To edit the soundtrack for our product, I used Logic pro, as this would allow me to professionally finish the effect of the base track.
By adding effects such as an EQ (equaliser) I was able to improve the quality of my soundtrack as well as edit it to fit my purpose for the final product by cutting out the unwanted frequencies.
I added a compressor to normalise the levels and avoid high and low peaks.
In Post production of our trailer, we wanted to add a voiceover in order to add some more depth to it. I wrote the script for this following the themes of survival and chance which are ongoing themes that run through our trailer. The script was as follows
"Sometimes in life, a bit of luck and chance goes a long way,
when you're playing with dice,
But when you're playing with guns, its not about luck, or chance,
it's about skill and nerve
it's all about raw survival instinct,
You know we're watching,
but what we wanna know is,
Are You Ready?"
The recording took several hours to accomplish the desired tone but eventually we had one recording which matched the urban style of the film.
I am going to look at genre ideals surrounding the sound of action trailers to find the main themes, to then decide whether to conform to, or subvert these in our trailer
The Bank Job:
- Snippets of dialogue from within the film (diegetic)
- Backing track with strong bass and drum beat.
- Editing matches and compliments music
backing track louder with important pieces of typography to emphasise them.
- Additional sound effects of cameras clicking etc.
- Song changes to more upbeat and playful
- Use of comical lines
Fight Club:
- Internal dialogue from film
- Comical lines straight away
- Commentary explaining plot
- Quiet backing track behind all of the dialogue.
- Mostly diegetic sound throughout
- Sound track only picks up right at the end
- Although quiet, the backing track song still has a strong bassline and drumbeat.
SWAT:
- Extremely heavy baseline and drum beat, kicks in straight away.
- Diegetic dialogue is played over the top of this soundtrack - legible but inconvenient.
- Additional sound played throughout -- gun shots etc.
When filming our trailer, we will be using a Zoom H4n sound recorder. It has stereo sound, and is light and compact and easy to transport when filming on location. It is also very simple to use but achieves high quality, professional results.
As you can see from the control panel on the side, there is a headphone port, allowing the member of crew in charge of sound to use headphones to have a live feed of the sound they are recording without external interference. This will allow us to be sure we have good recordings before the end of the filming day to avoid the need to refill.
By using a windsock to cover the cross mics, we will prevent bad quality sound recordings by eliminating wind interference. We can also mount the zoom recorder onto the camera and hand held steady cam mount to record sound in the hand held tracking shots that we will be filming, as it will allow us to keep the mic close to the actors even in running shots.
