Sound: Music

There are two aspects to sound in a media production that need to be considered and thats diegetic and non-diegetic. Diegetic sound is everything that is within the scene such as footsteps, cars driving by, explosions and so on. Non-diegetic sound is music that accompanies the scene for added effect, and this is typically done in the form of music. Music can greatly impact the feel of the production at its given stage. For example if the production was a thriller the music would have to be quite suspenseful whilst if the production was a comedy the music would most likely be upbeat.

For my production, music is key to make the scenes feel more mysterious as this is the intended feel of the whole film. Therefore the music will be quite harmonious and not include a massive amount of instruments as if only one instrument is used it can help represent how alone the character is when time is frozen. The problem with using music is that the majority is copyrighted. Copyright protects the owner as it doesn't allow others to use their music without consent. This limits the amount of music available to me as mainstream music could only be used if I contacted either the record company or the artist themselves. As there was no specific music I wanted to use I decided to stick to using copyright free music which meant I could use it without going through the process of getting permission. After researching, I found the best site to use was 'Incompetech.com'. This site was full of genre specific royalty free music which meant I could use it as long as I acknowledged the artist (Kevin MacLeod) somewhere, which I plan on doing in the credits of the production. The music on this site could be filtered to fit moods such as suspenseful, uplifting, bouncy and many more. Therefore I filtered it with the moods suspenseful, mysterious and dark and it came up with a large list of music that could be used and I found a few tracks that will work well and I will then implement into my piece.

Here is the link to Kevin MacLeod's site, Incompetech: http://incompetech.com/

Sound: Foley sound

As my production is a short film, the sound is just as important as shots. One important aspect of sound is foley sound. Foley sound is the extra sound effects added after the production process and can be anything from footsteps to explosions. This is useful as it can sometimes be hard to capture the sounds that make the whole production believable. For my production, I have had to add a large amount of foley sound. The most important foley sound is the sound of the pendant being used. This sound consists of a quick whooshing sound whenever the pendant is activated. This is effective as it confirms to the audience that the pendant has been used. Another less noticeable but important foley sound is the footsteps added. The original footsteps had to be edited out as there were other sounds, such as the wind, ruining the overall sound. Other foley sounds included the ambience that was associated with the setting. For example when the character is in the forest there is a slight breeze and bird chirping every so often and when he is in the town you can hear all sorts of things such as cars driving past, babies crying and church bells ringing. This background sound gives the production a more believable aspect. Below is a snippet from the production in which all the sound that can be heard has been added using foley sound.