Portfolio
Here are some links to the various pieces of work I did throughout my time at Ex'pression College for Digital Arts in Emeryville, CA. Since then I've been interning and doing production audio for an independent film in San Francisco, so once time allows, I will add more work to this page.
Earth Versus The Flying Saucers - The Holst Edition
This was the original version of my Audio Post-Production final class project, done in just around two weeks. of class time. For this piece, I edited video from the final ten minutes of the movie to create a more action-packed scene, and then edited together various parts of "Mars" and "Saturn" from Gustav Holst's Planets Suite to create the necessary impact at the right moments.
The purpose of the assignment was to recreate all of the sounds in the piece, so I did sound design for sound effects and ambience and recorded Foley to recreate the sound effects bed. The movie originally only had one line of dialog, which happened to be poorly dubbed in the original, so I kept with tradition and intentionally poorly dubbed the line here as well.
Overall, my approach with this scene was to create a comical juxtaposition between what we would expect from a 50-year old science fiction film and how it would sound if it had sound design from modern day. At times I would keep with the original theme, such as the poor ADR dubbing or the sound ray sounds, but with things like explosions and firing sounds from the saucers, I sought to make it seem slightly more up to date. In the end, I approached this as if it was partially lampooning the original through these additions.
Earth Versus The Flying Saucers - The DeVotchka Edition
This version is identical in sound to the version above, but only varies in soundtrack. After going through the process of music editing, I wanted to see how the movie may come across with a different score behind it, and after just dropping in this DeVotchka Song (Charlotte Mittnacht), it seemed to match up seamlessly with the scene, even changing to the soothing ending as everything becomes alright.
I like having both versions, viewed in this order, to show people the role music can play in how the same clip can have completely different effects on people. As a whole, this version seems to exemplify some of the ridiculousness that I created in the clip, and I think it makes it much funnier, though I would say that the "Holst Edition" is far more appropriate for the piece.
Smote - Unreal Tournament Level
We spent the second half of our Game Audio class learning the Unreal Tournament Editor, mainly for the purpose of implementing sounds into the game that would add to the ambience within a level. For this project, I utilized and manipulated sound effects libraries while also employing Foley recordings to create my own unique blend of sound effects. This clip is essentially an edited version of several different screen captures of the game, employing different views to explore the map and where sound effects were placed.
Unfortunately, given the scope of the class, we did not have enough time to delve deeper into the implementation to adjust footsteps or weapon sounds, but I think for the two weeks we had to get into the Editor, we managed to learn a good foundation that will be applicable with other implementation tools in the future.
War Scene Ambience Generator - Max/MSP Patch
The first half of our Game Audio class consisted of learning Max/MSP, and our final project was to write a patch employing what we had been learning in the labs. After much thought, I came up with the idea of creating an ambience generator for a particular scene; the idea being that one could simply "turn it on" and let it run through the course of the scene instead of having to manually place sound effects in the normal, static way. Please note that there is a slight delay in sound from the capture software.
The patch works as follows:
There are several different "modules" for the different sounds being generated: Gunshots Left/Right, Explosions, Footsteps, Vehicles, and a Wind Generator. The first five modules work exactly the same: they play a sample from a set list of sound effects (e.g. gunshot1, gunshot 2, etc), and after the sample finishes, it sends itself a signal to change the sample randomly.
This signal can also be sent by the one control knob, which is simply a "Less" or "More" knob that controls all the modules. This knob can also tell a module to switch the sample, but only does so after the sample has finished playing. Each module also has its pitch being varied by this knob and the same signal to switch signals, that way the sound files never sound exactly the same each time, much as in real life.
The final module, the Wind Generator, is simply taking white noise and adjusting the filter frequency using a "random walk" function that reacts to the less/more knob in how big the steps are from the current position. It is also inverting the signal from the knob that way when it is in the "Eye of the Tornado" mode, the time between steps is smaller.
While I initially envisioned making an ambience generator with a scene selector and a place for the user to add their own sound effects and create and store their own scenes, these are features I will have to add to future builds once I get a chance to explore Max 5 in more depth. I will also note that there is no reverb, and that I would likely not use this exact set of effects at the present volumes since it is unrealistic to hear that much marching. However, I think if I can manage to include an "advanced" mode that actually allows control of the mix and what is used, then this patch could have a lot of potential if converted into a stand-alone application or a plug-in for DAWs.
