First Sound Redesign Project (Band of Brothers) - Constructive Criticism

[JSt0rm]

good job. Charles you should take a listen

23 seconds the Thompson gun felt weak and too distant for me. Thats really the only thing that stuck out.

Did you replace all the voices as well? Good work on the efforts.

[JamieG193]

Originally Posted by JSt0rm

good job. Charles you should take a listen

23 seconds the Thompson gun felt weak and too distant for me. Thats really the only thing that stuck out.

Did you replace all the voices as well? Good work on the efforts.

Thanks a lot for your feedback

I'll have to pay closer attention to the loudness of the guns next time. It was hard to try and imagine how loud a certain sound should be in comparison to everything else + the distance from the cam. I guess I'll improve on this with more and more practice.

Everything from the original video had been muted (I started with absolutely no sound) so the voices were replaced as well. I didn't record them myself, they were actually voices from the original call of duty games (CoD 1&2) that were based on World War I & II.

[JSt0rm]

ahh ok that makes sense.

We call it cutting for perspective. There is no hard rule though and sometimes perspectives dont help and are just too jumpy and pull the audience out of the movie. I think in this case it would of helped though.

[JesseG]

That was awesome, great work. On my first watch nothing really jumped out at me. I found it believable, and overall well done. I listened on laptop speakers (I'm out right now) but will give it a more thorough listen on some decent monitors when I'm home.

[JamieG193]

Originally Posted by JesseG

That was awesome, great work. On my first watch nothing really jumped out at me. I found it believable, and overall well done. I listened on laptop speakers (I'm out right now) but will give it a more thorough listen on some decent monitors when I'm home.

Thanks for your thoughts, means a lot!

[RBillia]

I have to agree with every comment from above. Really great job, especially for a first time sound edit. There is a lot of great texture and visceral stuff in there (dirt, metal, etc.). With something like this it always comes down to the details and you have a lot in there.

If I was really looking for comments and with delving even deeper into the details, you might want a few more bullet bys to add to the tension and fear the guys would surely be feeling. Also a scene like this can fall out of reality a bit more, in all the noise and distance you wouldn't necessarily hear footsteps of the guys running before they are shot, but it might be worth trying and seeing how they sound, good crunchy steps with heavy rustle (jackets, boots, metal clips, etc.) Great job all around though. Will listen some more and see if anything else comes to mind. Good luck.

Best,
Ryan

[charles maynes]

Originally Posted by JamieG193

Hi all, I've just signed up to your forums and boy am I damn glad I found 'em! I didn't realise there was such a big community on post production :D

I'm very new to sound design and looking for some constructive criticism on my first sound design/replacement project. Bear in mind I'm very new to this sort of thing so go easy on me

Here's a link to the video:
Band Of Brothers Sound Redesign/Replacement - YouTube

I'm looking forward to people's thoughts.


Thanks
J





P.S
Sorry if I'm using the wrong terminology. I'm not sure whether Sound Design involves sound effects and music production or just sfx alone.

hey Jamie-

great work- you covered the action very nicely.... I actually am not a huge fan of the original gun sounds in BOB, and I think the choices you made were quite tasty- I think it was mentioned that you could have had some bullet whizzes and stuff like that- which I also agree with-

as far as critique (beyond the last paragraph) the thing I didnt quite feel was the sense of the sort of battle chaos / danger that the images suggested- sometimes, you will not have supporting visuals for that, but generally placing your protagonist in a sort of escalating danger enhances the story telling via sound...

one of my favorite examples of that is in Saving Private Ryan, where Captain Miller is trying to get a way for his squad off the beach-

Saving Private Ryan - Covering Fire! - YouTube

sometimes you can use bullet whizzes as motivating devices for sharp mvts of your protagonists getting out of the way of danger...

other than that though, I loved it. if thats a first effort, you are ahead of many people who have doing that sort of things for years....

[inf0l]

I'll have to chime in with the others - great work!

Two things sounded slightly of place to me:

The grenade at 23sec; it felt too much like a 'generic explosion effect', whereas the later explosions fit the scene nicely.

The panning of the German voice at 37sec; there's no camera movement to support the pan from right to left

Keep it up!

[JamieG193]

Originally Posted by charles maynes

hey Jamie-

great work- you covered the action very nicely.... I actually am not a huge fan of the original gun sounds in BOB, and I think the choices you made were quite tasty- I think it was mentioned that you could have had some bullet whizzes and stuff like that- which I also agree with-

as far as critique (beyond the last paragraph) the thing I didnt quite feel was the sense of the sort of battle chaos / danger that the images suggested- sometimes, you will not have supporting visuals for that, but generally placing your protagonist in a sort of escalating danger enhances the story telling via sound...

one of my favorite examples of that is in Saving Private Ryan, where Captain Miller is trying to get a way for his squad off the beach-

Saving Private Ryan - Covering Fire! - YouTube

sometimes you can use bullet whizzes as motivating devices for sharp mvts of your protagonists getting out of the way of danger...

other than that though, I loved it. if thats a first effort, you are ahead of many people who have doing that sort of things for years....

Thanks a lot for the feedback, that Scene from Saving Private Ryan you posted was an amazing example. Next time I attempt another action scene I'll definately start using some more bullet whizzes and cracks to increase that level of raw danger felt by the audience.

Also, your last comment blew me away. You've made me think more about pursuing this as a possible career path

Originally Posted by inf0l

I'll have to chime in with the others - great work!

Two things sounded slightly of place to me:

The grenade at 23sec; it felt too much like a 'generic explosion effect', whereas the later explosions fit the scene nicely.

The panning of the German voice at 37sec; there's no camera movement to support the pan from right to left

Keep it up!

Thanks!

You're right, the grenade at 23 secs was just a generic explosion sound effect and not an actual grenade sound. I'm not sure why I didn't use an actual grenade explosion effect. I'll have to pay closer attention to these details in future.

With the panning at 37 sec, I was experimenting with panning a few sounds purely for effect but I guess in this case its had an opposite result. Instead, I'll have to make sure I only really pan sounds if the camera movement supports it, as you said



I just want to say thanks to everyone who has given their feedback so far, it has really helped. As I mentioned earlier, I am thinking about pursuing this as a possible future career path, and all of these comments are a big encouragement

[djgizmo]

I just watched this for the first time... I have to agree with most of what was said.

I do feel that the mix wasn't 'full' enough, but it is a very good sound edit.

Speaking of bullet bys (whizzes), anyone know how to create one w/o recording actual shots?

[JSt0rm]

Originally Posted by djgizmo

I just watched this for the first time... I have to agree with most of what was said.

I do feel that the mix wasn't 'full' enough, but it is a very good sound edit.

Speaking of bullet bys (whizzes), anyone know how to create one w/o recording actual shots?

whipping different things past a mic will give you the doppler effect.