The Sound of War: Foley

     Throughout the course of Editing, I knew sounds would have extreme importance. Not only does proper audio make the film run consistently as a story, but in my case, it depicts a warzone. Due to not being able to create one throughout the everglades, tight shots, unfocused skies, props, and costuming (basically anything mise-en-scene) was used to try and depict a war-torn front. Audio also must play a role in this large goal. Along with the ambiance of the scenery, I wanted to depict the war through explosions both distant and close by (although small). Once again since I don't have the ability to create a waterfront and explosions (I'm a student with a camera, not a warlord) the creation of these sounds would rely closely on my use of foley and sound editing. 

Distant explosions

    Compared to a close-range explosion, distant ones are a lot easier to pull off, especially in the face of improvision. Its soft and muffled nature means that the ability to create this noise is far more accessible. One could mimic the noises with their mouth and muffle themselves or they could use hollow, metal objects and hit them softly. What did I do? I used wind! When recording the simple ambiance of the everglades, it was particularly windy and of course the wind would end up hitting the mic a few times. I initially thought it made it sound bad but have since come around, but I digress. There is a shot in the film Where nick reacts to something on the horizon, becoming alert in the process. Obviously, this is the spot with the distant explosion and luck would have it, the already recorded audio would gift me my explosions. While I was making sure the Diegetic sounds of the everglades were okay to be used, The shot in question matched itself with a quick and sharp sound of the wind that Nick would react perfectly to it. It looked well and the sound of the wind invoked these thunderous images. There I decided I would use this gust of wind to become my distant warfare. 

    As seen in the Editing screenshot, the gust of wind (now dubbed Distant explosion on the program) in the soundtrack was edited to have a sudden boost, in the beginning, to represent the initial impact as the rest of the track decreases in volume. If looked closely it also is clear to see that the track is shaped the same as the noise on the ambiance track, indicating its origin. It truly became a lifesaver as I found myself having difficulty figuring out what exactly to do to create this sound. Luck was definitely on my side in this instance and now I feel more powerful than before.