The document summarizes Elena Procopio's work as the sound designer for a 2-minute crime investigation film sequence. As sound designer, Elena was responsible for all sound elements including the score, diegetic sounds, and a voiceover narration. The voiceover provided context and details about the murder investigation. Elena also included exaggerated camera shot sounds and TV fuzz noises to add realism and keep the viewer engaged. A minimalist score was used to set a tense atmosphere. Elena believes the sound design successfully created suspense and informed the viewer to enhance the viewing experience.

1. Elena Procopio
AS Film Evaluation.
The 2 minute sequence that I made was the second scene to a crime investigation film.
The film involves the investigation of the murder of teenage student, Megan Regal. Our
two minute film is the scene where the body of the girl has been found and the police
investigation has just begun. For the film I was responsible for all the film’s sound. As
sound designer I was in charge of the score, diegetic, and
dubbed/non-diegetic sound. I also had to edit the sound to fit
in the clip and make sure it was synchronised with the on
screen, visual clip, done on the Mac software, FinalCut.
I decided that the best way to add realism to the film would be to add a voiceover
(recorded as location sound). This non-diegetic sound ran over the majority of our two
minute sequence. It spoke about Megan Regal (the girl who was missing), the dead
body that had been found, about post mortem results and the state of the body, the
body being confirmed as Megan Regal by her parents, so that it sounded like a police or
news report. This worked effectively and more of an impact was made after I
synchronised the voiceover with the video so that images or clips appeared at the same
time as the voiceover mentioned them. This would make it a lot easier for the audience
to understand and follow the story of what is happening in the film and also add drama
and emotion for the viewer. This voiceover also added an element of vococentrism to
our film, hinting to the viewer that the dialogue was very important to the film and its
narrative.

2. Elena Procopio
Whilst using the voiceover, I also selected pieces of sound that I felt should be included/
emphasised in the clip. The foley sounds I am going to discuss were downloaded from
http://www.freesound.org/.
For example, we used the ambient, but exaggerated sound of camera
shots as each of the mug shots appeared. This was done to keep the
viewers attention and to emphasise the fast pace of the film,
emphasising the chaos and drama of the situation. It also adds realism as this is the
sound that would be made as the mug shots were each taken in real
life. We also added the sound once at the beginning of the crime
scene shots. We felt that this again would grab the audience’s
attention and mirror the camera shots that would be taken of the
crime scene in reality. It was also used to add the shock factor to
when the viewer sees the body. It was the first time we showed the
crime scene in the film and we were aiming for it to have a
massive impact on the viewer.
Another diegetic sound that we chose and felt would improve the overall effect of the
film was the sound of TV fuzz. We chose one that we felt sounded like the fuzziness on
old TV sets when you changed from channel to channel. I used more than one person
in the voiceover and chopped up the dialogue to make it seem like there were lots of
news readers reporting the murder (as there would be in the real life scenario), and so
used this sound to represent the changing of channels and news reporters. I decided to
use this because I felt that it kept the viewers attention and they didn’t have to listen to
one constant voiceover continuously for two minutes. I also felt that the TV fuzz noise
was incredibly effective in continuing the realism of the film and giving the viewer the
representation of the different news channels all reporting the murder of Megan Regal

3. Elena Procopio
and that it makes it seem like a large national news story. This effect is used a lot in
crime investigation films, such as Gone Baby Gone (2007), where the news story is not
just heard, but also seen on-screen to emphasise the importance of what had
happened.
I feel that both of the hyper-real sound effects I added to the film were significant in
improving the realism of the crime film, constantly kept the viewers attention, and
helped the viewer to focus on significant parts of the scene. For example, the potential
murderers of Megan Regal and the news reports of her death. They also brought the
snapshots to life, added more pace, volume and interest to the clips and made the film a
lot more engaging to watch and listen to.
I used Garageband for the underlying score that I added to run continuously throughout
the two minute sequence. It was one piece of music that was minimalistic and simple,
but worked perfectly for the tone of the film, which also
created a very empathetic sound in terms of how it made the
audience feel. It was a strong, deep, loud note at the
beginning, which immediately created a negative feel to the
film, and then deepened to a drone steadily fading out. I felt
that the rhythm mirrored the potential storyline of the rest of the film, steady and paced,
with a lot of parts holding very tense and serious atmospheres. I repeated this piece of
non-diegetic sound numerous times during the film creating a sound loop, making sure
that I synchronised the dramatic, beginning note anywhere in the sequence when I
wanted to create the biggest impact for the audience. I placed it at the beginning of the
film, as a sense of foreboding, before Megan Regal or the murder had been mentioned,
and also when the first shot of the crime scene and the dead body appeared, to add the
largest amount of shock and tension as I could to that one, specific shot.

4. Elena Procopio
I feel that the sound in our crime investigation film was successful in creating the tense
atmosphere and effect that I wanted it to have on the audience. The voice-over was
significant to the film as it added a lot of realism and informed the viewer of what they
needed to know about the story of Megan Regal. It worked with both the diegetic
sounds that added value and the score, to help create the feeling and suspense that I
wanted to put across to the viewing audience. I also feel that it complimented and
added to the other micro-elements to create the desired effect on the audience and
significantly improve the overall viewing experience of the film.