This is one of the most refreshing spots that I have recently seen. Minimal in every respect, but the combo of animation, music and VO is much bigger than its parts. I don't like the first radical filter on the VO (around 1:10), but everything else is perfect and supportive of the story.
Wow, really really like it, good concept, well executed. Wish they used a little de-essing on the VO, but I'm listening on my ipad...
Quote:
Originally Posted by danijel
This is one of the most refreshing spots that I have recently seen. Minimal in every respect, but the combo of animation, music and VO is much bigger than its parts. I don't like the first radical filter on the VO (around 1:10), but everything else is perfect and supportive of the story.
My 2 cents: A lot of mid-forward EQ on the voice, too sibilant, lacks deep resonance as well. Unmotivated use of the filtering on the voice. Voice compressed to the extent that each breath (all of which are disregarded in the mix) cuts like a little knife. Voice drives overall mix into compression which crushes the music.
My 2 cents: A lot of mid-forward EQ on the voice, too sibilant, lacks deep resonance as well. Unmotivated use of the filtering on the voice. Voice compressed to the extent that each breath (all of which are disregarded in the mix) cuts like a little knife. Voice drives overall mix into compression which crushes the music.
My 2 cents: A lot of mid-forward EQ on the voice, too sibilant, lacks deep resonance as well. Unmotivated use of the filtering on the voice. Voice compressed to the extent that each breath (all of which are disregarded in the mix) cuts like a little knife. Voice drives overall mix into compression which crushes the music.
It's YouTube. You can't really judge how it sounds from that.
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Danijel, I suspect that the filtering around 1:10 is really bringing out the data-compression. Actually, listening to the whole thing, I suspect this wasn't uploaded from a high-quality source. It sounds very much as though the audio has been at least through two stages of data-compression.
PS: If I listen to promo's I mixed on YouTube, they sound like crap compared to the original wav mix.
Alistair
__________________ Alistair Johnston - TV & Film Post, Mastering, Sound Design
-- "The first principle is that you must not fool yourself -- and you are the easiest person to fool" -- Richard P. Feynman
"There's a sucker born every minute" -- P.T. Barnum
THere's a plug-in idea for you . . . unlimited multiple codec conversions and transfers in one unit.
REminds me of something that's been transferred from film to vhs to dvd.
This is one of the most refreshing spots that I have recently seen. Minimal in every respect, but the combo of animation, music and VO is much bigger than its parts. I don't like the first radical filter on the VO (around 1:10), but everything else is perfect and supportive of the story.
Leave the politics aside.
sorry to spoil the party ;-)
could not find a connection between the voice treatment and the content of what is being said at a given time.
Sounds like putting on effects for the sake of putting on effects.
The clip would have also worked (maybe even better with less shouting performance) without any voice effects IMO.
could not find a connection between the voice treatment and the content of what is being said at a given time.
I think it's just in your nature to oppose everyone else, and you didn't even try to connect the two. Someone could write an entire thesis analysing VO in this spot, but I'll just point out the most obvious and the most interesting effects. Tomorrow sometime..... Good night!
Sounds like putting on effects for the sake of putting on effects.
I agree. The use of effects didn't advance the narrative for me...it just seemed to just be ear candy. I don't mean to be a wet blanket, but I didn't think the effects were great; they were fine, but didn't really seem to correlate to anything in particular. In my opinion, effects are mostly unnecessary when the rhetoric is so impassioned. As sound professionals, it's important that we know when to step out of the way and let the writing and voice acting carry the moment.
For me, in parts of the clip the sibilance is quite annoying, but in other parts it's not noticeable at all. The same goes for the upper mids in the voice...sometimes they seem too pronounced and annoying/ irritating, while at other times they seem ok. The radio type voice effects fade in and out a bit too quickly for my liking, but I think the actual idea is a good one.
If you were the average joe Bloggs viewer, you could probably think it's pretty cool.......but if it's us audio guys pulling it to pieces....well......it's far from perfect. But I do like the overall concept of what they have tried to achieve here.
I think it's just in your nature to oppose everyone else, and you didn't even try to connect the two. Someone could write an entire thesis analysing VO in this spot, but I'll just point out the most obvious and the most interesting effects. Tomorrow sometime..... Good night!
You asked for opinions (well, actually you didn't) and I posted mine and you come back an insult me and claim to know what I did or did not try. What do you know about my nature anyway?!
You state "....everything else is perfect" so that is the final truth I guess. End of discussion?
Why did you post this in the first place? Needed some people to chime in to the "hooray" or what?
You asked for opinions (well, actually you didn't) and I posted mine and you come back an insult me and claim to know what I did or did not try. What do you know about my nature anyway?!
I apologize. Your post was indeed just a constructive opinion, and I did perceive it as such. And when I replied, I didn't mean to insult you, but it seems I was too tired to express myself precisely and carefully.
