Month: November 2023

The analysis of the shots is finished and I will list out what sounds I will need for the scene. Since I will repeat the same scene 3 or 4 times for different approaches or themes, it will sound different every time. I will first list down the sounds I need for the change and share the themes I would like to try.

Themes

Comedy:

Farnell (2010, p.401) suggests that not all sounds need to be literal as some are representative or suggestive, which does not mean they aren’t rooted in real physics. Making sounds for comedy is challenging because most are artificial sounds, and their role focuses more on creating emotion than authenticity. I believe I will record part of the sounds and design part of it with LFOs, as a lot of cartoon sounds are featured with pitch twist and wobbling that makes the sound silly. I may use the effects from sound library if there is not enough time or suitable materials for recording.

Cyberpunk:

This approach is mainly focuses on music. I will try to design sounds for the sound that syncs the actions and movements of the scene rather than only put sounds on the shot. I also would like to use the GRM plugin for pannings to make the music sound 3D and work around rather than just play back the track.

Realistic:

What I try to achieve in this approach is that I want to make it sound just like I am at the scene, and the POVs of the shots are the same as me. As I mentioned previously, this approach will create much less impact and it will sound bold. However, it is challenging as I need to make sure the sounds are played in the correct volume, angle, position, etc.

Beatbox:

I think this would be the opposite of Comedy and Cyberpunk, where I will record all the sounds instead of designing them on a plugin. However, I believe I will edit heavily with it as I have no experience in beatboxing. It would be fun to mimic all the sounds with the mouth only and edit them in a way that sounds very different.

Sounds for the scenes

As the scene is an action scene with many actions and fights, I think putting the focus and making sound changes on them will gradually change the atmosphere. This will save me a lot of time as well. Therefore, I will mainly just write down the sounds of the actions and movements I will focus on. I will also write the sounds that I find interesting to work on.

Punching sounds

Punches involve in the first ten seconds of the scene where Neo and Trinity are fighting the soldiers on the rooftop.

Comedy:

I had a listen to someone putting cartoon sounds to a fighting scene on youtube are they seems to be not really punching sounds, but rather just sound effects. However, it sounds amazing and not awkward at all. These sound includes metal clash,

Cyberpunk:

Since the punches involves only in first half of the scene, I will make a rhythm that represents the punches and after the punching. I probably will work on something to mak a contrast with the punches, potentially pistol shooting.

Realistic:

Being realistic means there will be no more dramatic punchy sounds like as we see them in action movies. To do that, I will get a pillow and punch it for the recording because I think the momentum and the sound of punching a pillow is similar to punching someone with clothes on.

Beatbox:

Unfortauntely I cannot find any tutorials on making a punch sound. However, I do found a lot of making drum sounds so I might try making the kick drum sound and make into a punch sound with editing.

Gun sounds

Comedy:

I immediately think of the prank guns when I am thinking what sounds I should get for the pistol shooting sound this theme. However, whenever I saw these prank guns appeared on the screen, it is always not the prank gun sound, but either party horn sounds and pop sounds. I think using these sounds seems to be a good idea. Actually, why don’t I use the rubber chicken?

Cyberpunk:

There are pistols from Neo and Agent Smith. They are using different pistols and shooting differently. Comparing to dodging I think shooting is not much important so maybe I can do a countermelody for the rhythm of shooting, where the rhythm when Neo’s shooting shot will be densed and it will be slow and impactful when Agent smith’s shooting.

Realistic:

I think gun sounds here should be similar to the original scene as they generate a great sound when firing.

Transforming sound (Pilot to Agent Smith)

Comedy:

I have no idea what to add for this yet but I will check the sound affects of cartoons to see which one matches the best.

Cyberpunk:

I will make a dubstep wobble for the movement that sounds unpleasant to synchronise the mood of the shot.

Realistic:

Since it is being realistic I think I will not put any sound effects here but adding the hitting sound when the pilot hit the window of the helicopter.

Bullet dodge sounds

Comedy:

For Agent Smith’s dodge I think I would add some silly sounds but for Neo’s dodge I think I will leave it empty or just adding a bit of sounds. This is because I can’t think of any sounds that fit into the scene but I think I can put some carnival music here.

Cyberpunk:

I will have the same approach as mentioned in Gun Sounds. I will try to present a easy, comparably chill feeling in Agent Smith’s dodge and tensed in Neo’s dodge.

Realistic:

To be fair it is impossible to be realistic as the times slows down. What I can try is to

Walking sounds

Comedy:

I will pair the sounds with squishy toy sounds. I have forgotten where I have seen this approach, but the closest one I could think of would be the intro scene from Pixar, where the lamp (By the way, His name is Luxo Jr.) jumps towards the Pixar Logo. It sounds ridiculous, so I think it would be a good approach and the only challenging thing would be getting a squishy toy.

Cyberpunk:

I would not focus much on this theme but I will use the flow of the music to create the rhythm of the movements of the characters.

Realistic:

Generally speaking there is no special approach to record the walking sounds in this theme. But there will be heavy editing with EQs and reverbs to imitate the rooftop soundscape.

Beatbox:

I think to generate sounds of walking would be stimulating shoes rubing/kicking the floor, which is the sreeching sound.

Reference

Farnell, Andy. Designing Sound, MIT Press, 2010. ProQuest Ebook Central, http://ebookcentral.proquest.com/lib/ual/detail.action?docID=3339445.

