Sound editing explanation

 

Overall Diegetic Sound was something that took up a vast majority of our piece's audio. We had the sounds of the character speaking that was picked up by the camera, and kept this throughout, only really not using it for a specific scene due to it being extremely windy and unable to have been heard. The overall use of our diegetic sound was to mostly help the audience understand what was happening thus far in the plot, and to also show how relatable and realistic the narrative can be, at least, based on the context of the film in terms of realism.

The Non - diegetic sound however was a technique that we used through editing, in the park scene to e exact the dialogue was inaudible from the camera's built - in microphone, and so we used a voiceover, trying to make sure it wasn't too loud or overpowering, it was a struggle to try and match it exactly with the timing on the scene, but we did our best to get it correct. The voiceover consisted of a monologue from the character, talking to himself about how he feels; saying his thoughts aloud. Letting the audience in a way bond more with the character and understand a bit more about his emotions and what he's feeling. It also helps to further the plot, showing the character's change from being fine prior, to now clearly suffering the effects of his isolation and loneliness, the lack of human contact and socialisation clearly making him upset. This also allowed the audience to better connect to the scene as a whole, and emphasise more with the character on a deeper level.

Audio levels throughout were another consistent feature in which we edited to keep level, doing our best to keep the audio the same volume throughout,  so that the character's speech is clear all the way through. Though at the beginning of the film, during the montage of course we managed the volume closely, adding a clear fade out from the music into the first scene. This helped to set up an initial enigma for the short film on what its about, and make the audience ponder what could be happening or have happened.

Although the majority of our film had the sound from our initial footage from the camera's Built - in microphone, we still needed sound effects. We searched online for several varying sound effects and managed to find a couple decent ones that were copyright free. Such as a Bean bag falling onto a chair, this we converted into an mp3 file and downloaded onto iTunes, from here we then ported it onto Final Cut Pro (Our editing software) and placed it ready for our last scene, setting it at the exact moment the chair fell to the ground after being kicked. This helped to clear up the audio and make it sound more impactful, like he kicked it harder than it looked. This was mostly as a display for the character's pent up frustration and anger.

Additionally, for the sake of ambience, we added in some sorrowful / slow paced and sad music, to truly convey the mood, we found some online and repeated our prior process, converting it into an mp3 File and then porting it over onto Final Cut Pro, we set it at the beginning of the montage to set the scene and give the audience a feeling of despair, pairing it with the empty shots of the montage, to allow the audience to empathise with the situation of the characters they are expecting to meet despite not knowing or seeing them yet.