Reflective Journals

February

19/02/24

Today marked the start of the project and we were introduced, by our tutors, to the process of our final major project. I like that the project is self directed and its freeform format as it gives me the freedom to express my creative skills and techniques in a way that can benefit my motivation, and ultimately how the final product is presented. I am aiming to achieve a Merit or Distinction and I need to be able to focus on the important elements that will help me achieve this. I understand I need to effectively communicate my research findings (with use of references) and how they influence my creative and practical work in the project. I also now know that communicating my planning and problem solving with all work is essential too. I must also be able to evaluate my work through self reflection and external criticism and show how it affects my processes. Finally, this needs to be presented in a streamlined manner. I understand communication of ideas is key here and not making effort in that area could impact heavily on the quality of my work. I hope to implement some innovative elements (interactive buttons, videos, etc.) into my project’s website to help achieve this.

I must say, I harbour a lot of anxiety for the next few weeks. I need to keep control of my anxiety too so I don’t get overwhelmed and burnout. I hope to aid this with consistent early nights in my routine and I want to maintain focus on my work so that I don’t have an overbearing amount of work at one single point. I am clear on the criteria of the project but I’m very much hoping I don’t mess up the execution of it. My final project from last year was not good enough in my opinion and I can easily see its flaws with communication, research content, planning, and self evaluation. I must make sure this year’s project doesn’t slack in any areas and that the written work I do can be linked to the practical work I do.

I already have a solid idea of the subject of my FMP. I want to do a Foley (sound effects) project consisting of redubbing the sound effects of a scene in a movie or TV show. I may also write my own music for the scene but it won’t be the main focus of the project.

I already have experience with Foley from previous projects in the college year and they have all been very enjoyable. I did a research essay on the history of Foley which I found very interesting. It detailed the history of sound effects starting with radio shows in the 1920s, Jack Donnovan Foley’s innovative work in the film industry, different objects Foley artists might record for sound effects, and how they’re recorded (microphones and Foley stages).

I also did a small redub of a scene from Wes Anderson’s “The Grand Budapest Hotel” (2014). I used publicly available free sound effects from the internet and edited them into the scene using Logic Pro. I was familiar with Logic Pro at this point and this project taught me the basics of timing and editing of sound effects for video. I got to experiment with EQ and effects to mould sounds to sound more like what’s in a scene. For example I could manipulate the pitch of a sound to represent how heavy or big the object in motion is. Big objects will sound lower, smaller objects will sound higher due to them creating larger or smaller wavelengths of vibrations because of their size.

These tricks were then useful in another similar group project in which we recorded our own sound effects to redub a different scene (This time it was a scene from Chris Columbus’ 1998 christmas classic “Home Alone”). Recording with a hypercardioid condenser microphone, and editing in Logic Pro again, we used a whole plethora of objects to record effects. We stomped on planks of wood, rustled paper around, recorded desk chair wheels, and much more. These sounds were edited together to correlate with what was going on on-screen and the result was very good. This project was a lot of fun.

I enjoy Foley work a lot and I think I am quite competent at it but there are many gaps in my knowledge. For my final project I want to elevate my current knowledge to the next level using thorough research on recording, editing, EQ, and effects techniques. I want to learn from what I do and use all this to produce a high quality final product for my project. I thought I would get a headstart on my research today by looking in the college library for a book on the subject to check out. I ended up getting a book called “The Sound Effects Bible” by Ric Viers. A quick skim through tells me it has a lot of useful information that will be helpful to my research including microphone use, recording techniques, Foley materials, effects, EQ, and editing. I’m looking forward to reading it.

20/02/24

Today I began laying out the foundations of my project by building its website using the Wix website editor. I am already fairly familiar with it as I used it for last year's project. Getting my project in a good, readable, presentable format is extremely important for the project’s success so I need to make sure I nail it. To do this I’m going to make sure everything is well designed with effective organisation, accessibility, interactivity, and aesthetics. For example, I’ve already begun sorting my website into different sections which are easily accessible from the top of the page and some of these sections even have drop-down subsections (such as the “Reflective Journal” page which is a subsection of the “Reflection and Evaluation” category) which helps with overall navigation of the site and the project’s content.

