13.1

Today we used Foley to create a lot of our sound effects. What I found most interesting was that you can actually use a lot of different objects to recreate certain effects, and these objects can be ordinary objects or objects for a specific purpose say, like a mannequin. I think what makes Foley a lot of fun and a huge creative process for us, not to mention a key factor in sound designing for animation films or even in action movies, is you don't have to be limited to using certain sounds to represent another sound.

By definition, Foley is to create sound in a different method; rather than merely slamming the door to create the sound or slapping someone to create that sound. Foley is used to replace the sound recorded on set at the time, like the slap or the slam of the door, which is called field recording. I think the most common example I know is that in action movies the fight scenes are usually staged by stunt doubles so no noise actually is recorded when filming as they are only acting like they're hitting each other when reality they haven't even touched each other. So Foley needs to be used to add the sound effects to show and make the audience feel that they're hitting each other. The whole point is to emphasize the visual effect or action, to heighten the tension and to create a dramatic feeling as well. Another benefit to adding sounds to the scene after all the filming has been finished is that the sound designers can have complete control over how each sound will be heard by the audience, so the sound quality is improved from the original sound that was captured during the filming process. These sounds can also be altered to suit what the director wants, so the diagetic sounds don't have to be limited to what is actually heard when filming.

For the sound effect of Jerry knocking on the Bulldog's eye, Cara recorded her knocking on a mirror. I never would have thought the mirror would be an option, I was thinking perhaps a wooden table. The sound had to be clear and light so I think the mirror was a good choice. For the sound effect of the Bulldog walking, we walked around hitting things to see what would fit. The Bulldog was big and heavy so the sound had to be low and reverberate slightly. In the end we decided on the glass because it echoed when we hit it, gave a louder sound than hitting on the floor and a lower sound than hitting on the wood (but we were very careful when making the sound!). I think the best sound effect we created today was our idea of using velcro to represent the sound of Jerry getting stuck on the cactus and Tom trying hard to pull him away. It had that resistance when you pulled the velcro, and the great thing about this was that we could change the speed in which we pulled the velcro in order to fit the scene.

I spent the lesson editing the clips Marshall and Cara made and trying to fit them in order to be in sync with the actions in the film. I find I enjoy this process a lot more than going out in the "field" and doing the "making". I am a perfectionist so I think that's an advantage here, where I don't mind paying attention to the smallest details, trying to cut those down, to make them flow smoothly from one section to the other. It's a lot of work trying to make everything fit because most of the time they sound recorders will record a series of sounds in one go, and you have to go in and cut the sections in between each action and place them on the timeline or have a space between them to make the sounds come out at the same time as it happens on screen. Sometimes you might not have the right sound you're looking for at that specific moment, but the rest of it will sound very good. Then I have to cut that clip into different sections, duplicate some other clip, insert that in between the two and cut out the extra silence in between to make everything fit again. I like this because I like the satisfaction of putting everything together and being able to manipulate the sound, and also because I find it very rewarding after you've worked so hard you are able to see your result when you play the film.

"As God is my witness, I'll never be hungry again." - Gone With the Wind

11.1

Today we continued to work on collecting sounds, downloading the ones we've already found and putting them into the timeline. Marshall suggested that I change the beginning of our film; he felt that if we just rearranged the timeline to make the intro to the episode in the movie they watch in the film and just start off the actual film fading into a scene it would be a lot more interesting. It would also alter our film from the typical Tom and Jerry episode, which goes into the intro right from the beginning. We had some trouble with the effects because we only wanted a fade in, not a fade out. I said you could just delete the fade out part, but that shortened the clip and thus ended up changing the timing of the following clip. This meant the music we added would be a little bit off and we didn't want that; we thought it was perfect the way we had arranged it. In the end we decided just to keep both fade in and fade out because it didn't affect the overall viewing of our film, it probably even made the transition between clips smoother!

The sounds we added today were both Tom and Jerry's laughs, background music for when Jerry is running away and Tom uses the rope to catch him. I was really happy about editing that section. I played the clip, trying to find one part that would fit with the sound of Jerry running. It had to be light because Jerry's a mouse, a small creature, which would probably be pretty agile. He was also running fast, so it had to represent that. Once I found it, I dragged it down to the timeline. Without even having to move it into the right place, I had already got the timing between the music and the video perfect because when the music paused, that was when Jerry got caught by the rope and fell face flat on the floor. We also added in a clip of an old movie countdown that comes in right before the movie plays. We extended that sound to when Tom and Jerry go into the movie theatre and sit down, because I had this impression of olden days when they had movie reels and there would be that sound playing right before the movie started. I thought that would give a vintage feel to the film.

We still need to record some of the sound effects from our long list so we spent the last part of the lesson figuring out how we would go about making those sounds because some were quite odd.

"Mama always said life was like a box of chocolates. You never know what you're gonna get." - Forrest Gump

5.1

Today we worked on completely finishing the visual timeline, adding to the list of sounds we needed to make/get and even started to look for some tunes/songs that we thought would go well with a particular section of our film.

There wasn't much to do with editing for the timeline, I only had to rearrange some clips and delete a few quick cuts to make everything flow better. I also added a new clip into the film, which included more pranks done by Jerry to Tom. I learned that it's always good to change the scale of the timeline from when you're watching it to when you need to edit something; you need to be able to see the whole timeline when watching, and you need to be able to get into the details when editing. After we went through the film a couple of times, pointing out to each other where we thought could be cut better (if there was), we went through it another time to pick out all the sound effects we needed to make. I had already deleted the soundtrack from the original clip so that we could be more original in our sound design, making it completely our own. Although this was the case I think it still helps that we're able to get inspiration from the cartoon and other cartoons and be able to imagine all the sounds, play them out in our heads so that we know exactly what we need to look for.

We've now got a complete sound list. We decided to go on Youtube to search up some of the effects to see if we could find some, and get a head start on collecting sounds. Marshall got really excited about one song he thought would really fit the opening scene with the peace treaty and where Tom and Jerry are walking to the movies. It's a cheerful scene so we wanted something upbeat but something that was appropriate and Marshall immediately thought of his grade 8 piano piece, which was a modern jazz piece and when we played that scene alongside the music it turned out to fit quite well. We all felt very happy that we had "made a big discovery"!

"They call me Mister Tibbs!" - In the Heat of the Night