Unit 5

Unit 5 - Audio

In Unit 5 we are going to be looking at audio production and factual film.

Signal to Noise Ratio

When recording audio with a microphone, there is a signal to noise ratio. This means that the closer the microphone is to the person speaking, the less background noise gets picked up.

I recorded my friend saying "hello" once close to the microphone and once further away. The first time she says it in the recording she is close, and the second time she is far. We discovered that her voice is much more prominent from the background noise when she is closer, and when she is further she is quieter and you can hear more of the background noise.

hello.mp4

Interview Planning

To practise interviewing, I came up with 3 open questions to ask a friend and record.

What do you like about cats?
Tell me about your cat.
Tell me about your experience of owning cats.

Interview practice.mp4

During this I also discovered that a location with other people in the background is not suitable to record in as the sound is picked up by the recording.

I recorded myself asking my questions and my friend answering them using RodeReporter. I then exported the audio into Premiere Pro along with a picture of the recording location and edited the questions out of the audio, so it was just her answers. This is to practice the interview for the documentary, as the questions will not be included in that. This is why we are practising open questions where her answer includes the question, so the answers make sense without the audience hearing the question.

For my final project of making a documentary and interview about a friend (Paloma Brunskill) I will be asking her about the area in which she lives and her upbringing. I will be using open-ended questions about her lifestyle and hobbies, which includes her family and childhood. I will be using a mobile app called "RodeReporter" to record the interview and I aim to make it around a minute long.

The questions I will be asking her are:

Tell me about your family and what it's like growing up as a twin.
Would you say you are happy you have a twin brother?
What do you like about living where you do?
Would you recommend this area to anyone and why/why not?
Tell me about what you do in your daily life.

interview.mp4

This is the audio for the interview along with a picture of the recording location. It was a good location as there was no background noise and the audio came out very clear.

Film Planning

To go with my interview I will be filming clips for the documentary video. Some shots I want to include (in order) are:

close up of sun shining through window
close up of Paloma and her twin brother together laughing
behind shot of Paloma walking to the shop with her mum
wide shot of Paloma and her mum shopping
Paloma knocking on the door and entering her twins room
Paloma with her friends including her twin
Nature shots of Odd Down
tracking shot of Paloma walking around basketball courts
close up of co-op sign
pan of park
Paloma getting ready for work in the mirror
wide shot of no.3 salon

Editing Process

Now that I have recorded my footage I can begin editing the clips and audio together using Adobe Software.

This is my finished documentary based on my friend Paloma Brunskill. I edited using Premiere Pro and I am happy with my final edit.

Paloma Brunskill Documentary

documentary done final.mp4

I have also been tasked to create a 30-40 second portrait version of my documentary that could be used on social media. I used After Effects to edit the clips as I found it easier, and then I inserted the audio and edited the audio to match the video on Premiere Pro. I think this turned out successful and I thought it was relatively easy to do.

short documentary done.mp4

Short Portrait Documentary

EVALUATION

By the end oif ths unit we were tasked to have produced a short documentary style video around 1 minute long, and also a 30-40 second portrait version for social media. We had to interview a person of our choice to use as the voiceover for the documentary. I decided to focus my documentary on my friend Paloma Brunskill, and I asked her multiple questions about her family and having a twin, where shes lives and her daily life. I recorded the interview on RodeReporter, remembering the rules about signal to noise ratio. I also instructed Paloma to answer the questions with the questions embedded within them, as I was planning on removing the questions from the audio recording. Using open-ended questions was very effective because it meant Paloma could say as much information and say it how she likes, whilst embedding the question to make sure the audience is given context. The recording process was smooth and successful. I used Premiere Pro to cut out the questions and any unnecessary parts. I then recorded the clips for my documentary which were relevant to the questions and answers. I had already prepared a shot list, however the actual shots I took were not completely following the list due to conditions I could not control such as weather, timing and accessibility. Despite this I was still happy with the clips I got. I began by editing the basic adjustments such as exposure and brightness of the clips so that the lighting and colour scheme of the documentary was consistent throughout. After the clips looked how I wanted I put them together and imported my edited audio. The editing of the clips and audio together went well and I found it easy to do. I also added a title and made all the clips mute except the first one which is before the imported audio begins. I ensured that the volume of the first clip was the same as the voiceover when it starts, and that the volume of the voiceover was consistent throughout. To make the audio match the clips on screen in relevance to the questions I used the razor tool to cut it and arranged the sections of audio accordingly. I also left gaps between each answer to the questions to make the information easier for the audience to digest and also to prevent it from sounding like one long answer. Something I would add next time is background music to add more audio especially in between dialogue.

For the 40 second video, I edited this in After Effects because I found it easier to make a vertical video that way. I repeated the same steps by editing basic adjustments of the clips and cutting out parts of the audio. Because this video was supposed to be shorter, I included less of the clips and also only kept in the significant parts of the audio. I made the clips match the audio, and I also made the gaps in between answers a little bit shorter as this version is designed to hold the audience's attention and not be too dragged out because it is for social media.

Overall, I think both my versions of the documentary were successful, however I think the minute long one was more successful as I found the editing process a bit smoother, since I couldn't work out how to make a vertical video in Premiere Pro.

PEER FEEDBACK

I asked my friend Maya White to give me some feedback on my documentary.

"I think that the audio and video go well together and I like that you have used a variety of different shot types and angles in different locations."

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