I’m currently struggling to flesh out the website as I don’t have much content to add to it (it's only the second day after all). The absence of this content means I have no direction for certain pages, so they patiently sit blank. Despite this, I do have these journal entries I can add so I started work on the “Reflective Journals” page. I managed to set up a system in which the reader (that's you!) can easily access entries across different periods of time within the project by splitting them into monthly sections. The page will automatically scroll to entries from different months when you click its corresponding button. I managed to “pin” these buttons too so they’re always accessible no matter where you are on the page. If my journals become too lengthy I might split these buttons down into subsections or make groups of text collapsible. I don’t particularly want a webpage in my project that is purely a wall of text as it can, in my opinion, look boring and ugly which will impact its presentation value. I’ll likely add images of my work processes in the near future to rectify this when it ultimately becomes a problem.

26/02/24

Over the past few days I’ve been mostly making progress with my project proposal and planning documentation. This has been split into different sections with limited word counts which include a review section of what I’ve learned in the past two academic years, a project concept statement, a statement of methodology I will use in my project, and how I will review and evaluate my work. I’m certain I want to do a Foley based project but I’m honestly struggling with this document at the moment because I seem to be getting stuck in a strange situation of either not knowing what to write or writing way too much. A lot of my sections have doubled the word count at the moment so I definitely need to cut down on what I’ve written. I think my over-writing has stemmed mainly from my anxiety of making sure I fulfil the criteria for each section. I need to identify what may count as “waffle” or irrelevant and save that information to be put elsewhere. Some information can probably be shuffled into other sections where they are relevant too. Since this document is separate from the website, I may put the long-form version in my own format on the proposal webpage.

In terms of research, I haven’t got as far as I would’ve liked so far. I began reading the book I took out of the library (“The Sound Effects Bible” by Ric Viers) and it’s quite interesting. I haven’t got very far in it yet, and a lot of the start of the book was acknowledgements and the author’s introduction (which to be fair was a good insight into the career of a sound effects artist). I believe the way to make best use of this book will be to dive into different chapters when needed rather than read it in order (it does say it’s “not intended to be read like a novel” (Viers, R. 2008) after all). I’m going to also use the quote just now to practise referencing too as that will be important in future research (oddly, it counts pages in roman numerals and then starts again after page “XXVI” at 1).

References:

Viers, R. (2008). The Sound Effects Bible. Studio City, Los Angeles, CA: Michael Wiese Productions. p.XXVI.

28/02/24

Yesterday, I focused primarily on the planning section of my project proposal documentation. This section requires me to go through a week by week table documenting what I plan to do with college session time (including studio work), at home self directed study, and what resources I might need. For the earlier weeks this is quite easy to predict as it's a lot of set up and preparation for the more condensed sections of work in the mid to late weeks. But, for these later weeks I’m finding it hard to be specific about what I’ll be doing. A lot of these weeks (especially after Easter Holiday) will revolve mainly around a cycle of research, practical work, documenting what I’ve done, and keeping my website up to date. My project’s progress could be quite fluid and unpredictable too so I will definitely need to be able to adapt to changes in my workflow and these plans may sway from time to time which is something I need to accept.

Today, I continued with the planning portion of the document but a lot of the session time was dedicated to organising with my classmates who will be using the studios as there is only limited space in there. We drew out on a large piece of paper a timetable detailing each week and day of the project and wrote down which space was required by who. For me, I needed use of Studio 1 as it has ample space and resources to record the practical sound effects I require. It even has a monitor inside the recording booth so I can record Foley whilst looking at the images on the screen (similar to Foley stages in a professional setting).

The process of organising the studio time took a lot of communication between all of the class but no significant complications came up and we all were very happy with what was sorted out. My time slot for studio work is on Thursdays from 9:00 to 12:30.

