Entry 5: More fun with Foley

On Friday we had booked time in the gym to record some hits on a punch bag.Me, Chris, Greg, Ryan and Paul were present, the first problem we encountered when entering the gym was the sheer amount of reverberation the room produced. We knew here that the recordings may not be exactly what we were looking for, but saw no harm in persevering. We used the mini disc portable recorder to record the bag. Hitting the bag at different velocities with our fists one hit at a time, then with a bat, and then a bat wrapped in a jumper to get a variety of sounds in our hits. We did this for approximately 30 minutes. After we had finished in the gym we moved up to Production Booth 4 to record dialouge for our clip. We hired out a Neumann U87 and a pop shield. Ryan was playing the part of Agent Smith, and Paul Neo. We recorded the dialouge with a copy of the script and the film clip on the screen in the live room so the performer could sync up the lines to the mouth movements on the clip. Whilst Ryan, Paul and Greg were busy recording the dialouge me and Chris took the opportunity to go to the vacant Foley room to record other Foley sounds we still needed for the film. We used the HHB MDP500 mini disc recorder to quickly record some of the smaller sounds needed for the clip, these included bricks and rubble falling, footsteps on wood,shoe movement, footsteps on rubble and knuckle cracking.

Entry 4

On Tuesday of this week, Myself, Greg, Ryan and Paul met up to record more Foley. We were to record the sound of rain. Throughout the majority of the clip there is torrential downpour, so recreating this, without ruining a lot of equipment was the challenge. We hired out a HHB MDP-500 mini disc recorder, and took it off site to Paul's house. We then recorded the shower running into the bath at a variety of intensities. The the results we got were good, and with some EQ and layering should sound a lot like rain. We also tried filling the bath up a few inches, and running the shower into that which gave some variation to the sound. We also Recorded the sound of splashing in the sink as there is a lot of footsteps and falling about in water in our chosen clip.

Today, Myself Chris, Greg, Ryan and Paul, were present for a two hour slot in production booth 1. We were planning to record thunder. We had encountered an issue with sound, and were finding it hard to recreate. Initially we had planned on sampling the 'Thunder box' Ryan had discovered in a music shop in town, however on second listen it wasn't quite what we were looking for as it didn't produce a crack of thunder and more of a low rumble. So we were back to square one. We hired out a Rode NT2A mic and a pop shield. Then decided to try general objects we had amongst us to see if they produced and suitable sound, or at least something we could pitch down to sound more like thunder. We recorded crisp packets being crunched, but when pitched down the sound was 'wet' and not like thunder. Before scrapping the audio put it through a low pass filter, which sounded a lot like thunder, with the addition of reverb and other EQ the audio we recorded will be our thunder.

Entry 3

On Friday (22nd) Me, Greg, Chris, James And Ryan were -present for the recording of some sound effects. We purchased bamboo rods, celery sticks and carrots in an attempt to create authentic sound of wood snapping, as well as debris falling. For this session we were in studio 4, we hired out two Rode NT2A condenser microphones and positioned them, initially, approximately two feet apart facing each other, very close to the ground. We dropped the bamboo very carefully in between the microphones (onto coats to not damage the floor) to capture the sound of falling wood/debris. We then raised the microphones and attached pop shields, keeping them at the same distance apart to snap the bamboo, which made a good wood breaking sound. finally for this sessions recording we brought the microphones in closer to snap carrots and celery, which was a great success as it sounded a lot like wood snapping and splintering on playback.

Entry 2

After intense planning, recording of Foley will begin this week. Me Greg and Ryan today devised a schedule for. This week we will be concentrating on smaller sounds such as 'swooshes', knuckle cracks and breaking wood. We have obtained some bamboo to help achieve swooshes and wood breaking. We have also discovered a Thunderbox which should help produce a realistic Thunder sound, without having to use a sample. I feel things are going well so far, we are up to date with all our paperwork, and handled our presentation well.

Week 1: In The Beginning...

We began by putting together our group, a team in which we have worked well together before, our team name is 'The Army Of Darkness'. In this first session we have started to create an initial skills audit, analysing the skills we already have between us in the group, and who would be suited and most capable of the key roles we would need. Then we viewed the selection of clips available to us to choose for our work, after careful deliberation we decided to go for something not on the list, a clip from the Matrix Revolutions. We showed the clip to the tutour and it was passed as an acceptable clip. Our next steps will e to create an team logo, Team contract and begin work on the cue sheet for the clip.