The Doll - A Horror Short

Hi all! Today I come with a one minute long horror short that I decided to score! This was completely shot, edited, and scored by me! As well as acted by me also, unfortunately. I don't have a plug in to view the video and score alongside it so cues were hit based on timestamp alone. Which was fun!

I used Spitfire Audio's Intimate Strings, Epic Choirs, and BBCSO Discover, as well as Amadeus Symphonic. Hope you enjoy the watch and it is plenty creepy enough! Looking forward you your feedback.

Ok this is actually pretty cool. The music goes well with your script and mood. Nice camera shots and angles too! There is one major problem though and that has to do with your voice. It's inaudible! Also the quality of your voice sounds mono. At 25 seconds in, there's distortion too. That has to be eliminated.

So the music, mood of script, camera shots are all great. But your voice has to be fixed. You can definitely fix these problems in "post" meaning, you can tweak the existing audio track. The voice to music db levels don't have to be like my videos (where my voice must well overpower the music, usually by a good 30 db higher). You could probably get away with a 15 to 20 db voice delta since this is a trailer, and the music is the main focus. But I unfortunately can't hear what you are saying, at least, with headphones on.

Yeah but what's happening with the doll now?!? Is this the preamble for more to come? This seemed like the intro scene to a movie right before the title is shown on screen. 😄 

Very cool, and your camera is awesome lol. Just make your voice more in the foreground next time, it was hard to hear what you were saying when the music got louder. 

34 minutes ago, chopin said:

Ok this is actually pretty cool. The music goes well with your script and mood. Nice camera shots and angles too! There is one major problem though and that has to do with your voice. It's inaudible! Also the quality of your voice sounds mono. At 25 seconds in, there's distortion too. That has to be eliminated.

So the music, mood of script, camera shots are all great. But your voice has to be fixed. You can definitely fix these problems in "post" meaning, you can tweak the existing audio track. The voice to music db levels don't have to be like my videos (where my voice must well overpower the music, usually by a good 30 db higher). You could probably get away with a 15 to 20 db voice delta since this is a trailer, and the music is the main focus. But I unfortunately can't hear what you are saying, at least, with headphones on.

 

Yeah... I knew the voice was an issue. That's because this was done on a house watching job and I don't have my microphone with me. This was more of a test of concept for scoring footage I had shot. It's that low quality built in microphone sound that I had to noise reduce. May do a second attempt at it. Glad to hear the music worked though! Thanks for watching and for the feedback!

7 minutes ago, Thatguy v2.0 said:

Yeah but what's happening with the doll now?!? Is this the preamble for more to come? This seemed like the intro scene to a movie right before the title is shown on screen. 😄 

Very cool, and your camera is awesome lol. Just make your voice more in the foreground next time, it was hard to hear what you were saying when the music got louder. 

 

I hope to turn this into more! Making a short film is my goal (or one of them)...audio was an issue that I knew about. I don't have a microphone with me to set up so the scene was fully just...the built in mic on my camera which...isn't great. Had to do some noise reduction on it so lost quality. Gonna try a couple things though and might redo it! Thanks for the watch and glad you enjoyed it!

1 hour ago, chopin said:

Ok this is actually pretty cool. The music goes well with your script and mood. Nice camera shots and angles too! There is one major problem though and that has to do with your voice. It's inaudible! Also the quality of your voice sounds mono. At 25 seconds in, there's distortion too. That has to be eliminated.

So the music, mood of script, camera shots are all great. But your voice has to be fixed. You can definitely fix these problems in "post" meaning, you can tweak the existing audio track. The voice to music db levels don't have to be like my videos (where my voice must well overpower the music, usually by a good 30 db higher). You could probably get away with a 15 to 20 db voice delta since this is a trailer, and the music is the main focus. But I unfortunately can't hear what you are saying, at least, with headphones on.

 

37 minutes ago, Thatguy v2.0 said:

Yeah but what's happening with the doll now?!? Is this the preamble for more to come? This seemed like the intro scene to a movie right before the title is shown on screen. 😄 

Very cool, and your camera is awesome lol. Just make your voice more in the foreground next time, it was hard to hear what you were saying when the music got louder. 

 

I have done some ADR!  Redid all the audio and updated the link in my post, but here's the link if you wouldn't mind to give me some feedback! (Had to re-record all the dialogue because the other was obviously not salvageable. Then matched it back up with the new recordings!)

Wow this version is much better than the original imo!  The music fits the scene well - I think you could have brought out the dread and darkness more when you start choking - like maybe a turn to diminished or something.