March

07/03/24

By Friday of last week, I had finished my proposal and planning document. The main thing holding me back from finishing it was going over the word count. I had to cut it down a lot by rewording and rearranging vocabulary and editing out irrelevant material. I found this very tedious as I was trying to make sure I had as much information in my proposal as possible. The word count was extremely limiting and frustrating. I managed to eventually get it in a state I’m happy.

My next task, which started this week, was to create a project proposal slideshow which will be presented on the 11th March. Building the presentation itself wasn’t too difficult. I’ve done presentations in the past for my old job where I made audio for a small educational entertainment company. I already had a suitable music themed Google Slides template with musical notes, a piano, and a trumpet (the piano and trumpet are so anatomically incorrect though it's funny) which would improve the presentability of the presentation. It was important that the slides were neat, looked good and were readable. I made sure of this too as I knew having just text on a slide wouldn't look good, so I made sure to include an array of relevant images and flowcharts. Some of the slides are animated too so things will appear in a certain order, again improving presentability.

Additionally, I made a script to go along with the slides. Writing this wasn’t much trouble at all and I ended up incorporating things I cut out my initial project proposal document into this script. The script contains more detail than the slides and is designed to be read alongside the presentation. I’m thinking there’s too much detail though - it's 4 and a half pages and 1674 words long.

I later learned I only had 10 minutes to present my presentation and I’m currently worried that I’ve written too much. If I were to read my script word for word interrupted it would mean I would have to speak 167.4 words per minute at least to stay under the 10 minute mark. Debatrix.com claims, “In the English language, people speak about 140 words per minute. A fast speaker will get to 170 words per minute, a slow speaker will use around 110 words,” (Debatrix, n.d.). I’m certainly not a “fast speaker,” especially when under pressure when presenting so I think I’ll have to ad lib a bit based on the contents of my script. I’m also going to also practise presenting the presentation in front of some friends over the weekend which should help me.

After I present on Monday, I’ll add my proposal content to my website, including the slides and the full 1674 word script.

Ref:

Debatrix (n.d.). Speech calculator: how long does it take to deliver your speech? [online] Speech calculator: how long does it take to deliver your speech? Available at: https://debatrix.com/en/speech-calculator/#:~:text=In%20the%20English%20language%2C%20people,will%20use%20around%20110%20words. [Accessed 7 Mar. 2024].

12/03/24

Yesterday, I delivered my project's pitch presentation slideshow. In true honesty, I think it went well. I ended up using my aforementioned script but only to remind me of what I should be saying and didn't read it verbatim. Most of what I said was (sort of) improvised as over the weekend I had practiced presenting my pitch so by this point I basically remembered the key points I wanted to get across. Judging by my tutor's questions at the end, I could tell they had a clear understanding of what my project aims to achieve.

In hindsight, I probably should've taken the time to cut down the original 1700 word (+) script into easily readable bullet points. I think I would've had a less stressful time (as I was extremely nervous) presenting if I were to have done this. Another criticism I would give myself (and this is after watching back the footage of my presentation) is that I tend to mumble or get caught up in my words a lot. This may be an issue due to my anxiety but I'm hoping not too much was lost in my communication. I think simply practicing public speaking more to grow my confidence would help me fix this. But, overall I think the pitch went well.

Today I've been reorganising this page of my website, the reflective journals. I decided that a wall of text will not look very good presentation wise. To fix this, I've chosen to use a feature that organises text into different tabs. I'm going to make a group of tabs for each month, and each tab will contain its own entry. I need to also start adding images to the site too (and maybe a different pallet of colours) because this website looks painfully dull right now and presenting what I'm doing in the form of images is important to communicate what I'm doing.

Screenshot from my project pitch video. Click here to watch the to watch the whole thing.

Old, boring reflective journal page design.

New, sleek, organized reflective journal page design.

20/03/24

Over the past week (and a bit), I've got quite a large amount done:

First off, I implemented all of the Project Proposal information from its document into my website, including the pitch presentation video and its script. I will probably add more images to this page later in the project to improve it's overall presentation but for now it feels good to know one of my pages on the website is (almost) complete.

