Composition
I decided to create two compositions with varying levels of interference/manipulation.
The first is minimal manipulation, I used the original recording of the footsteps session and added a train station ambience. I also decided to use some audio of intense cinematic dialogue, I did this as a means of distracting the listener, giving them something to follow. This is because the footsteps are meant to be a support for a narrative, rather than the focus of the scene. I wanted the footsteps to have a certain level of subtlety to them, so as not to take away from the story. Unfortunately the recording demands more attention than I had anticipated, I think that this is due to the transition between normal and uniform footsteps was too short. Ideally I would like a more gradual transition to give the audience time to acclimatise to the sound, the subtler the better. I would say that this piece is a success, it conveys what I wanted it to convey, its a completely diegetic underscore that supports the narrative of the scene.
For the second version of the piece I took a more abstracted approach to the composition, allowing for more manipulation and more remote audiovisual correspondence. The first challenge I faced was the variations in tempo, the participants were not perfect in their steps and the synchronisation moves in and out of the 115 BPM I had set with a visual metronome. I had to find an instance of consistent tempo, edit it slightly and duplicate the clip. This is the first step away from audiovisual correspondence as the ambient sound has now been sampled. I then imported a field recording I had made a few years ago, the recording was of some construction work being conducted near my house. The sound I decided to loop was of what I think is a circular saw cutting stone. An uncomfortable sound to support an uncomfortable scene. I manipulated this sound with a tremolo, this gave the sound a rhythmic quality blending nicely with the steps. I was using Ludwig Gorranson’s compositions for the 2020 Nolan film ‘ Tenet’ as a reference, I wanted to create a similar palette. I also applied a tremolo to a field recording of wind. To emphasise the first beat of the bar I used two elements, a reversed clap and a sped up recording of an egg shaker increasing in tempo. Both of these sounds are very high in frequency so they cut through the constant low frequencies from the contact mics. Lastly to add some melody I manipulated a recording of a train engine. This choice was informed by the writings of Pierre Schaeffer on sound retaining meaning (specifically the train and the foundry).
This more musical approach was interesting, I felt I could achieve a more dense level of emotional information but the manipulations detracted from the audiovisual correspondence. The main problem I had with my process was that I had decided to use Protools as a workstation to compose, this resulted in many problems, from instruments not working to audio files not being able to be imported, mainly just a slower and less efficient process of creation.