OUAN601 - Audio Segment, Finishing the Audio

Once the audio was recorded and sent to me I spent some time playing around with the order and cutting them up even further to get exactly what I wanted from the scripts and this piece of media in particular. I was unsure at first if I liked the converging aspect to the phone calls but after trying different combinations of the sound files I reverted back to simply overlaying the three clips. I adjusted the audio so it sounded more coherent and then added some simple 'fade in' and 'fade out' effects to add an element of drama to the sound rather than abruptly ending when the phone conversations cut out. I purchased several sound effects that I thought added more tension and build up to the sound, and finished the clip with some tense but quiet music. I tried the audio both with and without the music and the addition of another layer of sound really improved it a lot, so that is how the final version is presented.



After the audio was completed and a finished track I decided that I didn't want it to just be a piece of audio but perhaps have a visual to accompany it. I wanted the audio to do the storytelling however, and didn't want any visuals to distract or take away from the job the audio was doing at delivering another type of story. I decided to include a type of audio wave to illustrate the audio itself as oppose to creating more vivid imagery to accompany it. The process I undertook to do this was through Adobe After Effects and involved using 'Audio Spectrum' and then applying it to the 'Finished_Audio' clip. This created the wave that represents visually the audio being played. From there are a huge array of options to modify colour, bar height, and the number of bars in the audio wave.

The creation of this type of visual worked a lot better than I expected, as I was concerned that the addition of any type of visual would lessen the value of the audio or in some way distract from it. However, the fact that the visual is simply a representation of the audio itself I actually think it heightens the appeal of the audio because of the syncronicity between the two elements. One of the the most successful opinions of this in my opinion is towards the end of the track where the audio is tapering off as the different connection are lost. This is apparent in the visuals and I think makes this fact more obvious. As the audio deminishes and fades away, the bars in the audio wave decrease in size and in a strange way, given the context of the phone calls, seem to struggle before fading away the same as the audio.

In terms of distributing this to the audience, the audio could again be given as a physical artifact such as a file on a USB drive or memory card. Alternatively, a character in the story could discover the audio file somehow, or find a 'cell phone' somewhere before listening to the recorded messages on the little battery life it has left. Given the rules of the world, the vast majority of electronic devices, including cars have been rendered unusable unless repaired. This goes for anything that runs off power, but some battery powered devices such as a phone can be used until the battery expires and they can't be recharged - this was the idea behind this particular segment and some of the scripts actually feature the characters stating that their power is out and they are having to use their 'cell phones' to communicate.