Final Result/ Evaluation of Transitions Project:

I am happy with the final outcome of this project overall. However, there are a few problems that I faced during working on this piece.

Positives:
The first half of the project I feel has been mostly successful. I have managed to create what I feel to be a believable atmosphere in the setting of the Space Station. The use of directional sound editing means that the sound overall appears natural to the scene itself.

I also feel that the score during these scenes is successful. It takes aspects from modern TV scores such as modern Doctor Who but also feels like it would comfortable suit the old version of the show just as well. My editing of the score into the piece overall was mostly smooth and transitions into each piece very well.

The edits that were made for the footage itself, including picture quality and colourisation, were also successful. These changes allowed for me to differentiate this version from the original version.

This is the aspect I feel that is most successful, making the project feel as if I have put my own mark on it to make it feel like my own piece of work.

Improvements:
I mainly have a problem with the second half of the project. I spent much more time focusing on the first half so that, when it came to working on the second half, a lot less time was spend creating, sourcing and editing the sound effects and score. This resulted in the sound feeling rushed overall as I simply just reused a lot of the sound effects and score from the first half due to lack of time.

Upon looking at the final edit, I noticed that some areas which required sound were audibly missing as a result of oversight, this means that some parts seem empty in comparison others.

Due to lack of finding any voice actors to perform 'ADR' work, I ended up cutting most scenes that contained characters speaking. This had left some moments that appear awkward as characters sometimes appear to interact without any speech. I should have made more of an effort to find voice actors to help with this problem. This also lead me to re-edit entire sequences, using p more time that should have been spend creating and editing the sound.

I ended up cutting the last couple of minutes due to the sound being very unpolished at the last minute. Thankfully, this did benefit the project seeing as the it now ends in a place that I am more happy with.

Overall, this project was mostly successful with a result that I am mostly happy with. However, I feel that self-imposed time constraints overall diminished the quality of the project.

Website:
https://aja3097.wixsite.com/shadatransitions

 

Original, Pre-Edited Version:

Here is a video roughly edited together showcasing the original sound as it was presented on the original DVD release. Music in this version was composed by Keff McCulloch.

Please note- The sound shall be out of context, thus conversations present will make little sense as this cut was edited to be familiar to how my own version has been edited.

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This video is to be used as a comparison to my own version in order to compare what I have changed.

Final Edited Transitions Project:

Here is the final edit of my Transitions project:

Voice Over Script:

Here is a script that I made for my voice-overs. Some parts, including when a Dalek was going to briefly appear, did not make the final cut.

Editing The Score

The editing of the score proved quite difficult. A problem I had found was that I had not timed the pieces of music to the sequence as well as I had thought, and so some pieces of music had to be cut and re-sequenced to fit in a cohesive way. This has lead to some instances where one piece of music ends in a place that sounds unnatural as another piece begins.

To overcome this, I have been able to disguise some of the edits with extra sound effects placed where a piece of music would transition into another. This way the sudden change is not so obvious. This is most notable when, during the sequence, an alarm is sounded and the music becomes more dramatic and bombastic. I used the sound of an engine powering down and turned up the volume in order to mask the sudden transition. I feel that this strategy is successful and has been used during various parts of the sequence.

In future I feel that I should plan these aspects a little more carefully than I had done during this project in order for me to not make sudden compromises. Overall, however, I feel that the end result works, if not necessarily how I had originally intended.

Creating The Score

Creating the score is the aspect I was most looking forward to when planning for this project. However, when it actually came to creating the score, I found that it was a lot harder than I had thought it would be.

Firstly, I am having to adapt and work around footage of which is not my own and was not intended for me to create the score. These means that the timing of the music is will obviously be harder as the timing would not have been pre-planned during the filming of the sequence.

Secondly, I had first tried creating something reminiscent of Jerry Goldsmith's work on the film 'Alien' (Scott, 1979) with a more realistic space-horror aesthetic. However, when pairing this style of music with the somewhat dated visuals, there lacked consistency and the music simply did not suit what was shown on screen.

Therefore I had to find a way of creating a score that still retained the sci-fi horror aesthetic of a more modern type, whilst making it still suitable for the dated footage.

I started off my just creating several simple tunes. I tried to give some of them a more sombre feel so that they did not seem to happy and animated, otherwise they would not have fit with the horror aesthetic. After choosing which ones I liked, I then started to add more instrumentation to them.

As I realised that creating a completely modern horror score would not work, I thought about how I could make the score my own. In previous projects where I had created a score, I used synthesizer sounds and instruments quite heavily in oder to create more impact, while creating some more quiet pieces in a similar fashion. I decided that this be incorporated into this particular score. After adding all of the instruments, I then experimented with the different amplifiers for different sounds to much success.

The most notable pieces are as follows

'Opening'
This piece starts off reminiscent of 'Alien' with a heavy wind sound starting off. This then fades into two simple, deep notes from a synthesizer. This sequence carries on for much of the opening, aiming to set a dark and mysterious tone to the opening few minutes.

'Skagra'
There are several versions of this piece of music, all of which vary with instruments being added or taken out. This is supposed to be the theme for the villain 'Skagra' who features prominently during the sequence. The quieter variations mostly consist of just a simple drum beat reminiscent of 'The Terminator' (Camera, 1984). However, the more bombastic versions contain piano, synthesizers and even some brass and string instruments. The orchestra style instruments are reminiscent of those used in the scores for Doctor Who from 2005 onwards, acting as a call-back to those pieces of music while not being as heavily used here. I feel that this achieves a style that is more reminiscent of modern Doctor Who, yet can just as easily be used for the original series, acting as a sort of compromise between the two.

'The Doctor Who Theme'
Though this isn't an original piece of music, it is synonymous with the show and I had looked forward to recreating the theme for this project from the start. I actually tried to keep my version as close to the original as possible as I feel it doesn't really need updating, aiming to create a cleaner sounding version. This includes heavy use of piano, bass and synthesizer. I also tried to emulate the echoes that featured heavily in the original.

Overall I am happy with the music that I have created and feel that they suit the sequence already in place while adding a more modern aesthetic.

Here is a video which shows the original pieces that I made for this video including some which did not get used in the final edit. The Doctor Who Theme does not feature as i did not compose that piece of music originally:

Editing Sound

I have managed to successfully edit most of the sound into the sequence with relative ease. Some of these were rather simple, only requiring me to match the sound to what was being played out during the sequence. This included the flicking and pressing of switches and buttons as well as a low hum ever present during the parts set on board a space station.

However, some sound required more than this. I needed to make sure that I had set the direction of some non-ambient sounds the correct place. This was mostly simple except for certain instances. During the sequence, some shots move so that a source for a sound would change position through the shot.

One particular instance of this is a beeping timer coming from a computer screen which changes position drastically during a shot. In oder to tackle this, I put the sound into the sequence but then separated parts of the track into smaller parts. I then would change the direction and volume of each part in correspondence to where the computer screen was on screen and then cross-faded the parts into each other. The end result sounded as if the the beeping from the computer screen was gliding smoothly from one channel to another without sounding forced. There were multiple occasions where this was required.

A small problem I found was a clicking sound whenever one track stopped and another immediately followed. I was able to resolve this, however, by adding a very short cross-fade effect which cancelled out the clicking sounds.

Overall, I am happy with the sound effects present in this edit so far.