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Critical Reflection

Critique of Process –

My primary intention for the sound recording and design of Blue Monday was to ensure high-quality audio throughout, particularly during the complex one-take opening scene. The shot followed ‘Louise’ going from her bed to the window and downstairs, spanning between two floors. This raised practical challenges for boom placement and continuous high quality audio capture. Recognising that a single recordist might not be enough, I brought in Fred as a second recordist. This decision proved to be highly effective as while I captured audio upstairs, Fred manages the downstairs audio, which ensured clean and consistent sound as Louise ran outside the flat.

In terms of sound design, I aimed to create an anxiety inducing soundscape that reflected Louise’s psychological state. The core concept was to blur the boundaries between internal and external sound. I wanted the audience to experience the world as Louise did, that being subjective disorientating and paranoid as she believes she is being pursued by CID. The internal sounds (her headspace) would distort and mix with reality, especially during moments of panic, like when she opens the window to the chaos going on outside.  The intrusion of the external (mass police arrest) into her previously ‘safe’ internal space was key to creating a sense of threat and place.

A significant part of my intention was to an original score that integrated seamlessly with the sound design to enhance the paranoia. Rather than having music and sound operate independently, I chose to blend the two by warping recurring sound samples via pitch distortion, reverb etc into musical elements by repeating to create rhythm. This fusion aimed to enhance Louise’s increasing paranoia and increasing disorientation by turning familiar sounds into motifs as they repeated at varying pitches and rhythms to imply these sounds stuck with Louise as she becomes paranoid i.e. sirens and walkie talkies. My approach was heavily inspired by noise music, a genre that uses unconventional sounds and manipulate them to evoke emotional and uncomfortable responses. I found this to be more appropriate and effective than traditional orchestral scores and instruments, given the psychological focus of the film. I also drew inspiration from Atticus Ross and Trent Reznor’s score for The Killer, which while not strictly noise music, uses ambient and distorted real-world sounds e.g. car horns to build tension and mood. This reinforced my belief of a non-traditional score being more effective to convey Louise’s fragmented perception to heighten the film’s intensity and urgency.

In reflecting on my engagement, I believe my strengths are my problem-solving skills, such as planning for the complex one-take and working with Fred, as well as my creative integration of sound design and score to create a unique soundscape that would effectively portray paranoia and a sense of place. I was very involved within all stages of production due to sound being an integral aspect of the film as it determined its tone and mood. A potential weakness was my lack of experience and expertise in composing. Before this, I had little experience in composing with Pro Tolls and composing in general, so it took valuable time to understand the software to compose. While this could’ve been a major setback, I did prepare for this by accommodating for my lack of experience and start the sound design early, giving myself a total of two weeks instead of the allotted five days.

Overall, my sound aimed to immerse the audience in Louise’s unstable mind and enhance the urgency and paranoia she experiences. Through both technical preparation and creative experimentation, I believe the final soundscape successfully supported the narrative and emotional integrity of Blue Monday.

Critique of Final Work –

The final version of Blue Monday effectively portrays a contained narrative centred around the psychological breakdown of a young woman, ‘Louise’, during a mass public police arrest fuelled by a new AI surveillance program. The seven-minute film closely follows the original script, with the most significant change being the ending, the adjustments were necessary to enhance Louise’s paranoia, making this the focal point of the film, as her mental state effects the narrative and shifting the tone to a more internal experience. Thematically, the film explores paranoia and authoritarian control to transform familiar, safe environments i.e. Louise’s home into threatening spaces. Louise’s internal state and perception is central to the film, her paranoia distorts reality as she believes she is being targeted, Ben’s choppy, fast-paced editing, disorientates viewer’s and exploits Louise’s confusion. I found this was affective in the scene when she was hit by the car, as she seemingly teleports between locations which visually communicates her dissociative state.

Olivia’s (Louise) performance was key to sustaining our themes of paranoia, her body language was crucial given the absence of dialogue, which made my job as sound designer more effects based than dialogue. Her internalised portrayal of panic was especially effective in the final scene where she is trapped by CID which ground the emotional integrity of the film.

The mise-en-scene also enhanced Louise’s psychological distress as set design was minimal, making the CID imposing by highlighting Louise’s isolation. Locations like Louise’s sparse bedroom reflected her lack of control over her environments and paranoia.

