Evaluating our sound map and final sound/music

Our task was to make at the sound and music for a short clip from a sci-fi television drama. The clip shows a man watching and counting the spaceships flying past, it seems he is waiting for a certain amount of ships to come in but one doesn’t make it. The next scene is of the same man in the main control room of the ship ordering people about, in this scene there is dialogue and a man run pasts the screen.

The first scene is very tense so I thought the music had to reflect that, I chose an orchestral theme to reflect this. So I used a string piece for the initial score then added pieces on top such as a short piano sting when he counts on his fingers and a deep bass piece to create tension. I decided against using sound FX for the spaceship passing by as I wanted to keep sound FX’s diagetic and I would expect the window he is looking out would be soundproof. I did use sound FX’s though at the climax of the scene when the character cracks his knuckles, I actually used a bone breaking sound which fitted quite well when I mixed the loops together at the same time. The next scene was slightly more difficult because I had to achieve the sound of the main control room which isn’t as easy as it sounds, I decided to not use a score or soundtrack in this scene and purely have diagetic sounds. In order to get the sound I used a generator sound FX paired with the sound of a group of people on a food court, I added sounds such as a phone ringing to add to realism although not that noticeable. I chose to use a running sound effect for when the man runs to the ‘main character’ of the two scenes, I made sure this wasn’t too amplified however I thought it was needed in order to keep the scene looking real.

Overall I think my sound and music for the scene was good and quite effective at creating the correct atmosphere, I think I learnt to use garage band effectively as well. I believe that I could use it again with ease and it would enhance my future productions greatly.