Sense of Space - Reflection

It was nice that we completed the project early as this meant we had time to reflect on what we had done. I experimented with the sound by playing it back on a whole range of devices including; car radio, mini Hifi, headphones, good quality sound system, laptop, computer, Tv. It’s interesting how much the playback device effects the sounds; on the high quality system the sounds were a lot more destinguished and identifiable, whereas on lower quality systems there seems to be more of a moulding of the sounds, nonetheless, I enjoyed both despite the huge difference. This suggests it’s a successful export. One thing highlighted in the tutorial was that the traffic light beeps were a bit too loud in terms of the levels and started coming in a bit too early on, which after living with it I agree unfortunately the source file was lost on a hard drive which meant that if we were to redit we would have to start again. This was a problem because we really liked how we had composed the piece and there were only a few changes we wanted to make, because of the complexity of the piece we were doubtful that we could recreate the same sound and didn’t want to loose everything that we had done. Therefore, if we were to do this project again we would firstly make sure the source file is saved on several devices and secondly reduce the levels of the trafic lights and create longer intermitence between the repetition that is until the end. We would also experiment with the build up of the crescendo, for example a slow build up into a suddden cocofony. Nevertheles, we are very pleased with the final outcome, I think it emplifies the sense of space feeling that was asked of us, there is a definite feeling of the city, drawing attention to sounds for the listener that they may have not noticed or would normally block out, the crescendo in our piece makes this an impossibility. Therefore, creating a new experience for the viewer which may lead to greater consideration of sound.     

Sense of Space - edit

 At first it seemed quite daunting when it came to the edit; we had a whole host of sounds and had to successfully arrange them on a multi-track sequence. Luckily Paul drew a rough plan for the edit, which we referred to, as we new how we wanted it but needed the visual aid to get us started, because you can't put it all on at once then rearrange. We needed to figure out what we wanted to keep and from that what order they needed to be in.

(image by Paul Manning) 

We started by using a general atmos as a base, then gradually began building up the sounds, duplicating tracks which slowly decreased in spacing between the next repetition until the end when you have the full on sounds and irritation. There is a transition between the real and hyper real. We put on the guitar track just to see what it was like and it worked well, acting as a soft juxtaposition to the irritating sounds, which gets overwhelmed towards the end when we added hyper real irritating sounds like a car starter motor groaning, the constant irritating beep when you leave the lights on in your car and open the door, then finally the scratching of the guitar strings. We had to rework the guitar in so it fitted better, fading in then out seamlessly. We also used pan in a considered way to add movement to the piece, making it so that the taxi would pull up on the left side of the road for example, and making different clips interact with each other.   

We used duplication and cross fades, spacing out some of the sounds which slowly go into a constant. We used the levels to check that we were in a good range of volume and quality. Our aim wasn't to create something overwhelmingly loud but instead an irritating mash of sounds.

Site Gallery Visit - Zoe Beloff 'The infernal Dream of Mutt & Jeff'

Before reading please be aware this is a descriptive review which should allow you to visualise the experience, therefore if you are planning to visit the exhibition you may wish to abstain from reading until you have experienced it for yourself.

 Within this exhibition, hosted by the Site Gallery between 18/11/11 - 21/01/12, we see a deconstruction and revelation into the creation of both film and animation. The first thing you encounter is the hum of a vintage projector which throws light through the spinning spools of film onto a screen. An old hand drawn animation plays before being rewound then starting again at the beginning in a loop. Your attention is distracted however, to the rest of the dimly lit room; a jumble of wooden chairs, a long A frame step ladder, a dated film camera, a desk stacked with paper, a backwards spinning clock and three projected images. To enter into this space you have to cross the path of light between the projector and image which holds you back, perhaps symbolic as she ‘considers herself a medium, an interface between the living and the dead, the real and the imaginary.’ (Site Gallery) Breaking through this divide you are immersed into a surreal world; you see three projected black and white moving images alongside the filmic objects and set design. As your mind tries to construct and make sense as to how they link, you begin to see the objects and backdrops within the film match to the physical existence within the gallery, acquiring a glimpse into the creation of film. The visual aesthetics of the vintage equipment and objects is compounded by the auditory existence of the rattling hum of the projector and a buzz showing a shift in the film, creating a narrative to your gallery experience. Once familiarized you become tempted by a giant door in the corner which states ‘Gallery continues push to enter’, there is something about larger galleries which have formalities and many out of bounds areas, which holds you back from entering.