What I wanted to say is that I doubt you really thought about this spot much, because I appreciate your thoughts, knowledge and input on this forum, so I'd expect you to spot at least some of the intentions of the authors (delivered through VO effects), and so I've ascribed your 'total' denial of any sense in the effects to your 'opposing nature'.
As for that, I've 'known' your on-line, anonymous persona for some time, and I've noticed that it has a highly pronounced 'opposing personality archetype' (in post-Jungian terms). It is easy for me to recognize it, because it's pronounced in me as well. I always support the loosing team, defend the weaker, try to go against the current and find novel paths in my work. So, as you see, I don't consider this property as 'bad' per se, but, as anything, it has two sides, so in this case, I thought it may have blinded you into not noticing some things. Try and imagine the opposite situation - if we were all bashing the spot, maybe you'd have found some great aspects in it?
Quote:
Originally Posted by apple-q
Why did you post this in the first place? Needed some people to chime in to the "hooray" or what?
This is a snarky question, but as I have obviously insulted you first, I won't mind it. The answer is that I considered this will inspire some people as it has inspired me. Besides questions and answers, this forum is often used for discussing works, usually new movies, so I thought this discussion would be in order.
Quote:
Originally Posted by apple-q
You state "....everything else is perfect" so that is the final truth I guess. End of discussion?
Of course, that was just my opinion, and I'll folow up with an analisys, so we can have some constructive discussion.... Cheers!
The voice is at first informative, steady and 'conspirative'. It introduces us to the state of matters in America in this parallel universe. The intensity is slowly building up towards the end of this part, while LP filter is used to emphasise these key phrases:
- strategic interests;
- fearful of these foreign troops;
- joined together to fight them off;
- leadership and government refused, or were unable to do so.
It is no coincidence that these phrases were chosen, as they are among the most emotional in that they represent (respectively):
- the cold and IN-HUMAN REASONS for occupation by this foreign country,
- the FEAR introduced by the foreign troops,
- people's rebelious initiative to FIGHT,
- government's PATHETIC unwillinges or inability to act.
I don't see how the choice of LP filter itself was made, and maybe another type of processing would have had the same effect (in those same places), but this one has a good and clear impact.
PART II - Resistance (~1:13-2:05)
The VO and music raise in intesity, as the text becomes more of a 'motivational speech', calling on the 'American people' to armed resistance. Hall type reverb with predelay is gradually added in this section, to slowly introduce the impression that the speech is delivered in a big space, in front of a crowd, which is also supported by the crowd shouting at 1:50. This is done to produce emotional reaction, as large crowd protests, motivational speeches, riots etc are strongly emotional in many and different ways, as they usually happen in times of turmoil, financial crises, social crises, and before, during, and after the WAR.
Another device used in this part is the more common delay effect, ringing out some key words (bloodshed, texas) to create the after-effect and engrave them in the memory...
PART III - Statement (2:05-3:11)
VO is gradually fading away, morphing into the actual speech that this spot is (I suppose) derived from. There are two important aspects to this - the obvious one is that it gives the documentary credibility to the spot, saying 'this is not a flashy gimmick', 'this is for real', 'this is where the fun stops', 'there is a real man behind these words', and so on. The lesser obvious one is something that may have come unintentionally by the creators of this spot, but the voice is filtered in such a way that it resembles a lo-fi communication line, and after all the war fear mongering, for a period it suggests that this could be some war pilot comminication, a radio announcement that 'Texas is in a state of war', the 'red phone line' between the presidents of USA and USSR, a secret recording of an important telephone speech, or something like that. Only after a couple of sentences does one realise it is a statement by a politician, maybe delivered to a TV station through a phone line....
Agree? Don't agree? Did others have different reactions and explanations, or noticed something I've missed?
0:12-0:14 Chinese on the political left is panned left. Russian with extra aggression (distortion) on the VO.
The intensity does indeed increase in the VO during this section and so does the level of distortion throughout this section.
"Joined together" sounds like phones calls.
"Fight them off" panned off to the side.
"Leadership and government refused or were unable to do so". I would say the sound was intentionally boxed in for closed-mindedness.
In the 2nd section the distortion is reduced again on the VO and they switch to going for the big space and increase the music level and intensity.
I am guessing that the voice at the end is Ron Paul so indeed, back to reality and maybe this is an extract from an actual interview?
Wow, I missed all that? Will have to check it out for the 56th time
I must admit I didn't notice distortion, sibilance and dropouts, but I ascribe that to low expectations that I have when watching stuff on YT. They panned 'chinese' left? That's bold, but maybe not that much, considering the text is doubled on-screen, so people without the working left channel speaker will still get the message......
thought this was a great post. who cares why he posted it. it got audio people talking about audio and listening to each others work. Cool spot. sure there were some problems but who knows, the engineer could have had 1 hr to track and mix this spot. you never know. point is, it sounds great for what it is and its not just a standard VO on top of a music bed, cause man THAT would be original.
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