I have not gotten a reply from Jessica, but since she found the idea interesting when I mentioned it to her during class, I assume this is a pass. So now I would like to have a quick and brief analysis of the scene I have chosen: The bullet dodge scene from The Matrix (1999). This is the link to the scene:

https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=ggFKLxAQBbc

Introduction

This is a classic scene from the entire series, where Neo the protagonist was dodging all the bullets from Agent Smith. It is said that the scene was captured by hundreds of cameras to generate the 360 angle in slow motion. I will analyse the scene in chronological order.

Analysis

0000 – 0002 Close-up shot on shoulder level. A pilot says “I repeat, we are under attack.”

0002 – 0003 Medium wide shot on eye level. Neo is fighting with 2 soldiers.

0003 – 0005 Medium close-up tilt shot. Neo grabs the gun from the soldier, hit him with it and turns around.

0005 – 0006 Hip level shot with a slightly low angle. Trinity knifehand-strikes the soldier’s face and then pushes his hand up to expose him and make him vulnerable.

0006 – 0007 Close-up shot on shoulder level. Trinity performs a neck chop on him with her left hand. Her voice here is very soft. I assume this is because the music has just kicked in, and it will disrupt the atmosphere if a powerful “huh” comes out suddenly. Also, this shot only lasts for a second, so the audience would not pay much attention to the sound, but more on the flow and the entire action scene.

0007 – 0011 Close-up shot on shoulder level. The pilot is controlled by the Matrix and he is transformed into Agent Smith as he struggles in pain. Interestingly, this shot seems to synchronise the previous shot, where Trinity knocks down the soldier, and at the same time the pilot turns himself. This looks like the pilot is also being knocked down by Trinity, and it adds the impact of her hand chop.

0011 – 0012 Medium shot and zooming in. Neo is shooting a gun towards the soldier.

0012 – 0013 Medium shot and zooming in. The soldier is shot by multiple bullets

0013 – 0014 Close-up shot and zooming in. Neo continues to shoot the gun while the soldier behind him is getting up and about to take him down from his back.

0014 – 0017 Trinity notices the soldier and immediately throws a knife towards him. I’m not sure where this knife is from, as all of the characters have guns and pistols only. I found this shot awesome when the soldier’s body covers Neo and reveals him when he falls. This creates suspense of Neo’s safety and a relief when he is shown on the screen. Maybe I can add some features here with sound.

0017 – 0020 Wide shot on leg level. The shot captures Agent Smith’s leg as he gets down from the helicopter while Neo and Trinity have just taken down all the soldiers.

0020 – 0023 Close-up shot on eye level. Trinity spots Agent Smith as she looks right. The camera zooms in to extreme close-up shot.

0023 – 0025 Close-up shot on low angle. Neo seems to notice the signal from Trinity and calm down. Then he gets ready and quickly turns back.

0026- 0027 Medium shot on eye level. Neo pulls out the pistols and shoots right after. The pistols Neo are shooting are 2 Beretta 92FS handguns.

0026 – 0027 Full shot on eye level. Agent Smith dodges the bullets smoothly. I am not sure why no bullet can be seen that is going through Agent Smith while he is dodging, is this because of the Matrix?

0027 – 0029 Extreme close-up close on eye level. Neo is frustrated to take down Agent Smith.

0029 – 0033 Full shot on eye level. Agent Smith continues to dodge the bullets smoothly.

0033 – 0034 Extreme close-up close on eye level. Neo runs out of bullets and panics. He yells, “Trinity,” while looking at the left. At this moment, Trinity should be on his right side so I am not sure if this is a tiny logical mistake or done with intention where Trinity has already gone someone else (potentially behind Agent Smith for the stealth assault in later shots)

0034 – 0035 Close-up shot on shoulder level. Agent Smith raises his pistol and points towards Neo.

0035 – 0037 Medium shot on eye level. Neo drops his pistol and gets ready to receive the bullets. He yells, “Help!”.

0037 – 0038 Extreme close-up shot on eye level. This shot focuses on the front of the pistol.

0038 – 0048 Arc shot. Neo dodges the bullets shot from Agent Smith’s pistol in slow motion. Compared to how Agent Smith dodges bullets, it is completely different from Neo. He seems to dodge the bullets easily, while Neo struggles and dodges them in a spin. I will see if I can create sounds to make the contrast of their performances.

0048 – 0049 Extreme close-up shot on high angle. A bullet rubs over Neo’s left torso.

0049 – 0050 Extreme close-up shot on high angle. Another bullet rubs over Neo’s right leg.

0050 – 0052 Medium shot on overhead angle. Neo falls down and panting.

0052 – 0057 Close-up shot on high angle. Neo keeps panting and looks up while Agent Smith walks towards and his shadows cover him. The shot appears to be much brighter compared to the previous shot.

0057 – 0058 Medium shot from the POV of Neo. Agent Smith raises his pistol and is about to execute him. The pistol just covers the sun and shows the whole image of him. In my opinion, this pulls the audience to the reality that Neo is defeated and adds tension from Agent Smith.

0058 – 0100 Close-up shot on low angle. Agent Smith says, “Only human.” in a pale tone.

0100 – 0101 Close-up shot on eye level. A pistol points towards Agent Smith’s back of his head, and he looks back.

0101 – 0102 Medium-shot from the POV of Agent Smith. Trinity says, “Dodge this.” with a bit of anger.

0102 – 0105 Full-shot on eye level. Agent Smith was shot in slow motion.

0106 – 0107 Close-up on low angle. Trinity looks backward to avoid looking at the strong light from Agent Smith.

0107 – 0108 Agent Smith turns back to the pilot from the beginning of the scene with electricity around.