As mentioned in the previous blog, I will now show my session here and explain some of the approaches I have made.
Adjusting the amount of reverbs by using the sends
One of the focuses in this theme would be thinking about the rationality of space. In the scene as Neo was shooting the soldier with a rifle gun and the camera switched to the soldier being shot and quickly switched back to Neo. I adjusted the levels of volume and reverb sends to match the camera change and make it sound more realistic.
This is what it sounds like:
Chopping off the ambience and adjusting the gains
This is similar to what I did to the gunshots from Neo as mentioned above. But this time, I adjusted the gain and separated them into different groups for the shots instead of adjusting the send levels. Have a listen to the ambience from 0019 to 0029. You can hear that the frequencies and dynamics have changed over the shots:
I have separated the ambience into 3 tracks.
The first track is mainly the ambience of the shots, where we can see the smoke coming out from the vents in the shots. I have adjusted the gains based on how far the shot is away from the vent.
The second track is the ambience for the bullet dodge scene. I have pitched it down by 1 octave and low-pass it to mimic the effect of bullet time.
The last track is the ambience of the shots that are far away from the vents. I have cut the high and low frequencies to fit it into the soundscape.
What I found here is that playing with frequencies and dynamics gives a sense of disruption to the audience, making them notice that the POVs keep changing. I believe this will sort of pull them into the “reality” of the scene and make the soundscape more immersive.
Authentic foleys
I have recorded some foleys for the scene as some are more suitable than the ones from the sound library. Here are some of the examples.
Punching/Kicking sounds by actually hitting myself
I hit myself with my fists to make realistic punching and kicking sounds for the beginning of the scene. I mainly hit on my chest and have done several takes with different ways of hitting. This sounds very stupid yet it really works. It was a bit painful after that but thankfully I did not hurt myself. Well, I have learnt that I am quite tough in some ways.
Have a listen to them. Does it sound painful to you?
As you may have heard, some punches/kicks sound different. I have put a little effort in here on selecting the suitable sounds for each hit. In the fighting scene, Neo’s third kick is hitting on the helmet of a soldier which would sound different from hitting on a chest, so I have picked a higher pitch sample from my recording to match the tone. The same idea applies to the last hand-knife chop from Trinity, where she hit a soldier on his chest, which would sound lower in pitch.
Inaudible dodging sounds and body fall sounds by playing with cloth
I have made some recordings with the use of the white cloth found at the foley materials corner. I was planning to record this for all the movements that involve cloths moving, which is mainly dodging, turnarounds, and body falls. To be honest the sounds for Agent Smith dodging bullets are nearly inaudible but I think adding a bit of this will make the movement a bit more present. Have a listen on the sound effects of it:
Agent Smith transformed into pilot sound by waving a water pipe
This is the sound when the pilot turns into Agent Smith in the helicopter. Have a listen to it. Can you guess how I made the sound?
The answer would be waving up and down quickly with the water pipe I found at the foley material corner outside M110. I stretched the audio to match the duration and low-pass it to get rid of the metallic sound from stretching and fit the space as he was inside the helicopter.
This is another creative approach towards sound design as in reality, it is impossible for someone to transform into another person. And so I make decisions on sound selection by finding the balance between common sense and creativity. On the side of logic, I notice that the face of the pilot was stretching as he transformed into Agent Smith. And on the side of creativity, I know that I need to use a sound to represent something that is impossible in reality, I cannot explain why I end up choosing this sound for the transformation, but it seems that the sound lies at the sweet spot of between the two sides.
It is interesting to see how my common sense and creativity work together. Although I believe this is definitely not what it sounds like back in the film studio (they are definitely using props for guns but who knows if it’s actually a real gun and the stuntmen are simply invisible), at least I am making something that makes sense. And making sense is already good enough to persuade the audience that they are listening to something that sounds realistic.