Gaby Gibson's video: Bioshock Character Intro

An assignment for sound design once again. This time we had to introduce an original character. From the description: "One of my favorite video game franchises is the Bioshock series, where the player can end up in a crumbling underwater city or a floating city in the clouds. When we were given this assignment, I decided to take this opportunity to flesh out an original character I had been thinking of since I began playing the game. One way you find out the story is that there are tape recorders left all over the cities with important (or-not-so-important) characters talking. So, I decided to make my recording sound as if you found it in the game itself. Viola Shervis is a woman from Brooklyn, New York who decided to travel to Andrew Ryan’s city of Rapture, a utopia for the common man. She writes him a letter telling him that she would like to offer her services as a librarian; he is impressed by her tenacity and gives her the position. At the beginning of the recording, she laments the fact that the Rapture Public Library is not the library she was imagining. She muses to herself that at least she has her own personal collection to read. In the second half of the track, there is an explosion on New Year’s Eve 1958 at the Kashmir Restaurant. Viola is a witness to the events and manages to escape, running to the library and locking the door. She records how she is locked up after the events of what just happened. Near the end of the recording the windows are broken, Viola screams, a machine gun is heard…and there is silence. Since Rapture is underwater, the only way that anyone can go back and forth among the builds and the street is through a series of secure tunnels and elevators. To give the idea that we are descending into Rapture I used the sound of bubbles. For the sound of the elevator opening and closing, I used spaceship doors; for the sound of it ascending the freight elevator was used. A brass bell signaled it arriving to Viola’s apartment. I would say that one of the most difficult parts of the recording was the sound Viola pouring herself a glass of scotch before beginning her recording. I couldn’t find the actual effects themselves so I decided to record it myself. I took one of my metal topped water bottles and filled it with water. I set up my digital voice recorder and recorded the actions of opening the bottle, filling my glass, closing the lid and putting it down, and then drinking the water. I recorded the first half of dialogue in my bedroom, which doesn’t have very good acoustics. The jazz music you hear is signifying the era of the game; when modern jazz was just starting to really take off. The flute you hear is slightly reminiscent of the Austin Powers theme but a little more sedate. The basses you hear in the background of both parts are actually a slight audio tribute to an anime I love, Cowboy Bebop which uses jazz in their soundtrack. For the second half of Viola running to the library, I used an explosion to mimic the Kashmir Restaurant bombing. I wasn’t able to record my own footsteps so I used the sound of running upstairs as a loop to simulate running to the library. In the final half, I copied glass breaking, setting one copy of the loop next to each other and having one play backward to give the idea that the rioters have broken into the library. The machine gun was given an echo so as to give the idea that Viola is gunned down by the crazed rioters. As for the second dialogue, I actually recorded it in my bathroom because it has way better acoustics than my bedroom. The loud “NOOOOO!” at the end scared one of my dogs who came running to see if I was okay. Thankfully I was, but I guess I was dramatic enough." The audio and sound effects came from Garageband. Bioshock doesn't belong to me. It belongs to Ken Levine and 2K Games. If you like this video and want to see more, then donations help make it possible! https://sites.google.com/site/donatio... Follow me on social media! Twitter: https://twitter.com/Lord__Guppy Instagram: https://www.instagram.com/guppybrilla... Reddit: https://www.reddit.com/user/Ggungabyfish Tumblr: https://ggungabyfish.tumblr.com Website: https://gabriellabrillante.wordpress.com