in our story are full of joy, I wanted to create a false sense of hope for my audience, then reveal the tragic reality.

My Story Outline:

This is a rough outline that I came up with to guide me through the post-production process. Not only does it contain the sequence of events, it also contains information about the visuals (eg. colour schemes) and sounds to be included in each scene. It is a masterplan basically. Of course, many things changed along the way.

Notes:

Middle sequence will be a mirror of beginning sequence
Whenever little sister is in scene, birds chirping sound – Signifies her cheerfulness, and joy that she brings to her big sister.

Flashback: Colours are faded.

Beginning – Start off with a happy note:

Text: She dreams of being able to soar freely in the blue skies. Then title card.

Big sister watching little sister hang up paper aeroplanes – Ambient bg noise, folding paper sound
Scenes of little sister playing with paper aeroplanes – Ambient bg noise, jet engine sound
Big sister throw paper aeroplanes over little sister – Ambient bg noise, whoosh sound
Little sister lying among paper aeroplanes, blissful – Ambient bg noise, birds chirping sound
Sisters squabbling playfully over toilet – Echo sound (foley washing machine sound)
Running around grassland with paper aeroplanes – Foley plastic bags sound x2, birds chirping
Paper aeroplane stuck in tree – Toned down foley pape crumpling sound (represents trees rustling) , birds chirping
Big sister wheeling little sister around in trolley – Cart rattling sound, traffic sound, birds chirping

Bleak reality: Colours are darker.

Middle – Crisis:

Blank screen. Sound effect – Dull thud!

Wheeling trolley full of paper aeroplanes alone – ears ringing sound
Retrieving abandoned paper aeroplane from grassland – Foley plastic bags sound
Sitting alone on toilet seat – Jet engine sound (foley freezer sound – life is cold when little sister is not around)
Show big sister sitting all alone in room. Looking reminiscently at the box of paper aeroplanes – Jet engine sound (foley freezer sound)
Taking down the paper aeroplanes from roomm – Jet engine sound (foley freezer sound)

Not-so-bleak reality: Colours are brighter and have higher contrast.

End – Acceptance:

Close up of paper aeroplane in big sister’s hands – birds chirping
Shows big sister looking at the paper aeroplane with ghost of little sister standing beside her – birds chirping
Big sister getting ready to fly the plane – birds chirping, whoosh sound
Blank screen

Original ending:

My original ending included the scene of the big sister looking to the plane with the ghost of the little sister standing beside her. However, after showing it to a few friends, this was the very scene that threw them off. It made them confused as to whether the little sister was imaginary or part of a parallel world. My ultimate decision was to remove this crucial scene since I wanted my story to tell the death of the little sister clearly.

*The relationship between the two characters have been changed from sisters to best friends.