Reflective Blog

EmilieShoots
5 min readApr 5, 2019

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My Dubbed Video- https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=zf7yiA-h9k8

Original video- https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=LBR3JKrgW74

For this blog, I will be evaluating my dubbed 2-minute clip of Baby Driver and the effectiveness of sound throughout. I chose to use the intro clip from Baby Driver to dub as I thought it would be an interesting challenge as it contains a lot of different diegetic & non-diegetic sound effects, music and foley. I also decided to pick this clip, as I am inspired by Edgar Wright and his use of music within film- which I wanted to incorporate into my own version.

I think sound has a massive impact on film and how the audience receives it. I believe it is important to understand, when analysing a film, that we often see with our ears and sound can actually be more important than what we see. Sound can be interpreted differently by people, but all humans have a primitive instinct to fear certain sounds such as loud noises, screams, animal cries etc — all of which are often used in horror to create a sense of anxiety for the demographic. I believe music is used in films to drive the narrative, as well as setting the atmosphere to aid in creating the mise en scene. I think sound effects are used t

within film to create a more realistic scenario in the film world. To bring the audience closer and add realism, foley is used by creating sounds that the characters interact with.

To create my dubbed film I made a script for the Additional Dialogue Replacement (ADR). This script included the ADR for the protagonist, Baby, and the barista which I recorded using my Olympus WS-852 Digital voice recorder in my home studio which is a controlled environment. I chose to add foley to my clip to aid in realism, creating my own sounds for the bank buttons, change on the counter and the coffee tray slide. I was able to create this foley in my home studio with the same mic. After researching in to sound effects, I decided to use YouTube Audio Library for my sound effects as it has a variety of different sound effects that fit in well with my film such as; traffic, sirens, people talking, footsteps, door, car horn, coffee shop/machine etc. As I was inspired by Wright’s use of music, I wanted to create the same effect with a similar song. I decided to go with ‘Uptown Funk’ by Mark Ronson as it had the same 4:4 time signature as the original song used ‘Harlem Shuffle’ and matched the beat.

Throughout the film clip, there where many different sounds I replaced such as;

  • Music- Uptown funk
  • Traffic
  • Cars
  • People talking
  • Walking/footsteps
  • Sirens
  • Car horn
  • Woman gasps
  • Bank buttons being pressed
  • Construction
  • Bike engine rev
  • Door opening/ closing
  • Coffee shop sounds
  • Coffee machine
  • ADR
  • Change on counter
  • Coffee tray slide

There were a few sounds I decided to not replace or include which where;

  • Revolving doors
  • Handling sunglasses
  • Man playing the guitar

I purposefully decided to not include these sound effects as I didn’t think they were necessary to the film or wouldn’t be heard. There was one sound effect I wanted to include but could not find, which was the roller blades. If I had more time I would have liked to include that sound effect to make it more realistic.

My inspirations for the foley in this clip have same from Stefan Fraticelli from OddioStudio. He is an experienced foley artist best known for Ride along, Parks & Recreation, Jane the Virgin, conjuring, I intentionally wanted to create a realistically dubbed film that still has the same impact as the original clip.

I believe this clip works very well and is quite realistic due to the use of sound effects and foley. I also think the music goes very well and aids in developing the film-world. I think what I could improve on is the ADR, as the mic recordings were not great quality and we did not have much opportunity to cast voice actors. I believe if we had more time, better equipment and a professional sound recording space I could have made the ADR very realistic.

I received feedback for my film from two people in my class, who gave me some good constructive criticism and praise.

Lauren: The audio was in sync and music went very well, showing what he was listening to. I think the dialogue could be better as voices didn’t really suit characters. Sound effects were realistic too and really created the sound of the film world.

Caitlin: I thought the music went very well, the ADR was good, great foley and overall it was very well done.

I have taken this feedback into consideration, overall agree with their opinions and will keep it in mind for the next project I do.

Bibliography-

YouTube. (2018). See With Your Ears: Spielberg And Sound Design. [online] Available at: https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=kavxsXhzD48

YouTube. (n.d.). Baby, Debora And Buddy Restaurant Scene | Baby Driver 2017. [online] Available at: https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=zkp3cXBVfL0

Adams, S. (n.d.). Baby Driver — Movie Reviews — Rotten Tomatoes. [online] Rottentomatoes.com. Available at: https://www.rottentomatoes.com/m/baby_driver/reviews/?type=top_critics

Eric Kohn. Baby Driver — Movie Reviews — Rotten Tomatoes. Rottentomatoes.com. https://www.rottentomatoes.com/m/baby_driver/reviews/?type=top_critics

(Industrial Scripts®. (n.d.). 15 Edgar Wright Quotes for Filmmakers & Screenwriters. [online] Available at: https://industrialscripts.com/edgar-wright-quotes/

A Sound Effect. (n.d.). Behind Baby Driver’s masterfully musical sound design: | A Sound Effect. [online] Available at: https://www.asoundeffect.com/baby-driver-sound/

Sonos Blog. (n.d.). How ‘Baby Driver’ Sound Designer Julian Slater Redefines Storytelling Through Immersive Sound. [online] Available at: https://blog.sonos.com/en/julian-slater-storytelling-through-immersive-sound/

Grobar, M. and Grobar, M. (n.d.). Sound Designer Julian Slater On His “Lightning In A Bottle” Moment With Sound-Centric ‘Baby Driver’. [online] Deadline. Available at: https://deadline.com/2018/02/baby-driver-sound-design-julian-slater-interview-oscars-1202291744/

Laws, Z. and Laws, Z. (n.d.). Julian Slater (‘Baby Driver’ sound mixer and editor) on the ‘multitude of elements’ in Oscar-nominated film [EXCLUSIVE VIDEO INTERVIEW]. [online] GoldDerby. Available at: https://www.goldderby.com/article/2018/julian-slater-baby-driver-sound-designer-interview-oscars-news-753180642/

Oscar.go.com. (n.d.). [online] Available at: https://oscar.go.com/news/oscar-history

Mpaa.org. (2019). [online] Available at: https://www.mpaa.org/2018/02/peek-inside-baby-driver-sound-editing-bay/

YouTube. (2014). Mark Ronson — Uptown Funk ft. Bruno Mars (Official Video). [online] Available at: https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=OPf0YbXqDm0

Youtube.com. (2019). audio library music. [online] Available at: https://www.youtube.com/audiolibrary/music

Youtube.com. (2019). YouTube audio library. [online] Available at: https://www.youtube.com/audiolibrary/soundeffects?ar=2

Thecinematheque.ca. (n.d.). [online] Available at: http://thecinematheque.ca/education/wp-content/uploads/2012/02/LanguageofFilm07.pdf

Popular Mechanics. (n.d.). A Brief History of Sound in Cinema. [online] Available at: https://www.popularmechanics.com/culture/movies/a19566/a-brief-history-of-sound-in-cinema/

Learn about film. (n.d.). Filmmaking: Use Sound to Tell Your Story — Learn about film. [online] Available at: https://learnaboutfilm.com/film-language/sound/

Oddiostudio. (2019). [online] Available at: https://www.oddiostudio.com

YouTube. (2019). HOW FILM SOUND EFFECTS ARE MADE. [online] Available at: https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=DTL1DbnPLng

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EmilieShoots
EmilieShoots

Written by EmilieShoots

Photographer, blogger & filmmaker

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