Sound and my Film Opening

The Complexity of Sound:

Hi everyone!

I want to dedicate a special post to how I edited sound in my film opening, as it has many layers and it took me very long to fully adjust and edit. 

Sadly, I was too focused to film any of it using Screencastify, but I will try to explain some of the most important layers and steps of my editing the sound.

Hope you enjoy it!

xx Natalia

Editing Sound:

There are four main layers o the sound in my film opening:

1. The diegetic sound from within the film (allows to drag the viewer into the world of the film)
2. The non-diegetic music that plays louder or quieter and helps add both mood and pace to the footage
3. The diegetic but artificial sounds added to create a sense of atmosphere and enhanced important diegetic sounds
4. The voiceover (non-diegetic), adding the narration for the second part of my film opening that takes the reader through the footage.

The diegetic sound from within the film:

I have not included the diegetic sound from all clips as sometimes it added more noise than it contributed to creating an atmosphere.

Throughout the MORNING ROUTINE SCENE I added the diegetic sound wherever it was relevant-

• When she is packing her last things inside the box
• When she is waking up (which I then had to cut to make the time limit)

During the PACKING AND LEAVING SCENE, there is relevant action and dialogue, so I included the diegetic sound throughout.

However, during the CAR RIDE SCENE, the voiceover was going to be the main sound, and I did not want any sound to detract from it. 

• Moreover, the lack of diegetic sound here allows the audience to evade themselves from the physical world in the film and enter the intimate world of the protagonist's mind.

The non-diegetic sound- music score:

For the music, I knew that I wanted it to convey the genre of Teen Romance Drama. 

As I have mentioned in earlier posts, I took inspiration from the Norwegian film "Battle" for the 'morning routine' style in the first part of my film opening. 

From "Battle" I have also taken inspiration from the song, which happens to be one of my favourites: It's called "Higher Ground" by the artist SKAAR.

I looped the first 6 seconds to provide some background music to introduce the scene gradually, without continuing with the lyrics straight away. 

I then used this looped sound during the dialogue and voiceover with a lower volume to act as background music.

The lyrics only come in to indicate the action starts:

• When Summer starts packing her things in the box 
• After the dialogue scene, when Summer gets into the car

• Moreover, as the dialogue scene is going to begin, I cut the lyrics and smoothly introduced the looped 6-second clip to convey that another scene with diegetic relevant sound was beginning.

I also made the beat-drop match the door of the car closing to act as an amplified sound bridge into the car ride scene. This also creates dramatic effect that adds pace and conveys the genre of Teen Romance Drama.

The artificial diegetic sound:

To create an enhanced atmosphere, I used some external sound clips designed specifically for this:

1. A clip of ambient birds and city sounds LINKED HERE
2. A short sound clip of a phone vibrating LINKED HERE

The sound clip of the birds is most prominent at the beginning of the film opening, to add a strong sense of atmosphere and morning vibe. 

The phone vibration sound is used at the same time as the alarm; I cut it so that it stopped just as Summer turns her alarm off.

Although this was diegetic sound, I enhanced the sound of the car door closing by making it louder using key frames. This makes only the door slam very loud whilst the rest of the clip is quieter.

The voiceover (non-diegetic sound):

I recorded the voiceover using a screen-recording app on my phone. The, I uploaded it to my Google Drive and downloaded onto the computer.

The only issue with the voiceover was making it short enough as I was already running tight with the length. 

I had to modify the script slightly and say it faster than I would have done, but in the end it worked out very well.