Audio for Power On

For the audio we had decided a while back that we wouldn´t just use background music. We wanted to have our own audio and different sounds for different things. Our goal was to try and have as many electrical noises as possible and occasionally add a suspensful sound. Of course we would also add sounds where needed like when walking, turning on a tap and rustling in bed. We knew we wanted a lot of bleeps and no silences.Originally we were going to record everything ourselves, but because of covid we didn´t have time to do all we wanted. Flora did record loads of sounds early on though, so we used those.


We used the recording Flora had made with zoom before the lockdown as a basis for our sound. She edited them together in Audition and then sent it to me. I then added loads of sounds I already had on my laptop and sounds that I donwloaded online. (I use Soundbible). The bottom green audio file (on the picture below) is what Flora made. I then filled in the blanks (because she had left empty bits for me) and added loads of stuff on top of it.

I also used Audacity to record a couple of things off YouTube, like the short clip of Elvis Presley and Frank Sinatra singing Love me tender. I also used it to get a longer audio of texting iPhone sounds.  I used the sound quite a lot.

I also downloaded a radio clip from soundbible as I thought it would be a good idea to have a melody for the advert bits (Lauras advert). I liked that it was distorted too as it added to the feel of something isn´t right. I mixed the radio clip with the one of Elvis and Sinatra as the radio clip was so short. The Elvis and Sinatra audio had more melody to it too and is much more musical. I wanted the music to be repetetive to show how the advert (or adverts in general) get stuck in your head through repetition. We should this in the dream sequence. Our character had seen it so many times she dreams about it and hears the same music. I also added the melody to the end because credits usually have music and I think it worked really well. Those clips were really the only musical ones we used.

The audio I´ve circled in purple is the ufo take off/charging sound, the yellow is the computer error, the blue is the starnge days and the one underlined in red is the record static. The one in the middle is the audiofile Flora sent me.

For the opening scene of our film Power On we had the image of a phone charging. For this Flora had recorded the apple charging sound and google translate saying power on. I added some background noise to the very beginning because otherwise it would´ve been completely silent. The background noise I added was something I used a lot called record static I downloaded off Soundbible. I used it to fill in lots of quiet or empty parts in the video. Something else I used a lot, that I also used at the very beginning, is the charging sound. The audio was called UFO take off but I thought it sounded like energy levels going up. I slowed the sound down a bit, stretched it out and for the very last scene (Power Off) I reversed it. I also used it for where I am sleeping and put myself and my watch on charge and where Laura "wakes up".  Other sounds I used for the opening were Computer error and Strange days which was perfect for the eerie sound I wanted.

The surveillance scene with Flora I added a couple of different audio files of people talking, and sounds of cameras taking pictures. I kept the texting sounds from the previous frame and continued it to the next one too where Laura and I are on our phones. Also adding the sound of people talking on the previous scene (which is Floras sister on her phone (a close up)) makes it seem like she is also being watched. I felt it made that scene more connected to the rest of the film and made the edit more seamless. I spent some time with the surveillance scene. I kept coming back to it as I felt there wasn´t enough sound. Originally the only sound was some talking Flora had added but it was so quite I could barely hear it. And then I just kept adding more and more stuff on top of it. In the end I am happy with how it turned out. 

The animated part where Flora comes walking in and films us with her camera is one of the most quiet parts in the film. I wanted it to have a sort of eerie feel and also that the space we were in was large. It was hard to get the footsteps to match Floras. I spent ages trying to make it look good. As you can see in the image below I had cut up the sound effect into lots of small pieces. Because some parts of the video Flora is still, there had to be parts where there were no foots steps but there still had to be the background windy noise. I took a small piece of the audio where there was no footstep and put that in between all the longer quiter bits. Without them the sound would´ve beem completely cut off and that was really noticeable. If I had more time I could´ve matched the steps up to more precision but I think it still works well. I had a similar problem when adding footsteps to me walking towards the sink and also matching up the tap water sound to what could be seen. This also occurred with the scene where Laura is clicking on her arm phone thing where I had to match the clicking and swiping spunds and also the typing in the scene where I type am I human. You can tell I didn´t manage to isolate the typing sounds to match my fingers exactly. To continue with the animated scene. When the original footage starts showing through and things get more glitchy and weird I added an effect called Cartoon computer, which I thought worked really well for the scene. I circled the first bleep of that in white. All the other audio on that image or the footsteps. The continuous one in the middle is Floras sound but it was blank for this bit. 

The scene right after the bathroom one is this one, which originally was very quite with only record static. We talked about it with Flora and decided it needed more. At this point I had used every audio clip I had so I thought about how I could use one again but make it more interesting. I like the way things sound inverted and it´s a quick and simple thing to do.

Other sounds worth mentioning:

Flora specifically requested to have a heartbeat sound to the pulsing effect she had created. I already had a heartbeat audio on my laptop so that was easy. We also talked about getting blinking sounds but that was hard, and the closest thing I found to that was the indicators of a car. Unfortunately I found this was too obvious and I´m not sure it worked. 

The sounds where I´m on my phone in bed I also added. The main one is actually a parrot talking. The other voices were Funny voices I downloaded form Soundbible. I used these in other parts of the film too. I again added the texting sounds I got using Audacity. The hardest part from the sleeping was trying to get the rustling sounds to match up with my movements.

The dream sequence was probably one of the most fun bits to edit the sound to. First thing I did was add the Drfiting into dreamland sound which I already had, and knew would fit perfectly with this. I used some of the funny voices, the radio clip, the music, a guitar plucking sound, a cave sound effect I stretched a bit, alarm sounds etc. For the part with loads of floating heads which is supposed to reference the production of AI (or my character) I used the industrial/train effect I used before on mine and Flora´s short Money making industry. For the dream sequence I tried to make it sound very chaotic and confusing. 

On top of the obvious footsteps and running water sounds, the bathroom scene also included the sounds of my hand going wrong. I added the computer error sound and for the explosion I used the sound of burning as I thought it sounded like there were many particles flying around. I matched a crackle in the fire to the moment when my hand explodes. There was also some inverting of sounds and stretching again. I don´t quite remember everything I did and I was also rushed.

The final sound I’m going to talk about is one of the last ones, because I thought it was very successful. I again used inverting and stretching as a way to make interesting sounds and I love the way it builds up towards the end. It sounds strange and also technical so I think it fits perfectly.

After I had basically finished the audio I noticed there were still parts that were clipping (mainly from the record statics sounds). Otherwise I thought my sound was at a good level (not too loud) and the record background sounds were really quiet so it was annoying that they were still clipping. I´ve shown this on the picture below circled in yellow. In the end I made everything quitter by 6dB which fixed the problem and I think the audio is at a good level.