Organisation of sound

Our film is going to use both diegetic sound, which will be captured by a microphone which is attached to the camera, and non-diegetic sound, in the form of an original song written and performed by our friends and some voiceovers.

Diegetic Sound

On a larger budget, we would be able to use
a boom microphone to capture the diegetic
sound, rather than using a standard dynamic
microphone like we had too.

We plan to capture the diegetic part of the soundtrack live along with the action, as this will look much better and will be easier to do than recording the video separately and then overdub it with sound which is recorded later. This would be more difficult to do because the sounds in the film, for example the sound of the phone going off would be more difficult to get perfectly in time as the text came through if we were to overdub it afterwards. Additionally, there was no problem with the audio which was recorded as part of the clip, because it was filmed inside which means there was no wind noise to ruin the recording of audio. The only time we had to film outside was to make the YouTube video which is seen near the start of our film, however the wind noise here is almost desirable because we are trying to make it look like poorly recorded camcorder footage anyway, despite shooting it with an expensive camera. Another diegetic sound which needs to be considered is how the microphone picks up the YouTube video within the film, because it will need to be set at quite a sensitive level in order to make it stand out how it should be. Finally, we will probably add an extra sound into the part where the girl gets pushed over through a self recorded Foley sound, as this will add emphasis and excitement to the part.

Non-Diegetic Sound

The main component of the soundtrack of our film is going to be an original song written by two of our friends, Connar and Morgan. I take A-level music technology so I am going to produce the recording myself, as this way I will be able to get the right feel to the song from the performers, which is a slow acoustic ballad which allows the viewer to reflect on the emotions which are being conveyed within the film. Additionally, self producing the recording means that myself and Jack can change the speed of the song and add parts in so that parts of it work more efficiently with the film, as this is what will show that the piece has been specifically recorded for our film. UPDATE:  We later decided to instead use a song called Walk This Way by MØ. Below is the email from her record label, Chess Club, confirming our rights to use the song because our film is to be a not-for-profit production.

Dear George and Jack, 

We would be happy for you to use the recording, so long as your video isn't being produced for money, or the song is used in further projects without seeking permission in due course.

Yours sincerely, 

A&R Team
Chess Club Records

Additional non-diegetic sounds within the film are overdubbed voiceovers of the girls reading out the text messages which they send to each other, which I am planning on recording at home using a microphone plugged into a computer - these will give a much better quality of voiceover than if we were to record the voiceovers using the microphone which is built into the camera.

Considering the different uses of sound in our piece has shown not only the large amount of equipment which will be needed, but also shows how we could improve the sound if we were to make it on a larger budget.

By George Martin