Workshop evaluation

When re-dubbing the spoken word content of the scene from The Office, I found it quite challenging. Attempting to get my words completely in synch with the actor on screen was not easy as trying to speak at the exact same pace was not easy. Initially I tried to record myself using the built in laptop microphone but I was then unable to hear the words being spoken so my timing was off. I decided to use my earphones with a built in microphone instead. The result was that I was able to speak in time with the actor on screen however this was at the cost of audio quality as breathing could be heard in the mic and it was too sensitive. If I was to do this again I will try and use the laptop mic whilst listening to the scene through my earphones.

The second workshop I did was adding music to a scene from a movie. For this I chose the opening credits from the film "Zombieland" as I really liked the slow motion zombie chase scenes. In order to contrast the dramatic nature of the situation and add to the comedy aspect I decided that the Red Hot Chilli Peppers cover of "Higher Ground" by Stevie Wonder would be a good choice. This is because the funk influences in the song would help emphasise the comedic aspect but the metal guitar riffs would contrast the slow motion sequences.

My final workshop involved adding sound effects to a scene. For this workshop I chose to add the rain sound effect from a scene in The Notebook. I wanted to make the scene out of entirely foley sound effects as I wanted to be sure I ended up with a final product I was happy with, after initially browsing for library sounds the majority of them included thunder and strong winds which would have negatively effected the mood and meaning of the scene. Before recording, I experimented using different techniques to make the foley sound effects. These methods included rapidly tapping my nails on a table and ruffling a plastic bag. In the end I decided I wasn't pleased with these methods and decided to try using rice and other small grains to make the effect, similar to a rain stick. Using GarageBand on my iPad to record, I placed the grains in a bowl and recorded the sounds made from mixing, stirring and pouring then overlapped them in an attempt to make it more realistic. To create the wind in the background I placed the iPad near the back of my fridge freezer to record the electrical buzzing sounds. Once it was all played together I was happy with the final effect so I cut it down to a manageable length then looped it to match the duration of the video.