On the subject of presentation, I also changed the design scheme of the whole website. I decided to make a purple and gold theme based around one of the background flower patterns available from Wix which is, in my opinion, a lot more favourable, and looks better than just pure white, seen in the previous week's reflective journal. Keeping on track of good presentation throughout my project is important as its one of the assessment criteria and making sure I have a nice looking web page with plenty of images and interactive content is a good way of staying on top of this task.

I also laid a solid foundation for my practical work this week by editing together the clip I will use to record foley work for. I ended up deciding to do three clips and combine them into one short form clip, which allows me to produce a range of sound effects, not limit myself to one scene, and I won't have to overwork myself with too many minutes of footage. I edited together clips from Toy Story 2, Wallace and Gromit: Curse of the Were Rabbit, and Lord of the Rings: Fellowship of the Ring on Microsoft Clipchamp. This was a very basic program that was preinstalled on my PC, it was extremely easy to use, and it a very noncomplex process. Using a more complex piece of software that may cause me confusion would've just been a hurdle in my opinion and I wasn't going to pay for software either (those Adobe prices are a bit steep). Besides, I'm an audio production student learning with DAWs, not a media student learning with programs such as Adobe Premier Pro. I'll keep to my territory, and they can keep to theirs. For now. My future work with Foley may cross the lines into video editing software.

Either way, I'm very happy with my final clip and was excited to start the process of editing my own Foley work into it. I've kept a version with the original movies' audio so I can compare it to my Foley work as part of my evaluation.

Next item to mention is the subject of research which, up until this week, I had felt I had been lacking in a lot. This was probably because I had focused a lot of time and energy into my Project Proposal and was easily getting burned out by writing a lot. Now I can allocate that energy into my research instead.

So, I've done some this week, mainly involving the subject of microphones and how to effectively use them in Foley. I've also done research on a subject I didn't initially anticipate I'd research (as I was unaware of it) which was spotting sheets, cue sheets, and SMPTE timecodes; a very, very important part of the planning process in a Foley project. This very much proves how important my research is.

I think I've written up these sections as well as I can. I'm just slightly nervous that I haven't included enough information in some capacity. The problem lies in what capacity though? This I'm unsure of. Maybe I have written enough? This makes me very anxious and uneasy as I want to be certain I have enough information to meet the research criteria. I think the best way to resolve this is to simply keep on the research grind. Given time, I will likely find any missing information on different subject and will implement it into my work.

After learning about spotting sheets, and SMPTE timecodes, I used my new researched knowledge to do a spotting session. I started filling out a slightly modified spotting sheet on Google sheets which would help me plan my practical work process. The details of this are on my Planning and Production page. Needless to say, this process was extremely time consuming, taking several hours, and I didn't even finish it yet. This process also put into perspective the sheer amount of sound effects this project is going to need. At this point I'm now starting to doubt if I can actually finish all the sound effects in time, especially with Easter Break being next week. That's two whole weeks of studio time gone (this is the only time in my life I've not wanted to go on holiday/break and I don't know if I should be concerned about that) and I didn't do any practical work during my session on the 11th either so I'd say I'm behind on work at the moment too. I'm currently considering a way to record Foley at home. I already have a DAW at home (FL Studio) and a Focusrite Scarlett Solo and alls I would need is a suitable microphone with an XLR connection.

21/03/24

This reflective journal entry is only a day after the previous, but I wanted to get one more in before Easter Break today to cover what I did in my studio time today.

I've started recording in the studio and started work on the Toy Story 2 section of the project. The spotting sheet still is not finished but I've completed the portion of it that covers this section of the video. I didn't bring any materials into college myself, but I actually found suitable objects around the studio that fit the scene. I found an empty microphone box that was suitable for a lot of the sounds the craftsman uses in my scene. Also, one of the doors in the studio is quite squeaky so I captured that for when Al opens the door at the start of the scene. All this required me to use my knowledge from my research on microphones such as placement, gain, and polar patterns. More details are given in the planning and production section.

