AV News 195 - February 2014
The adjustment was a very fine one, moving the relevant slider in the software
to just smooth out the grain, without destroying the sharpness of the detail
present in the images. They were then sharpened using the Unsharp Mask
Tool in Photoshop, saved as maximum quality jpegs, and were ready to be
imported into PicturesToExe (PTE) for construction of the sequence.
For the preparation of our soundtracks we use Adobe Audition 3.1 software.
This program allows music, commentary and sound effect clips, inserted in
multiple tracks, to be edited and blended with great accuracy. As regards the
choice of music, we always try to find something less well known, that can
evoke the appropriate mood, and avoid any preconceived associations. For
this sequence we wanted to focus primarily on an English composer. In the end
we settled for 'Sospiri' by Elgar, interleaved with excerpts from the Czech
composer Novak's 'Moravian-Slovak Suite' ('At Church', 'Lovers' and 'At
Night'), and from his Symphonic Poem 'In the Tatras'. An interim 'music only'
soundtrack was prepared and imported into PTE, and work began on final
image selection, order and transition refinement.
Ideas on a suitable script were jotted down, and over time the commentary
evolved. This was recorded and inserted into the soundtrack, along with any
sound effects we wanted to add. As regards workflow, we find that audio and
image sequence manipulation goes hand-in-hand, and often means that we
have both Audition and PTE running simultaneously, alternating between the
two pieces of software.
Before entering the sequence into a competition, we took it for critique at the
Great Northern AV Day 2012, and received some excellent feedback on how
to further improve the technical quality of a few of the images. We were also
encouraged to have a re-think on the emphasis of specific areas of the
commentary, which led to a re-write of the relevant parts, and a re-recording
session. We would seriously encourage other AV workers to take advantage
of such an opportunity to get constru