Category Archives: Winter 2021

Project 5 ( Gorilla Tape 2 Electric Boogaloo )

This video was a lot of fun filming, getting together was a little bit tedious and rough because of classes and the whole quarantine. The idea for my project was an easy one to come up with because my friends and I have been making little funny skits since mid 2017 and whenever we had free time and were bored we would come up with a skit or something and go out film it, The gorilla tape has been an on going joke for the last couple years and I always like making advertisements but I only really used comedy as a selling point. The scenes were a bit hard to film especially the outside scene because it started to rain which was not helpful so we had to wait it out. The scenes indoor were not too hard to do we just had to wait until everyone was gone so we could do it without interruptions.

My biggest problem I had was timing because I could not do it whenever because my friends are both in school and one of them also in a full time job, also the weather was pretty much completely against me the one time we were able to film it decides to rain for a couple hours so I had only about 30 minutes to record the clips without any interruptions.

If I was to do a project like this again I would probably stick with the advertising genre and find a different product, but I would really prepare and plan to have a back up plan in case of bad weather. I would use more people in my video but my best friend ( the one I usually do videos with ) is off in Georgia for basic training for the national guard.

Final Project(Rednecks and Cereal: Episode I: The Nuclear Problem)

My project was very fun and exciting to make. Despite there being countless distractions for the actors considering the actors either had children or were children. Most of my time was spent setting the scenes and getting the best lighting possible. The place that I was filming had terrible lighting for shooting, which is expected most houses aren’t built for videography. The process was difficult and I wish that the actors and actresses were more flexible and less busy with their lives. I noticed many mistakes that could’ve been fixed if I had more resources and more freedom with the actors and actresses. 

My biggest obstacle was most definitely time, time got in the way of good lighting, actors and actresses responsibilities, and my time with editing considering how many projects I have to do. When I was doing scenes it was hard because it is hard to explain what I want in some scenes, so I ended up acting out the scene in front of my cast multiple times to almost each scene right. I had to record my actors with a separate audio device to get quality audio. Overall it was a challenging experience and that is what made it fun. I had a fun time making jokes, and messing around in between scenes to counteract me ordering them around each scene. 

If I was to do this kind of project again, I would most definitely worry way more about lighting and try to get something less complicated to fit into three minutes of recording.  I would also find actors or actresses that were way freer and I would try multiple angles for each scene, maybe even have multiple cameras in each scene if possible. I did enjoy this project, even though it was a little bit stressful.

Sources: The music from the table scene I got from Adobe Stock and I am allowed to use it. I got the emergency broadcast noise from: https://freesound.org/home/ .

Plushy Kaiju

So my final project was supposed to be an epic kaiju battle I enacted with plush animals I kept from my childhood. As the project went on I realized I would have to lean into the cheapness and read the cheesy bad names and over the top narration completely seriously and treat it more like a video story book than the battle I initially imagined.

I found the entire process frustrating as I had to learn how to manage elements in Premiere and Audition with no real instruction and the top rated tutorials online being five or six years old. I have learned that I do not like video editing as it was presented to me in this project and I hope my short video is entertaining to some of you.

I think I could have done a lot more with even a single assistant and a budget for armature wire. As one person doing this and my lack of familiarity with the programs I’m happy with what I turned out even if it is not objectively good.

Aesop’s Fables

I was looking forward to this assignment for a few reasons. For one, I am in Audio Production currently, so I have access to recording equipment. I’ve been looking for opportunities to use the recording equipment for extra practice, so this assignment was perfect. Additionally, I am a fan of audio books, so I was interested in getting a chance to peak behind the curtain and imagine the workflow of a professional audio narrator.

Originally, I was thinking of picking an excerpt from a book, but I wasn’t able to find anything that was quite short enough. Instead, I chose to browse Aesop’s Fables until I found a suitable story. I chose The House Dog and the Wolf largely because I thought it would be fun to make use of the sound of a howling wolf. I also thought I might try a crack at

While putting together the various files, I was hoping to create a natural nighttime forest ambience. For the most part I was pretty happy with the outcome. One disappointment, was that I was unable to find a good recording of the classic “ribbit” of a frog. It turns out that frogs have a large variety of calls, and many of them are not very recognizable. I was looking for something a little more gentle than the frog calls I found. I did end up finding a fun recording of an owl hoot. I was happy with that one, since it is so recognizable, and indicative of a nighttime forest.

Overall, a fun project!

by Gabriel Olsen-Martinez

F20-P4-Two Travelers and the Bear

I had set out to do his big elaborate audio. I wanted to use all of the things I thought I had learned through the videos and websites.  I tried a few different versions of this fable, but some were too long and I was being over-ambitious. Once I started to clean it up I realized that I did not nearly give myself enough time to do this the way I visioned in my head.  I was a bit confused at times with all of the different options and steps that I had to take in making it sound good. I know that the more I do it the better I will get at it. 