With lack of extras and shot variation, sound was vital in world-building. I layered ambient sounds like sirens and helicopters to create an unrelenting atmosphere. For the score, I manipulated these audio elements to reflect how Louise’s paranoia was affecting her environment, gradually being incorporated into the score, making the score central to the film’s emotional integrity. This is most apparent in the final scene, where the walkie talkies are repeated and pitch shifted to create rhythm and induce anxiety as Louise’s paranoia peaks. This, I would say was my biggest technical success for the film as I feel I effectively blurred the line between diegetic sound and soundtrack, making the film unique in its exploration of paranoia.

One area I found less successful was the car-hit sound, which I felt lacked realism. I struggled to create a believable impact as I only had sound banks at my disposal, using foley would have been effective for this. Blue Monday meets outlined aims in the proposal and module brief and creatively explores relevant social concerns like paranoia in the face of state control. While its subjective narrative may alienate some viewers, this choice supports the goal of emotional immersion. Crit feedback was overly positive, particularly with sound which I was very happy with and confirms audience engagement. Some feedback included emphasising connection with Louise’s panic during intense moments like her running downstairs in the first scene which I completely agree with and wished I had considered that as it would’ve been effective.

To conclude, Blue Monday is a technically ambitious short that pushed each HOD to their creative limit. My sound design was central to establishing the film’s tone and theme which contributed significantly to its immersion and emotionally charged atmosphere.

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Blue Monday (2025)

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Dixieland (2025)

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Better Safe Than Sorry Sound Design week 2 - 14/04/25 - 24/04/25

This second week I focused on creating the score and adding plug-in effects as well as automation and polishing the sound design.

For the score I focused on using the previously established sound design and distoring them through pitch modulation plug ins and reverb with D-verb and then repeating them to create rhythms and motifs throughout the film to convey Louise's paranoia. Within the final scene I make use of repetitive walkie talkie interferences and distorted cars passing at high speeds to create a sense of anxiety which I think was effective in building intensity. For both sound design and score I used pitch modulation, EQ-7 band and D-verb plug ins. For instrumentation like drones etc I picked instruments on xpand! and pitched them down to the point where it was pure bass notes that didn't sound like intruments anymore, distorting the sound completely. The instruments I used were the triangle, subsonic and fretless bass to achieve the driving force to the sound track which repeat at various points of the film.

As for the automation, the second scene is most likely the heaviest for automation as I wanted Louise's hearing to be distorted after she got hit by the car to add to her confusion and disorientation. To do this I automated low pass frequencies in the EQ-7 band and tightening the Q knob, and then I would simply write the automation up and down to create a muffled affect that would distort which I think was effective in heightening Louise's paranoia.

After track lay was finalised, Plug-ins were added and automation was complete all that was left was to mix everything up to the appropriate levels. I knew I wanted the first scene to be the most impactful as everything kicks off and so I boosted the sound of the helicopter that passes as Lousie opens the window, to create sudden intensity and drive.

After I polished off the levels and was happy with everything, all I had left to do was add the WLM plug-in to the master fader to make sure that the LUFS hit -23 dB so that it would be an appropriate volume for viewing.

With that Blue Monday was completed and ready for layback to Ben for credits!

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Dixieland BTS

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Dixieland 1st AC experience 08/04/25 - 11/04/25

This was my first experience being a 1st AC for a film. I was quite nervous taking this role as I have been primarily working on sound for the past two years and so I wasn't very well versed in camera however, I thought this was a good opportunity to learn. Sam was the DOP and he was incredibly welcoming and helpful towards me, I asked him to send me the shot list, equipment list, story boards and shooting schedule so that I could be prepared for each day and know what equipement we would need each shoot i.e. dolly, tall sticks, short sticks. I found my first day to be the most difficult in terms of getting used to the system of being a 1st AC but after the first hour Sam and I created a good system of lens switching and equipment set up.

The most daunting thing I found about 1st Acing was the focus as we only had an on camera monitor which was quite small and hard to see even with peaking on, I also have quite bad eyesight which doesn't help. After a couple tries however I got very comfortable with focus pulling even when doing tracking shots on the dolly with the helpfullness of Sam.

Overall, I really enjoyed working with the Dixieland crew as it was never stressful and we had fun making the film. I really liked being a 1st AC as it allowed me to try different elements of camera work and jobs like building up equipment, lens changes, focus pulling and clapper board which deepened my understanding of camera, making me more confident with the role. I would absolutely try 1st AC again in the future!

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Better Safe Than Sorry Sound Design- Week 1 30/03/25 - 06/04/25

The first week for sound design was dedicated to track lay and timings as they would be integrated into the score during the second week and so the timings of each clip would be important in figuring out the rhythm.

Because there was minimal dialogue within this film I could skip past dialogue work almost immediatly apart from putting a de-noiser plug in on the CID's lines in the tunnel which didn't take much time.