  Crossing back through the stream of light and pushing upon this giant door you find yourself in another room, lacking the auditory stimulus from the previous room, which documents the process of creating the animation, including hand drawn stills on large pieces of parchment. There is documentation of a process where sculptors captured the movement of factory workers by photographing light trails from lights attached to their hands; they would then recreate this shape into a sculpture of wires. The more complex the sculpture, the more complex the task. This is then linked to the creation of the animation, the cartoon utilizes motion path to recreate natural movement. ‘People enjoy cartoons because they see their own lives in them.’

 To me the exhibition seemed a bit disjointed, whether this is the artist’s intention or because of the lack of room within the gallery, is hard to decide. I think it is intentional as you have to cross through barriers to get a glimpse into the creation of film and animation. However, the separate room seems very separate, if it wasn’t for the projected image in the corner of the other room. Whilst there is the link of production process it does seem like two separate exhibitions, therefore, there seems a weakness in this link. Nonetheless, there is a wealth of concept and expression of idea, your perception is challenged and explored.   

http://www.sitegallery.org/archives/3808

http://www.sitegallery.org

Sense of Space - sounds list

This is a list of all the clips recorded, which we renamed when importing them onto computer so that it was easier to identify individual sounds within the edit.

 

Sense of Space - initial sound log

This is the first sound log for the sounds that we recorded together and the ones that I recorded alone, Paul then added more sounds that he had recorded and we recorded some more together later on. Both Paul and I gathered sounds at home so as to get more distinctive sound effects that didn't have the background hum of the city, in particular we noticed the ever present squeaking of bus breaks. I decided to try and create some really irritating sounds like scraping fingernails, irritating guitar sounds, and thumping on a door, which had a headache quality. I also recorded a relaxing guitar tune which could be used to create a juxtaposition with the harsh city sounds which may carry the narrative.

Track number	description	Mic
1	Water fountain	Rifle
2	Atmos fan inside gardens	Rifle
3	Atmos talking hum	Omni
4	Road noise traffic lights walking	Rifle
5	Cars traffic lights take 2	Rifle
6	Electric doors (quiet)	Rifle
7	Electric doors squeaky esculator	Rifle
8	Quiet atmos	Rifle
9	Quiet hum inside footsteps	Rifle
10	Traffic footsteps people	Rifle
11	Inside bus	Rifle
12	Inside bus and convo	Rifle
13	Guitar tune	Rifle
14	Guitar tune 2	Rifle
15	Bouncy guitar track	Rifle
16	Scraping guitar loud	Rifle
17	Scraping guitar strings	Rifle
18	Scraping nails on door	Rifle
19	Hammering on door	Rifle
20	Scraping on door nails 2	Rifle
21	Squeaky door close	Rifle
22	Guitar tune	Rifle
23	Guitar tune take 2	Rifle
24	starbucks	Rifle

Sense of Space - recording sounds

(image Sam Brown)

Recording the sounds was fairly successful some ideas didn’t work and other new ideas came into our heads whilst recording as you are suddenly hyper audio perceptive. We got ground level recs, then experimented going onto the roof of a car park, so as to gather a more general city atmos, recording sounds from above so as to get a better overall feeling of the city. We also experimented withsounds at home so as to destinguish the effects from the general city sound. I gathered irritating guitar sounds by scratching the strings and bouncing with a glass slider, which I thought would compound the effect of the crescendo at the very end, entering in sounds that you wouldn’t neccesarily encounter in the city but you can’t destinguish this within the crescendo but adds to the irritating levels of sound.

sense of space - rec list

We sat down and concocted a list of all the city sounds we could think of and all the sounds we wanted to record. From this we completed a risk assessment incorporating all the ares that would be covered. We then booked out the relevant equipment and mics, set up the right settings in the marrantz required by the brief. We recorded the majority of the clips working together and gathered extra sounds individually, in particular I recorded door knocks and squeaks, guitar; scratches, tunes, irritating sounds, internal buses and traffic. 