Once I did finally find a version I like I thought that I would record my voice in a way so that the listener heard the story. I tried several different ways to use the pitch of my voice to try to convey the story. I wanted to engage the listener in what I was saying. I searched for the right music track that would deliver a “children’s” type theme. While I didn’t think that audio is something I would like to do, I have changed my mind after listening to where I started to the end result. Though it could have been better I will be experimenting more with audio recordings. 

By: Darlene Waters

Sound Design – “Rubble”

by Jeff Pagano

This is my second version of Rubble.

The assignment was to use sound to create an emotional response, so that’s what I was going for. I don’t want to say too much because I want to let the listener be drawn in and draw their own conclusions. Please tell me in the comments what you think has just happened.

I did the first version for my Timeline Based Tools class, but I wasn’t satisfied with it. One minute was too short and I wanted to tell the story more clearly, so I started with the sounds I liked and started from scratch in Audition.

The idea first started with the song “Help, I’m Alive” by the Canadian band Metric. It’s about anxiety and the line “my heart keeps beating like a hammer” stuck in my head for days.

I started by recording loops of that line and the title on an iPad app called Loopy. I exported them to Audition and added delay. The heartbeat was a recording of a cloth being snapped and the water dripping was from my bathtub.

I put this all together in a multi-track sequence that starts with a gramophone needle clicking and popping. I wanted to convey that this was an old story, one that’s been experienced too many times. I guess my artistic motivation was to tell a story from a perspective we never hear. This is intense perspective and my point is it needs to stop.

The action begins with the character returning to consciousness and listening to what’s happening around him. The repeating thoughts and monotone voice are meant to convey his subscious mind. He’s dazed and deep in shock.

I spent a lot of time tweaking volume levels and used the panning feature extensively. If you listen closely you’ll hear it in the heartbeat and be able to sense the direction of travel of the tank, plane and marching feet. (It’s best to listen to this with headphones.)

After completing this project I have to admit it’s eerie and weird, but it is Halloween today, so I guess this was my way of expressing myself.

Below is the first version of Rubble, which now that I listen to it is a suitable prequel to the Revisited version.

An Unspoken Miracle

This short audio essay is about the power of words that can change the world or, at least, someone’s life. I believe in this power, and believe everyone has it inside. It just needs to be found and spoken.

Working on this project, I spent most time on just feeling life and hearing sounds around me. I had to go into the audio world from my familiar visual world. While walking with a recorder, I really missed my camera. However, it was an amazing experience. I tried to think how I can use the tools I usually use with my photography. How to highlight, tint, dodge, gradient, or dehaze sounds, how to use layers and masks in audio language. I experimented, played, and eventually, learned a lot. I know I have areas I need to learn more about. For example, it is how to clean the voice to perfection. I really struggled with this problem. I also struggled with English translation of my poems and my Russian accent. Nevertheless, it is my first audio project and experience with Audacity, so I am pretty satisfied with what I accomplished today. But tomorrow, I know, I will hate it, so I will continue to improve and develop the better multimedia designer inside of me. I think this is the key to growth, so it’s a good thing.

I used music and sounds from free libraries: https://samplefocus.com/ and https://www.soundjay.com/ I also recorded sounds of birds from the street. Plus, I used my own voice, texts, and a picture.

By: Lyu Gremli

The Lion and The Mouse

For this audio project I was trying to achieve the second option out of the three. Which was to read an Aesop fable and to record it. I tried to accomplish of achieving the realistic feel whilst reading this story aloud by using sound effects. Having the sound effects lead you through the story as I read them out loud. Finding the perfect sound for each part of the story. My experience with this project was positive. Nothing went wrong and I’m already familiar with using audio in my projects. As well as editing audio and adding sound effects. Putting this project was fairly easy, recorded my audio and imported it into premiere pro. After importing, I searched for sound effects that would fit this fable. Looking for lion and mice sound effects. Then some few other effects like a trap and rope getting tied. I really enjoyed looking for sound effects. Listening to many options making sure it was the perfect fit. I only struggled with finding a decent lion sound effect because all of them sounded extremely aggressive. Other than that specific sound, all the other ones were super easy to find. Overall this project was fun to do and I had enjoyed it.

Audio Project

This is a short reading of the first part of Little Snow White, as recorded by the Grimm Brothers Fairy Tales. For this recording, I tried to record myself as clearly as possible. That way, I could emphasize the story being read, rather than the fact that it was being read. While I feel my pop filter was lacking, I did try to edit out as much of the odd silences and unusual mouth sounds as I could. Removing these sounds from words was difficult, and in certain places, I simply could not separate them, but in the gaps between words, I was far more easily able to remove the noticeable sounds. I also did some noise reduction in an attempt to clarify the words further. Had I had more time to move past these necessary steps, I might have added introduction or ending music to help set the fantasy setting. As far as Audacity goes, I found it to be an incredibly intuitive program, especially if you already have experience with prior versions of the program.