So we have finally reached the end of the film George. Although it has been a fairly stressful process at times, I feel like I have learnt a lot from it and in the end I am proud of what we achieved. The film itself was originally meant to be a 10-12 minute film but ended up as a 16 minute film. I also found the process enjoyable overall and feel like my skills within film sound have improved a lot.
Filming started well but unfortunately went off schedule due to original director becoming unavailable half way through filming. Originally filming was meant to end on the 8th November and finished on the 3rd December and the picture lock was meant to be received on the 4th December and was received on the 12th January. This was down to a mixture of reasons all of which were out of our hands. The story of the film also changed a lot from the original synopsis, this was due to changes in the script and changes of plans on during filming. Due to this I felt the story really suffered and is difficult to grasp the true meaning and depth of the film on first watch. This made it particularly difficult for us a sound team. Many of our original sound devices we had planned to implement had to be discarded as they no longer fitted in context with the film. This also unfortunately left the film feeling like at points the sound and music was really straining to pull the story together to make sense of what the film was about. This being said although this did not turn out to be the film as originally planned we still worked to our highest standard. If you would like further information about the individual aspects of the film and how I thought they went you can find them in my evaluations of location, music and post. This process taught me a valuable lesson, I learnt what difficulties can be caused in this process when something doesn’t go to plan. This has taught me how to deal with situations like this if they arise with projects in the future.
After reassessing our sound plan we came up with new ideas which were better suited to the film to keep it consistent with the picture. This was through adding signifiers of relationships through music and sound devices such as the echoes of children playing as a suggestion to George’s unsettling past and the police sirens within the dream and Sam’s room. The music also adds a significant amount of emotion to the film through playing on the themes of sympathy, sorrow and forgiveness.
I feel my personal aims for the film were met as I am extremely please with what we produced on location and within post. We worked hard in making sure the sounds we were using really fitted the visual and tried hard to get the right perspective of the sounds throughout. This has made me much more confident in how to use EQ, panning, reverb and levels to gain the correct perspective. Also my foley work has improved substantially; I am now getting used to how sounds differ when recorded which enables me to find the correct sound for something quicker in the foley room.
For the music I found it difficult to try and clarify what the director’s actually wanted. It was something I felt had not been considered by the film team until prompted. In the first viewing of the music with the film with the director’s and crew clarified for me that they did not know what effect music could have on a film. They were astounded by how much music could help the narrative, visual and character development alone (this was without any other sounds in the mix). This was extremely relevant when the director changed and making all the previous directors note’s inadequate. However, with the new director’s (Charlotte, Angelin and Shaun), I managed to create a better relationship which enabled me to get a clear understanding of what they wanted the music to do and how they wanted it to sound. They said overall they wanted it to be simplistic and make the audience feel something for the character George. I felt I achieved this well with the music fitting to the guidelines set and the story itself.
I have learnt a lot from this process even though it did not go quite to plan. I now understand the full workings of a film process from pre production to post and understand the different relationships of roles within film. I also know how a sound team work on a film set and the thought process a sound professional must have to get quality audio. This is through being on set through out the whole of the filming process and taking on the role of boom operative.
I learnt a great deal about my preferred methods for composing a film, this was through a mixture of research about other composers and academic research on music within film and the roles it plays. I now feel confident in being able to compose and supervise music within a film. I am proud of what I achieved and this shows in the evaluation from the film group who felt the music was perfect for the film. I also was able to experiment with MIDI whilst sticking to the guidelines set by the 2nd Director.
I have also learnt on this project how to use the sound devices 633 mixer, this is through mixing one of the scenes on location, however I still need more practice on it. For the next project I want to become really confident in for to use it and learn the many things it can do.
All in all, from the feedback and from what I have learnt I feel I have fulfilled the role of music supervisor within this film. I am really proud of what we have achieved as a team and project and feel like we have created a piece of sound design that suits the film to the directors needs. We have achieved the aims we originally set through a lot of long hours in the sound theatre and really thinking into what this film was trying to achieve.