Use of Sound in our project

    Our film opening will use sound in a number of different ways, as, for example, we are planning to have a voiceover throughout a portion of it and a scene where said voiceover will play over a conversation. We will also be using music in at least one scene of our opening.

    In the beginning, the diegetic sound we will be using will be the sound of Betty's alarm clock going off, waking her up, and a song that her character would listen to. After she shuts off the alarm, Betty's narration would begin, and the song would also start playing in the background, at a lower volume than her voice of course, because what she's saying in the voiceover is key, as she will be explaining what we need to know about her before the story starts. The voiceover will let the audience know that Betty has been heartbroken, complementing the pan showing the items in the room. But I think it is important to note that we will most likely be editing in the music in, especially because we don't want to catch too much background noise, although it will still serve as diegetic music as Betty will still be playing it herself. At the moment we are not quite sure what our music choices, including the first song, will look like, after realizing that we have to also worry about copyright, but it shouldn't be that much of a hassle to find one that is just right for the mood. These two sounds will be playing as Betty gets ready, until her doorbell rings, courtesy of James, when the bedroom scene/montage will end.

    During the front door scene with James and Betty having a conversation/argument we decided not to have any actual music playing but mainly diegetic sounds. The audience will hear at least some parts of the dialogue between Betty and James, the voiceover jutting into the conversation as we will lower the volume of that, and the front door slamming as Betty shuts it in front of James' face. 

    In the last scene, when August and James will be interacting, there will be use of both diegetic and non-diegetic sound. While James is walking down the stret, away from Betty's house, there will be the diegetic sound of his footsteps and probably the sounds coming from the surroundings. As August pulls up in her car however, she will be playing music loudly, coming from her car radio, as diegetic sound. August will call James over where they begin a conversation which turns into an argument. There will also be diegetic sound of James getting into August's car and closing the door. 

    Towards the end of the film opening, as the camera moves away from the car, and tilts up into the sky, the music from August's radio will increase in volume slowly, with the sound of her and James arguing fading away, decreasing in volume. Here the music from the radio would turn from diegetic sound into non-diegetic sound because in the car itself, while James and August are conversing, they would have turned down the volume of the music, not turned it up. When the camera does show the sky, the title will be displayed and upbeat, background music (still to be determined) will play.

    The editing software that will be used to help us cut our scenes and put them together with the various sounds we will use include Sony Vegas, Final Cut, and Adobe After Effects. It's still being decide whether we are going to have to use all of them or simply one of them but I'm sure whatever we use will turn out just fine.