Investigating Audio Production and Technology

'The Maker' is a stop motion animated film about a rabbit creature made out of cloth who is in a race against time to create a successor for his work. He makes a doll similar to him, but with floral pink patterns and once its done, expectantly waits to bring it to life. When it doesn't, he goes through a series of tasks trying to bring the doll to life, before, as a last ditch resort, plays it the soundtrack of the short, 'Winter' by Paul Halley. This works, and just before the sand timer runs out it is brought to life. The Maker passes on the book to his successor before disappearing.

The animation is mixed media, using cloth, wood, clay, and other mediums to create a rustic aesthetic. I think the film is aimed at any age, but because of the creepiness factor, it could be targeted at adults who appreciate stop motion animation. In order to create a plan for the project I will make a mind map to map out every type of sound involved in the film and the different ways I could recreate them. I also want to make storyboards to plan out exactly which part of the film I'm doing and which sounds I will be recreating.

I plan to gather research by watching other stop motion animation videos and paying attention to the sound effects and how they create them. I also want to visit royalty free sfx sites to listen to sfx that are ready made and try to figure out how they've been made. Thirdly, I plan on watching Audition tutorials to get to grips with the program. For primary research, I may do a questionnaire on foley. The pros of secondary research is that is is easier and you usually only have to do one google search to find the information you need, although the cons are that it may not be accurate. With primary research the pros are that you get firsthand information from your target audiences, but the con is that it can be hard to create questions relevant to your project.

The equipment I will be using is a H4N Zoom Recorders, Shotgun Microphone for outdoor recording and an extra cable. There may be problems with sound recording due to background noise such as passerbys and wind, especially at this time of year.

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