DE0968 Sound Design Promotional Video Sophie Tyler, Cindy Chan and Craig Keeley Design Document

1. DE0968 Sound Design Promotional Video Sophie Tyler, Cindy Chan and Craig Keeley Design Document

2. Introduction Projects Ideas Grainger Market Research Style Ideas Filming Positives and Negatives Using Ableton Music Development First Video and Feedback Improvements Final Video Conclusion CONTENT LIST

3. Introduction Sound is a well used media in the modern world with musicians and films soundtracks being most prominent. There is sound in many other aspects of life as well though including promotional advertisements on TV and on other media. For this project as a group we have been asked to create a promotional video with original sound. To create this sound we have been introduced to a software called Ableton Live Suite 9 which we will start to learn and use for our projects. Other tasks for the project would be to film and edit the final video which went together with our original sound. The final piece of work we will do is creating a design document explaining the processes we did to get the final finished video and original sound. Projects Ideas As a group we sat down and started creating a brainstorm of initial ideas these can be seen below. In the brainstorm we tried to list places that were very vibrant and full of people to give out a positive promotional message. Countryside PROJECT IDEAS AND INTRODUCTION Grainger Market Newcastle Promotional Video Student Union Student Union Prague Seaside Metro Centre

4. Grainger Market Research The final idea we decided on was to create a promotional video on the Grainger Market in Newcastle. We decided on the market because it was a busy vibrant environment with small business which need supporting in these hard economic times. The Grainger Market is a part of Newcastle History. The covered market was the largest in Europe when built in 1830, it is now a grade 1 listed building. When the market first opened it had 243 shops including numerous butchers and vegetable stalls, and 14 entrances. Many of the original features still remain of the market including a weight house where customers would go to weight there meat. The market has survived fires, two world wars (one leaving behind an air raid shelter the length of the arcade underneath the market) and threatened demolition. This historical landmark of Newcastle is still as vibrant a shopping arcade as when it was first open and its extensive history and versatility is why we have decided to use it for out final promotional video. The image to the left shows an old photograph of the Grainger Market GRAINGER MARKET RESEARCH The image to the right shows how the Grainger Market looks today

5. Style Ideas One of the biggest ideas we had to put into our video was the addition of slow motion at certain points throughout our one minute clip. In a busy market, sometimes you just have to slow down in the hustle and bustle and take in some of the many things that are going on throughout; such as the barks of an old ladies little dog, the screams of kids running around their parents, the loud chopping and slicing of meat and fish in a butchers, or the rattle of sweets in a tub being weighed and handed out to kids at the candy stall. Since the video has a strict one minute duration, and in a market there is so much to see, we thought that the idea of slow motion to capture key parts would be a great idea to use in the video we filmed. Not only that but using slow motion would help create a better sense of what is going on at certain parts of the video; for example, if the video was all one speed, certain elements of the video and sound might be missed such as a butcher chopping meat. When slowed down at this certain moment all emphasis is on what is happening at that time. Below are a couple of examples that use this slow motion effect to emphasis the certain event at the point of slowmo. In this scene in the movie 300, the camera pan follows Leonidas (center scene Spartan in the red cloak) as he moves forward across the battlefield. The camera speeds up to normal speed when he is moving from person to person, but when he engages an enemy, like in the picture above, the film goes into slowmo to emphasize what is happening on screen. Not only does it give the viewer a better look at what is happening at that moment, but because it is focused on that one event, the sound (such as bashing of a shield, slicing of a sword or piercing of a spear) is also emphasised and the volume increased and singled out from the background noises. Both of these scene stills are from the Spiderman movie. The scene starts out with Peter Parker about to get punched in the back of the head, but with his spider senses, he can tell that this is about to happen. The whole scene is slowed down (almost frozen) and the camera moves between different aspects and slowmo’s around them focusing entirely on them; their movement and sound, before returning to Peter dodging the punch from behind. The film scene is done in this way to emphasize one thing in this part of the movie, Peter’s spider senses. Again using this type of idea in our video will make it easier to fit more ‘information’ into the video showing the market itself but with the slow motion parts we can really focus on the sounds and what the market is all about. STYLE IDEAS

6. Style Ideas Both of these scene stills are from the Spiderman movie. The scene starts out with Peter Parker about to get punched in the back of the head, but with his spider senses, he can tell that this is about to happen. The whole scene is slowed down (almost frozen) and the camera moves between different aspects and slowmo’s around them focusing entirely on them; their movement and sound, before returning to Peter dodging the punch from behind. The film scene is done in this way to emphasize one thing in this part of the movie, Peter’s spider senses. Again using this type of idea in our video will make it easier to fit more ‘information’ into the video showing the market itself but with the slow motion parts we can really focus on the sounds and what the market is all about. STYLE IDEAS

