Bob Ross has his paints to create forest landscape, I tried sound.
“Tell a story using nothing but sound effects. There can be no verbal communication, only sound effects. Use at least five different sounds that you find online. The story can be no longer than 90 seconds. Another example (by a UMW student): http://ds106.us/wp-content/audio/audio_story.mp3“
Sound Effects Story Assinment
Well, it took me a second to think of a good story idea. Without dialogue or narration, the sounds would have to tell the story all by themselves. I thought about what sounds I wanted to play around with and settled on the woods. I have made soundscapes for woods before for other projects, and I really enjoyed it.
So we had the setting: The Woodlands
Then I thought about what could happen in the woods. I mean, there is only one viable option. I chose monsters. Then I could also play around with monster sounds, which is a glorious rabbit hole of sound to fall into.
Oft when I myself travel in the woods, there is always a moment when the surrounding wildlife recognize my presence and shut up. Only after a long stillness do they start up again. I wanted to try to build a very diverse sound world and then make it all get quiet as the monster approached, then loud again after the monster left.
I used Freesound to get all of the sounds. I tried to use audacity to edit it, I really did, but when I tried to play the sounds to listen and edit them, it wouldn’t let me. It flashed all sorts of errors and systematic problems that I do not have the ability to fix. Once again, I find a way to dig under the wall of obstacles. Call me the King of the Shovels. So I fell back on what I know. There is actually a lot you can do with iMovie sound. Yes, it can be annoying, but its simplicity makes it very easy to use.
I didn’t even think to add a human character until the end.
Looking back, I probably should have chosen an easier story, but I had fun making it, even it is is only understandable after the explanation.
Just for fun, this is what it looked like when I finished.
