The final rough edit assembly for “Halloweenie Flash Roast” is illustrated with the timeline strip through the center of the image directly above. The top five tracks of the timeline (blue and pinkish boxes) represent the compounded visuals. The greenish boxes below the visuals are the audio rough mix down tracks. Just as the visual is composed from many elements each of the audio tracks are recorded and then mixed down layer upon layer.
For the final edit assembly I work back and forth between Adobe Audition for multi-track audio processing and Premiere Pro for a comprehensive visual synchronization. The initial mix of the multi-track sessions in Audition and where various audio segments are pulled into the Premiere Pro timeline are illustrated below.
A final overall soundscape is created (synced to a reference or "guide" track) and then pulled back into Premiere Pro for visual emphasis. This is just a five minute ditty, imagine how many more tracks and sound snippets there are in a larger production (hundreds? Thousands?). A very special and super thank you to Paul Floro for fine tuning, balancing, ducking, clarifying and really making the overall final soundscape work as illustrated in the master multi-track session directly below. He just calls it re-recording but I could list a boatload of highly detailed work that was involved with the magic he performed. We did all the audio work through on-line collaboration and in one email I called him the “Sonic Wizard.”
He seemed to like that.
Besides my studio recordings and processing and Paul Floro’s fabulous re-recording, a lot of audio resources are from the website soundbible.com and are Creative Commons 3.0 attributed directly following in order of screen appearance.
Other sounds are recorded (analog and digital) at Toons And Tunes (TnT) studios FJ_VI including the dialog, narration and additional SFX and foley. The song excerpts by FIVE.5, “6o6riff trilogy (intro)” and “Thisiz” are written, arranged and multi-track recorded for Third Wind Productions.
Audio is invisible to the eye yet when done right it fulfills the image. When it is not quite right or some subtle nuance of the environment is missing altogether, it can really take the wind right out of any powerful picture. Sound can be the part that makes the audience say “WOW! That was a really wonderful movie!” or “I don’t know why, but that great story and all those beautiful images just did not quite work.”
Maybe you’re thinking I’m placing too much emphasis or giving too much credit to sound. I mean after all when the final credits roll sound is just a line or two in a list of dozens or hundreds upon hundreds of individual participants, companies and capital interests. The visual and story may generate the most vivid memory but if you look real deep you will see it was most likely the soundtrack that truly brought it all to life. This is particularly true if you wind up with an ear worm that gets stuck in your head along with the emotive story-line and all the eye candy.
If you got here through the original Third Wind Productions web page “ www.it4twpro.com ” I highly recommend a visit to the Film Freeway “Halloweenie Flash Roast” project submission page. There is a preview (trailer) available for the general public and the full version will be released once all the film festival and competition commitments are satisfied.
If you came here through the Film Freeway “Halloweenie Flash Roast” project submission page I highly recommend a visit to the original Third Wind Productions website “ www.it4twpro.com ” for an in depth (and growing deeper) interactive exploration of even more fanciful and possibly even delightfully intriguing stuff (HA!!!). I am currently in the process of updating the site from “classic” to HTML5 (responsive display) so to get the most out of it at this point I recommend viewing on a desktop or at least a laptop or even tablet size screens.
If you came here looking for more about the story, visual processing and main characters and stuff, that will be available real soon. The script along with image accreditation, development and processing is another story altogether. Though multiple resources and programs were utilized, Flash and the SWF format remain the centerpiece of this entire production. Flash may become a ghost of the Internet in 2021 or truly continue to be one of the walking dead among us. “Not to eat our brains but expand our minds.”