SPECIALISATION PROJECT

Music

My original plan for the music was to keep it very subtle, ideally always coming second to the sound design. This is due to the context of the project, I have taken the visual from a music video so I wanted to avoid making music a main focus of the piece, otherwise it wouldn’t be very transformative. During the writing process I do think I got a little carried away and made it more prominent than I first intended, however I believe it still works as a supportive element rather than a focus. I think I have created a score that fits well with the visual, it doesn’t pull focus from the story, i think it just emphasises certain visual shots and brings a bit more emotionality to the film.

The process of making was very much through experimentation. I began with a prophet V synthesiser alternating between two chords, I then created some low drones using a bowed kalimba drum I had in Omnisphere, using a mod wheel I made it slightly move in and out of tune at points to make it sound more natural. After this I created two harmonising melodies using cello plug ins. Ideally I would like to have recorded this with a real cello, but I don’t have access to one, instead I tried to mimic the hand movements with the mod wheel. It doesn’t sound as good as I would like it but I think its the best I’m going to get it with my means. Lastly I used a granular violin to create a screaming synth that had a bird like quality grounding it the context of the scene, I believe this sound is one of the most effective at conveying/suiting the visual environment (open plains on a mountain).

I think that this experimentation has resulted in an effective score so far, it holds the emotional value I wanted it to (a sense of despair with occasional nostalgia). The pallet also suits the environment, a mix of classical instrumentation with distorted otherworldly sounds, I’m hoping this reflects the split of reality and delusion in the visual storytelling.

I plan to extend the music further later in the piece, and I specifically want to create a motif for the Juliana character, something comforting to cut through the sadness and despair of the overall theme. I think I will do this through implementing the human voice in the mix, perhaps comforting harmonies that pair nicely with some of the more un-natural sounds. If possible I would like to create some chords using the un-natural sounds that feel uncomfortable or incomplete, and then using the human voice, complete the chords to make them feel resolved or comforting. This would, in a musical context, convey the same relationships as told in ‘Birthday Letters’, Hughes being surrounded by vitriolic attack and criticism, but at the core his late wife bringing a sense of comfort, an untouchable memory impervious to outside influence.

SPECIALISATION PROJECT

Atmospheres

Ive almost finished editing my atmospheres for the project. The process has been slightly different form how I expected it to be, I assumed that one of the main functions of atmospheres was to differentiate between cuts in time or changes of environment, although this can be true its used much less than I thought it would be. I originally edited the atmospheres differently for each cut, varying volume or pitch to show a change in time or location. The result of this was a very ‘jumpy’ mix, the film lacked any sort of grounding, especially as I hadn’t recorded any foley or breath for the protagonist. The whole process of making 60 different atmospheres was very tedious, I also tried to pair each atmosphere with a wind track and made a point of differing any wind tracks that were next to each other.

I later reworked these atmospheres, making the contrasts in volume less pronounced and extending audio files over multiple shots in the same scene. I also extended the wind tracks over a lot of shots and multiple scenes. I think that this has brought a better sense of continuity throughout the piece. I realise now that atmosphere is more of a subtle bed to lay other elements on. It has the very important function of setting\grounding an environment, but if they are too pronounced you will throw the listener around too much, and it will be difficult for the audience to follow the subject of the film.

Another thing I have learned through experimenting with atmospheres is that I could sometimes get away with not having any. Im not sure if this is good practice but there are times where the FX are so pronounced they inform the audience of the environment, so much so where the atmosphere is not needed. A specific example would scene 13, where the subject walks through a narrow stone hallway with no roof, while birds fly overhead. I was unable to find a good atmosphere track for this so I left it for later. Since this I have added the sound of the birds, to which I applied a reverb mimicking the stone walls, and later I will be adding footsteps and breath with this same reverb. I believe that in this stone corridor environment, the reverb would be so prominent, an atmosphere track is probably not needed.

16/11/21

Some Sound Analysis and Tutorial

This American Life ‘Hearing Maps’ – Listening to the background noise of your environment, the speaker listened to his heater in his office and started harmonising with it by humming. He also noticed his computer was humming, brought a tuner into the office and tried to figure out the notes. It turned out to be a major third, traditionally perceived as a happy interval. The Telephone added a higher note, making it an augmented fourth. He researched this interval and identified it as the devils interval deemed so by the catholic church. 

Takeaway- Pay attention to room tones, it will help with atmos beds. Pitch bend your atmos, and use major intervals for happy scenes, and minor intervals for sad scenes etc. Through this technique you can subtly influence your audience through atmosphere and room tone. 

Parasite- There is use of room tone and atmosphere to differentiate the families in Parasite. The rich family are associated with nature sounds and quiet calming room tones, the poor family are associated with an urban noisy, oppressive environment. The door is an important motif, the foley is very loud and grand, like a castle gate, it’s the heavy barrier between the poor and the rich, emphasising the privacy of the rich. They also used reverb to emphasise the luxuries of wealth, the poor house has a claustrophobic reverb, whereas the rich house has a vast (marble wall type) reverb. 

Elephant man- His breathing takes prominence in the mix, even close up shots that isolate another character while they speak. This brings the protagonist and the audiences experience closer together, it also emphasises the claustrophobic and uncomfortable nature of the characters condition. Breath is very important in sound design, it helps connect the audience and character. The elephant man also uses a train station’s atmosphere to reflect the protagonists sense of panic as children start to harass him, remember to use setting as a reflection of character psychology. 