Sense of Space - Treatment

The main idea is to create a crescendo of city sounds using a wide variety of city sounds, or things you would associate with the city. Therefore, starting quiet with an atmos track, which is slowly built up with other tracks, sometimes using repetition, into an irritating concoction of horrible city sounds. Drawing attention to a sound that you would normally block out or not even think about whilst travelling through the city. This will incorporate several atmos tracks which will run along throughout the piece.  Recordings will be made in both interior and exterior locations within the city as well as individual recordings made in “silent” spaces so as to distinguish them from the background hum you get from the city.

Sense of Space - Equipment list

Equipment;

• Marantz PMD 660 x2
• Rifle Mic x2
• Guitar
• phone
• clock
• car
• keys

Locations;

• Sheffield city centre
• Sheffield Hallam University
• O2 car park
• John Lewis car park
• Sam house
• Paul house 

Sense of Space - Initial ideas

Leaving the first session we set up a facebook group so as to relay ideas between each other.

My initial idea was to start with an urban wild track that slowly builds with a variety of city noises into a crescendo, maybe have someone screaming towards the end to add some fun, which then cuts out in to a muffle as a door is slammed or lid is shut, giving the idea the city has been shut out, then maybe have some finger scraping sounds and somebody frantically whispering “it’s quiet now, it’s quiet now” maybe or maybe not add the sound of water splashing using that to muffle out the noise. Slowly building tension throughout with a frantic state of mind, maybe some voice overs describing place during the build-up, would add to it. Also you could have someone hammering on a door in the quiet bit.

Paul added to this; I had a couple of ideas about the sound piece, see my notebook scans. I like your idea. It's very creepy!! We were playing with hydrophone underwater microphone today. We could make the muffled bit sound as though it's someone being forced underwater and being held down so it gets really tense and then have them coming up and gasping for air..???

This was then developed into a more succinct idea scaling it back from what had become more drama based effect of place into a cityscape sense of space that started quiet and built into a crescendo.

Sense of Space - research - 12 gates to the city

This is an interesting site that I stumbled upon which brings function and interactivity between the listener and the sounds. In ‘Old town sound walk’ the listener is guided through the old parts of Edinburgh, you are given a route and listen to the sound walk as you travel through. This is interesting as it adds functionality. It also creates a great sense of space which is quite interesting to listen to even if you aren’t doing the walk. They use stereo city sounds that cuts through the voice overs giving direction, if you’re wearing headphones, which is the intension, it feels as if the cars are driving through your head from one side to the other. This will definitely have influence in terms of the sense of space, though we probably won’t adopt the stylistic feature of asking different people directions as we wouldn’t want to replicate ‘12 gates to the city’ as we want to respond to the brief effectively, by being creative and imaginative. What is particularly interesting is the way in which the creators are drawing attention to the sounds which most people would block out without even realizing, creating a new experience for the listener.  


http://12gatestothecity.com/projects/audio-tours-soundwalks/old-town/

Sense of Space - Research - 'Art Cinema: An introduction'

For part of my research I read the chapter on sound in the book; Art cinema: An introduction 2010 9th ed. Whilst this isn't directly related as we are not creating sounds for the cinema but instead a soley sound output, it did however hold some interesting ideas. I find it interesting that people have come to expect great quality hyper-real Dolby surround sound within the cinema and in recent years have invested in home cinema audio kits so that they can bring the cinema experience into their living room. Does this mean that there is a gap in the market for sound only productions, for the growing interest in sound design.

Research Vertigo Technique

Having watched Film 2011 a couple of weeks ago, they highlighted the technique Alfred Hitchcock used in Vertigo 1958 it was also used in Jaws 2 1978, where you start zoomed in on the subject, then track forwards whilst you zoom out with the lens. I then saw the same technique being used in other films including Godzilla 1998. I think its a great effect that shows the overwhelming sense of danger the character is experiencing. So I thought I would have a go at it, just handheld and very shaky as I don't have a track and it didn't really matter because I was just experimenting as to whether I could recreate this technique.

New Brief - Sense of Space - Audio pairs project

On Friday we were given a new project brief which was to create a sense of space with audio only for 3 minute duration. We had to pair up in different pairs to our last project which I liked as it’s good to work with other people, finding out the varying skill sets, and what they have to offer.
   

