Audio Project B

During this project my goals were to create a post production sound mix for a short film,  to research audio post production techniques,  and to research audio recording techniques. I think that I accomplished these objectives and up to a high standard of professional work. I also found out a lot of information I didn’t know before and I can say that I learnt a lot gained a lot of experience working on the project itself not just from research.

My personal strengths for this project was my understanding of requirements for this project, my preparation, communication, and my commitment to the project. How I prepared for the project at first was by speaking to my clients about what they want and what they should expect from myself. I communicated quite often with the producer, the director and the location sound recorder about elements that may be changed for the film. I also kept the correct people updated on my progress as the as time went on, through email and phone conversations. My understanding of the projects came from my regular meetings with my tutor Lee Gretton as when explained things to me in more detail it allowed for me go at the project with more than just an idea in what to expect. How I showed my commitment to the project would the amount of hours I put in at the studio but also when my hard drive crashed mid session on the 20/04/2017 I had no other recent files of the foley, atmosphere and music that I had spent the last few weeks working on so that very same session I worked through the night to get everything that was lost back and made sure that it was either the same quality or better than before and ended up doing 13 hours worth studio time.

My weaknesses for this project I think that I was the only audio production student working on this project made things a lot longer and more tedious than if I was working within a group. Another weakness I had was that I only saved the session in one location on my hard drive and when it crashed I had no recent back ups. A weakness I had at the beginning of the project was how much I underestimated the size of the project and how much work was necessary to go into the project. My final weakness for this project is my inexperience within doing post production for a film. 

The opportunities I took advantage of were the equipment that was available, and facilities when the time came to use them. my tutorials were also very useful and the documentaries and books were invaluable in aiding me throughout the project. The equipment I used were paired AKG C414s, paired AKG C1000s, and sEX1 microphones, where used to record music and foley. The use of a SFX library was also used for outdoor atmosphere especially when the clients requested that they wanted wind to very notable on the outside shots.

What threatened the project came at several moments throughout the project, they were when the hard drive crashed, with it crashing I thought I would had to start all over again with only 3 days left but I found an earlier version of the session which was from when I first started working on foley a few weeks prior. Another issue was when a week when the sound theatre was fully booked out by other people, which didn’t allow me any time to work on the film for an entire week. The media crew not being on the same page when it came so things and wanting completely different things, an example of this is when one member wanted music to last throughout the opening credits throughout the first two scenes whereas other members of the group want on raw natural atmosphere to be heard during the 2nd scene.  

My learning outcomes were to use professional practice taken from audio post industry and research sources to communicate effectively with my client, feedback I got back from my client the producer Patrycja Reimus was that I did communicate effectively and clearly. To use professional audio post production techniques and incorporate them into my practice, I used the most of the techniques i research in my post mix. To identify and use key pieces of software and equipment that are commonly used resources by audio post production professionals the key pieces of software i used was pro tools 10 which is used as the industry standard and equipment I used were professional and studio microphones and cables. I think I completed all of my learning outcomes.

This project has shown me where I can improve and what my strengths are I would definitely do a project similar to this the future but for a project of this not by myself I have learnt a lot and have only a few things I would do differently and that is  to make to store save the sessions to separate locations incase of a crash, have a partner with me for a project of this size and work with a crew that have an exact plan on what they want for a sound mix instead of wasting time. Finally I feel that my group tutorials were very helpful and useful to finishing the product.