The next two weeks are the Easter holidays, which as I said previously, makes me nervous because that's 2 weeks away from college and studio time. I'm hoping I can keep up my current pace when producing work in terms of things like research without hinderance. I've already mentioned the possibility of recording foley at home which would be extremely advantageous but I am questioning the practicality of it as my room is very small and I might not have enough space. Also the microphone might pick up my loud PC fans.

I've also borrowed a portable stereo recorder from college to use during the next two weeks to record ambiance. These sound effects will prove useful during the Lord of the Rings section in which a lot of the scene takes place outside. Without the ambience of the forest and fields, the scene won't sound realistic.

April

07/04/24

This entry comes on the Sunday before Easter Break ends and I'm not feeling good about the work I've done in the past 2 weeks. I simply haven't done enough.

First I'd like to focus on what I have done. I've been watching videos about Foley, and reading "The Sound Effects Bible" by Ric Viers in my free time, but the unfortunate side to this is that I haven't been taking any notes. Hopefully I can find the videos I watched in my history and watch them again so they can be properly used in my research.

I also made a bit of progress on my spotting sheet, getting a good way through it. I'm almost done spotting the Wallace and Gromit clip but some of my "spots"(?) need more information so I can use it more efficiently when I need to look up sounds I need.

I also managed to record ambient birdsong at Cannock Chase, a nearby forest run by the forestry commission. I was happy with what I recorded there but it was very windy (which arguably is good for the ambiance). I'll cover this more in planning and production.

Finally, I've got a few materials together (like a bike pump and an aerosol can) to record based on what I've written on my spotting sheet.

Unfortunately, not much else has been done. If I'm to be completely transparent, my mental state has taken a complete downturn during easter break. I have not felt this low for a long time, and I feel like any momentum I had with my workflow has completely come to a halt. I'm really struggling to get going again and I haven't done enough work in the past 14 days. The time pressure behind this project is making me feel a lot worse too because I know if I can't get working again soon, I'll fail the project which will impact my future negatively. All this information is creating a massive stirring cauldron of anxiety which just makes the situation worse in my mind.

I think the key to getting through this is to get back to college and basically get my head down and work. Being back in a daily routine will help me find organisation in my workflow which will help me clearly see my steps towards finishing the project. Having studio time back will help too as I enjoy that aspect of the work a lot.

But, as a last resort, I can also turn to college counselling if things don't go well. I'll see how tomorrow and the next few days go.

12/04/24

Most of my time last week was spent updating some of the details on my website including details of research regarding microphones and some updates to my planning and production page based on what I’ve done so far. Personally, I feel as though my progress was a bit slower than I would have liked and I really need to get some momentum behind how I work now I’m on the other side of the easter break. My mental health still isn’t the best but it has improved a slight bit after this week has started. Additionally, we’re getting further into spring and the weather’s improving, which should leave problems such as seasonal depression in the past.

In terms of practical work, my session time this week yielded good results. I brought in a few objects to record in the studio including a vice, a toy dart shooter, and an air spray can. I had chosen these objects during the spotting stage (although I was originally going to use an old bike pump but I lost it) as I felt I could create recordings out of them that would match on screen actions seen on screen. They were used to recreate sounds from a chair, a small pump machine, and a paint sprayer. Using my learned recording and editing techniques, I feel as if the results were pretty good. I did have a moment when I had problems with electrical interference and my mic choices but these were solved and are detailed in the problem solving section.

20/04/24

This week has been very productive. I’ve continued editing my research and planning and production pages ensuring I compile all the necessary detail to get my points across. Surprisingly, some of these sections took longer to put into words than I would have liked. I wrote a section about gain staging and I wanted the section to sound professional and not oversimplified but I struggled to get some of the technical information into a readable sentence. I think it’s good that I’m taking care with my wording as I want to convey that I've researched a lot of important information without resorting to what would be considered “waffling”. I need to be able to confidently convey that I have a firm understanding of the subject in order to achieve a high mark for my research, and I can apply my practised knowledge to my practical work.

