Soundtrack, Dialogue re-recording & Editing

After all of the feedback from the rough cut, I started to go back and edit the footage to alter the edit. As most of the sound in the footage was not usable, I have had to re-record the characters dialogue. I have then had to alter the levels of the audio so the sound is not too loud, for the shots. When I exported the dialogue and added into the edit in Adobe Premiere Pro, I realised that the sound needs other background noises and things like wind from the original clip to sound believable. Without these background noises the audio sounds too much like it was recorded some where else, like a voice-over, which is not what I want the viewer to assume. Using the audio from the original footage I have placed background noise behind the dialogue, which then makes the audio sound more believable. I then altered the pitch and levels of  the sound to fit the environment for the film. I then added effects to the audio so they sounded like audio was not re-recorded.

Some of the audio from the footage, was fine to use within the edit, but there were some pops and cracks in the audio and other background noises which would distract the viewer. I then ripped the audio from the footage in Adobe Media Encoder and imported into Audition. I then altered the levels and removed the pops, by deleting them from the audio waves. Due to the pops only being really short, you can't tell that they were there, and the dialogue is still synced with the visuals.

After re-recording sound of the characters talking, I looked into music for my production. I researched online of typical horror genre conventions of sound and music. I looked at examples of this in other films, to give me inspiration and ideas for my own creation of music.

To build a soundtrack, I downloaded lots of horror sounds (screeches, whirls, etc.) and layered all the sounds together in Adobe Audition to make a horror sound track. Within the program I set some sounds to repeat, creating a base track of howling wind and ambient sounds. I then added screeches on top to build suspense within the music. Then layering more and more tracks and sounds on top of the base sound track to build the music and tension in the music. I then edited some of the individual sound clips to be louder, some quieter, and creating fades (in and out) for the clips of sound. Adding all these effects and layering appropriately, made the music for the film sound really professional, and make the final cut of the film sound much better. The music helps to build to tension for the opening, and make the viewer feel that they could be in this situation. Without the music the film was good but the soundtrack makes the opening much better, especially linking with the visuals. I then edited the soundtrack around the edit of the visuals, to make the sound link and synchronise with the footage onscreen. I rendered the cut and imported it into Adobe Audition, with the program you can then move sounds to sync them with the pace and narrative of the film. After syncing all the sounds to the visuals and exporting the track from Audition, I imported the soundtrack into Premiere.

Within Premiere, I could then alter the volume of the soundtrack appropriately, so when the suspense of the film increases, I raised the volume of the soundtrack to sync with the film. Using key-frames I adjusted the volume of the soundtrack making it louder to build the suspense and quieter when the characters are talking. The soundtrack really adds to the film improving, the shots with no dialogue and the whole film in general. The audio key-framing in Premiere helped to control the audio volume and levels without having to alter them in Audition.

I have also cut down some of the footage in the cut that was lingering that could potentially cause the viewer to become bored, making the film slow. I have also removed some mistakes in the edit. One of the shots contained a car in the background and when it cut to the next shot it was not there. I resolved this by cutting down the clip so the car was not seen.