Proposal Draft sent for Feedback

 So, I spent most of weekend developing my latest idea. I present the results below. This comes from a document that I sent to the tutor for feedback.

This is the main idea that I came up with, which would serve as the topic (title?) of the proposal:

The use of sound design techniques and principles (like layering) and recording techniques in creating bigger than life film soundtracks.

I very well understand that this is a very broad topic which could cover everything relating to film sound. However, I would mainly want to focus on sound effects here, but I want to leave myself a sort of open door here in case something goes wrong during my research, so then I wouldn’t have to change the whole topic. (But more on that later...) (Also, I could substitute the term ‘bigger than life’ with just ‘the film sound’)
 

 Therefore, I would introduce a sub-heading here, which could also serve as the aim, something along the lines of:

Create a VST like software (or plug-in) to generate customised ‘bigger-than-life’ Hollywood style punches and hits out of a library of pre-recorded and synthesised sounds and based on a set of user defined parameters, to demonstrate sound design techniques and principles in the title.

Going back to what I said earlier about not wanting to just simply re-score or re-design clips from movies, my idea here is to take it all a step further. Instead of doing what’s been done a million times over, I came up with a concept of creating a VST plug-in, in which I could dynamically generate sound effects in real-time, and then use this plug-in to re-score scenes from movies in MIDI.

Basically, I would focus here on punches (maybe gunshots even), but my concept is as much about the software itself, but also about the sound design principles and recording techniques behind it as well.

Now, I am almost 100% sure something like this doesn’t exist yet. The closest thing is the Kontakt Foley Collection which you can see here: http://www.foleycollection.com/sample-page/ but that is mainly footsteps. As I said, I want to take it that one small step (excuse the pun) further.

This is where things start to look interesting to me, because, as I said earlier, with previous project ideas I was REALLY struggling to come up with my aims and objectives, and mostly the rationale. With this new idea however I can see the project clearly, from conception to the end. Also, I think it helps that this is a more practice-focused project, and as much as I love sound design theory, I think I’d rather focus on doing, or rather creating something. I am going to take a bit of a side-stepping route describing this in detail, so please excuse me if it seems backwards, but it’s proving the rationale which has held me back from all of my previous projects, so let’s start with it:

PROJECT RATIONALE:

I want to create a simple to use plug-in/app/software for beginning sound designers, film makers, animators, video-casters... anyone who does any sort of video projects. Instead of relying on stock sounds (and most libraries don’t have many variations on each sound either) I want to develop a tool which will create on-the-fly professional-sounding effects. Every punch or hit would be different from the other because of randomised sample selection and could range in scale from small hits to big cinematic knock-outs. The plug-in could also be used in low budget film productions and or video games, where there are budget limitations in hiring a professional foley stage and again, to not to rely on stock sounds.

EXPECTED OUTCOME:

Now, I do understand that there are reasons why software like this doesn’t exist. It could simply be a matter of that it just wouldn’t work! Especially in linear visual medium, where every effect like a punch or  hit is hand-crafted to match exactly what is needed in that shot. However, I believe that the principles that I will apply in creating this plug-in could easily be translated into the world of video games for example, and therefore I will have...

CONTINGENCY PLAN:

That is why I would have the main topic of the dissertation being more broad and general, so in case if something goes wrong I could change the sub-heading and re-focus my existing ideas into a different medium like video games. Heck, I could even just scrap the idea of creating the plug-in altogether if the results are sub-par, and just focus on more theory based approach and write about sound design principles (like layering) to get that ‘film’ sound. Half the job (i.e. research and recording) would be done anyway so I could then possibly look into differences of authentic sounds with their Hollywood counterparts. As an extreme example, I could multi-mike and record someone punching me, and then use this recording to compare it with how a punch sounds in film. (I could also do the same with a gunshot, explosion... the possibilities are there but the important thing is, with all this I have the Plan B, C... and so on!)

Now, let me backtrack a bit and talk about the idea itself:

As I said, this project would be as much about the theory and principles of sound design, but also about creating something. However, the difference in this project is that the ratio would be split into a more even 50-50, instead of a more theory-based approach of my previous ideas. I can clearly see the steps needed to carry out this project: from research about sound design techniques, learning to develop the plug-in, carry out recording session to gather the samples, then develop the plug-in and then use it in action.

Some more ideas about the plug-in itself in bullet points:

• Simple VST plug-in that creates a sound effect each time a MIDI key is pressed.
• Combine elements of real-life recorded sounds (newspaper hits, vegetable abuse, face slaps etc) with synthesised sounds (like bass hits and claps for adding low end and transient respectively)
• All samples would be phase aligned and matched to remove possible unwanted cancelation
• Samples would be played randomized each time creating a slightly different variation to the sound (so that for example Fruit 1 would have 10 samples playing in random order, Fruit 2 would have 10 samples and so on...)
• User can decide the volume and other parameters of each layer, therefore creating unique combinations of sounds
• A simple GUI where the user can make all the selections.
• My main area of focus would be to create presets based on a certain film or a genre (so could have something like a ‘kung-fu’ preset, or ‘Hollywood’ preset...)
• At the output stage there would be a limiter, also a stereo-width tool..

I have started prototyping in Ableton to see what can be done. If I get this project OK’ed, then the prototype will go into the Concept Development.

OBJECTIVES:

• Discover the principles behind sound design
• Research recording techniques
• Develop the plug-in that uses the discovered principles
• Demonstrate the use of the created software on a series of clips from existing films, and re-design fight scenes in film examples raging from Raging Bull, Indiana Jones to Ted and/or kung-fu movies.

TASKS:

• Identifying the potential software to use and learning it (Max MSP, Kontakt, SynthEdit, SynthMaker)
• Researching the bigger than life Hollywood sound and principles behind it
• Learning the plug-in development in chosen programme
• Recording the sounds
• Create the software
• Re-design existing movies using software
• Feedback
• Evaluate

DELIVERABLES:

• The software, the plug-in itself
• Re-scored examples of film using the created software
• Everything else we discussed in class like the search list etc.

DISSEMINATION:

• Plug-in can be tested and played-about-with in a real-time demo
• Demonstration and play-back of clips

Some final notes: I do understand very well that this could all go tits up and that the created plug-in could simply suck. One of my reasons for creating this is so that film-makers wouldn’t have to rely on stock sounds, but then this plug-in could prove a one-trick-pony where it’s good only at creating one type of sound/punch, so the whole idea behind it would kind of become moot. However, I do like the ratio of work split on this project: there is research to be done, software to be learned, but then there are thousands of sounds to be recorded and edited, so I would be getting enough ‘book-time’ and enough studio-time; enough balance to help me stay sane!