For this project you will be working in pairs. The brief for your second pair's project is to create a 3-MINUTE, AUDIO, 'SENSE OF SPACE' 

Your space may be an actual physical space or an imagined space. Consider how you might use audio to represent or recreate the physical dimensions or atmosphere of your chosen space.  You might perceive your given space as one of high activity, or of marked quietness. The space might have a predominantly human quality, or be devoid of the evidence of people and instead be marked by the presence of machines or nature. How do these differences manifest themselves?

We were then played several tracks so as to inform and give inspiration for the project idea.

‘The curious ear: Meat factory earworms’ d. Richie Beirne P. Ronan Kelly (2008)

http://www.rte.ie/radio1/doconone/the-curious-ear-doconone-meat-factory-ear-worms.html

Notes; Documentary, voice over, knife sounds – factory sounds – quietens with voice over, juxtaposing music played over the top, chainsaw. Earworms – songs that get stuck in head – distracts from brutality of factory work. Music on a car radio “sights sounds smells are all the same” even though the people have changed – reminiscent. He goes back to record the atmos, moments of silence – talks about his childhood.

I think this track gives not only a sense of space but also a sense of time through the use of the voiceover. Revisiting this factory is reminiscent for the creator, whilst the sound is of a modern world, we are taken back to the past via the voiceover, giving us an insight into the perception of his world, adding depth and a sense of feeling to the space. Having not listened to much solely sound pieces before, only listening to music, film and television, I was surprised how documentary based a sound piece can be. Recording music playing through a car radio was an interesting technique that sparks ideas, that where we hear sound itself, can take you to a particular place. I also find it interesting that I’m not focusing on individual elements of the piece or documenting more how the piece works as a whole and the idea’s it provokes.      

‘Child of Ardoyne’ (Between the Ears) (7/5/11 21:00 Radio 3)  

http://www.bbc.co.uk/programmes/b010xw7k

Notes; naming the dead, ira, regional divide, describing their existence, children killed, English reporter, music playing, ticking sound, - time passing. Documenting a sense of time and place, not a story of an individual but of a place, the effect on a wide range of people. Less dynamic range technically compared to previous.

This was an interesting piece that gives a real sense of time and space giving insight into the turmoil of a village’s traumatic experience. It is in my opinion successful in portraying across these hardships giving an insight into a world that you may have been completely ignorant of. It aims to be hard hitting, creating an impact on the audience provoking thought, sympathy and anger. The cold flat voiceover reading out the names dead and their ages adds to this sense of despair. Whilst it isn’t as interesting technically when compared to the previous piece it does work. You also have to consider individual affect, whether the listener is knowing of, or have experienced the turmoil, evoking a stronger sense of reminiscence and pain, or as previously said ignorant to the hardships faced in Ireland during this period.

‘Blue Vales and Golden Sands’ Delia Derbyshire, BBC Radiophonic workshop

http://www.bbc.co.uk/programmes/b007jvh7

This was a curious piece which for me, whilst atmospheric, doesn’t give a sense of space, it needs that complimentary image, working perfectly in a scifi film. The aim was probably to create new and interesting sounds developed through new technology, but more importantly challenging the viewer’s imagination, to create a world from this sound. However, I find it doesn’t give a distinct sense of space; you are trying to decode the information provided and given conflicted visions, which I found quite headachy and didn’t work in its own right. Though at the time I’m sure this was ground breaking stuff, and I fully enjoy the Dr Who theme tune developed by the BBC Radiophonic workshops, this new wave sound compliments foreign image perfectly.      

‘Sound of Sport’ Radio 4 (30/04/11 20:00)

http://www.bbc.co.uk/programmes/b010r7cl

Notes; sports – voiceover – sporty sounds – techno music overlay. Vuvuzelas blocked out sport sound a constant hum. How sound can drum up excitement. Reminisces when he first encountered sound – a history of his life in sounds. Documentary.