I was also lucky enough to have an extra studio session this week, as someone was out of college one afternoon. I took advantage of this extra time to accelerate my foley work in my practical sessions. Given this extra time, I was able to finish my first movie clip (Toy Story 2) with my final session recording sound effects for a mini set of drawers, a pair of glasses, and more. I even tried experimenting with more synthetic sounds such as the doorbell right at the start in which I used an artificial Tubular Bell sound to recreate the classic “Ding Dong” sound. By the end of the week I had even moved on to my second clip (Wallace and Gromit: Curse of the Were-Rabbit) and started experimenting with new sound effects. These included recreating sounds for sharpening kitchen knives (I used a table knife as I can’t bring sharp objects into college, obviously), cutting up carrots, and bunnies eating carrots. As the scene in question called for multiple bunnies eating carrots, everyone present in the studio that day (classmates and tutors included) took it in turns to eat carrots into the microphone to add variety to the massive horde of bunnies devouring their veggies. This was rather entertaining and produced a very good result and I’m glad everyone was open to the very bizarre nature of it. Everyone performing slightly differently definitely added to the scene as it produced variety and prevented the sound effects from sounding too repetitive/similar. This will lead to a more professional sounding product, which is my aim for the project. Working in a group with classmates is a good practice too as it helps me learn good teamwork skills, which are very useful for my personal development.

At the end of Thursday’s session, I isolated and exported my first clip from my project. Next week, I will create a Google Forms sheet with this video attached to receive anonymous feedback from others. It can ask questions like “Are the sound effects in the video clip accurate to what's happening on screen?” and “In your opinion, do you think any sound effects are missing from the clip?”. These responses will be used as part of my evaluation and can be used to improve the project while I still work on it.

28/04/24

I started this week by creating a Google Forms survey for my first foley clip. I made sure to construct it in a way that allows me to use the feedback to improve and fix my work and to compare the quality of my work to a professional grade foley production. This form of evaluation is in line with my project aims as detailed in my project proposal so it will help determine if my project is on track to achieve my goals or not. I think the questions I put forward in the survey are good and I've done a good job organising it all. The feedback I've received so far makes me feel confident and proud of my work too. I'm feeling more optimistic than I was earlier in the project. More details on the form can be read about in my evaluation section.

In terms of practical work, I've also made some great progress on my Wallace and Gromit clip. I recorded a range of sound effects including different footstep sounds, impact sounds for when a bunch of bunnies attack Gromit, and some pots and pans for the same scene. I think I can get to my third clip in my next session if I use my time well.

Despite this, I kept having an issue with Logic Pro regarding the in-built video player. It keeps freezing sometimes when I scroll through the timeline. Its a very annoying issue which unfortunately cannot be fixed. I wrote about it in my problem solving page. It's very annoying as it really slows me down in the studio, digging into my overall time available.

I made a lot of progress with my research side of my website. I added an essays worth of content about the history of sound in movies and media with detail about techniques of music composers and Foley artists in film. I really like this page and I think it's well presented (presentation is a criteria in my final mark, I mustn't forget) with several relevant images aside the interesting and useful information written.

I also wrote about "Foley Recipes ", which goes into detail about different objects and physical techniques Foley artists will use to create different sound effects. I enjoyed researching this. I read a lot of "The Sound Effects Bible" by Ric Viers for this section as near the end he writes about a whole catalogue of sound effects he's had to create in the past and how to make them. Despite this I had to write (and I'll repeat here as it's relevant to self reflection):

"Initially, before I started my project I thought I would need to research quite a lot of Foley recipes. But to my surprise so far, I've actually been able to use my own creative intuition to determine how I should make specific sound effects. For example, in my Toy Story 2 clip I was able to recreate a pump noise using a toy Nerf gun I found under my bed from 15 years ago. I also manged to recreate a squeaky chair noise using an old rusty vice from my dad's garage. I've had good feedback on these effects too that say they sound very professional (see evaluation section). So overall, I'm proud of myself that I've managed to this with little research and gives me a lot of confidence in my own work..."

