One of my favorite stories I have ever done is It’s a Kids Game.

I love using natural sound (you should too).  I love experimenting with natural sound.  I have used too much natural sound in a story.  I have used too little natural sound in a story.  The only way to figure out if you use too little or too much is to experiment.  Ultimately you have to decide if your story has too much or too little natural sound.

I did more than just experiment with natural sound in It’s a Kid’s Game.  I experimented with the rhythm of natural sound in this story.  A long time ago, someone told me that using natural sound elements in threes was his/her guideline or rule, meaning he/she would use three distinct ‘pops’ of natural sound when appropriate.  This rule/guideline helped with the rhythm of stories.

What if you tried to do anything but three natural sound pops.  What if you did four, five, or six.  What if you did just one but tried to avoid three.  That’s what I attempted to do one day while doing a natural sound story.

I’ve written the story out here as if I was following was a script.   So, watch It’s a Kids Game, then read the script, then watch It’s a Kids Game again.

Here is the script;

• Whiffle ball being thrown
• The player taking a deep breath
• Swinging a ball
• Pitcher saying ‘All right.’

• “It’s kind of like a swiss cheese ball.”
• A whiffle ball being thrown
• A ball hitting the chain link fence
• A ball bouncing on the tennis court
• Someone hitting a wiffle ball with a bat
• Spectators saying ‘nice.’

• It sounds like baseball.
• A batter takes a big sigh
• Someone saying ‘One out.’
• Someone saying ‘bases-loaded.’
• The pitcher saying 3,1
• A batter hitting the ball

• “It resembles baseball a lot.
• A batter hitting a whiffle ball
• Another batter hitting a whiffle ball
• A batter watching ball go by and hit hitting the net
• A spectator saying ‘just a bit outside, ball two.’
• Ball going into net and batter saying aw!

• They’re all kids when it comes to this game.
• Guy saying oh! as he misses a ball while batting

• That’s the first time I’ve ever seen an adult play whiffle ball before.
• A batter hits a wiffle ball

• Wiffle ball, all the way.
• ‘Count’
• ‘2-0’
• The natural sound of someone missing

• The Balls are a lot smaller.
• Sound of pulling the ball out of the bucket
• Sound of pitcher’s efforts

• And they’re a lot obviously lighter.
• It’s pretty much like throwing air
• Sound of whiffle ball going by and hitting the fence
• The guy said, oh!

• It’s the baby brother of baseball.
• The guy hitting a foul ball

• It’s America’s game.
• One guy hits wiffle ball
• Another guy hits whiffle ball
• The guy saying, ‘yeah, baby.’

• It might be the next Olympic sport you never know, yeah, you never know.
• The guy saying ‘all right.’
• Give you something to hit

• We’re all a bunch of has-beens, bunch of has-beens never will be’s.
• Natural of shoe scraping ground
• Sound of his second-foot scraping ground
• A batter hitting the ball

• They don’t run like the bases, they just basically have points where um it’s used for 1st base, 2nd base or whatever cause there’s not enough room you know to run.
• Sound of whiffle ball
• Sound of the ball hitting the fence

• You can’t get a full team of guys together anymore. We’ve got work, kids.
• Bat hitting a whiffle ball
• Kids saying whiffle ball
• Gentlemen clapping

• It gives us a chance to come out and be heroes even if it’s in front of six guys in an afternoon.
• Guy missing pitch

• I’m really surprised to see a lot of these guys have gotten it over the fence here.
• You got it, get over, get over.
• Hey, this guys just hit a home run.

• I always used to think it was a kids game, but it’s actually gettin’ to be pretty serious.
• Bat hits ball
• Wiffleball comes in

• It’s just kinda come out here and be a kid for a little while.
• I should of hit that one.

• I played it back in elementary school, but that was it.
• Ball coming in
• guy hitting ball

• It is a kid’s game.
• More adults are getting into it.
• Ball hits backstop
• If it makes me just a little bit younger.
• “Nice, buddy.”
• I’ll take every second of it I can get.
• Good game, good game.

As you observed, I only used natural sound in groups of threes only 4 times.  I tried to avoid doing that, but I also had to get this story to air.  I wanted to prove you don’t need to follow some rules or guidelines simply because.  Understand the rules (which are really just guidelines) and then break them.

Thank you for reading