MMS 172 Assignment 2: Project Output
MMS 172 Assignment 2: Project Output
Embedded Files
Faith Ysabel David
Introduction
Quiet Comes Last follows an ordinary day as an eldest daughter. Throughout the day, different family responsibilities repeatedly interrupt my own academic work. What starts as a normal day of getting ready, doing chores, running errands, and studying slowly turns into a cycle of being called away from my own work. I eventually get uninterrupted time to work only when everyone is asleep, very late at night. The next morning, the alarm starts the cycle again.
The documentary uses my own voice, dialogue, everyday sound effects, and ambient sounds to tell this story. The sounds are meant to work together with the narration and dialogue to show what this routine actually feels like from my perspective.
Working File
Instead of having a separate script document, I used one working file throughout the production process. It contains the voiceovers, requests, SFX, ambience, timestamps, and other details that I used as a guide while recording and putting the final audio together.
Changes From My Original Plan
Equipment and Software
For the final output, I only used my:
BOYA Wireless Microphone
iPhone 13
Acer Nitro V 15
Moondrop Chu II (IEM)
In my pre-production plan, I also listed my brother's MacBook Air M4 as a possible workstation and included Audacity, Tracktion Waveform, and Apple GarageBand as software options.
However, I was not able to borrow my brother's MacBook because he was using it for work. I also did not have enough time to learn another software properly, so I decided that it would be more efficient to use Audacity for the whole production instead.
Participants
I also originally planned to have my mother and younger siblings participate in some parts of the audio. However, they were not available to record and our schedules did not align since they also had exams and other academic obligations.
Because of this, I revised the script and the necessary parts of the project and ended up doing all of the voiceovers, requests, and other dialogue myself.
Production Area
I originally planned to record mostly in my room, but for the final output, I did all of my recordings at home and used different areas depending on what I was recording.
For my voiceovers and some of my Foley, I used my parents' room. It is smaller than the room I share with my siblings and has a lot of things inside, which helped muffle some of the sounds coming from outside. This was an advantage because the walls of our apartment are very thin, so construction, vehicles passing by, and people talking can easily be heard inside.
I also recorded when most people were not home, such as when my siblings were at school or at work and when my parents were away. For the final adjustments and recordings, I worked very late at night in our small living room. I found that around 2 or 3 AM was when everything was quietest, with fewer cars, motorcycles, tricycles, construction noise, barking dogs, and people.
Timeline
I was also not able to follow the project plan timetable that I originally set during pre-production. I was not able to anticipate and be well prepared for the term-ending workload that was given to us with my other courses.
This was also combined with the multiple typhoons that passed through, along with power outages and connectivity issues. Because of these, I had to move some of my planned recording sessions and the time I had set for editing and mixing.
Recording
For recording, I used my BOYA Wireless Microphone and the Voice Memos recording app on my iPhone 13. After recording, I transferred the audio files to Google Drive so I could access them through my laptop.
For the Foley, I focused on the sounds that were necessary for the story instead of recording every single small action. The main sounds I recorded were the alarm, keyboard typing, page flipping, door, footsteps, coins, plastic bag, water and dishes, vacuum, and printer.
For the ambience, I recorded both daytime and nighttime sounds. Since the recordings were done during the rainy season, rain can also be heard in some of the daytime ambience.
Editing, Mixing, & Exporting in Audacity
After recording, I transferred the files to my Acer laptop and imported them into Audacity. This was actually my first time using Audacity, so I was honestly overwhelmed at first. I had to figure out where everything was and how to do even the basic things I needed for the project. I also watched some YouTube tutorials to help me, but some of them were unfortunately using older versions of Audacity, so the interface and some of the options looked different from the version I was using. This made it a little more confusing because sometimes I would follow the tutorial and realize that I couldn't find the same button or setting.
I mostly learned through trying things out, undoing them when they didn't work, and figuring out what each tool did as I went. I arranged the recordings according to the order in my working file and separated the different elements into tracks so I could adjust them individually. I then trimmed unnecessary parts, moved the recordings into their proper places, and arranged the sounds to match the narration and actions. I also reused some recordings throughout the documentary, such as the keyboard, door, footsteps, and alarm, and this helped me save time.
For the mixing, I mainly focused on making sure that the voiceovers and dialogue were clear. I also adjusted the volume levels where needed. I spent a lot of time just tinkering with things and hoping I was doing them right. I didn't always know which effect or setting I was supposed to use, so I tried to keep the editing simple.
Once I was satisfied with the arrangement and mix, I listened to the complete audio to check the flow and exported the completed audio from Audacity as my final audio file.
Final Thoughts
This whole process and course mostly made me ask myself one question to myself: “Am I doing this right?” I mostly find myself asking this with most of my production courses, and my anxiety is always off the roof. But by the end of it, the thing that I realize each time is that action beats fear and anxiety, that all I need to do is to keep going and to see it through until the end of each course because that's when I truly see my progress compared to day one.
Of course, I know that I could've done better if only I had better resources such as equipment, a better microphone, a better space or workstation, and definitely if I've been only better at multitasking and managing my time. I have to be honest that I did get overwhelmed, especially when all the deadlines with my other courses were all spaced closely together.
What really stood out to me was when I really had to work very late at night and early in the morning. It was awesome to see how I have so much freedom, space, and peacefulness, the quiet, to be able to work on my recordings as compared to when everyone was awake.
It was also my very first time using Audacity and, like with anything I'm unfamiliar with, I was intimidated and scared, but was messing with it and trying and seeing which feature works with what I recorded was progress. I especially appreciated all the learning materials and sources posted in our course site. The past works of former students and seniors really helped me have an idea on what I should do with mine and also get an idea on what I should and shouldn't do.
I hope to someday be better than what I did and demonstrated in this course and be able to produce an improved and much-higher-quality sound than my output.
The whole process of working on this output was far from smooth, as with anything, but the challenges and learning I've acquired throughout made me want to leave the window open for audio production in the future.
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