Are you in discord?  Join the YCF Spot discord server!  https://discord.com/invite/t6cks3pFub

There's also a UCC (United Composers Collective) discord server for composers who want to write for film and media.  https://discord.com/invite/sDrppnvdSt

Thanks for sharing!

3 minutes ago, PeterthePapercomPoser said:

Wow this version is much better than the original imo!  The music fits the scene well - I think you could have brought out the dread and darkness more when you start choking - like maybe a turn to diminished or something.

Are you in discord?  Join the YCF Spot discord server!  https://discord.com/invite/t6cks3pFub

There's also a UCC (United Composers Collective) discord server for composers who want to write for film and media.  https://discord.com/invite/sDrppnvdSt

Thanks for sharing!

 

SWEET! I'm so glad! Because I re-did all the dialog separately then matched it back up with the original recording...and I am on discord! I had no clue about these servers. But am joining now! Thanks for the shout out and the advice. Always look forward to the conversations here on the forum!

Much much better! Your new voiceover matches your lips well, how did you manage that haha. If you are going to do more of these types of skits, invest in a lavalier mic. Or, you can do voiceovers using a condenser mic (I use a condenser mic), but matching your voice in more complex scripts will be extremely challenging.

5 minutes ago, chopin said:

Much much better! Your new voiceover matches your lips well, how did you manage that haha. If you are going to do more of these types of skits, invest in a lavalier mic. Or, you can do voiceovers using a condenser mic (I use a condenser mic), but matching your voice in more complex scripts will be extremely challenging.

 

I do have a lavalier mic! Just didn't have it on hand as I wasn't at home and didn't plan on making the short...so, the method for my re-recording was I listened back to the video a few times. Then recorded myself saying the dialog with the original audio in my ears as a monitor and then my mic setup to record the new dialog. Then matched it back together in Premiere! Appreciate your feedback earlier and now! Wasn't sure I was going to pull off this ADR situation...but fairly happy with the result. Guess I could have made it full silent film with words on text cards! Haha!

I learned something new, I never heard of ADR. I try to control my environment so that I don't have to worry about it much. But since I do a lot of editing myself, this is a good technique to be aware of. Thanks!

4 minutes ago, chopin said:

I learned something new, I never heard of ADR. I try to control my environment so that I don't have to worry about it much. But since I do a lot of editing myself, this is a good technique to be aware of. Thanks!

 

Yes! Automated dialog replacement. Used a lot in film when environments are too noisy to get clean audio or when the recordings aren't quite up to standard. It's quite the cool process!

@Layne

Wow! This is impressive. The music goes well with the scenes also because of a good grasp of timing and thoughtful calibration and editing. 

The use of material was minimal and economical.

Just checked out your YT and Instagram... really interesting and cool!

Thanks for sharing!

15 hours ago, Aw Ke Shen said:

@Layne

Wow! This is impressive. The music goes well with the scenes also because of a good grasp of timing and thoughtful calibration and editing. 

The use of material was minimal and economical.

Just checked out your YT and Instagram... really interesting and cool!

Thanks for sharing!

 

Thanks so much for watching and checking things out! Really appreciate that. I'm not super active on Instagram on that account, I'm more active over on my toy photography page (unless that's the one you went to!) Thanks for the feedback and glad you enjoyed.

Ah I see.

3 hours ago, Layne said:

I'm more active over on my toy photography page (unless that's the one you went to!)

Nope, where is it though?

19 hours ago, Aw Ke Shen said:

Ah I see.

Nope, where is it though?

 

I'm @galacticphotography66 on Instagram! Trying to get more active on posting my works in song and other photography as well on my other pages.

Ah... I see

Hi @Layne,

First of all your acting is scary. I mean….. you may well be a serial killer LoL!

The music is so scary. You make it think of @Bjarke’s horror study:

Thx for sharing!

Henry

4 hours ago, Henry Ng Tsz Kiu said:

Hi @Layne,

First of all your acting is scary. I mean….. you may well be a serial killer LoL!

The music is so scary. You make it think of @Bjarke’s horror study:

Thx for sharing!

Henry

 

Haha! (My terrible acting is probably scary for completely different reasons!)

And yes! I am actually familiar with his work on this post. Had listened to his piece a while back. This project was literally a 24 hour thing. Shot and edited the video the night before, next day scored it. Then brought it here! Thanks for the watch and the feedback. This is hopefully the start of doing more little projects like this to practice scoring to. And hopefully not have to star in, haha!