As established in my research, sound is a third of how the viewer experiences film. So naturally,
I put a lot of attention, time and energy into it. I wanted to make as many of the sounds as possible myself. That way I had more control over the timing and duration of each sound. I made hundreds of experimental sounds to try and match them to what I wanted. Any sound I could not achieve myself, such as children laughing, the ocean or the clock sounds, I found on https://freesound.org. The full list of free sounds used can be found in the description
box of my final video at: https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=D4E927qEeY0&t=2s.
Sound
Experimentation
This video shows a range of sounds made in the experimental phase.
I used pretty much anything I could find around the house to try and achieve the desired sounds. My mom and my brother Brian are both credited at the end of my film for all of their help and patience with the sounds. I have not included all of the sounds as there are just too many but if you wish to see the recording sessions, I have included them virtually unedited below.
Techniques
Muffeling
Sometimes a sound can be too harsh. I found that was the case with the coins in the treasure chest, even with the mike muffler on. To help with this, I muffled the sound further by putting my box of coins into
an oven glove.
Props
When doing a voice recording, sometimes the sounds come out more convincing when you have a prop or mimic the actions of the character you’re portraying. Here you can see my brother being a really good sport, wielding a toy sword and squeezing a teddy bear.
Context
It’s really important for voice actors to understand the context, emotion and motivation behind each sound they make. When working with my brother, I would explain all of this before each sound. Even when I was recording by myself I found it useful to talk myself through the motivation behind each sound
Textures
I would experiment with different but similar items with slight texture variations to see what would make the best sound. For example here you can see me testing different packing papers for the sound of
grass crunching.
Scale
Sometimes the sound that an object actually makes is not dramatic enough for foley art. For example a little teddy falling doesn’t have the dramatic impact thud that I needed. So for this I scaled up and used a giant teddy instead.
Thinking Outside the Box
Sometimes I would not have the item making the sound in the film, or I’d have to make up a sound that doesn’t really exist. That’s when I had to get creative. For the cogs, I borrowed my brother's weights and for the magnetic sparks I recorded the ignition switch on my cooker.