With this in mind, I think my third clip will need some specific Foley recipe research as I'm still unsure how to recreate a sound effect for Gandalf's carriage. But as for the horse, I actually already knew what to do. I bought a coconut today and emptied the contents and cut it half. I will write more detail about this in my research and planning in production but I'm happy to say that they sound remarkably like horse hooves when clapped together.

I think my project's weakest area right now is the "Planning and Production" section. The problem I keep having is that I'll be writing it but then go on and say something thing along the lines of "I did x or y because of what I discovered in my research. See research section for information for information about this topic..." but the problem is I won't have actually written the research notes on my website so my focus keeps getting diverted. I want to make sure I actually keep linking my research to my planning and production but the way I've been doing it has left the "Planning and Production" section a bit neglected. To fix this I think I'll finish my research on EQ usage and effects and write it up this week, then try to keep the majority of my focus on the Planning and Production page for the rest of the duration of the project.

Next week, May begins and the hand in date is quickly approaching. I'm confident in myself right now. I might have a final week of stressful condensed work (let's be honest, who won't) but I think I'm going to get this done.

May

04/05/24

This week, as mentioned in my previous entry, I decided to focus most of my written work on completing my research page. I made very good progress on this I think, writing extensively about Foley "recipes" and EQ and effects usage. My research pages are almost finished with this completed. There's just some fine tuning to be done and some extra little bits of information I want to include and I'll be very happy with what I've done.

I'm still concerned with the amount I've got left to do. I have some paragraphs about problem solving I want to get written up plus I still have Planning and Production sections that are missing. I have around 2 weeks to get this all done but I think it's definitely possible. Additionally, as the project comes to an end, I have an evaluation I need to write up too on top of my analysis of the Google forms feedback (which I'm still receiving results for). Even with this, I still think I can get it all done.

The best news to come out of this week is probably that I've finished the recording processes of my practical work, including things for my third clip (which I ended up having to cut short). After I finished my second clip this week, I was surprised how quickly I managed to do the portion of the third clip that I decided to do. I used my ambience recordings for a lot of it (this even included footstep recordings from when I was "in the field"), and my research to recreate horse and cart sound effects to a convincing quality. Needless to say, I'm proud of what I've achieved. I'm going to use my time in the studio next week to fine tune all my practical work, balancing the audio and making use of additional effects if needed. I can then export my project and cut it down to where my clip stops using my audio and then I think I'll have my final practical work done.

My main worry at the moment is that I'll procrastinate too much with all the writing I have to do. I need to do it though as I don't want my final mark to take a hit as a result of gaps in the website. I have to maintain focus, and fight through these final two weeks.

12/05/24

I think I'm finished with the project. All that writing I was worried about last week? Its all done. Throughout the week I've been chipping away at it. Thursday came along and I used the last of my studio time to finish any final tweaks to my work, exported it, and uploaded it to YouTube. I then was able to add the video to my Recordings page, which I've now renamed "Final Product" as it seemed to suit it better. When I got home, I additionally decided to readd music to the Wallace and Gromit clip just for fun. I was thrilled to hear my sound effects alongside the music. It worked so well! It was like tying a neat, pretty little bow on top of my practical work. I added this video onto the Final Product page later on.

On Saturday/Sunday I decided to go all out and finish my project. I was at a stage at this point where I really wanted to get this done, and be freed from the stress. I ended up fuelling myself up on coffee and going on a 12 hour long work stint typing up everything I had left to do. I finished my research page, planning and production page, and evaluation page (that includes the feedback analysis and final personal evaluation) all in one fell sweep. Was this healthy? I'm not sure. But I got everything done, and I'm under the belief it's of good quality, so the results speak for themself. Additionally, I finally got around to designing my homepage. I kept it very simple as it basically serves little purpose other than introducing the project's title.

Overall, I'm proud of the work I've managed to produce in the past few months. I've learned a lot and achieved my goals for the project.

I think this is where I conclude my project for good. I may have to add/change things slightly on Monday when I go into college but I doubt it'll be anything major. I may also send my website link around to friends for feedback and proofreading. But, hopefully, this is probably the last thing I'll write up for my project. With that said, thanks for reading my project, and I hope you like the final product!