Just Another Umbrella

In this project there was a focus on building the soundscape, which consisted of one main feature: rain. At this point I was developing my skills in layering SFX, so creating an immersive soundscape was my main aim for this project.

My director and I aimed to develop the story over the course of the commercial through sound design. I wanted to position the soundscape from the perspective of the main character. Due to the umbrellas being a metaphor for shelter, I felt that positioning the sound design from her perspective would help immerse the audience and drive home that key point of offering shelter and comfort. I layered a range of different rain sounds, making the rain sound very harsh and overwhelming in the first half and then transitioning it to a softer, lighter sounding rain when the umbrella is up, representing a sense of relief. I also boosted the lower frequencies of the second half by adding fireplace SFX - I thought that was a pretty cool element of the sound design!

Due to the commercial being mostly in slow motion, I took the opportunity for a simple edit and added SFX that could emphasise key moments in the commercial. For example, when we first see the main character, there is a rumble of thunder. This communicates the fear and discomfort she is feeling.

In the end, while the soundscape was successfully immersive and helped communicate how the story develops, the emotional impact wasn't as strong as we had hoped for, so we added some music to help this.