Good evening; earlier last week, I had the opportunity to challenge my storytelling skills in a very unique way by making a sound story: a story with no visuals, told only through audio. While this may seem very limiting, it actually was very enjoyable challenge for myself in finding ways to story tell in such a format. With the spookiest holiday of the year just right around the corner, I thought it would be best to make a story that would go along with it, which is how I decided where my story would take place:
A Haunted Forest
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Although we were given the option of working on the sound story with a teammate, I decided that it would be less of a hassle for me to work on my own. I would design and make the story by coming up with ideas and things I could use for the story at school and actually editing and working on the video itself from home on my personal computer, as not all the laptops and computers at school have Premier Pro available on them.
As I've stated in previous blog posts, in my 10th grade year of High School, I was able to get an industry certification in Premier Pro, the Adobe video editing software, so editing the video itself was not too hard for me; the most challenging part of the video was actually finding all the sound effects I needed for the story.
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The story follows a lost character in a forest during a late stormy night. Quickly, listeners learn that the forest is actually haunted, with many creepy, scary, and mysterious sounds being heard from all around. In the end, the horror gets the best of the protagonist, as he begins running until he finally finds shelter in an abandoned cabin in the woods.
From the ambient sound of a thunderstorm pouring down into the forest to the howls of a big evil werewolf lurking in the distance, a majority of the sounds used in the story were ones that I could find from my frequent searches on YouTube for unique sound effects during the editing of the video. YouTube has always been my primary source for sound effects when editing videos.
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Notice how I said that the 'majority' of the sound effects used came from YouTube. You see, I was given two other tasks in addition to telling a story only through audio. One of which was that I needed to use four Foley sound effects, meaning they had to be made at home.
With the story taking place in a forest, I immediately knew that one of the sounds I could make would be the sound of walking through tall grass, which I was able to achieve by walking through my front lawn.
However, I was stuck on what my other Foley sounds would be until I finally remembered that the ending would be the protagonist reaching a wooden cabin after running for their life. So, I decided that the other sounds I would custom make would be the sequence of the protagonist entering the house. The banging on the door was done by banging on my front door, and the opening and closing sound effects were down using the same door. The squeaking noise of the door opening was actually done with the door leading to my parent's bathroom, as I believed that the squeaking of that door fell more in line with what I had in mind.
As I previously stated, I was given two additional tasks for the video. The second task was that the story could have at most five spoken words. That may be a limitation to some. Still, to me, it wasn't much. I had decided early on that I would not be putting any dialogue in my sound story, as it did not make much sense to me why a protagonist lost in a haunted forest by themselves would be talking out loud.
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After I was finally finished with the sound story, I created a script detailing the sound effects heard throughout the video and showing which ones I specifically made during the Foley stage. Below, I have placed the script in its entirety in case anyone reading this post would like to give it a read.
The
Haunted Forest
1. Walking through a forest at night
a.
Crickets and wind
b.
Shaky breathing
c.
Walking in thick grass (Foley)
d.
Rain
e.
Owl Hooting
f.
Sounds of a Crow’s cawing
2.
Strange noises begin to be heard
a.
A witches laugh
b.
Thunder strikes as the witch laughs
c.
A pause in the walking
d.
The walking continues shortly after the laughing
stops
e.
A crow’s cawing can be heard once again
f.
A short laugh from a witch is heard again
3.
Further into the forest, more strange
noises begin to be heard
a.
A ghosts wailing from far away
b.
A spirit's groans are heard loudly
c.
The crows are heard once more
d.
Another witch's laugh disrupts the crow’s cawing
e.
A werewolf’s howl can be heard from a distance
4.
Running for dear life
a.
The cries of a Wendigo are heard
b.
The walking stops, only to be proceeded with loud
running.
c.
The once shaky breathing is now loud panting
d.
A zombie’s groans can be heard from nearby
e.
Strange screaming, almost resembling a goat, can
be heard from a distance
5.
Shelter at last
a.
The running stops and briefly becomes walking
again (Foley)
b.
Steps are heard going up wooden stairs
c.
Loud banging on a door (Foley)
d.
The door is opened (Foley)
e.
Loud creaking (Foley)
f.
Loud slamming of the door being closed (Foley)
g.
The crickets, wind, breathing, and rain all go
silent as the door slams closed.
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