Anta Sound Replacement: Pre-Production and Major Reflection

These past few weeks have been interesting to say the least.. I tackled my first every sound replacement alone! What a journey it has been, In week one we were informed about the sound replacement, then given the options of which ads we could choose to replace the audio for. The ad that caught my eye was for Anta, a Chinese sports wear company. Below I will go over my Pre-Production Plan, The Outcome of the Project, as well as reflecting upon the project as a whole.

Pre-Production Plan:

Brief:

Vision: 2 World Champion female tennis players playing a match in outer space.

Audio: Sound design – actuated – rhythmic – edgy - slow motion elements - high tech fast paced – competitive – erratic - spontaneous – random - imagination

Reference: Transformers 2

The following descriptive words caught my eye;

Actuated

Rhythmic

Edgy

Slow Motion Elements

High tech fast paced

Erratic

Spontaneous

imagination

Concept:

I felt like this was the perfect opportunity to get creative with my work! I decided to create my own stylised brief to follow with the project.

To Create a IDM inspired score that would act as both the Foley and musical accompaniment. An abstract take on sound design, meant to insight curiosity and excitement.

Features:

Constant tempo changes

Sporadic percussion

Loose melodic content

Rich atmosphere

Reference Track:

My reference track for this project will be "Window Licker" by Aphex Twin, one of the Godfathers of IDM.

Techniques:

- 808 Clap - Blue Player - Linn Drum Snare - Pink Player - Echo used for ‘stutter’ - Delay used for ‘glitch’ - Resampling - Time Stretching - Automated Effects - 808 Kick for Slow Motion - Broadcast Standard Mix-down: -23 LUFS

I will be going into more detail on how I went about creating the Sound Replacement and incorporating these techniques into my final outcome in a later blog.

Risk Management:

Below is a rough Risk Management chart I created for the project. I felt as though this would be a handy way of bringing certain problems into focus and combating them before they happened. I will reflect on the effectiveness of this technique in the final reflection.

The Outcome:

Ultimately I was incredibly happy with the final outcome of this project. It was a journey filled with ups and downs, but all in all a very powerful learning experience. I was happy to see that I achieved my desired outcome, my focused concept. Being able to achieve this was an amazing feeling but it also taught me a lot of new things about project work, time management and my own skill set. These new learning points have been incredibly beneficial, allowing me to step back and realize how far I have come with this degree, while still showing me how much further I can go. I was a little unhappy with my time management, it stopped me from being able to get into the studio to record some Foley. This isn't a major problem as I took this into consideration through my Risk management table, but still is not the desired result. I was also unhappy with the final samples I was able to use in this project, to match my reference track I needed some good Break-beat samples, which I was unable to find under the right Creative Commons License.

The Final Reflection:

I found this project very eye opening to say the least, all of the positive's and negatives have been great learning curves for someone creating there pathway into the industry. There are a few key moments i would like to reflect upon, they are covered below:

Unable to Record Foley

What was the problem?

One of the first issues that arose in this project was being unable to record Foley sounds for my project. I was hoping to get into the studio and add more interesting sound design elements to my project to further my creative idea.

How did this happen?

This was a direct result from time-management. It seems as though I didn't give myself any time to work on this project, I kept on pushing back the date in which I started, and in doing so I removed the possibility of being able to complete all aspects of the project I was hoping for i.e. Recording Foley.

What was the solution:

The solution I acted upon was grabbing a sample from Freesound.org, the sample was under the creative commons license. It was not enough to cover up what I was hoping to achieve, so I ended up using more drum samples to mask the lack of Foley.

Reflection:

Looking back on this piece of the project, I can happily say I was able to create something that didn't bring my lack of Foley as a major downfall. I feel as though this was only achievable through my Risk management planning, making it a priority to understand the parts in which I could see the project falling down on, I made sure to address those flaws. This is an example where the Risk management was incredibly helpful to the project and the final outcome. Though I could have been more detailed in the table, I still was able to bring those key points to my attention early in the project's lifespan.

Aesthetics and The Lack Of Break-Beat's

What was the problem?

I was unable to completely fulfil my aesthetic choices in the project due to my in-ability to get the right Break-Beat samples. The samples were a key element to one side of my reference track, the Aesthetic.

How did this happen?

This is difficult to pin-point the exact reason I was unable to get the right sample's. Because it falls so closely to a Time Management issue, I will focus on my tactics I used to try and achieve this. Due to the nature of breakbeats, you need to find a good drum loop, that can be both used commercially and fit your aesthetic choices. I was unable to achieve this.

What was the solution?

I opted to keep the same reference track, but alter my use of it. I had initially picked it as it is a good example of IDM with its phrasing and technical composition, while also being a aesthetically good piece of music to aim for. I opted to use the purchased samples I had from Samplephonics.com and try and match the sounds to that of the reference as much as I could.

Reflection:

I feel as though this was the biggest let down of my project thus far. It shows a big flaw in my time management skills as well as my own aesthetic ability, something I used to be incredibly confident within. It has become a great part to learn from within this project, as it is it he part I was most confident with, though I think my aesthetic outcome is something to be proud of, I was unable to match it to my Reference track. Though I believe my result matches the composition and technicality of the reference track, the aesthetic choices are a misguided and don't quite match up with what I was going after.

I think that I need to go back to the drawing board with my own time management skills, I am capable of a lot more then my recent work shows, which is letting myself down as I know I have the ability to create greater work. I think that time management, to me, is incredibly difficult as I am quite immature with my time. I am in a state of wanting to still live a very social lifestyle while trying to create as much as I can. This inability to structure my time is causing some distress to my own work, I haven't been able to give my time correctly to University work, Personal endeavours and my own social life. I think that this is apparent in my work, it seems a little misguided and lacking in consistency. This is something i need to improve upon, not only to next time achieve more then I have this past project, but also in my group projects. As my own time management skills will be a let down to my team, making it something I must drastically improve upon.

#Anta #SoundReplacement #Advert #PreProductionPlan #Reflection