Today’s tutorial focused us on sound and the technical side behind recording sound. Recording sounds and completing this process ourselves forced us to think or how it could be recorded at its best. I’ve created a table showing which sounds we recorded and how we could have recorded them better and whether we would use them. I didn’t realise the extent to which sound needs to be isolated in order to get the best out of it. We recorded truck noises and talking, that has a lot of background atmospheric noise, if either of these sounds were needed indiviually, we would need to cancel out background noise. This is much easier process if done in pre-production opposed to post production.
Our most successful recording was the ‘street’ noise, which entailed recording a natural, atmospheric noise on Bowen street. The main reason why this was so successful as because there was no background noise interference, as we were solely recording background noise. The sounds of cars, people and construction resulted in a really organic piece of sound.
As i mentioned before it was difficult to get an isolated or ‘clean’ sound and i will be more aware of this in the future when it comes to choosing locations to record sound, as that is a main contributing factor.
| Name | strengths | weaknesses | would you use it? |
| 1. Truck | Clear sound of the truck,main noise heard to the truck groaning | Too much background noise of people talking and walking. However it was supposed to just be the noises we heard in our environment | Yes i would use it! The truck noise was a good background sound that could be put into a scene or setting as outside sounds. |
| 2. Footsteps | Able to pick up all the foot step noises, with no background noise interferring | The noises could be construed as fake footsteps, maybe to artificial | I don’t think i would use this as the sound does sound too planned and not a natural noise. I would prefer to re-recored these footsteps |
| 3. Talking | All voices are heard, and the flow of conversation is picked up by the microphone. | As one person was closer to the microphone, we heard more of a one sided conversation, as if one person was leading the group when this was not the case. Also background noises are heard. | I wouldn’t use it, i would re-record the conversation and place the microphone in the centre of the group, so all voices are heard at the same level. |
| 4. Street | A natural ambiance is heard in the hustle and bustle of street noises. The atmosphere is captured really nicely and organically | Not really any weaknesses, maybe too loud? However this could be manipulated through editing. | I would use this sound. Editing and using this as background noise could create a really realistic atmosphere in a scene or shot. |