Capstone Project

Chapman Speaks

Chapman Speaks, written and produced by Husson University students, is a full feature film surrounding main character Chester Chapman who questions his news career and uncovers the U.S government's corruption.

For this project, I was a Foley artist and one of the editors, underneath the supervising sound editor who was my professor.

(Link to the official trailer listed below)

What was our production plan?

After the initial stages of planning and production audio were completed, a seven member audio team was formed to create, record and master the audio of the film in a three months time. These seven people were split into three teams. Three members would handle dialogue cleanup, placement, and reduction of noise. Two people would handle recording and placing all new foley using a recording booth and a wall of props. The last two people made sound effects using digital synthesizers and gave feeling to scenes with ambiance and free use material. Each group met once or twice a week for a minimum of three hours to work on a few scenes. The end goal: to have completed recording, cleanup and mastering both production audio and new recordings to deliver to the producer before the end of April.

What were the steps we followed?

As one of two members chosen to work with Foley, it was my first goal to spot the entire film and list each needed foley sound for each scene. With my partner, we were able to finish this in three hours with an initial rundown and some rewinds to check if we missed anything.

Once that was completed, I had already started listing props that could work for the sounds needed and did an initial check through of the props we already had. Anything missing was either brought in on recording days from my house using a grocery bag, or bought at Goodwill ahead of time. My partner Quinn preferred more Pro Tools editing and managing so I was the one following the motions in real time to capture the best foley we could.

From there on out, each week's meeting time as well as a three hour long extra session each Saturday was focused on foley for bigger scenes first as smaller scenes were divided up between the two of us and completed separately. While a lot of it was clothing and shoes, I used the same shirt and shoes over and over for continuity in listening and had a general foley bag full of props from home used on multiple occasions.

Spring break was the first deadline to get the supervisor all the rough sessions from each team. After submitting ours, we all worked together in the same session editing and breaking down everything. Which meant focusing on sound effects as well as dialogue for balancing level, timing/placement, and listening for unwanted noise. The final goal was to have a fully completed session by the end of April. At the end, aside from a few missed noise catches, we were pretty much done and presented to guests we invited in. Given the guests were other audio students, they actually gave good feedback on noises and sounds we missed and theme suggestions. After that, a final rundown was done making for a clean and complete movie sound.

What were the final results?

Overall I'm proud of all the work put into this project not just by me but the other six people involved. This film, created and filmed by students, in my mind was my ultimate test to prove myself and use the skills in recording techniques and Pro Tools DAW editing I've learned over the past four years. Something that has always been a crucial technique I use in projects is monitoring at a low volume level. Placing sounds in the right time frame and getting them audible is one thing, but listening at a quiet level really makes the louder sounds stand out which shows me where some more changes are needed and if any EQ, clip effects or automation changes are required to make the sound match the feel of the actions. Very much how everyone has footsteps, but not all footsteps sound the same.

This project also challenged by ability to multitask. The primary reason for meeting once or twice a week is scheduling issues and other class work. It's hard to balance out all that work during a busy week and planning a week or two ahead was definitely the right move. I also made sure my partner was up to date on everything I did if he was not involved. That meant going in for a solo session, or going out and doing field recording. If I fail to let him know I made changes, he may start unnecessary or unneeded edits. I also took the time to let my supervisor know of any really important changes that needed to be made once the full team met again the week after.

What was my personal end goal?

Considering I also have a small moment where I actually star in the film, I put a lot of passion into completing it. The end goal I bring when doing this work is invisibility. People will almost always question bad sound or misplaced audio. When people are so immersed in a film or TV show that they don't stop to question the visuals or audio, it's a sign of success because nobody questions reality. That gives the show or film a sense of realism like it's actually here and happening where the audience can either feel like they're in the film or relate to it on a personal level. For Foley, not noticing it and having it as a natural sound is what I go for, because it makes it as real as it can be so people watching don't have a feeling of discomfort or know that it's fake. Nobody sees the microphones or the cameras, they all assume it's really happening which gives a film flow and guarantees (as Cinemagic would describe it) "you'll feel the magic".

Check out these examples of my work!

Chapman S4 (MC300).mov

Chapman Speaks Scene 4

Dialogue, Foley, SFX

Here is a small clip from the 4th scene of Chapman Speaks. This clip showcases Chapman speaking to his manager in the control room about the special presentation he's creating. It includes production sound dialogue which was edited by the dialogue team, Foley which was recreated by me in our sound studio, and background ambiance recorded by the SFX team.

Chapman S4 (MC300)-Foley Only.mov

Chapman Speaks Scene 4

Foley only

Here is the same clip as the one on the left only Dialogue and SFX are missing. This clip only exists to showcase the Foley on it's own and really prove how important sound is to a scene. This perspective is also how my partner and I heard the movie for about two months of editing until the other team's sessions were merged. It proved to be better for more accurate sound recreation to only hear the object noise, but has the downside of potentially not leveling correctly with other audio once merged.

Chapman S23 (MC300).mov

Chapman Speaks Scene 23

Dialogue, Foley, SFX, Music

This is a clip of scene 23 of the Chapman Speaks movie. This clip features everything included. Production sound Dialogue edited by the Dialogue team, Foley recreated by me in our sound studio, ambiance inserted by the SFX team, and a musical track provided to our SFX team by a local artist solely for use in the film.

Chapman S23 (MC300)-Foley Only.mov

Chapman Speaks Scene 23

Foley only

As similar to the clip above, this is scene 23 but with Dialogue, SFX and Music missing. Only Foley is present. I chose this scene to showcase due to the use of emotion here. In the clip on the left, an emotion and feel of the scene can be felt when music and dialogue are added in. We were aware this scene would get emotional so having noises such as the pens being heard, and their hands against the paper script for the finale being heard, were important points towards key elements standing out. Clothing is quiet in general because thats not where the emotion lies.

For more information on Chapman Speaks, check out the official trailer!

(Disclaimer: Trailer audio was not edited by me or anyone on the Post Audio team)

Chapman Speaks (2024) official link: https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=h4llnlcGWjg

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