Emma Level 2 Media Blog

One of the sounds I was creating was the sound of a record player opening up. Since record players were most popular in the 60s and 70s, I wanted it to make a squeaky noise to infer how old they are. Following this, my record player only makes a slight noise when you open it up. To make it sound like it was making the noise I hoped for, I recorded the sound of one of the dining room chairs in my house since they make that exact sound. This sound / scene is the opening to my short film. To capture the sound I used my iPad - I would've used a mic but after being taught from home due to the pandemic I don't have the equipment. The next sound was the sound of placing the record itself onto the record player. For this and the next I kept the original sound in as I think its quite obscure. This specific sound was for my third scene. Firstly I filmed a close up of me placing the record down, then afterwards I held my iPad closely up to the record and recorded its sound ( I ...

For my background music, I always intended to use a Beatles song since that's what my film is based around - but all of their music is copyrighted. I knew of several songs on YouTube which were uploaded as audio clips from old recording sessions ( most from 1969/1970 ) which were never officially released. After looking around I finally found a song long enough to fit my film: All other sounds in my video I created myself: I used the real sound of the record being placed down, the needle being dropped, then I used the sound of a chair squeaking to imitate the sound of the record player opening. Why it is important that the resources I'm using are royalty free Royalty free music refers to a type of music license that allows the buyer to pay the music license only once, and use the music for as long as they want. People make royalty free music because, for example - If a composer had a piece of music which they think would be perfect in the background of a video, they wo...

What do you feel were your strengths in sourcing audio and why? I knew as soon as I had the concept for my film what the background music would be, as I knew of many un-released Beatles tracks on YouTube. As well as this, I knew which sounds I wanted to use in the beginning of my film when I first planned out my storyboard. What areas would you like to improve on when sourcing audio in the future and why? As well as using background music I could push myself further by adding other sounds on top ( since I removed the sound from each clip before adding the music ). I would also take a look at different websites again and try and incorporate different sounds. What do you feel were your strengths when creating your own audio and why? When I realized what sound I wanted to make e.g. for scene one when I open the record player, I straight away knew what sound I wanted to make and immediately thought the downstairs chairs we own would be similar, since the sounds sound the same...

How close was your final production to the initial idea that you had? In the end, my video production was fairly close to my initial idea. The only things I changed were 1) I originally wanted to start the film with me and my grandparents sitting together, looking through old records. They would then pick up a specific record ( by the Beatles ) and begin to talk about their memories in Liverpool. From there I would insert my own clips from my Liverpool trip while making them black and white to resemble a memory. After thinking about it, I decided that the scene would consist of me choosing a record, putting it on the record player, then as it began to play I would insert the clips to represent my own memories. I decided on this as at the time of filming, my grandparents were not able to take part. 2) I wanted my film to include clips of the famous Albert Dock and its surroundings. Upon arriving in Liverpool, the weather wasn't great and it ending up raining most of the time I was...

I began my short film showing the opening of a record player, along with a squeaky noise. I used the sound a cupboard opening to resemble the opening of the record player to almost give off quite an old feel to it ( since record players were most used back in the 60s and 70s ). The scene then showed me putting the record onto the record player, to which I used the real sound - as well as when I was putting the needle down - to show the realism of the scene. Following this, the sound of putting the needle down onto the record is quite obscure therefore I don't think I could've remade it using other objects. To conclude, I wanted to keep most of the real noises in each clip to show the situation as it is - since many people watching the film may identify with it since many people own record players. When the scene shows the needle being placed down onto the record, I didn't use the sound from the record itself since the song would be copyrighted. As the needle dropped, I ...