Sound – Hunted – Indoor Foley + Dialogue

      

Today we completed the indoors Foley with an empty classroom as our location to match the scenes in the film. Along with the Foley we recorded the dialogue and voice over  For the dialogue we had the original film on the laptop to use as reference. By watch the line in the film before re-recording we could mimic the original delivery in speed and tone. We read the dialogue from a new script I had typed up rather than the original script for the project.

Foley sounds were footsteps in the room as well as many chair sounds; pulling out the chairs, sitting on them, throwing them back. We also recorded a wild track of the room’s atmosphere without any dialogue or sound effects to be placed over all the flashbacks to plug any moments of silence between effects or dialogue. The room had a clock on the wall and so I came up with the idea of recording the sound of it ticking. This could be placed in the background of the scenes but I think it might work as a sort of audio transition e.g. the ticking will fade in on the last shot of the stalking scene and transition into the flashback location

Sound – Hunted – Script

HUNTED Script

I typed up a new script for the film that we can use when re-recording the dialogue. I did this because whilst filming we changed the lines a lot and improvised a bit. Because of this if we had recorded the dialogue from the original it wouldn’t have fit the video.

When typing up the script I basically transcribed from the video so the re-recordings would be completely accurate. I used the master script format for the scripting, using this web page as guide lines: http://www.filmschoolonline.com/sample_lessons/sample_lesson_format.htm

I also added in a voice over at the films start as we were asked to do. I tried to keep it simple and just introduce Vince as the main character of the film as well as the theme of horror books and obsession with them.

Sound – Hunted – Outside Foley

The foley for the film comes in two types, outdoors and indoors. Today we completed all the outdoors Foley; footsteps on grass, running on dry leaves etc. We recorded with a wind guard over the microphone to reduce wind distortion on the recordings.

When recording walking or running sounds we found it walked best for the microphone holder to record his own footsteps. If we tried to record each other the microphone picked up the microphone holders footsteps as they followed the subject, resulting in two sets of footsteps in the recording.

Most of the sounds we recorded where running and walking at different speeds and on different surfaces. We had stone paving, grass, soil, and dry leaves.

We also recorded twigs breaking so that we could play them just before the stalker appears as a subtle indication of his approach. This is mainly for the shot with Vince on the fence when he finally senses the Stalker. In the footage we shot it’s unclear what tips Vince off to the Stalkers presence, so I saw this sound dub as an opportunity to add a sound that alerts Vince to a figure behind him. The snap of a twig and the rustle of leaves should do the trick.

Another addition was Vince’s breathing and gasps. For the POV shot I always thought it played weird without any sort of noise from Vince; a yelp as he trips up or a gasp as he thinks he sees the Stalker. We recorded these sounds to be added in in editing.

When recording I took out a checklist where I noted down the sounds we needed to get and I ticked them off as we recorded them.

Sound – Hunted Sound list

Hunted – Sound List

Background of outside

Swish of automatic doors

Footsteps on stone path

Rustle of over shoulder bag as he walks

General rustle of walking

Background of classroom

Door opening

Chatting of people outside as door opens

Rustle of Friend walking

Pulling out the chair

Sitting down on chair

Dialogue: Friend greets Vince

Page turning

Dialogue: Friend asks Vince what he’s reading

Grab book and slam it on the table

Vince gets up and throws the chair back

Dialogue: Friend and Vince argue

Rustle of movement

Background of outside

Footsteps on stone path

Rustle of over shoulder bag as he walks

General rustle of walking

Background of outside

Footsteps on grass

Rustle of over shoulder bag as he walks

General rustle of walking

Footsteps on soil and crunch of dead leaves

Footsteps turn messy and chaotic as Vince stumbles

Background of Classroom

Dialogue: Friend and Vince discuss

Both get up- Pushing chairs away and rustle of movement

Background of outside – Close to road so with cars in the background

Vince jumps onto soil and dead leaves

Grabs his bag

Running on the soil and leaves with bag

Bag drops to the ground

Stalker runs up to Vince and grabs him

Classroom background

Dialogue: Vince talks about the power of minds

Background outside

Sound of car going past in the background

Extra sounds to add

Voice over:

Could be at the beginning to introduce the character, so it’s Vince just introducing his character and the themes of the movie. Should be short and simple to fit the opening scene before the flashback.