In this documentary Dennis Baxter gives an insight into the world of sound recording for sport, possibly sparked by the constant hum of the vuvuzelas in Africa which blocked out the sound of sport leading to a consideration of the importance of sound in sport and how it can build up tension and excitement. This gives a distinct sense of someone’s life’s work and life, through the use of sound. I think it worked as a whole, holding interest and insight, whilst not personally interested in many sports, it was interesting to listen, therefore successful in engaging with the listener. This differs to the previous formats, in terms of it’s not trying to create a sense space rather multiple times and places, but instead describes how he captures this sense of place in sound creating thrill and excitement for TV sport viewers and the detrimental effect of not being able to capture this.   

‘Tunnel visions’ Pejk Malinovski (2001)

Notes; Tube system, voiceover, sensory, invasive, intrusive, talk about desires.

This piece didn’t particularly interest me and failed to engage my attention. The world it was painting wasn’t a particularly great perception of life. However, it did hold some interesting form, diving into the thoughts of people on the tube giving a sense of existence in an extremely voyeuristic way; your thoughts are no longer private. Nevertheless it picked on the grotty example of human thought depiction, which created a negative listening experience, despite its interesting form. Though it is arguable that with art if you come away with an experience pleasant or otherwise it is successful, just look at Bruce Nauman; a hugely influential artist across many mediums who explored with unpleasant experience. Despite this the sound piece failed to engage me the listener which shows its ultimate weakness in my own opinion.

‘A walk through the city and transformations’ Hildegard Westerkamp

This was a bewildering piece which evoked images different to what the title dictates, what came through for me was low flying aircraft. Nevertheless, I did find interest in its form; building sounds up into crescendos that then dissipate away, having great rise and fall, which gives interesting ideas and may inform upon the direction of the project.

Unfortunately I left the session early due to ill feeling which distracted from the task at hand with an inability to concentrate. Despite this I have been given a wide range of material that use different approaches in representing a sense of space. I find this gave a new insight into the world of sound, especially in terms of the use of documentary style in sound productions. This has therefore been of great use in terms of giving direction for the project giving insight into something I may not have explored or thought about without.

Portrait of place post 10 - editing

We renamed all our shots in final cut pro so that it was easier later on in the edit, and created a rough cut in time for a tutorial with the module tutor. (See screen grabs). We found that whilst we had safety shots earlier on in the filming, we hadn’t got great coverage of the final tree scene, which were all quite long takes. We also found that the walking shots were a bit slow so we speeded them up by cross dissolving, this brings focus onto the idea that all though the character is walking through the place, he is in no way permanent like the place itself. This empowers the idea of the importance of the place. However, we found when exporting the quick way of QuickTime movie that all the transitions went wrong. Whilst it worked when doing a high quality export part of the submission criteria necessitated for the quick time movie. When we met for our tutorial we were told we needed to trans code the footage first because it was from a Dslr. This wouldn’t be necessary if the latest version of adobe or final cut pro were being used as they have been made to handle this footage natively, but there are problems with the latest final cut pro, stopping industry uptake. We were also given useful crits including; cutting down the film a lot shorter, remove unnecessary shots, sort out the pacing, and don’t return to the same shot and check camera positions. Which were all really useful, I kind of already new something wasn’t working as a whole, so it was good to get outside input.  

(renaming each clip and editing into a timeline)

We had no idea what pro res was but searched it on google and watched a tutorial video which showed us how to do it. This is a great learning experience, gaining a set back and learning how to over ride it. What it essentially does is trans codes the raw files into a new format which works particularly well in FCP. We tried to delete unnecessary footage before putting it through pro res to minimise processing time, which took a couple of hours. After doing that we imported the newly formatted footage into the project and lined it up on top of the raw footage timeline, whilst altering it following our personal choices and our tutors suggestions. Having cut it down to below 3minites we really saw how right the tutors comments were; the pacing is much improved and it worked allot better as a whole.

 

(trans coding the footage to Pro Res)

We then added the required title card exported the footage via quicktime conversion, we then played it through to check it worked. We then burnt  the file to disk, ejected and put it back in to check it worked. We then burnt a dvd through dvd studio pro checking all the settings following a guide, and burnt the disk. We then ejected, put it back in, played it through to check it worked, then checked it worked on other devices.