Half my time this week was spend on soundly (a sound bank) trying to find approriate sounds particularly sourcing UK police sirens which proved difficult so I had to search news report videos on youtube to source police arrests which was effective in creating a realistic environment.

I also payed close attention to sourcing unusal sounds that evoke uncomfortable emotions like panic during the first scene to drive the intensity for the rest of the film. I sourced metal screeching as I thought this would be very grating, I eventually found a sound named 'metal screeching, Dulcimer strings' which turned out to be a perfect fit for the scene which I will adapt to the score at a later point. I also focused on sourcing high pitched droning sounds like a train coming to a stop which I used when the CID broke into Louise's building which I thought was effective in sustaining tension.

Overall, this weeks primary focus was to create Louise's paranoid soundscape solely through sound effects and clips, I believe the soundscape I created through unatural sounds and high pitched drones to make Louise's experience feel uncomfortable and disorientating was effective which will become even more effective when I incorporate it within the score and make it cohesive.

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DAY 4 BTS

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DAY 4 SHOOT BSTS - highlights

Today was our final day shooting. We shot the tunnel scene which was the most difficult by far for sound as it risked being muddy and amplified because of the acoustics in the environemnt. I decided to record sound anyways as it was better to have it rather than not but I think I will have to add a de-noiser plug-in to the CID dialogue to make it clearer.

Because it was a public area is was hard to have the location absent of people and so we were on a time crunch when the space was free which was stressful but the crew and I got through it calmly and effeciently.

The sound captured today was still good quality and can be used but it may have to be treated in post a small bit. I also recorded the CID lines as wildtracks at a quiet location, away from the tunnel so I could get clear dialogue, so if the de-noiser plug-in isn't effective for the other audio I can always have the cleaner wildtrack take

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DAY 3 SHOOT - highlights

Today was the most difficult in all aspects of filming... it was rough. The location was the most public, being on the main road with cars passing by all day and people crossing at the traffic lights which was an absolute nightmare for recording sound, not just because it risked being muddy but also we had severe time pressure when the public weren't in the location (which was rare). I recorded sounds like breathing at a quieter location as wildtracks and recorded the ambiance of the location for roomtone etc.

While today was incredibly difficult for everyone, we all worked incredibly well together to get the job done.

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DAY 3 BTS

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DAY 2 BTS

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DAY 2 SHOOT - BSTS highlights

Today we shot the second and third scene which was after Louise gets hit by a car and her walking in the park.

Sound today was relatively smooth as the scenes of course have no dialogue and so I was primarily focusing on catching Louise's breathing and footfall for the different environments she's in as well as getting some wildtracks which I thought would help for post. The park scene was a little difficult to capture sound for as the park was close to a main road so the sound got muddy at points due to lack of dialogue. To fix this, I decided to take a lot of wild tracks of Olivia matching her actions to screen at a quieter location which was effective as the audio was a lot clearer.

Overall, I was happy with the shoot today regarding sound as Fred and I were effecient along with the rest of the crew.

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DAY 1 BTS

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DAY 1 SHOOT - BSTS highlights

Today marked the first day of shooting for Better Safe Than Sorry, overall it was incredibly successful due to the crew having already practiced the technicalities of the first scene with the test shoot. I managed to get Fred on board as a second sound recordist who will be helping as boom op for the third and fourth days. Bringing Fred onboard was definitely the right choice as the sound would've been heavily comprised without him as he captured the downstairs audio which was integral to achieving the one-take we had planned. It was a bit challenging to begin with as Fred and I were finding our footing but after a couple of takes, Him and I had a good system going with both of us labelling our own mix pre3s and having separate sound records so it would be easier to navigate in post.

One of the hardest aspects of today was the constant up and down on the stairs and the mental energy it took to maintain performance during a one-take that spans between two floors. That being said I think the crew and I handled it very professionally and didn't falter even when we were tired, thanks to Becca scheduling breaks.

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Score Inspiration

Daniel Blumberg (Composer of The Brutalist) pays tribute to noise-music by playing conventional instruments in unconventional ways to create intense/new sounds which is something I found to be very effective in creating a sense of anxiety. Blumberg leans heavily into syncopated rhythms and dissonance to create a sense of persistent choas and intense drive which I think would be perect for creating Louise's paranoid headspace.

This track encapsulates a lot of Blumberg's techniques, I've listened to this a lot when considering the score.

Here is a small video of Blumberg explaining his processes for composing The Brutalist.

I found how he uses the instruments particularly interesting like how he used nails and screws inbetween piano strings to distort the sound.