We all agreed that this is the approach that we should take with our own experimental film. The initial idea was based around explaining how things often don't seem to be how you left them, such as how keys get lost when you can be sure of where you left them. At the same time, we wanted to explore personalities different objects might have, and Alli, I think, had an idea that a certain object which isn't used often, or has an unpleasant job (a toilet brush, for example), might be chronically suicidal, and we could follow its suicidal attempts at various points in the film. As we went onto filming the project, however, a lot of the footage we shot came from ideas that came about whilst filming.
We filmed over two days in Alli's flat, and afterwards I put together a list of sounds to record, including simply a list of voices I had to find for different characters (or objects). Like I often do, I wondered if we'd filmed enough to fill 5 minutes, and, assuming that we'd likely use everything we'd filmed, I tried to record sounds for everything - at least, everything I could remember filming without having an edit to use as a guide, since I recorded most of the sounds the day after filming and the day before Poppy had chance to start editing.
I know I've said when reflecting on my previous projects that I've learned to plan more in advance, but this time, I think (or make the excuse that) there was little in the way of planning I could do for my role as sound recordist/editor other than compiling a list of sounds to record, so here is the extent of my paperwork prior to editing:
I asked a couple of friends if they'd be willing to record some of the voices with me on Sunday. Luckily, I remembered everything we filmed, and had an idea in my mind of what voice each object should have - I originally wanted all the voices to be intelligible, since they belong to inanimate (ironically, animated) objects. However, asking people who aren't voice actors to both perform the voice you've asked them to, and to do so without using words, is understandably not very practical. Nonetheless, apart from a few specific objects (the keys who are being chased and the pens) which speaks English, my friends did a great job, and I think we managed to put together a number of voices which suit their characters.
Oh, and the female pillow in the bed scene was voiced by my male friend. I felt it necessary to clarify that publicly, as I'm sure he'll hate me for it.
Luckily, I only came across two problems when it came to editing the sounds - the first being that I began my edit in Soundtrack Pro by sending an unfinished edit by Poppy from Final Cut Pro to Soundtrack Pro, and when I came to finish my edit after Poppy finished hers, my Soundtrack Pro project was no longer compatible with her Final Cut Pro project, and so I had to start again. Luckily, I'd not made that much progress because of my other problem - I hadn't quite recorded all the voices I needed (in fact, I'd prioritised some over others and, because we'd filmed well over 5 minutes, most of what I'd prioritised had been cut out), but me and Alli recorded these voices in between the two sessions in which I did my edit, so this wasn't any problem.
Also in between editing, I went to a talk by Chris Watson - a great sound recordist - in Uni, and realised that I'd been quite neglective of the equipment available to me, having recorded all the foley sounds with a shotgun/condenser mic, and all the voices with dynamic microphones, while Chris Watson made me realise how useful lavalier microphones can be, especially in recording atmos tracks, for which I used a shotgun.
Altogether, I think we've worked well as a team, and we've all performed our individual roles well - Alli has been a good director and helped everything to fall together, and Poppy has done a good job in filming and editing the piece. Hopefully I've complimented their contributions with my sounds, and the voices are as funny to an objective audience as they seem to be to us. But we can only wait and see what our coursemates and lecturers think of it tomorrow.
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