This film production has been an overall educational experience. I have completed the main aim of this project by providing a contribution of my efforts to the sound group and making a good sounding soundtrack to the film Petal Child. This has been a long process with many problems and stresses along the way, in terms of miscommunications and errors in judgment when it came to the production and postproduction stages of the film’s production. The first set of problems came from when Jack, Yuan and I began shooting the film and recording live sound. We turned up at the shoot with radio microphones, inside the TV studio. There were issues with the signal, because of the signal interference with other signals coming from the studio. Also, the University hadn’t got the license from ofcom to broadcast signals on other frequencies. This is something we should’ve researched before, in terms of the usage of different microphones. It meant that we had to use the boom poles in some cases and the zooms, where the radio mics didn’t work. When they did work, there was a buzzing/ fuzzy sound coming out of them, and we changed all the positions of the mics and the batteries, but this was a recurring problem. By the second day of shooting that week (we were shooting all week) we decided to scrap the idea of using radio mics, purely to rely on the booming techniques and the zoom handheld mic. The sound would have been dramatically improved in my opinion, if we had a chance to learn about the mics in a more technical manner. With the practice that we got as a sound team, and on an individual level, I feel that I have achieved my learning outcome of learning how to use location sound recording equipment, to a level where I would be confident doing it again. The radio microphone issue was the only area where I feel the practice is still needed, and perhaps just a chat through with a professional about the recurring problems that had arisen before, such as the fuzzy sounds that were being made from them and how to get the best overall sound with all mics.
The music composition for the film went well in my opinion, but I believe that was partly on luck and partly the trust that Jane, the director, had developed in me from previous projects. I felt that I could have had more of a proactive approach to quizzing the film team about where they wanted the cues for music and the types of music they would have wanted, but in the same breath was left to my own device to do as I pleased with the music. In some ways that was good for my creative mind to produce something totally my own and original that suited it, but I suppose a little more communication with the Director about the actual music would have been useful in a sense that I would have been set more of a challenge to please the film group with my work, to their needs and not my own. However, the film group were happy with the work that I had done on the music, so I feel that I have achieved my learning outcome of producing a suitable soundtrack, applicable to the 1960’s psychedelic era.
The production of the foley went well for me, even though it was the first time I had done it. It took a while to get on a level with my group member Yuan that meant that we could successfully produce some sounds for our film that were audible and correct to what was going on in the picture. The communication between him and I at first was a bit slow, but we began to understand each other through practice. That rapport that was built earlier in the semester on the shoot ,I felt, became important in this phase of the production because otherwise it would have been an absolute nightmare and really stressful due to the language barriers etc. The evidence of the work with foley and how we’ve learnt it can be found in watching the artifact.
The communication with the rest of the film group has sometimes been very difficult, their use of Facebook messenger to contact one and other for me felt quite unprofessional. There has been, since the beginning of the planning stages to now, a Facebook chat with all group members in. This chat is constantly happening and it is extremely difficult to keep up. I know Jane, however, on a personal level, and so our communication has been ok, it’s just that the rest of the group has been asking questions about sound on the Facebook chat and it was something that became a bit of a nightmare to follow up with. This became an issue so much so at times where they had discussed meetings and we had missed out on them, because of the unseen messages on our part from them. This could have been massively improved although, it came together in the end with sound because of a determination not to let them down and keep them happy with us.
I feel as though I mostly captured the 1960’s esque vibe with my productions , but I feel this could have been improved a great deal with more time and a few more resources (ie budget). If we had the opportunity to have a full band that were well practiced and had enough skill to record them in a short space of time with a decent sound that was authentic to the genre, then this would have helped massively. Though, I feel like with the plugins I used on Logic 9, I still maintained some of the vibe to the best that I could. Its just that electrobic instruments are so hard to make sound like they are real, no matter how much you do with them.
The music I did make, I think the drum compression was too much, and I stayed in my comfort zone with the mixdowns on them, so this is something I feel should have been taken down a notch to really get that authenticity with it all.
I feel as though the sound group I worked with finally got there in the end after much deliberation, and therefore see this film production as a relative success, the way its all come together etc. In future though, I feel like I should have put way more time at the start into the planning stages of the sound and film making. With this being done the way it was, partly our fault, partly the film group and partly the circumstance (dissertation etc) I think that the sound mixing etc has been rushed a bit (after only being given a week and a bit to mix to the film)