October 31, 2013
Be the Foley.
Your group will be required to film a 5-10 second action sequence, and then work as foleys to engineer supplementary sound effects. In preparation, you will need to do to the following IN A WORD DOCUMENT:
- List your group members
- Provide a short 3-4, sentence description of the action sequence
- Identify the actions which you will augment via foley artistry
- Brainstorm (or research) ways you might reproduce those sound effects
- List all materials you will need to do so.
After your planning has been approved, film the sequence. It must flow seamlessly across three separate shots, which must include at least two DIFFERENT shots (example: medium shot, close-up, and medium shot) - this doesn't mean to film the whole sequence from three different shots and put them one after another, but rather to film most or all of the sequence from different shots and then cut them to fit together afterwards.
Once you have filmed, then take to Audacity and record the three or more sound effects that will enrich your sequence. Then, do the following:
- Record all sound effects in separate project files. Each group member must be responsible for making edits/alterations to at least one sound effect.
- Make a copy of each audio track within their project file(s) -
- To copy a track, you must
- select all of it (remember that it's easiest to do so by clicking in the gray area underneath the track info)
- go to Edit --> Copy or CTRL+C
- click in the empty, gray, area beneath the track, and Edit --> Paste or CTRL + V
- You will edit one copy with audacity, and simply mute the other copy and leave it untouched. This way we can tell the difference between the two when you are done.
- Use effects such as bass boost, pitch changes, speed changes, etc. to enrich the sound you recorded.
WHEN YOU ARE DONE with your movie and matching up the audio you created, save your movie (as in Save Movie, not Save Project) using the 720p Cinematic preset we created earlier this year. You need to supply me with the following:
- Your saved movie file (not project)
- Audacity project files/folders for the sound effects
October 29, 2013
Careers in Sound Design - Foley Artist
THIS IS DUE AT THE END OF THE DAY FRIDAY (NOVEMBER 1). For the following, download the worksheet at the bottom of the page titled 'Foley Artist' regarding the first of many careers in audio.
October 22, 2013
Red Ribbon Week Commercials
In honor of Red Ribbon Week, you will be grouped up and tasked with creating 30-second commercials for potential play over the announcements. These audio spots should have a serious, sincere tone; this is not meant to be stupid or humorous. These commercials should also not focus on simply statistics; students hear all kinds of stats about drug and alcohol use all the time, but those are numbers that aren't really useful information with which we can connect. These should be simply strong messages such as the following:
- The power of choice
- Focusing on the future vs the present
- Relating your own life/family experiences with drug and alcohol use, should you choose.
The messages should involve all three different people speaking, ideally switching back and forth. You will be graded on the following:
- Length: full credit requires being within 28-32 seconds. A minor deduction will be made for being 24-27 seconds or 33-35 seconds. Major deductions will be taken for a duration outside of that.
- Music: Choice of a positive clip of music, relevant to the topic and lyrically contributing to the commercial. Check with me for some ideas or samples.
- Due Date: End of day Monday, possibly Tuesday if you're close to finished on Monday.
October 15, 2013
The Audacity Gauntlet
Download the 'Shoot to Thrill' MP3 at the bottom of the page, then proceed to do the following in Audacity:
- Import the Shoot to Thrill mp3 into audacity.
- Record some audio narration that is approximately 10 seconds long.
- Save your project as 'Audacity Gauntlet,' and then give a copy to anyone else nearby that needs a copy to try this mini project.
- Time-shift it to a point exactly 1 minute into the song.
- Change the gain on the music track to -4 db
- Use the envelope tool to add approximately a 1-second fade-down before the talking begins, making it much easier to hear the talking over the song. Fade the music back up over a 1/2 second period at the end of the talking.
- Silence a 3-second period at a point 10 seconds into the song.
- Export this file as an mp3 at a 320 kbps bit rate.
- Copy the project and exported music to my USB drive.
October 10, 2013
Lossy vs Lossless, File Compression
http://www.howtogeek.com/142174/what-lossless-file-formats-are-why-you-shouldnt-convert-lossy-to-lossless/
Also, this video will explain lossy vs lossless, while also talking about codecs and container formats.