project ★ · week 13
Final Project
Your task
Create a five-minute sound design for an animated or live-action short, or for three contrasting scenes from a feature film totaling five minutes.
Possible footage includes SterilleFlower , the Blender Open Movies , or a short you find on Vimeo . Check the source’s permissions before using it in a public portfolio.
Proposal and checkpoints
Post footage links and a short initial spotting plan to D2L by class on November 23. Identify the settings, major Foley and effects cues, planned recordings, and available personal or library sources. We will confirm the scope in class; no finished audio is required with the proposal.
- November 30: Assignment 6: Ambiences . Use a setting from this project when possible, then revise it after feedback.
- December 2: bring your working REAPER session and recording progress.
- December 7: present a complete draft for feedback.
- December 14: submit to D2L and present at the 3:30–5:30 PM final exam.
Build the soundtrack
- Foley: record as much as you can, covering moves, footsteps, and specifics from Assignments 1–2. Use the studio for controlled recording and a Zoom recorder elsewhere.
- Ambiences: establish each setting with beds and details, following the Setting lesson . Include room tone indoors and the field-recording unit’s geophony, biophony, and anthrophony layers outdoors.
- Sound effects: cover other on-screen elements outside dialogue, Foley, and ambience.
- Music, if used: use original or properly licensed tracks and document their titles, sources, and licenses. See Working with music .
Mix
Follow the final mix lesson .
- If using dialogue, establish it first, averaging between -12 and -6 dB; use compression to control its dynamic range.
- Balance Foley, other effects, and ambiences around it.
- Use reverb sends to place elements in a shared acoustic space, and panning or automation to follow on-screen action. Additional impulse responses are available from Voxengo .
- Check the finished render with Calculate loudness in REAPER’s render dialog: -24 LUFS integrated, with true peak under -2 dB.
Submit
- Rendered video with the finished mix meeting the specifications above.
- Stems: one file per used category: dialogue, Foley, effects, ambience, and music. Together they should sum to the full mix.
- Consolidated REAPER project with all media, using named, organized tracks.
- One page of documentation: identify the film and scenes, intended mood and style, key design and mixing decisions, what worked, one improvement you would make, and a technical challenge you addressed. Include music credits and licenses if applicable.
Use clear filenames and keep a complete copy somewhere you can access after graduation. The finished film sound design can sit alongside your DAD 222 track and DAD 422 immersive piece in your portfolio.
Grading rubric: 100 points
| Criterion | Exemplary | Proficient | Developing | Emerging | Points |
|---|---|---|---|---|---|
| Foley (22 pts) | Live-recorded Foley carries the characters’ contact with the world; performance and sync read as production sound | Foley present and mostly recorded live, with some library substitution | Largely library effects standing in for Foley, or sync drifting | Little identifiable Foley | /22 |
| Ambience (22 pts) | Every setting is established by its background; indoor and outdoor spaces are distinct and hold across cuts | Ambience establishes place, with one space thinner than the rest | Ambience present but generic, or dropping out across cuts | No ambience beds | /22 |
| Sound Effects (18 pts) | On-screen elements outside dialogue, Foley, and ambience are all covered and sit convincingly | Most elements covered; one or two left silent | Several on-screen sources without sound | Effects sparse or absent | /18 |
| Mix and Delivery (18 pts) | Elements sit in a coherent space; levels hold across playback systems; render is clean and to spec | Balanced with minor level issues; render clean | Elements mask each other, or the render has artifacts | Mix unbalanced or render unusable | /18 |
| Spotting and Structure (12 pts) | Choices are placed where the picture asks for them; the design develops across the piece | Well spotted, with a stretch that stays static | Sound applied evenly regardless of what the picture is doing | No evident spotting | /12 |
| Session Delivery (8 pts) | Consolidated project with all media, tracks named and organized, submitted with the render | Complete with minor organization issues | Media not consolidated, or tracks unnamed | Session incomplete | /8 |
Total: ___ / 100