As you have seen over the last few weeks I have been working on a sound replacement project for the trailer of Arctic. I have found this project to be rather interesting and challenging as I haven't done too many post production projects. I was nervous about this at the beginning so I got straight into it. I began with the atmos before I had recored any foley sounds with my group. This was a greta way to set up the environment that I wanted to create around the foley.
In my previous post about this project I mentioned a few of the ways in which we recored the foley sounds in my group. Some of these were really easy and some took a little more time as well as DAW processing to make the fit in the environment. This was one of the hardest challenges when it came to mixing. trying to match the visual elements and the audio to make them seem realistic was a great challenge and something i really enjoyed. I was shocked by how into this project I began to get once we had the foundation of our foley recorded. Here are some videos of a few more of the interesting foley sounds we made in our second foley session.
This first one is of Ash making a helicopter sound using his mouth to replicate the sound. I think that this worked well because of the ariyness that got projected into the mic as he made this sound.
To mix this sound and make it more realistic I had to do some processing. I put a pitch EQ to tidy up the frequencies that I didn't want and add in some hight end for the choppy sound. I just got rid of the highs and lows so I had a more specific frequency spectrum to work with for the next step.
Next I used a sub harmonic EQ to boost the low end heaps! This worked really well after EQing the track first. I tried with out the EQ first and it was way too muddy and mot as effective. I used this plug in to boost the low end on Ash's recommendation!
Finally adding some distortion to the sound to add some more windy sounds. This distortion I used can distort certain frequencies more than others. I boosted the distortion more on the low end! This also helped the helicopter sit better in the environment. It added the effect of the storm blowing through the propellers.
Another technique we used to create a realistic sound for the environment was for the sled scene when the protagonist appears to be pulling the injured girl up a sleep slop. We needed to create a sound that had actually force behind it rather than just a scraping sound. So we decided to actually use something that was a bit heavy. We used one of the covers fro the foley pit and dragged it along the ground. This I feel added the feeling of him dragging something that was actually heavy.
Something that I feel really added to the feel of my trailer once it was added was the atmosphere I made for the constant wind sound that is under the whole trailer. The environments that changed through out the trailer were very important to articulate sonically. I made the initial wind sound by recording the back of a computer. The low rumble was defiantly something I could work with the make the wind sound. It was important to differentiate the tone and sound of this same sound through out to create a sense of space. I used a general EQ to low pass the high end out and also boosted the sub frequencies. I automated the volume through out the trailer to create the different environments. This is the automation I used for the different environments in the trailer.
I used music to convey the emotion and hardship that is a prominent theme through out story of the trailer. For the first scene where the story isn't developed yet I used a more light hearted spiritually paced major sounding track. The instrumentals were bright and sprckly and I think sort of have a cool brightness to the tones. I think that it matches the brightness of the snow that dominates the first scenes. This track fades out when the protagonist looks at his watch and the ticking takes over the transition of the scene to a new environment and emotion. The next scene shows the man struggling to catch a fish and quickly gathering some tools from inside the plane as if he is preparing for something. I used a track that had a clashing fast paced repetitive staccato chord. I felt like this would add anticipation to these scenes. The next scene was very important and I needed to make the audio add to the somber moment that was showed in the trailer. I used some slow piano chords to add to the sadness and fear of the protagonists before they head out in to the blizzard. This was also added with the adding of the atmosphere sounds. The wind is dipped out a lot in this acne but is there there. I added some clanking sounds to imply that the wind was blowing rather hard and rattling the plane they are in. This also helped to add to the anticipation. The next scene is the moment in the trailer where the bulk of the movie will take place. The protagonists are fighting for their lives out in the blizzard trying to find help. I used a less musical piece to score this section. I found a more experimental sounding low frequency intense beat to place here. There is a few added textures in this track that help fill out the over all dark vibe of this second half to the trailer.
Some else that I used to help convey the story was the use of drops and sound effects. I mostly used these when the scenes cut to black. I made on of these using a sample wave form from this dark track. I then used Audio Suite to create a reverse reverb on this that I used as a build.
I put them slightly off time and panned left and right to create a wider stereo image and have more of an impact.
The other elements that were recorded in the foley studio were processed similarly. For the out door sounds I used EQ to sound off the high end and low to take away some of the closeness of the sound. I also used reverbs to make the sound more distant. This was some times subtly used but just gave the sounds the distance they needed to add perspective. For the indoor scenes the sounds could be more direct. I used EQ and reverb on the voices to recreate the natural reflections the sound would have from the metal on the side of the plane. I used reverb in the indoor scenes also however used a different 'room' type reverb instead of a more spacious reverb.
I feel like the process I went through to mix the sounds was mostly effective for the narrative and I am on the right track in making this into something that I can use for my portfolio. However there are a few things I wish to change. I have automated some of the foot step tracks but decided that there are a few shots where they need to be lower in volume. Such as the second cut with the birds eye view. I also feel like I need to make my scene changes a bit more tidy regarding the sound impacts. This will tighten the impact sounds over the whole trailer I think. The breaks in between need some more syncing with the fade outs and the impact sounds need to be better timed with the black outs. I also want to refine some of the foley sounds and voice editing tones to match the scenario a bit better. Juts using reverbs and automated EQ's to fit the shots of the camera and movement of the characters.
Overall I feel like was able to engage in the story line through the audio I used and the way in which I manipulated it to suit the environment. I think that I got better and improved my work flow as I filled out this process. Working with the sounds and editing them became much easier as I added more sounds. It became clear how I needed to edit them to make them fit the different environments after I had researched this.
Here is the mix I presented last week. I am planning on making some adjustments as I have stated!
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