Rampage - A Scene From American Psycho
"Rampage" was the final project for our MIDI 2 class, and was my first attempt at placing sound effects to picture. The point of the class was to create the sound effects and ambience beds with MIDI, so we took a set of samples and loaded them into a sampler, then "played" along to the film - making adjustments to our performance or re-recording it accordingly. The main point of the project was to score the scene - also with MIDI and virtual instruments - to try and convey the meaning of the piece.
Overall I think the project turned out well, and given the movie, it was already stretching the realm of ridiculous, so I sought to add to it a bit by doing all the ADR for every character, regardless of how much I actually sound like a sexagenarian or not. I know if I were to redo this project now, it would sound completely different, and I would take a very different approach, but I think it serves as a good basis of comparison for more recent work.
Love Your Pets Like You Love Your Children
Love Your Pets Like You Love Your Children is the very first thing I did upon my commencement at Ex'pression College. It is the result of a group effort featuring both sound and visual students, and the class was set up so that the students had direct control of the project, from start to finish. I will note that at this point, I largely did no sound work on the piece, but did add ADR when needed and grabbed lines from alternate takes to replace a flubbed line with the take we wanted visually.
After writing and revising the script, we went on to audition 30+ actors for our various roles while securing practical locations for our office and coffee shop scenes. While filming, we took turns as camera operator, boom operator, audio mixer, lighting coordinator and director. The first class consisted of starting with an idea and ending at a rough, rough cut, and then we spent the second class editing the film down and adding music. For this project, I took lead as the film's producer and editor, and largely supervised the entire post-production process. This included recording ADR at my apartment as well as working on an original score with one other teammate in preparation for film festivals following our film winning the school's showcase.
Overall, the project was a lot of fun and it was a great opportunity to learn the behind the scenes process for film, as well as how to manage and work within a team.
Well, I hope you enjoyed the examples of my work thus far, and I look forward to adding more to it and updating my actual website soon!
Thanks,
Sean Vora
Earth Versus The Flying Saucers - The Holst Edition
This was the original version of my Audio Post-Production final class project, done in just around two weeks. of class time. For this piece, I edited video from the final ten minutes of the movie to create a more action-packed scene, and then edited together various parts of "Mars" and "Saturn" from Gustav Holst's Planets Suite to create the necessary impact at the right moments.
The purpose of the assignment was to recreate all of the sounds in the piece, so I did sound design for sound effects and ambience and recorded Foley to recreate the sound effects bed. The movie originally only had one line of dialog, which happened to be poorly dubbed in the original, so I kept with tradition and intentionally poorly dubbed the line here as well.
Overall, my approach with this scene was to create a comical juxtaposition between what we would expect from a 50-year old science fiction film and how it would sound if it had sound design from modern day. At times I would keep with the original theme, such as the poor ADR dubbing or the sound ray sounds, but with things like explosions and firing sounds from the saucers, I sought to make it seem slightly more up to date. In the end, I approached this as if it was partially lampooning the original through these additions.
Earth Versus The Flying Saucers - The DeVotchka Edition
This version is identical in sound to the version above, but only varies in soundtrack. After going through the process of music editing, I wanted to see how the movie may come across with a different score behind it, and after just dropping in this DeVotchka Song (Charlotte Mittnacht), it seemed to match up seamlessly with the scene, even changing to the soothing ending as everything becomes alright.
I like having both versions, viewed in this order, to show people the role music can play in how the same clip can have completely different effects on people. As a whole, this version seems to exemplify some of the ridiculousness that I created in the clip, and I think it makes it much funnier, though I would say that the "Holst Edition" is far more appropriate for the piece.
Smote - Unreal Tournament Level
We spent the second half of our Game Audio class learning the Unreal Tournament Editor, mainly for the purpose of implementing sounds into the game that would add to the ambience within a level. For this project, I utilized and manipulated sound effects libraries while also employing Foley recordings to create my own unique blend of sound effects. This clip is essentially an edited version of several different screen captures of the game, employing different views to explore the map and where sound effects were placed.
