Audio Project 1 Proposal

“George”


Synopsis:

The Semester A project for this group is to provide the audio for a 10 – 12 minute short drama created by a group of Media Production students, directed by Lucy Norton. The piece itself is a story about a man in his sixties struggling to cope with everyday life in the big city of Sheffield. The audience is drawn to feel sorry for the man, until they find out later in the story that he is not as innocent as first thought. The film itself is called George.

We are planning to provide a full score (preferably composed), location field recording of the audio and dialogue on set, and full post production including additional foley and dialogue replacement if necessary.

Filming is due to commence October 26th for a two week period, concluding on Sunday 8th of November.

We will receive an assembly cut of the film approximately on December 4th, and will deliver the finished soundtrack by December 16th. Prior to receipt of the assembly cut, we will have provided a number of temporary music tracks and work in progress for audio atmosphere, specific plot devices and scenes edited prior to the assembly cut’s delivery as is feasible, enabling us to deliver a scratch mix of the audio tracks for all or part of the film as soon as possible.


 

Individual roles:

Alice – Music Supervisor

Gareth- Post sound supervisor

Rory – Location sound supervisor.


 

Group Aim:

  • To create an effective sound track to the short film described above that portrays themes of sorrow, sympathy, judgement and forgiveness, whilst also hinting at the unsettling past of the protagonist, in a manner consistent with the picture and the preferences of the director whilst working as an effective team together.

Group objectives:

  • To create believable and relevant atmospheres and sound effects, and edit these into a full soundtrack using foley, location recordings, composed music and replaced dialogue where applicable.
  • To successful create a musical score that relates to the visual and story and combines well with the sound effects already in place.
  • To successfully manage and conduct location recording to capture useful dialogue and atmospheres that will form the basis for some sound design aspects of the picture.
  • To manage the construction and delivery of the soundtrack and relevant paperwork in conjunction with the film crew.
  • To work as an effective sound team, each playing to our own strength’s whilst working as a team to create a professional end product

 

Personal Aim:

  • To compose and supervise the music in the short film described above so it fits the visual, directors needs and story.
  • To work on location sound and post production to help create a good piece of sound design as an overall end product that will accompany this film

Personal Learning Outcomes:

  • To familiarise myself with the roles and responsibilities of a music supervisor
  • To try to work more effectively with a Film team, and learn the different roles and responsibilities within a film team and learn how to effectively communicate my thoughts and requirements within this setting.
  • To further my knowledge about composing for film to allow me to compose a score for the 10-12 minute piece of film. This music will aim to be able to convey the emotions and narrative on screen.
  • To further my personal skills in composition working on areas of which I am already familiar with and also testing myself with areas I am not.
  • To learn about choosing music that will fit the directors needs whilst fitting the visual and story through research of the role and working in a film team.
  • To gain an understanding about location sound recording and learn how to use the equipment involved to capture clear location sound
  • To further my existing knowledge on post production sound by working on layering scenes, foley and overall sound design of the piece.

Lol Hammond Lecture

Lol Hammond Guest Lecture 5/10/15

As part of our Semester A audio project we had Lol Hammond in to discuss the role of a music supervisor and his experiences within this role. In his earlier life Hammond was a music producer releasing some iconic records with the likes of Drum Club, Roger Eno, Chris coco and more. Through this he managed to get the position of a music supervisor in a company called Vertigo films working on brilliant films such as Monsters and Bronson. He got into the film industry by working as an advisor to start then got offered a job in a company.
For his talk Hammond spoke about the intertwining relationship’s between a music supervisor and various other important roles in the filmmaking industry. The most important relationship I took from his talk was between the Director and the music supervisor. He explained how the music supervisor has to try to convey and convert the directors idea’s into the best possible end product; sometimes it seems this may be quite challenging. This can also be challenging because of film budgets. Hammond explained how an average price for a song inside a film (not in the credits) was normally between £1500-£2000 aside, split between the publisher and the record company. However famous songs can reach extortionate amounts which make them impossible to have in lower budget films. He also spoke about the interaction with composers, one of his main jobs is to liaise with the composer and pass on the directors input professionally and with caution.
From what Lol Hammond has described, a huge role of a music supervisor is liaising with other people to make sure the music is to a high standard for the project. This could be anything from choosing the music to try to get the rights to use a piece of music. He described how it is often good to give the director a few different options to choose from, that way it wastes less time if the director does not like a choice of the music supervisor.
This lecture was extremely useful to me as I will be taking on the title of Music Supervisor for our film for audio project 1. Although I will be involved in a lot of the post and location sound, music is the part I intend to spend the most time on. It was useful to hear someone’s experience in the industry as this job role is one I may look to in the future.