Sprite Fright

Final project for the Sound Design for Visual Media program at Vancouver Film School. The objective was to execute a complete sound redesign within a six-week timeframe, showcasing the technical and creative skills acquired throughout the year-long intensive program.

Role:

  • Video Editor

  • Sound Recorder

  • Sound Editor

  • Foley Artist

  • Re-Recording Mixer

Process

Editorial and Dialogue

Since the duration limit for the project was 3:30, I re-edited the original footage and was able to cut out 7 minutes while still keeping a story that made sense.

Because of the new edits, I made some adjustments to the script and then recorded and edited the full ADR. Also I had some fun creating the ritualistic chant and recording my classmates singing it!

SFX

I created the majority of the sound effects by layering sounds from libraries and some recorded by me. The ones that I enjoyed the most were the sprites melting when they were getting hurt and the tree log falling. The latter was tricky because it was a climax point and I had to made sure to use the appropiate build-up of sounds to slowly create that sense of tension, danger and impact.

Foley

This was a very foley heavy short and one of my focuses was to achieve authentic footsteps on grass and dirt. My school’s pits didn´t have grass or leaves on them so I went and collected some leaves and branches to get that organic texture. I almost fell recording the footsteps on the tree log but it was totally worth it.

Backgrounds

I wanted the natural ambiences to feel rich, big and with spatial depth, to achieved that, each layer that I used had a different sound element of the background and a different recording perspective (Close, Mid, Distant). For the designed ambiences, I layered a variety of drones to help build the tension of some scenes.

Music

Because of the limited amount of time, I decided to focus on the sound design and didn’t compose any of the music. I ended up selecting and editing the score from the Slipstream catalog.

Mix

Did a 5.1 mix giving each element its own place using some panning and equalization. I also added some reverb and delay to help me build a realistic outdoor space and make the mix immersive. Finally I made sure to hit all the loudness reqirements for the submission and did a stereo downmix to be able to share my project in platforms that have stereo playback systems.