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watch The Woods

From my perspective as a sound guy...

I didn't like the wall-to-wall music. I would have opened with late fall sounds (although it doesn't look like that, but the bad guy is filling his freezer for the winter) - some birds, rustling leaves, migrating geese (maybe the geese wake him up?).

Good solid Foley and sound effects are needed. Most notably missing - the running footsteps; big, solid, "meaty" hatchet sounds; being dragged and grabbing at the dirt.

The dialog needs to be smoothed out a bit (the production sound wasn't too bad, by the way). Since there is so little dialog I may have "tuned down" the bad guys voice to make him a little more menacing.

The music is too "monotone" throughout, it needs to change emotions more; some suspense music starts when he realizes there's blood on his hands, relief when someone appears to "help", suspense as the "help" becomes a threat, the chase, etc.

And I hate to be cliché, but, some transitional sounds to and from the flashbacks.


Not my area of expertise, but...

The blood looked fake, no blood splatter on his shirt and too concentrated on his hand and one side of the face. When he put his hand to his face no blood appears on his glasses.

In the "flashback" I would have had, say, a girlfriend who needs him to stop the truck so she can pee. That gives the "missing" person for him to have killed; in the "flashback" he hears her scream, he goes running to her, a heavy clonk on the head and a body fall as it all goes black.

Why would he suddenly believe he killed someone?
 
Holy crap! You are truly an audio God! Just from one line, "Looks like I'm stocked for the winter," gave you a plethora of ideas for sound design! Man! I knew coming to this forum would be a good idea! Your input has been duly noted and will definitely be used for any future projects! Thank you very much for your critique. :-)
 
That's what being a sound designer is all about, being a sonic story teller.

Next time, during preproduction, go through your script like it's a radio play; listen to the script - how much of the story can you tell with sounds? What B-roll do the sounds suggest? What shots/dialog can be eliminated by the use of sound? What do the characters hear and react to? What sounds are normal and what sounds are strange to the character(s)?
 
The blood @ :55 looks fake because it is too evenly distributed on his face. There is a nice layer covering that part of his face. Also, the way it has run down his face doesn't look as if it happened while he was unconscious. It looks like it happened while he was standing. Maybe that's the way you wanted it?? Okay!! The shot @ 3:11 is WAY too contrived. His position in the second angle is too far off from the first. I understand the effect you were going for but the edit doesn't flow and the positioning is off.
I have a few questions. Why was the victim driving out to the woods to begin with? Why did he get out of the truck? If the killer is a cannibal that lives out in the woods, why is he so clean looking? None of these things are addressed. WHile they may not be important to this sequence they are important to people watching. It fills out the story. Most people are dumb, do not trust that they will fill out your story with imagination. Most people have none.
 
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