Over the holiday we finished a huge bulk of the editing. We're practically done aside from a few minor changes.
Justin came over to my house where I have Final Cut Pro on my computer. It made the difference. Although he only had a few days since he went to the Eastern Europe school trip, he stayed for several hours each time and made full use of the time. I worked alongside with him with the music and sound to make the timings right.
I also helped him with editing since he's pretty new to the software but after a while he got the hang of it. So we developed this routine where he would edit a scene and I would place the music, then he would move on to the next scene and I would place the music and sounds for that scene.
But as the sound director I will focus on my role.
Freeplaymusic.com was my main resource for music. The website had tons of classical music. But honestly I'm not familiar with classical music so choosing the songs were pretty much trial and error. I must have downloaded more than a dozen songs (legally).
But I had an idea on the progression of music. For example, for the beginning I wanted a light, playful, upbeat piano piece, so I first looked for piano sonatas. Eventually I choose Beethoven Piano Sonata 25 for the first 30 seconds since it worked well and set the tone appropriately.
The reason why it only lasts that short is because of the transition from a peaceful piece to a loud, kind of hectic song when Justin runs out of the DT lab. I chose a symphony piece for that, one by Tchaikovsky. I also needed a kind of choir, angelic piece for when there a close up for the microphone so I had a choir piece by Handel for a second.
The Tchaikovsky piece worked really well so I decided to have that as a musical motif. It appears four other times in the film: one where Justin goes to the sixth floor, one in the multimedia lab, one in cafeteria, and one where the teacher returns to school. It works because it has a peaceful section and a hectic section so the transitions are very smooth.
But to transition between different songs, I would end the piece with the 'whoosh' sound effect that represents the teleportation. I feel that ending the songs this way not only emphasizes the teleportation, the suddenness in transition is less obvious or seems intentional.
I chose specific pieces for the scenes with Daniel, the first real chase in the playground, and the auditorium scene. The pieces for those scenes are relatively similar; loud, fast paced, layers of instruments, etc. For Daniel's scene I wanted something with more percussion for more suspense and busyness. The other two I just needed it to be loud and triumphant to fit the mood.
As for the ending bit, I felt that after Justin edited it, it wasn't conclusive enough, but there wasn't much footage to work with so Justin did the best he could. The reason why it didn't seem conclusive is because the pace needed to slow down, but there wasn't much to the scene that allowed the film to slow down. But after I added the music, I felt that it helped a lot. I used "Bach Air on a G String" for the final bit. It's actually quite a famous piece, and I have a vague recollection in hearing this piece in some movies, but I just never knew the name of the song. I had to cut a lot of the song since it lasted a few minutes whereas the scene was about 30 seconds, but it wasn't that much of a problem since I was already used to cutting songs for other scenes. And each piece seemed to have some sort of a hook, so transitions where pretty easy that way.
For music that's pretty much it.
For sound effects there wasn't much. I had a flush sound for the bathroom, a blunt click when Justin presses the button for the first time, a beeping-android-like sound for when the device works, a whoosh sound for the teleportation, etc. I'm not completely done with the sound though. For Justin's stomach, there was a barking sound that represents his stomach. It's really risky, but it'd be effective if people got the joke. I also haven't found a sound yet for when Justin's stomach is upset.
The film also has some silent scenes and some talking scenes. The beginning bit until the cafeteria scene is silent. The first spoken words is by Lucas when he asks Colin where Justin is. Also I didn't cut out the background sound of the cafeteria because if it was silent or if there was music the transition wouldn't be good. And also, the music that coincides with Justin's entrance contrasts with the diegetic sound and has a comedic effect to it.
And for some scenes I included the diegetic sound for menial sounds like footsteps, door closing, etc. The scene that I haven't really modified any of the diegetic sound is Daniel's scene since speaking itself is the joke. Also in the end, when Justin enters the bathroom and victoriously says "Yess", I didn't cut that out for storytelling purposes as well as the water splashing on his face.
I have two main concerns. One is that stomach sounds, which I'll probably figure out later. The other is that I wonder if the inconsistency of silent scenes and 'noisy' scenes would work.
After coming back from Easter we conferred with Joyce and Elliot. They seem to like it. Ms Wong did point out the inconsistency of the silent and 'sound' scenes. Although she didn't really like the inconsistency, she reluctantly agreed that it did somewhat work. I think it's the indecisiveness in pre-production that lead to this, but in the end I think it worked.
Joyce pointed out the errors that needed to be fix in terms of editing (polishing the film), but it can be fixed quickly and smoothly.
I was an IB-learner because:
Thinkers: Had to consider which parts of the song to cut out in order for it to be most effective and usable.
Communicator: Worked closely with Justin in editing; constantly discussed with him.
Risk-taker: Played and experimented with sound effects and music.
Reflective: Often criticized the film and how effective the music and the sound was.
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