7. Filming Positives and Negatives • There were a few positives and negatives about filming, below is a small bullet point list about what positives and negatives we came across while doing this mini project. Overall what we got was fine but some of the negative points could have been avoided. • Positives • Multiple people creates a larger idea generation • Different skills and abilities • Tasks given out so things can be completed faster • New experience and new ways of doing things • Negatives • Problems obtaining filming equipment • Small time length to complete the project • Small time length to learn a new program • Problems with memory card size during recording • Sound recording device was pretty bad unless very close to target • Sometimes disrupted while filming in the market FILMING POSITIVES AND NEGATIVES

8. Using Ableton We have been introduced a sound editing software – Albeton, which is a totally new software to us. So it is quite hard for us to design a sound track, also to make it real and complete for our promotional video at the beginning. During the tutorial lessons through the semester, Trevs introduced the basic functions of the Ableton to us, also taught us different ways that we could use to enrich the sound track we were going to make, which were both very useful. But since we only got one lesson in each week, which was not enough for us to know this software well within a short period. Therefore we needed to explore the software by ourselves and sometimes needed to look for the tutorials video on Youtube so that we could get through the work. Above and to the left are images showing Ableton these are not screenshots of our project USING ABLETON

9. Sound Track Development Since we were doing the promotional video for Grainger Market which is a bustling market that people could find varied things in it. So we would like our sound track to be lively, also presented a pleasant feeling, like what the market has presented to us. So we chose a brisk music to be the base and then remix it with different other effect such as shaking, to make the sound track more lively and happy. But after showing Trevs our first sound track, the comments we received were the music was a bit flat and dull, we should add more different effects to make it richer so as to fit in the feeling we wanted to present. Also the sound track seemed not fast enough which made it not as lively as we wanted it to show. Therefore, according to what we had been told, we made the improvement in our sound track. Firstly, we added more audio effects in it to enrich it, making it funnier. For example, in our video, there is a scene of 2 men walking, but we added a rewind effect on it, so they walked forward and backward to point to a shop in the market for few times. In this scene we added different effects in it, which means every time when they pointed to the shop, there were different sound effects. This could enhance what they were showing, also made the video more interesting. At our first sound track, there was only one basic music to be the base, which made the beat of the whole sound track remain, so it would be a bit boring. So we changed the overall beat in our revised sound track which was faster, and we added few more different music to be the base which some of them contains faster beat, some contain slower. This made our sound track involve more variations so it would not be as boring as our first one. Also it could present a happier feeling and flourish feeling to audience. MUSIC DEVELOPMENT

10. First Video • After getting the footage we needed from the Grainger Market we created a first version of the video in iMovie. We then inserted the sound we had created on Ableton into the video. • Feedback • As a group we then presented the video to Trev and our peers the feedback we got was… • Shorten the video to 1 minute • Add more promotional material pieces to the video • Edit the sound with parts being faster FIRST VIDEO AND FEEDBACK

11. Improvements • With the feedback for Trev and our peers we were able to go away and edit the sound and video… • For both the video and the sound we cut it down to 1 minute • In the video text fading in and out was added to promote the Grainger Market this did not effect the video in any way but pointed out features of the Market • Parts of the sound where in the video it is fast paced we inserted in a fast paced beat • Parts of the video that we had found faulty we fixed as well • All these improvements helped make our promotional video for the Grainger Market better. IMPROVEMENTS

12. Final Video The video aimed at promoting the Grainger Market in a minute. As there are varied shops in the market, you could find food, clothes and old books, even shoes in the market. So for the visual part, we decided to hold our camera and walked through the market, showing audience what they could find in it. For the sound track, since the beat of the video is in a fast beat, so we made a lively music which remixed with different sound effects, to make it as rich and flourish as the market. The overall feeling we presented in the video is lively and pleasant, also a bit exciting which we would like to show what excitement people could find in this amazing market that you could find anything you want, also something you did not expect. We hope audience would like to explore the market after watching our video. FINAL VIDEO

13. Conclusion Throughout this project we have worked as a group to complete each task. These tasks we have divided the work up equally and all done our fair share. We have worked well as a team and have communicated very well. This task was daunting at first because we had never used Ableton and had no previous experience of Sound Design. As we continued with the project though we got to know the program better and the final media piece we have produced we are proud of. If we were to do this project again I think we would pick a different topic and be more inventive with the filming and creating the sound. We could do this by recording different sounds for the track and having different effects for the filming. CONCLUSION