From the previous project I done, there were many things I wanted changed and improved in order to conform to a professional manor of work with a client by working in a professional organisational structure, to preparing a professional piece of sound design. Through the process of creating my second piece of sound design I wanted to learn a few key aspects that would help me create a professional sound design as well as create a professional relationship with my client for possible future references. The learning objectives set started from on location recording to the final mix process, all in order to improve my skills throughout each step of the process. Now, with a finished product I have been able to fully analyse my performance at each step of the process and have found that there a lot of things I have achieved which have met my learning outcomes, however there are also things in which I think I could have learned and done in a more professional manor. After research on location recording and previous experiences I have acquired I was able to come up with an overall very good location recording, which helped immensely towards the film. While analyzing the audio from the location recording, I noticed a significant improvement from my previous recordings. The cleanness and awareness of the sound made my post production job a lot easier from the previous jobs I have done. This learning outcome has ticked off my list for this project. Along side this, I was able to organize myself for the location recording and post recording in order to have all my files in a set structure which I was able to know where everything was. This again was through the research done on organisation. During location recording I made notes in the recording as well as noted the scene, slate and take. Where I think I could have improved on is to have a more vigorous reference comparison with different commercially released products against my own. By doing that I would be able to have pick off more mistakes and areas where I could improve my work.
I have had some successful periods throughout this process in which I have used my research and experience to help me achieve certain troubles and obstacles throughout the process. One of these success in which I pride myself in is my location recording. By carrying out the right procedures while recording, having the right equipment as well as be able to focus on what sounds are being heard through the microphone, I was able to successfully produce a clean and usable recording for almost every take done. As my second success in my role, I was made to record guitars as part of a montage sequence in the film. Even though I have little experience in guitar recording, Unmanaged to adjust microphones and balance out the right volume in order to capture both guitars playing at the same time, one being acoustic and the other electronic (with an amp). This was a challenge for me, because I have never recorded both being played at the same time, one being with an amp while the other without. As normally this would be recorded separately in order to be able to mix each individually, my challenge was far greater. Microphone placement was something which I had to experience a lot with, where is the sweet spot where both can be heard at the same level. After some time, I had finally found it and began the recording process. successfully, I was able to get a decent recording at the end even while being in an unconventional way of recording.
On the other hand, I have also had many issues both technical and ethical which I had to overcome and bring a solution to. First problem started at the location in which we were recording. Being right underneath an jet training ground, our recording was constantly delayed. As well as jets and airplanes, we also had problems with chainsaws as people were cutting down trees. These problems were both solved by making sure the microphone was placed as close to the actor as possible making sure the microphone is facing totally down towards the ground as possible, in case we are at the end of a take and there is some sort of noise starting up, I was able to cancel out the noise from the positioning of the microphone. By doing this, every take recorded which had some sort of noise at the very end of it, was canceled out or almost unnoticed. Another issue encountered was recording the foley. This was as much technical as it was artistically. Foley studio kept crashing, and lagging, not allowing me to properly record the scenes correctly due to a fault in the system. Out of 10 tries, one would not lag, and it took hours to try figure out what the problem was. Without being able to solve the issue, I had to wait until the next day for me to to be able to talk to a technician about it and unfortunately was told that this issue is something which will get fixed during the summer holidays and there is nothing that can done now. Without a way of solving it, I had to spend many hours in recording a take every twenty minutes on scenes that required fast paced running. Because of this, I decided to then watch the video over and over again, making sure I memorized and acted the scenes to be recorded making sure that I could create a good recording on the few takes I could get. In addition to this problem, I also encountered issues while mixing. While mixing at home, I had iPhone earphones and no monitors which I could use to check sound. While firstly mixing and editing on my earphones, I was able to place each sound I wanted in and organize the tracks as well as making sure everything was in place for me to properly mix with good headphones on. Again, the use of the foley studio 5:1 sound system wasn’t an option due to the issues happening to it.
In conclusion, the process of making this film has helped me in so many ways to realize how much I have to learn through research and experience. All the issues and success are things which I can take with me as part of my experience, and learn from each. If given the opportunity again to go through the same process, I am certain that the outcome would be a lot more professional and fewer issues.