Description of the Audio

The VFX shot I wanted the soundtrack for is a shot where a Tsunami hits a street in a city. Since this is a dramatic natural disaster, I felt it’s important to create an intense and threatening atmosphere through sound that captures the catastrophic scene. The soundtrack should include:

• Water sounds: Powerful waves trashing against buildings and concrete, and the sound of water splashing.
• Buildings collapsing: The sound of buildings being destroyed such as concrete breaking.
• Wind: A howling and powerful wind that enhances the feeling of overwhelming natural forces.
• Ambiance: A deep and scary background track of sounds that include distant screams, sirens and other noises that creates a feeling of a life-threatening situation.

The soundtrack is meant to enhance the feeling of danger and panic. I want it to strengthen how powerful and destructional the tsunami is.

 

PREVIZ VERSIONS

• In this section I upload my versions of the project as I work so the audio students I’m collaborating with can easily find updates.

Previz (Early draft)

 

Previz (main splashes)

 

Previz (only one shot)

 

Render (not full sequence) 

 

Render (Full Sequence) Low Resolution

 

Render (Nearly finished) 

 

Finished shot

 

AUDIO PITCH PRESENTATION

• This is the presentation I had for the audio students at our pitching meeting. I ended up chatting with three of the students who wanted to work on the project with me.

 

REFERENCES

• The references are showing the feeling I’m wanting emulate. In addition, I like the cinematic music that is very dramatic in the background.

 

Conversation with audio students

 

The Audio

In this section I was supposed to add both the draft I listened to in week 13 as well as the final outcome of the collaboration. However, I did not receive either as you can see in the conversations above. After messaging the audio students in the days leading up to my deadline I didn’t hear back from them unfortunately. There could be several reasons for this. Perhaps they were busy with deadlines on their own or with work. I have understanding that the project was pushed very close to the deadline and that if the shot was finished earlier then maybe the audio students would have had the opportunity to finish it earlier on.

The collaboration between me and the audio students started out great with good communication and an understanding of what we wanted to create together. The project took longer than expected, which created challenges for the audio students. Normally the sound is created after the VFX process is done, and during this process I gained a thorough understanding of why. Working with FX it can be hard to create the sound before the shot is completed fully because the previz is often very different to the finished product. Since the production had delays, that made it hard for the audio students to work on the soundtrack which I fully understand. The draft I listened to was promising, so it was disappointing to not get a finished result. However, I found the experiences throughout the process rewarding. I learned a lot about the importance of communication and meeting deadlines. If I were to do this again, I would have organized the production of the shot differently so the audio students would have more time to finish their work.