Audio Postproduction
An introductory course to film and audio/video technologies. Topics covered include sound design, digital media tools, video editing, and manipulation of audio/visual material. We covered a brief history and analysis of film standards and how they evolved into digital technologies. The projects throughout the semester focused on sound design using MIDI technology and occasionally Foley to create believable sound effects for well-known movie scenes. The final project was a compilation of these short clips set to a "DVD-style" menu that we created and animated.
Projects
The sounds I created for these clips came from three sources. I used (1) pre-recorded sound effects from several popular sound effect libraries, (2) MIDI sounds created with synthesizers, and (3) live Foley recordings. Every sound used was edited to shape it to the movie and scene. Some common effects used were volume control, panning, equalization, reverb, tremolo, and distortion. I automated many of these effects to change over time in tandem with the action on screen. The most enjoyable effects to create were the Foley recordings. It's pretty fun to try to find just the right sound by hitting various things together.
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Rancor Battle from Episode VI: Return of the Jedi
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Millennium Falcon from Episode IV: A New Hope
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Tron
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Final Project - An Animated Intro and Menu
The final project combined the rest of the semester's projects into an animated menu designed to showcase our efforts. This project consisted entirely of creating and animating the menu. The individual sound design projects were done in Logic Pro and the animation was created with Apple Motion.