Pitch Project: Editing and Music

I have spent a lot of time working on the audio that we recorded of Ben's voice. Having cut all the individual lines from the script, I began to put them back together, using different lines from different takes and trying to select the best one each time. The only problem with creating something that is supposed to be funny is that after you've listened to it 40 or 50 times the joke wears a little thin. I cut together the audio we had for the Egyptions, the Greeks and the Romans, but we decided after speaking with Andy to just use one of these for the pitch, and the Egyptions seemed to be the funniest.

Anyway, it seemed to be coming together, it just needed a few more lines recording; an introduction ("Hello, Professor Piddle here") and a signing off ("that's all for now, goodbye!"). Once I had those, I added in some music. Ben and I went through the sound effect cd's until we had some music which sounded like stereotypical Egyption background music. I brought in a recording of Handel's The Arrival of the Queen of Sheba, which I used for the opening and closing music, it gave an air of authority and authenticity to the whole soundtrack. After some time playing with the sound levels, I asked Will and Ben to listen as they had not yet heard it with the music added; they both started laughing almost immediately, which I took to be a good sign.

I was suprised how long it took to edit the sound together and how important it was to take breaks away from it as it becomes very difficult to judge whether it's working when you have been sitting with headphones on for the last couple of hours. The effect that the music had was immediate and gave it a much more completed sound; suddenly it had become something which I could genuinely imagine working well as an animation. The combination of the music and Ben's voice as Professor Piddle creates an image in the head and I have become quite keen to see how it would actually work with our drawings. However, I think in the presentation will have the audio playing out over a static image because it will focus the audience much more on the sound, which I am pleased about as I have tried to get a good result.