Sound For Vision: Creating The Sound of “Hurtling Through Space at an Alarming Rate!”

// February 25th, 2010 // HTSAAAR, Projects

WARNING: MINOR SPOILER’S AHEAD!

I’m going to take you through the process of sound design from the beginning to the end of a film project. Audio can often be one of the most overlooked component on a show and if done poorly really can hamper the viewing experience. The elements of sound for film is captured throughout the production of a show: from recording the actors dialog and any type of on set ambience that might be used later to post-production: fixing and re-recording dialog (if needed), adding sound effects (also referred to as Foley) and creating the music (The score) before delivering a final “mix” containing all of these elements for the audience to experience.

The “Audio” department so to speak typically involves one or more person in each of the following categories:

Production:
Location Sound Mixer (The person pushing the record button)
Boom Operator (The person holding the microphone)

Post Production:
ADR Recorder (ADR means Audio Dialog Replacement)
SFX Editor
Foley Artists
Music Composer
Final Audio Mix

The above positions are just the tip of the iceberg for Hollywood based productions and usually includes more than one person in each role with a variety of assistants and other third party positions (Orchestrators, Cable Runners, Music Supervisor to name a few)

The example I’m going to share is from the web series

“Hurtling Through Space at an Alarming Rate!” is an absurdist sci-fi comedy series that follows the adventures of Mike and Stuart who are trapped in their apartment as it’s literally hurtling through space at an alarming rate! check it out if you haven’t at Babelgum.com

For this project I was hired on as the “Audio Guru”. I would be the one from start to finish on the project wearing all the hats usually performed by many.

This example is from the 3rd Episode of the series entitled:
“The Planet of Eventually Exploding Time Bombs of Calamitous Proportions!”

To properly start from scratch, the first example is the just the dialog as recorded with the built in microphone on the camera. Sounds kind of tinny and lifeless doesn’t it?

Clip 2 is the dialog that I recorded on set using a higher quality microphone known as a “shotgun” positioned above the actors behind the camera and out of the range of the lens. The dialog is much clearer with more of a “warmth” to it’s timbre. It sounds great but is still missing the sound design aspect which will put the viewer into that environment of an apartment building Hurtling Through Space at an Alarming Rate.

Clip 3 is just the sound effects and music, sans dialog. I had a lot of fun on this show creating the background sound effects and foley effects. With this clip you can hear the addition of the sound of the apartment’s booster rockets (cause a spaceship needs that), a nod to classic sci-fi with Stuart’s comlink, the sound of the meteorites crashing into the Apartment’s hull (Scotty! deflector shields now!) and the music score.

Clip 4 is all the elements wrapped up into one cool sound experience.

At the end of the day, Dialog is King! If you can’t hear what the actor’s are saying, all the awesome sound effects and music will be for nothing. So it’s a fine balance of putting everything in it’s proper place. Here’s the final version of the episode

I hope I didn’t spoil too much of “the magic” of what goes into sound for film, but maybe now you’ll pick up on the little things the next time you watch a show, I know I sure do.

For you “Hurtling Through Space” fans, I’ll post a blog on the music from the show very soon.

cheers,

Brian

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