M4DM – Terminator
The objective of this task was to use my own or free sound effects and sound objects to creatively piece together to enhance the visual robots of Terminator2.
I tried to highlight every noticeable visual change with the robots as they were constantly moving, and also added some background effects to give a factory atmosphere. I also wanted to think outside the box and used a failing car start for the conveyer belt for example. I also looked at where each robot came from in the scene and panned accordingly for better spatial awareness, and added reverb for a wider atmosphere.
I have watched a small documentary of Frank Serafine talking about making his sound effects for movies and liked his approach of layering sounds together that have been recorded in different places to achieve a certain outcome, so I have chosen materials that are in similar categories but recorded in completely different places to layer up. For example, I did this with a computer power supply fan and a tattoo chair motor for general factory background noises.
An audio technique I used which I hadn’t applied before was if I had a sound that wasn’t long enough, like the camera shutter sound for the drilling, I cut a piece out of the middle of the audio region and looped it, then added the end on when it was needed. This worked successfully and I made sure the cut out wasn’t so small that it was noticeably repetitive or too large that the sound changed over time too much.
A musical technique I learned was to use panning more effectively in my work to create more of a spectrum rather than everything in the middle of the mix.
This was practice as research because I have studied the way sound effects are used in films and the most unusual of sounds can be used using layering and EQ to create an overall scene, and I have adopted Frank Serafine’s technique to achieve a successful outcome.
SoundIdeasCanada. (2009). Sound Ideas Sound Effects Discovery Channel. Available: http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=1y2bCDB5hEw. Last accessed 25th March 2011.
