Creation of Sound
Sound Storyboard and Foley Sheets
The first step in this process was to create a cue sheet for all foley, SFX, ADR and any
ambiences needed.
Once this was created, Ellie and Ben decided to split some of the
sounds up to get on our their time or what ones we could collaborate on. Ellie and Ben had a
couple of foley sessions together in the University's foley recording space. For the rest of
the foley it was done solo either by Ben or Ellie at home.
​
For Ellie's foley recording sessions at home she used an audio interface and a shotgun
microphone on a mic stand. Using an audio interface meant that she could record audio
straight onto my logic session and time up with the film exactly.
Slideshow of Foley sheets
Describe your image
Describe your image
Describe your image
Describe your image
For the foley, Ben and Ellie split the scenes into two categories: smaller but more consistent noises and louder, more complex noises. For the smaller sounds scenes were split up and recorded separately at our own houses. Ben took lead of the opening act of the film, just before Spring and her dog descended into the clouds off into their journey, while Ellie did the ending scenes with the tree creatures.
Foley Sessions
In this video Ellie shows us how the sounds for trees were recorded by snapping a pepper and using the drip of an icicle.
Here’s a list of some sounds that were created and how they were done;
​
-
Tree footsteps- carboard box, kickdrum
-
Spring (Girl) footsteps- foley pit with cassette tape and gravel
-
Spring (Girl) hitting rock- kickdrum and gong
-
Movement of trees coming to life- pepper, celery, cabbage, rope twisting/ stretching
-
Dog eating biscuit- my dog eating a crisp
-
Crystal falling downhill- Logic Pro Xylophone
​
Behringer UMC22
For Ellies foley recording sessions at home she used an audio interface and a shotgun microphone on a mic stand. Using an audio interface meant that she could record audio straight onto her logic session and time up with the film exactly.
The Behringer UMC22 with the Sennheiser MKE600 were used to capture audio. These were ideal and captured good quality recordings.
Sennheiser MKE600
Benjamin’s independent foley sessions included:
• Gardening gloves with paperclips attached to simulate the noise of a dog’s paw and tapping of its nails against a concrete slab
• The rustling of a cassette tape reel for the dry leaves
• Scattering pieces of dry cereal for rocks and pebbles whenever the dog slid on the ground
• An old leather jacket that was tackled and bundled for Spring’s heavy boots and staff
These elements all allowed the foley team to create a longer yet subtle sound design that would be nevertheless important in the final mix, even with the score layered on top.
For the more complex action sequences, Ellie and Ben utilised the foley pit in Control room 1 of the Universities recording fascinates and used the foley pit in the recording studio.
This scene involved the tree creatures waking up from their dormant sleep, and their subsequent legs opening up and smashing into the ground, just before the chase sequence near the end of the film.
For the creature, several creative techniques and methods were used to replicate the sounds of ancient, woodland monsters and their limbs such as:
• Tearing, twisting and ripping of peppers, lettuce leaves and cabbages for the rips of the elbow snaps
• Hitting a large steak for the thuds of the crashing tree legs
• General foot stomps and rock noises
While Ellie and Ben worked on collecting sounds whether it was foley recordings or SFX Ellie would add them into the DAW, edit and
arrange them correctly and add any audio fx such as reverb, pitch shifters or EQ tools.
For ADR, Ellie provided the voice of Spring for all the laughs, giggles and breathing throughout the film, recording them all at her home. We intended for the dog to be recorded by Ben's dog, but after some failed attempts we decided just to use a template recording of a dog barking and growling.
These foley mp3 files were then sent to Ellie through WeTranfser where we were able to use them along with her own files she recorded separately, including the ADR, and start the foley mix.
Once they had filled out the majority of the film it was time to hand it over to Adam who would be refining it, adding in the music and doing the final mix.
Slideshow of Effects used
Mixing
Creating a master DAW session for a short film project was all about building a central, organised hub where every element of the sound and music production could come together seamlessly. The session acted as the backbone of the audio workflow—housing the score, sound design, Foley, ADR, and reference tracks in a clear, structured layout.
