Sound Editing and Music Research

Sound Editing and Music Research

Soundtrack

Establishing Shots

For the soundtrack to the opening scene of the film, we chose the song '4:18' by Chicago based hip-hop producer Dan the Automator. Dan has an eclectic discography, ranging from working with rapper Kool Keith, to futuristic sci-fi rap project Deltron 3030, and even to producing Gorillaz first album. The track we have chosen is a rather simplistic jazz loop, however it perfectly captures a moody and suspenseful atmosphere which sets the mood of the film.

Bar Scene

For this scene, we have decided to use the track 'Midnight Walker' by Bohren & Der Club of Gore, who are known as one of the key players in the jazz-noir renaissance.  Based in Germany,  In 1992 they produced a crossover of jazz and ambient, which they self described as an "unholy ambient mixture of slow jazz ballads, Black Sabbath doom and down tuned Autopsy sounds". This track perfectly captured the melancholy gloom and despair of the final scene.

Dialogue

Our film is going to relied heavily on dialogue and as a result we had to make extensive use of it during the phone call between the rookie cop and the chief and the encounter between the rookie cop and the drug dealer.

Overdubbing

As a result of the loud wind we experienced when filming the outdoors scene at the docks, it was necessary for us to overdub the dialogue. After filming the footage, we borrowed a mic and went to a friends house and redid the audio. We then muted the audio track of the original footage and overdubbed it with the new better quality audio.

Ambient Sound

As a result of our having to mute the original audio of the docks scene due to loud wind, it was necessary to add in some ambient sound to replace it. We downloaded some typical industrial ambiance and overlaid it on the original footage.

Diegetic Synchronous Sound

We made use of a variety of diagetic and synchronous sounds, such as the drug dealer's footsteps, the striking of the snooker balls and the lighting of the match.

Sound Perspective

We made use of sound perspective during the brief close-up noddy shot of the rookie cop while he's stressing out over the phonecall. We edited the chiefs voice to sound echoed and distorted to mimic the sound of a mobile phone and also give the impression that the sound is at a distance from the rookie cop.

Sound Effects

We made use of some sound effects in the post-production phase, for example adding in the sound of the chief's phone vibration and the sound of the gunshot.

Sound Mixing

Before we chose to overdub the audio, we spent a lot of time mixing the audio in post-production. We used various softwares along with equalizers and audio effects to alter frequencies to try and boost the sound of vocals along with removing background noise and wind sounds.