Creative Critical Reflection

Click here to watch my Creative Critical Reflection!

Here's a little behind-the-scenes of everything that went into this project! Thank you for staying with us through this entire process!

Final Project

Click here to watch our Final Project!

Thank you so much for going on this journey with us. I really hope you enjoy our film!

Our journey has come to an end!

Hello everyone. Before I begin, I wanted to let you know that this will be the my last post before the final product and Creative Critical Reflection. *cue sobbing*

This has been such an incredible experience, and I feel so honored to have worked with such a talented, creative partner. Throughout the production of our film, Nick and I both learned a lot about the craft as a whole, as well as valuable lessons in group work, something we will cherish as we both begin college in arts-related programs. We are both really happy with the final product and are so excited to share it with all of you!

As noted yesterday, I listened to the foley sounds and musical score today with fresh ears, and boy am I happy I did! I made a few adjustments of volume and panning in the opening and velocity of each pluck of the strings on the Harp and Koto; these few minor tweaks truly polished the audio as a whole. I also adjusted the volume of the voice-over when the music crescendos to ensure the story, the most important component of our piece, can be easily and clearly heard.

That's really all I have for today. We finished the final touch ups and I am ready to click the mouse:

Thank you for coming on this journey with us. I hope you enjoy the film!

Music is done!

I now present to you... (drum roll please)... THE FINISHED SCORE TO OUR FILM OPENING!

Similar to the foley sounds mentioned earlier today, I will listen to the score tomorrow with fresh ears to ensure every detail is exactly how I want it to be. I had a blast creating this musical score and look forward to sharing it with you!

For this score, I wanted to incorporate aspects of minimalism into a piece driven by Japanese scales and modes. I also wanted to use instruments that are typically played throughout Japan. I recorded the following instruments: Japanese Koto, Harp, Japanese Flute, Tuba, Violin, Cello and Double Bass.

The repeated triplet figures in the second half of the score were inspired by Steve Reich and his series of Phase pieces. Reich has been instrumental in my development as a composer and I felt as though his minimalist style would complement the visuals nicely. This section played by the harp and interjecting Japanese Koto also has a flowing nature and provides a solid transition to the wind foley sounds that follow.

In addition, the scarcity and drone-like motives were inspired by the opening of the 2012 film Argo. While the film follows the same general structure as ours, the historical fiction genre of the piece helped drive the score for our film. The opening of our film closes in silence, with just the foley sounds encompassing the empty space. This immediate absence of music is powerful and shows a change of mood and tone, as the voice-over changes from history-based dialogue, to personal, reflective dialogue. Originally, I had composed a few measures to be repeated at the ending section, like in the harp passage, but I decided the silence really gave the piece the dramatic edge that we are going for. The silence also presents a sense of mystery and will hopefully prompt the audience to want to watch the rest of the film, as this is just the first two minutes. Stay tuned!

F is for Foley!

Foley is fun! Just kidding, it's really not fun at all.

I have spent today adding foley sounds to our film so I can finalize the audio tracks and finish the musical score. This included the sound of wind, the rustling of leaves, newspaper being moved around on the gravel, and the stick clinging against the fence. This process was extremely tedious, as I attempted to match each movement with its corresponding foley recording.

The final product looked like this:

As you can see, I had to do a whole bunch of slicing and moving to make the audio appear realistic and not too over-the-top. This process took quite a but of time but I am very happy with the results. Whenever doing foley, I like to listen to the final product after about a day or so with fresh ears to make sure there aren't any necessary further adjustments. I find that listening to work after several hours brings a new experience and is able to highlight certain flaws that my ears had become accustomed to when editing. I plan to listen to the final product, music and all, tomorrow as the very last step to this project. Thank you for coming along this journey with Nick and I! Stay tuned!

Voice-over is done!

The voice-over is officially complete and all of the pieces to this puzzle are starting to be put together. The shots are edited, the music is recorded, the voice-over is synced, and I am a very happy girl. Today's recording session went smoothly and aside from a few technical difficulties, we were able to finish the entire process rather quickly.

I will be posting a few clips from the film tomorrow to get some feedback! We worked on color-correction for a while and are not 100% sure if we love the aesthetic just yet. Maybe a little bit of feedback with guide us in the right direction! Stay tuned!

It's all in the details...

Let's play a game of "Spot the Differences"!

If you found the obnoxious bright red "FIRE EXTINGUISHER INSIDE" sign, then congratulations! You won, and the last two hours of my life spent editing out the dreaded sign, frame-by-frame, was not wasted.

Technical talk: I am using the software Final Cut Pro X to edit the project. As you can tell, I am currently working on post-production, the most tedious process of creating this film. We have edited the shots in the order we want and are now working on the minute details that will hopefully elevate the final product (refer back to the sign for an example ^). In addition, I will be recording the voice-over tonight to add to the piece. After this, I will be able to finish recording and syncing the music and we will be all finished! Stay tuned!