Transition to flashback:

I would like to find a way to blend the transition between the flashbacks and the stalker scenes with sound. This could be a woosh sound, or a dramatic little sting of music.

Hunted Evaluation

Hunted – Final Film

Hunted – Editing

Rob, being the editor, handled all of the editing; assembling the clips, sorting out sound and music, colour grading etc. I assisted slightly, making a few suggestions along the way. The suggestions I made that impact on the edit most are:

Making the flashbacks black and white to make clear they’re separate from the present stalking scenes and suggest they are flashbacks. We also both agreed that a clean cut worked best going into and out of flashbacks, after fades and other transitions didn’t work.

(An example of the black and white flashbacks + The subtle zoom being added to the last shot)

I also suggested adding a subtle zoom to the final shot of Vince’s monologue. I thought it would add tensions and just make the shot a bit more interesting as it holds on that single angle for a good while.

(The single shot filmed later to bridge the shots where Vince has his bag and glasses and the ones where he doesnt, a mistake made during reshoots.)

Hunted – Reshoots

As we were unhappy with the comedic ending we shot we decided a short reshoot was necessary to change the ending.

So we returned to the trees behind college to reshoot the last couple of shots. Although the two characters managed to be wearing the same cloths for the reshoots we do have a few continuity issues. The first being  weather; for the reshoot day it had been snowing, meaning that when the shots are put into the film the ground will suddenly be covered in snow and it will be snowing.

To try and help transition to the shots where it’s snowing I suggested we should just film a shot of the tops of the trees as the snow falls around them. I don’t know if it will work but hopefully it will end up being seen as a shot that suggests it has just started snowing.

In the end it might not matter that much as the film has a surreal quality any way; we end up unsure how much of what we saw was real. So it could be that as we see the snow falling we’re returning to reality or the snow could sign that we’re in some kind of paranoid dream. Either way I think that shot of the snow falling will help transition to from not snowing to snowing.

The second continuity issue is that Vince no longer has his bag in the reshoot shots and Aaron wasn’t wearing his glasses like he was for the first shoot. We’re hoping to cover this by filming another couple of shots on Tuesday, maybe a shot of the Vince character dropping his bag in shock and his glasses falling to the ground as he runs.

This could be as simple as a close up of the glasses falling on the ground, a close up of the bag strap slipping off his shoulder and a close up of the bag dropping on the ground.

Hunted – Filming Continues

Today we completed filming on the film, recording the stalking scenes. The equipment and props used were the camera, tripod, and the stalker costume.

 My main involvement was playing the creepy stalker dressed in the costume I designed and assembled with the addition of a black morph suit mask. To get the morph suit mask we bought a full black suit and then cut off the bottom half to make it just the top and the head.

The scenes we shot turned out very different from what had been scripted and storyboarded. First, there was a major location change from crowded streets in town to the empty forest area behind college. We did this because we really wanted to get the film recorded today and it just wasn’t possible to make the journey into town at the end of the day with fading light. With the new location a lot of the storyboarded shots went out the window as we started improvising in the new location.

We may end up filming some extra scenes in town if we can, that will lead into the forest shot. Otherwise it will stay as is. We’ll wait until the next session when we will begin editing the footage to see if we need reshoots or added scenes.

Hunted – What’s left to do

In a group meeting we established what is left to do before the film is complete. 

– Film the remaining scenes which involve the main character being stalked.

– Editing the footage (This job is specific to Rob as the editor)

– Finishing the credit sequence (Specific to me as the production designer)

– Sound design and creating the sound track. It would be nice for Rob to do this as well but for times’ sake it might be good for someone else to handle it, or at least help out.

We plan to film the final scenes on Friday the 11th of January.