Track stacks and color coding were essential for navigating quickly between elements, while markers were placed at key narrative beats to keep the storytelling front and center during the creative process.
By centralising everything into one master session, it was easier to manage transitions, ensure tonal consistency, and make real-time decisions about how music and sound interacted with picture.
Slideshow of folders in Logic
Using scene markers in Logic Pro added a powerful storytelling layer to the production of sound and music in the short film.
Rather than composing in isolation, we were composing to the story -responding to its rhythm, tension, and pacing in real time. It brought a sense of cohesion to the film’s sonic landscape and made the entire sound world feel more intimately connected to the visual storytelling.
To ensure the atmos element flowed together, properly, echo automation was used to ensure everything would flow together when eq's changed due to scene changes.
When editing foley and SFX, rumble and overly subby bass has been edited out using a low frequency cut. Atmos and foley that included too much treble were edited with a high frequency cut.
When adding composition elements to the mixing process the vocals on 'Winter's Song' were fully stacked with a large vocal chain using lots of reverb and other effects.
​
Vocal chain has channel EQ, called a reductuve EQ channel, used to take away frequencies that aren’t wanted. In the case of the vocals used for composition, there was a higher timbre as it was a female voice so Adam made sure to cut the low bass frequencies to give more of an airy effect, this also made is easier to edit vocal tracks and so that tracks fit together nicely and reduced any rumble. Second channel EQ is additive, and used for whatever is needed to be boosted and would would cut through the mix even stronger.
​
Compression was used so that varying volumes in the mix blended together, and audio levels are consistent. This was used in a lighter way to give the audio a more natural feel.
​
Exciter was used as a frequency boost, to enhance the higher scale of the frequency to add a glimmer to the vocals and add a brightness to vocals.
​Vocal reverb and was used to create a more ambient sound of the vocals to replicant the feeling of being in a large spacious room or hall.
​
Slideshow of vocal Stacks and Effects
Vocal echo was used to give a bit of texture underneath everything else in the tracks and sustains that texture, and contributes to the overall flow of the mix.
​
A strong modulation was put on each track to give a fairytale/ fantasy feeling, using a chorus effect which multiplies the vocals subtly shifting the pitch to create a doubling effect. Sample delay was used to delay the time the vocals would reach either left or right side of audio space. This further places the vocals further in the full mix of the composition rather than on top.
​
And finally DeEsser was used to stop any sibilance in vocal tracks, and was used in the vocal chain to lower any unwanted frequencies such as harsh ‘s’ or ‘cuh’ sounds and smooths out any harsh sounds that might be found in the mix.
Fade in and out was used for the vocals that were sent, which were recorded in a home space that wasn't treated for audio recording. So this was used to eliminate any room buzz or unnecessary noise found in the vocal tracks.
The fade out lessens that, and naturally has the volume turned down so that you can cut right to just where the vocals are. So instead of having a long held vocal take, it breaks it all up into smaller sizes so that any unnecessary frequency isn't in the mix fully.
Gain automation was used for every theme in the score to bring volume slightly down in moments to showcase the foley work, so there was more space for it. Also used to fade out the final to fade out final theme slowly.
Gain automation was used separately in the score mix and final mix to have certain instruments fade in and out such as the piano in winters theme. Was also used to extend violin chords to make midi instrument feel more natural.
Pan automation was used heavily in final mix for foley sounds running footsteps, sticks being thrown, trees moving. This was to create a sense of scope on the screen, so that sounds would move across the audio space just as you would see them on the screen.
Noise gate was used for instruments such as electric guitar and bass, to stop unwanted frequencies such as cable pulls or to stop squeaks on any of the higher frequencies that might be found.
As a result of combined hard work of the foley and composition team, Adam was able to create the final mix combining the two, which you can see in the teams own interpretation of 'Spring' on the Short Film page.