Mean Girls

                                                    Evaluation

For this particular soundtrack production task, we did a series of workshops. The first workshop that we did was called ' Dubbing Dialogue'. For this we had to pick a short film clip from the Arts & Media drive, these clips contained dialogues between two characters and the scenes were a mixture of male and female characters. We then had to recompose or recreate all of the spoken words that were used in the in the clips and record the same spoken words known as dubbing, over the original movie sequence. our main focus and aim of this workshop was to be accurate or as close to professional standards in relations to the time and technical accuracy, in terms of the lip-synching. We then were put into pairs, to write a script for the chosen clips of our choose, and play one of the characters in the scene.

For this workshop i was partnered with Sabrina Yaaqub, the short film sequence that we were dubbing for and choose was mean girls. We picked this particular film sequence simply because, the dialogue was simple and straight forward. Also we have both seen the film therefore know it very well, which worked in our favour because we knew how to portray the characters we were playing. After we choose our film sequence and wrote a script for the scene. My partner and i decided that i would be best if we practiced firstly before recording, we practised on the dialogue being said, also they way or style of which the words needed to be said. and also focusing on the content and timing or the words to get the dubbing as accurately correct. Practising really helped to improve and enhance the quality of the dubbing and helped us and the recording to be greatly effective so that the mood and meaning of the scene was portrayed clearly to the audience.

Once we finished practicing our next step was moving onto the production, recording our dialogue in the radio studio. My partner and i pay extra attention to matching the recording as closely and precisely to the original spoken word sequence as much as possible. We choose to do this live instead of either recording with the video playing back to us or through practice and copying what we heard. We did this because we felt confident with our spoken word, so didn't think it was necessary to attempt to do the task any other way.

We decided to record our voices at least three times, just incase one sounded better than the other or just incase of any mistakes. we felt this would give us more of a variety when it came to editing which it did. after we recording we went straight on to recording. We decided that we wanted to do the recording in primer, i picked this software simply because i know my way around it so felt more comfortable when it came to editing. We put together our recording spoken word and the muted original sequence, the first attempt at editing in my opinion didn't go so well. I didn't feel as if the spoken word we recorded matched perfectly to the original film sequence. it didn't meet up to my standards and expectations. At times the recordings were faster or slower than what was being said in the sequence. Another problem was that my partners voice was extremely low where as my voice was much louder.  this was due to the fact that i was much closer to the mic that she was. So this also caused problems for us, these problems to me didn't portray the mood and meaning. When given feedback by the class, people did say that some of the voice and film sequence didn't match but most of it did. Which didn't have any effect on the mood or meaning of the film sequence. Overall they thought it was good but in my opinion i would have to disagree. After our first attempt at recroding we then try editing again, the second time around i felt was much better and met my standards. The timing of the recording and spoken word being said on the screen were almost perfect. I also felt the same way with the technical accuracy of the dubbing/lip-syncing. i felt the second editing pot rayed the mood and meaning better.

For improvements i would perhaps record whilst the video is playing back , because then we would be able to keep in time with the scene. And so that it wouldn't be a challenge when it comes to editing and trying to get the video and voice accurate.

After we did the dubbing workshop it was then time to, add music to our dubbing film sequence. For this we had to do this individual. The music that i picked for the film sequence was a song from the film legally blonde i used this to convey the mood and meaning of the scene, of the girls just meeting and getting to know each other. Then i added a song from the Chucky movie to convey a chilling mood to the film sequence and really contrast with the start of the sequence. It starts of girly and upbeat but towards the end the mood changes from happy to spooky. Which completely changed the meaning of the film sequence.