Tri 3 final report

The final assessment for ADU210 was a group assignment where we were to create a mock production company and produce an online portfolio to present to a jingle company. In that portfolio we were to recreate fifteen minutes worth of videos where we composed and recreated all the sound in an existing add, trailer or movie short. Between my three group members we decided to work separately on five minutes of video and combine them at the end to create the total of fifteen minutes. For my five minutes of video I chose to re create the audio in a tourism ad. I chose to do a tourism ad because I have a real interest in the grandeur nature of the audio that accompanies most tourism ads. I looked at many ads from different parts of the work and I first chose an add from Greenland because the epic visuals that were displayed fitted perfectly to the orchestral background music I was planning to accompany it. After more research I found a Korean tourist ad that went for exactly 5 minutes. I eventually decided on this ad because it fitted the visual component that I was looking for and it also featured many foley sound effects that I could recreate.

In preparation for this assignment we first had a team meeting to discuss the time frame that we set ourselves to get our individual parts done and when we should join together and start creating the team aspects of this assignment. We gave our self three weeks to record, compose and create out jingles and in the last week and a half we we were going to peer review each other's work and create the online portfolio that would house our mock companies show reels, ready to show possible employees.

The first step in creating my jingle was analyzing my video and creating a Trello checklist of the things that I would need to complete. I made a list of about 20 foley sounds that I would need to record or find a way of recreating a similar sound. I set myself a timeline of recording foley in the first week and focus on composing the music that would accompany the foley in the second week.

I hired a Zoom H1 recorder from uni to do field recordings. I first went to the beach to record the sound of waves and wind and the different coastal sounds i needed. I had to make a makeshift wind protector out of some fabric because the zoom didn't come with one. I also had to record most of my sounds from inside a bush and under a rock to minimize the wind passing over the microphone causing distortion and thumping. After recording some of the easy foley sounds like hot metal cooling down into water, and the sound of a bell I had to do some research as to how I would do the more difficult, complex sounds. I found a very helpful website that explains how you can create foley by using different recording techniques and being creative with what you record and layer together. For one of my foley sounds I had to create the sound of someone using a wooden lume, I ended up getting a wooden garden stake and a wooden chopping board and dangling them against each other, the two different tones that came from the the different shapes and types of wood, made the sound realistic and it is one of the sounds that I'm most happy with. One of my most intricate sounds that i created was the sound of a furnace fire. After researching what other people had done and experimenting with different sounds I settled on layering 3 different recordings to replicate the complexity of a roaring hot furnace. I first recorded the hum of multiple gas burners at different intensities and at different distances from the flame. I then crunched up some tin foil and slowly moved it with my fingers and recorded the tiny clicks and cracks at a very close range. For the third layer I recorded the sound matchsticks breaking. After editing and compressing the levels and adjusting the EQ of each layer they combined to give the effect of wood crackling in an extremely hot fire. While recording each of the sounds i took into consideration the environment that i was recording each part in. For example, the large drums sound were created by having someone tap the middle of a large cardboard box, when recording this i found the largest room in my house and set up the Zoom recorder at one end of the room and the box at the other so it created this large boomy sound that you would expect to come from a huge drum. Another example is the creation of the sound for the woden lume was done surrounded by fabric objects like couches and towels to give a damp, cool sounding environment that was shown in the video at that time.

My intent when composing the audio for the ad was to give this flowy, classical, orchestral tune that used a lot of strings and woodwind instruments. I started the composition with some free flowing piano chords. At the start i chose not to compose to a click track because most classical music has a fowing and ever changing tempo, this gives it more suspense and more feeling when you listen to it. I found this decision the most difficult part of the assignment. Because i was using Ableton Live, it was hard to use all of the features built into the software when what you are making does not fit to a tempo map or a time signature. I ended up just recording everything freehand from a Push Controller and making slight MIDI adjustments to keep everything in time.

We were also getting assessed on a peer review, this meant showing your work to your teammates and your teachers to gain feedback on your work. I was unable to attend the in class peer review session due to personal reasons, so i mad a time to show Nick Wilson my progress and he gave me feedback on what i had completed so far. I also went above that and showed multiple peers and my teammates my progress at each step of the composition to ensure i was making something that was at the best of my ability. The largest reviews i got from the peer review process was a comment by Nick, who informed me that somewhere in the middle of the composition was 4 or five bars of music that was maybe too repetitive and that it needed another incidence to give it more interest. I took this advice and made a crescendo and a bridge at this part. Another thing that i was informed about and only found out about myself, was that some of the foley was being drowned out by the music, this was only found out when i played my composition through a different set of monitors.

I then worked with my teammates to create our online portfolio and have it read for submission.

I am proud of my final product and i think it is one of the best things i have created this tri. I am confident that i achieved the goal i set out to do in the beginning, which was create a beautiful classical, orchestral piece of music that would accompany a tourist video.

ONLINE PORTFOLIO: http://waveformulaproduct.wixsite.com/waveformula