Film Reflection 8

March 2 2009

Today, my group and I continued to edit our soundtracks into the comic strip, we were nearly done with the first recorded soundtracks. While we were editing, we found out that many soundtracks recorded either did not sound like what we were trying to improvise or the background was too loud and it covered up the sound we intended to record. For example, one of the examples are "horse galloping" sounds. The original sound we recorded was perfect, except for the fact that the background sounds were too loud, and we could only hear a partial part of it. Due to this, we decided to re-record the sound in order to make the background noises disappear. We prepared the equipment needed (microphone, camera, tripod, etc) and went to the climbing wall area. When we were there, we discussed what we were going to re-record, including the horse galloping sound, and marked down certain soundtracks that needed to be recorded again. Though firstly, we collected two large rocks and thumped them on the floor in a "horse galloping" rhythm. We practiced it a few times, and while we were doing so, Benny and Kevin set up another camera to film some of the documentary, and some of the process of sound recording. When we thought that the sound sounded realistic enough, we recorded it. After that, we also re-recorded the sound, "walking on soil". We did this on the 3rd floor, where there was a grass patch. While we were recording the sound, likewise, Benny and Kevin taped us recording for the documentary. Furthermore, our group went to one of the empty music rooms, and recorded narration parts, such as "The province of Eathaar near the river ganga". After that, we uploaded the documentary and soundtracks onto the computer and started to edit what we taped today. Overall, we were quite satisfied with what we ended up recording today. The "horse galloping" sound was very realistic, and fitted perfectly with one of the comic strip scenes with the horses racing off. We were also very pleased with the "walking on soil" sound, we thought it matched the comic strip very well as well. Our goal for next lesson is to start recording the dialogue for the comic strip and continue editing the soundtracks we recorded today. I thought this lesson was very useful, I improved and developped my confidence and skills in manipulating audio film eqquipment, as well as understanding the importance of sound recording on set. I thought that this lesson was very fun, most of all our group worked well and improved on our team work and time management.