Unfortunately, given the scope of the class, we did not have enough time to delve deeper into the implementation to adjust footsteps or weapon sounds, but I think for the two weeks we had to get into the Editor, we managed to learn a good foundation that will be applicable with other implementation tools in the future.
War Scene Ambience Generator - Max/MSP Patch
The first half of our Game Audio class consisted of learning Max/MSP, and our final project was to write a patch employing what we had been learning in the labs. After much thought, I came up with the idea of creating an ambience generator for a particular scene; the idea being that one could simply "turn it on" and let it run through the course of the scene instead of having to manually place sound effects in the normal, static way. Please note that there is a slight delay in sound from the capture software.
The patch works as follows:
There are several different "modules" for the different sounds being generated: Gunshots Left/Right, Explosions, Footsteps, Vehicles, and a Wind Generator. The first five modules work exactly the same: they play a sample from a set list of sound effects (e.g. gunshot1, gunshot 2, etc), and after the sample finishes, it sends itself a signal to change the sample randomly.
This signal can also be sent by the one control knob, which is simply a "Less" or "More" knob that controls all the modules. This knob can also tell a module to switch the sample, but only does so after the sample has finished playing. Each module also has its pitch being varied by this knob and the same signal to switch signals, that way the sound files never sound exactly the same each time, much as in real life.
The final module, the Wind Generator, is simply taking white noise and adjusting the filter frequency using a "random walk" function that reacts to the less/more knob in how big the steps are from the current position. It is also inverting the signal from the knob that way when it is in the "Eye of the Tornado" mode, the time between steps is smaller.
While I initially envisioned making an ambience generator with a scene selector and a place for the user to add their own sound effects and create and store their own scenes, these are features I will have to add to future builds once I get a chance to explore Max 5 in more depth. I will also note that there is no reverb, and that I would likely not use this exact set of effects at the present volumes since it is unrealistic to hear that much marching. However, I think if I can manage to include an "advanced" mode that actually allows control of the mix and what is used, then this patch could have a lot of potential if converted into a stand-alone application or a plug-in for DAWs.
Rampage - A Scene From American Psycho
"Rampage" was the final project for our MIDI 2 class, and was my first attempt at placing sound effects to picture. The point of the class was to create the sound effects and ambience beds with MIDI, so we took a set of samples and loaded them into a sampler, then "played" along to the film - making adjustments to our performance or re-recording it accordingly. The main point of the project was to score the scene - also with MIDI and virtual instruments - to try and convey the meaning of the piece.
Overall I think the project turned out well, and given the movie, it was already stretching the realm of ridiculous, so I sought to add to it a bit by doing all the ADR for every character, regardless of how much I actually sound like a sexagenarian or not. I know if I were to redo this project now, it would sound completely different, and I would take a very different approach, but I think it serves as a good basis of comparison for more recent work.
Love Your Pets Like You Love Your Children
Love Your Pets Like You Love Your Children is the very first thing I did upon my commencement at Ex'pression College. It is the result of a group effort featuring both sound and visual students, and the class was set up so that the students had direct control of the project, from start to finish. I will note that at this point, I largely did no sound work on the piece, but did add ADR when needed and grabbed lines from alternate takes to replace a flubbed line with the take we wanted visually.
After writing and revising the script, we went on to audition 30+ actors for our various roles while securing practical locations for our office and coffee shop scenes. While filming, we took turns as camera operator, boom operator, audio mixer, lighting coordinator and director. The first class consisted of starting with an idea and ending at a rough, rough cut, and then we spent the second class editing the film down and adding music. For this project, I took lead as the film's producer and editor, and largely supervised the entire post-production process. This included recording ADR at my apartment as well as working on an original score with one other teammate in preparation for film festivals following our film winning the school's showcase.
Overall, the project was a lot of fun and it was a great opportunity to learn the behind the scenes process for film, as well as how to manage and work within a team.
Well, I hope you enjoyed the examples of my work thus far, and I look forward to adding more to it and updating my actual website soon!
Thanks,
Sean Vora
Labels: children, devotchka, earth, editor, flying, gustav, holst, love, mars, max/msp, pets, planets, portfolio, saturn, saucers, smote, suite, tournament, unreal, vs
posted by Sean at 12:38 PM
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