Project Proposal

To Start: A Review of the Past Academic Year

In the last academic year (and the year before), I’ve honed my knowledge and practical skills for when I’m working with audio. This has been achieved through various projects, consisting of practical sessions and written research which have taught me about elements such as:

What equipment can be found in a studio and how to effectively use it
Recording techniques and microphone usage
Music history, theory, and culture
Music business, legislation, and plagiarism
Audio recording and editing using Logic Pro
Techniques when using EQ, compression, and miscellaneous effects.
Teamwork skills when working on a project as a group

Some highlights from the past year have been making soundtracks for different videos and images and I have thoroughly enjoyed learning how music and sound affects a listener's mood and experience. Using newly learned knowledge of music theory and sound effects I can now change the tone of a scene through its audio such as using major or minor keys for happy or sad situations or adding more dissonance to a chord for more tension to an atmosphere.

One of my greatest milestones was when I did a Foley project as part of a group project at the end of 2023. We redubbed the sound effects and music in a short scene from Chris Columbus’ 1999 Christmas classic “Home Alone”. By working in a group, I was able to improve my communication and decision making skills, and it was a lot of fun making and recording the different sound effects. The work we produced was, in my opinion, high quality too.

A combination of these elements and constructive experiences have positively developed my personal confidence when it comes to my work and gave me a lot of motivation for the upcoming future. This has ultimately given me a spark of interest and passion for sound effects and Foley work and therefore I want to focus on a Foley based project for my FMP. My skills in this field have already been put to practice from the aforementioned previous projects and I’ve had to experiment using editing techniques, effects, and EQ to make sound effects suitable for a segment of a scene. In my final project, I would like to develop these skills further by researching professional recording and editing techniques to create a high quality final product.

Project Concept

In a brief overview, the final product of my project aims to be a showcase of different Foley sound effects created by me, so it will be called “Foley: A Study of Sound Effects in Media”. This will come in the form of one or more videos that can be played which will consist of movie or TV show scenes with audio that has been replaced and created by me. This will be done using Logic Pro, where I can redub the sound from one or more scenes from different movies or TV shows after removing their original audio.

For this project I will need research which will be documented on this website that will also be used to record my processes, self evaluation, and host the final product itself. I will need to communicate how my research affects my work process, being able to point out where what I have learned has taken application in my practical work. For example, my research may have taught me the best way to position a microphone for a certain sound effect or frequency range which I will document in my work. Without the research I cannot achieve a professional sounding quality to my work.

The final product will need to convince an audience that what they’re hearing is directly coming from what is happening on screen and immerse them in the scene through professional, realistic sound effects. If I do decide to add music it will aid this as I’ll be able to portray different moods and atmospheres based on the tone of the music.

Methodology

A lot of my project will require research and I will use both online and written sources to learn professional processes and techniques when creating different sound effects. I will need to learn things like microphone usage and placement for different situations, ‘recipes’ for specific sound effects, editing techniques, filtering, and EQ.

For my practical work in the studio, I’ll use Logic Pro and start by choosing one or more scenes to create new foley effects for and I’ll remove its audio track so it's completely mute. I want to make sure that my chosen scene(s) will let me be able to show a variety of recording techniques and creative processes. I don’t want to choose a scene which consists of mostly the same sound effect (such as an action scene with mostly gunshots) as I believe it will limit my ability to express my creative skills. I want to challenge myself and be able to record a variety of different effects so I have to work with different objects when recording and editing. I believe if I don’t challenge myself I won’t be able to learn or enhance my skills, which is something I want to achieve during this project. After choosing a suitable scene(s), I will then use my knowledge from my research to create new sound effects using modern recording and foley techniques. These will be edited in Logic Pro (where I will be able to see the mute video clip). Additionally I may add music to video(s) but it won’t be the main focus of the project.

I may ask for assistance from peers to help record sound effects as I may need someone to press the record button or help with gain levels whilst I record. This will require clear communication, cooperation, and teamwork.

Possible Research Sources

Evaluation Methods

Viers, R. (2008). The Sound Effects Bible. Studio City, Los Angeles, CA: Michael Wiese Productions.
Hibbard, M. (2015). Recording Foley and Sound Effects: The Fundamentals. [Online]. Premium Beat. Last Updated: 18 March 2015. Available at: https://www.premiumbeat.com/blog/recording-foley-and-sound-effects-the-fundamentals/
Ament, V. T. (2022). The Foley Grail. 3rd ed. Abingdon: Routledge.
Fry, G. (2023). Gareth Fry - Sound Design. [online] Available at: http://www.garethfry.co.uk.
Movies Insider (2023). 10 Unusual Ways Foley Artists Make Sounds for Movies and TV. Insider. Available at: https://youtu.be/OC7WSENO9H8.
Horton, J. (2017). The Building and Blurring of Worlds: Sound, Space, and Complex Narrative Cinema. In M. Boni (Ed.), World Building (pp. 187–203). Amsterdam University Press. https://doi.org/10.2307/j.ctt1zkjz0m.13

I aim to create a reflective journal as I progress to act as a self evaluation. By writing these journals I can apply self criticism to my work and then adapt the weak points in my work based on the reflection. This will be posted on the website and demonstrate my self growth and learning throughout the project.

Additionally, halfway through the project and towards the end of the project, I will create a survey using Google Forms. I can ask friends and classmates for their anonymous critical feedback which I can then document on my website. The feedback and suggestions will be taken into account and it will identify what needs improving. I can adapt my project’s progress to improve the weak points from here.

Project Proposal and Timetable PDF

Project Pitch Presentation

Project Pitch Slides

Presentation Script