Portrait of place post 9 - shoot day

We arrived at the station early with all our kit got the tickets and boarded the train, talked to interested passengers who took interest in our kit and ventures, then arrived in Edale. We had pre planned to walk past the first part of the place we were going to film, thinking that 80 film students may get in the way of each other. The day was fairly successful we took some safety shots in case something didn’t look quite right in the edit. It was a beautiful location with a wide variety of potential shots, the day was grey and flat so we slightly under exposed some of the shots to add some contrast/colour/saturation to make it more visually appealing. We did get one glimmer of sunshine which added some warmth.  I found it strange that we encountered quite a few students who were moaning about being there and the weather, you would have thought being film students that this was the kind of thing that would really interest them, though I do get that some maybe more interested in post-production. I found it funny when people were complaining that their feet were soaked, as if it were the weathers fault, not that they turned up in plimsolls. Some people went home early without telling Debbie, which I thought was really irresponsible as she wouldn’t have any idea if someone was stuck out in the mountains. We on the other hand worked well as a team sharing an equal amount of input, and were one of the last groups to return to base, making sure that we had all the shots needed, it was a long and tiring day but enjoyable nonetheless.     

Portrait of place post 8 - location photography

One of the river shots

 Autumnal Leaves 

 some shu students filming in the middle of a very steep field

 suprised to find a thistle still open this time of year

 Gives an idea of the weather

 

I found my tree it was perfect. This shot for some reason really reminds me of 'Four lions' (2010) when they blow up the crow on the wall. This photograph has great composition, the tree silhouetted on the sky. It needs cropping top and bottom, which would give it a more cinematic quality and to line up the person with the rule of thirds.

Portrait of place post 7 - pre shoot weather check

I kept an eye on the weather forecast so that I could effectively plan for the day, this changed during the night to more heavy rain later on in the day and slightly lighter during the morning. The temperature seems reasonable it could have been a lot colder. In response to this forecast I packed extra waterproof clothes and plastic bags to cover the equipment, I was planning on wearing heavy duty walking boots anyway. We also co-created a risk assessment for the day on 'parashoot' taking into account the wet weather and the problems that could arise from that. I also remembered that there was a local mountain rescue to Edale and added this to the form.

Portrait of a place post 6 - Influence/research

The tree scenes in 'Shawshank redemption' (1994 D. Frank Darabont) formed inspiration for the character approaching the single tree in our silent short. This location may have been a place the protagonist used to escape from the world. He used this experience to give his friend hope to set him free from his own institutionalised mind, stopping him from succumbing to the fate of those come before him, by planting a toolkit for freedom. This place symbolises freedom with no constraints, way out in the middle of nowhere. There are also obvious aesthetic values to the composition of a single tree running along a wall in the middle of a field, moreover, the wall could be viewed as the guiding figure for the strugling character.

There are many creative outputs that have been inspired or informed by a particular place. For example Tolkein is said to have found some inspiration for 'Lord of the Rings' (c.1954) from Mosley Bog near Birmingham, close to his family home. Having written it during the second world war you could imagine how the boggy woods may have come to life through the treacherous bombings on the industrial city of Birmingham. Another example is ‘Harry Potter’ by J. K. Rowling, if you see the private school she went to as a child, it pretty much is Hogwarts, you can see where the inspiration was from. Though personally not something that I’ve been inspired by. What I am trying to say is that a location is quite usually the catalyst for the most inspired creative outputs the world has seen. It affects us all as creative practitioners; artists, musicians and writers alike. It is this poeticism that I want to draw upon in the making of the short.




(http://flavorwire.com/199845/10-real-life-places-that-inspired-literary-classics/3 last viewed 05/11/11)

Portrait of a place post 5 - Schedule / equipment list

Schedule;

Whilst we had been given scheduling by the university, we had worked out that we were given 6 hours and 45 minutes to film. Our plan is to skip the first part of Edale and walk further on so as to film the later shots in the film. This was decided as we considered whether 60-80 students descending on Edale may get in the way of each other. We had planned to return to get the first village part of the filming last.   

Equipment

550dslr and bag

Film tripod

All weather clothing

Mini first aid kit

Survival foil blanket

Survival Whistle

Camera rain hood

Food/snacks/water

2 batteries

2 X 16Gb sd memory cards

Mobile phone

backpack