Soundscape and Foley production

                                                                   Soundscape Research

A soundscape is the acoustic environment as perceived by humans, in context. The term was originally coined by Michael South worth, and popularised by R. Murray Schafer. There is a varied history of the use of soundscape depending on discipline, ranging from urban design to wildlife ecology to computer science.

Apartment rain

You can make the rain sound by putting either a camera under a plastic bucket and sprinkling water on it, record your shower hitting the shower curtain, or by just going out and recording the rain on a rainy day. And you can recreate the crackling fire  by lighting a match and letting it burn out. You can also make home sounds like the turning on of a light switch

Autumn leaves

You can recreate the leave sounds by stepping on real leaves, or by crumpling tin foil, you can recreate the trees swaying by either recording trees actually swaying or you could,  rub your hand across the end of a broom while blowing into the mic, you can recreate the chimes by gently hitting a pot or pan or blow into the side of the top of a bottle.

you could take away leaves and leave the chimes and wind and add traffic sounds like cars beeping and braking, and also can add chatter this instantly changes the whole environment from the woodland like area, to a  NYC sidewalk for example.  

In lesson we filmed a podcast which we made a script for, we took it in turns to talk and made the conversation flow through the entirety of the podcast. We also talked about what Foley is and how it is used in films. Foley is used when audio needs to be that little bit clearer and crisper to ensure the audience has a more atmospheric experience when watching. Furthermore we also talked about soundscape and how it can be used to show sounds and how certain sounds can give a more natural effect. Following this we did a task on soundscape firstly describing how we could either take away sounds or by adding sounds to create a whole different environment.

My idea for the soundscape production

1st idea

My idea is a thunder storm in Spain, for this idea i will need:

1. Shower curtain
2. Shower
3. Bottle
4. Rustling of end of a broom
5. Bucket Of water

I will use a range of objects to recreate the sounds to produce the effect of a thunderstorm hitting, for example the water will be recreated by the swishing of water, the rain will be recreated by the shower and the wind and thunder will be recreated with the bottle and the rustling of the broom and shower curtain.

This idea would be a little bit vague due to it being in Spain and would be quite difficult to accomplish.

2nd Idea

My idea is a sword fight that would of took place in the medieval times, the sounds of swords clashing would be recreated be grating butter knifes together or hitting any metal cutlery onto a pot or pan.I will also use shoes tapping on a laminate floor to recreate the sounds of horses hoves hitting the ground. Wind could also be recreated by natural wind outside.

  

whats needed:

1. Any shoe
2. Metal cutlery
3. Pots and pans

This idea would be great to create because it's very possible to achieve and would sound as if you were actually there. I would also have loud bangs with the use of hitting a pan or table, this would be added into the background to create that explosion effect. I will also add in screams to create that screaming effect of people fighting.

The narrative

The narrative is there is a battle in the medieval times and soldiers are having a huge battle with some on horses and some on foot on a huge piece of land in the middle of no where.

 Soundscape Analysis

A soundscape is a range of sounds that are used to add to the atmosphere to a video or place, for example if it’s New York City and your in a apartment and it’s raining and windy the soundscape would be the rain, wind and the noise of the rain hitting the apartment window. Soundscape is important in a film because it sets the mood of the scene,giving the audience a more immersive feel. This also gives the audience that extra involvement with what’s on screen in that moment. The viewer may also connect more when the soundscape matches the scene because it creates that realistic feel also, adding to the overall immersive experience within the film.

10 Hours of Rain Sound Relaxation / Ultimate Stress Relief, Deep Sleep, Meditation, Yoga,... - YouTube

In this video you can identify each sound easily, the rain is more prominent in this video though, you can hear the rain hitting the leaves and branches very clearly throughout the video. The video itself is very scenic and relaxing it looks like it was filmed at the top of a forestry mountain or just in the woods, the video gives an accurate representation of how this would sound in person, visually too. If you where to either add sound or take away sound you could easily change this environment, one way you can do this could be changing the environment to a cold dark basement, this can be achieved by removing the sounds of the rain hitting the branches but keeping the rain and adding a the sound of rain hitting a roof of a house or an apartment, and finally adding water hitting a damp concrete floor this will be recreating water droplets coming from the building into the basement. Another way the environment could be changed is for example you could turn it from the woods to a play park, this could be achieved by adding more metallic noise with rain hitting it, and the squeak of park equipment moving in the wind. 

Walking in the Rain in Manhattan, NYC (Binaural City Sounds) 4k Rain Ambience - YouTube

In this video there is multiple sounds that are very prominent throughout the video a few examples of this are ambulance sirens, chatting amongst people, cars etc. There is a whole variety of sounds that make up this one video. With NYC being one of the most populated and largest cities in the world it is full of different unique sounds, another example of sound in NYC is the multiple use of different language amongst people chatting, in this video a lot of different people walk past the camera living their day to day life, these people have a range of really exciting lives to sad and lonely lives, you can see a range of different characteristics among these people as they walk pass, from what they are wearing to how they walk and talk in this environment. A way in which you can change this environment and make it something else could be that you get rid of the rain add some desert like winds and get rid of the rain hitting umbrellas and replace it with camel noises and instantly you're in the Sahara desert, changing environments with just sounds is fairly easy to do because there's no visual and if the sounds are correctly placed within the order of other sounds  it can create a whole new audio based environment.

With all this being said it is clear that sound can create all sorts of environments if used correctly, we  have also identified that sound within film is very necessary to capture either a relationship or a intense chase, without the correct use of background music it could completely take the life out of the whole shot, making it boring and lessening the experience of what is on screen. A soundscape is needed in every film to even tell the story, the story of a film is also helped by the music in the film, making sure it gets the whole story mood and setting correct so that the audience perceives the film how it should be, when a story hasn't got that help of background music it could confuse the audience watching, for example if there was a significant story line scene but there was no intense music for example when there was an intense conversation then the audience wouldn't perceive it as intense and in doing so would miss out on a key story line detail. A example of this would be in the film "The Batman" when Batman says " I am vengeance" there is intense fight music playing in the background which indicates something intense is about to happen in this case it was a fight, but if there was happy and joyful music in the background this would completely throw you off and confuse you. In conclusion a soundscape is  very important for a film to have to tell that story, relationship, friendship,argument or anything with emotional background, all so that the audience knows exactly what's going on and why it is.

How sound can change everything on screen

Sound can really change what's on screen like relationships between two characters for example, with just the change of sound in the background of a scene it can change everything, one sound can make a guy making coffee go from evil to super friendly with just that one change of sound which effects the whole scene. Sound plays a big part in films whether you realise it or not, without the use of different sounds you would not get the experience you should be getting as a viewer. intense music over the top of someone sprinting down a hill could indicate somethings wrong and needs to get to a destination quickly, but if there was upbeat joyful music over the top of it, it would turn into something like he forgot something that he needs for work.