Force Majeur- Character analysis, the visuals were telling us they are a happy family, but the sound was ominous and unsettling with awkward silences, this is dramatic irony. They are on Holliday to enjoy themselves, but for most of the time there was no peace in terms of sound, there were a lot of industrial sounds. The atmos added a lot of pressure to the restaurant scene, raising the tension until the turning point of act 1, the avalanche. The only non diegetic music in the film is summer by Vivaldi, adding to the sense of irony as it’s a negative take on an otherwise ‘happy’ time. The family isn’t working, and the sound makes this very clear, its uncomfortable all the way through even though, visually, there is no reason why the audience would feel this way. 

Tutorial- I need to keep in mind that I am telling a story, the audience need to be able to identify the perspective, and remain connected to the character comfortably. This can be done through use of breath and foley, to tether the audiences focus and create a constant throughout the cutting back and forth from different times and environments. I also need to soften the atmospheres, the visual jumps around a lot, cutting from one environment to another. This coupled with my contrasting atmospheres results in feeling of being chucked around, it’s hard for the audience to be grounded in the story when this is the case.

SPATIALISATION

Today I attempted mixing in 5.1 in the performance lab. I did this as an exercise to grasp the process of moving sounds around a 5.1 formation, rather than it being an actual mixing session. I found the process very similar to mixing in quadrophonic, although I find quadraphony more balanced in terms of focus. Quadraphonic mixing feels like working on an equal plane, there is no focus on direction. I found 5.1 to have a clear direction, it seemed like working with a fontal plane with a lesser plane behind you. The three monitors at the front seem the most prominent, I think this is because of the visual context attached to the format. I found it very easy to move the sounds around the room and automate movement with the latch function, this was mostly useful in the slow motion scenes where I could be more creative with the sound design. I would like also use the spatialisation in a realistic manner, to create deep and textured soundscape.

This was a useful exercise for an introduction into the format. I now know what I need to do in preparation for my mixing sessions in the composition studio. I need to finish gathering and arranging atmospheres, I then need to create the FX I need to and mix them in mono. With all of the tracks I need, mixed and finished, I will go into the composition studio and mix them in 5.1. I will also research good practices for mixing in 5.1, perhaps how to structure the project, sends and busses, and some standard practices and priorities for 5.1 mixing.

SPECIALISATION PROJECT

‘Identifying Atmospheres’

  1. Desert
  2. NA
  3. Desert
  4. Desert Night
  5. Desert Night
  6. Desert Morning
  7. Desert Night
  8. Desert Night
  9. Desert Night
  10. Desert Night
  11. Desert Night
  12. Desert Night
  13. Desert Night
  14. Stone Corridor Day (No Roof)
  15. Stone Corridor Day (No Roof)
  16. Desert Day
  17. Desert Day
  18. Desert Day
  19. Desert Day
  20. Desert Day
  21. Desert Day
  22. Desert Day
  23. NA (Desert Night If Needed)
  24. NA (Desert Night If Needed)
  25. Desert Day
  26. Desert Day
  27. Desert Day
  28. Desert Day
  29. Desert Day
  30. Desert Day
  31. Desert Day quiet
  32. Desert Day
  33. Mountain top day
  34. Mountain top day
  35. Ruined Building Day
  36. Ruined Building Day
  37. Ruined Building Day
  38. Mountainside Day
  39. Mountainside Day
  40. Mountainside Day quiet
  41. Mountainside Day
  42. Mountainside Day
  43. Mountainside Day quiet
  44. Mountainside Day
  45. Mountainside (Sky)
  46. NA (Mountainside Day If Needed)
  47. Mountainside day quiet
  48. Mountainside Day quiet
  49. Mountainside Day quiet
  50. Mountainside Day quiet
  51. Mountainside Day quiet
  52. Mountainside Day quiet
  53. Mountainside Day quiet
  54. Mountainside Day quiet Maybe NA
  55. Desert Night quiet
  56. Desert Night quiet
  57. Desert Night quiet
  58. Desert Day
  59. Desert Day
  60. Desert Day

What I need to find

  • Desert Morning
  • Desert Day
  • Desert Evening
  • Desert Night
  • Stone Corridor Day
  • Mountain Top Day
  • Mountainside Day
  • Ruined Stone Building Day

AUDIO PAPER PRODUCTION TECHNIQUE

‘Sound Matters Podcast’

I’m listening to the ‘Sound Matters’ podcast by Tim Hinman as an example of how to create an engaging audio paper. The presenter starts the podcast by playing a field recording that relates very closely to the theme of the episode, listening to nature. The recording contains him lying in a snow covered clearing, in a forrest somewhere in Sweden, he is talking to the recorder describing his surroundings. There are large pauses in his speech, I imagine to let the surrounding sound be heard, but he also takes this as an opportunity to talk in these gaps. The result of this is that the line between the field recording and the episode is blurred, he’s in two places at once, I find this very interesting and engaging. Another technique he has used is to put a very subtle melodic drone low in the mix, I think he has done this to help keep the edits smooth, so there isn’t silence between cuts. In the transition between the field recording and the next piece of audio (Animal calls) he monologues a bit, and brings the volume of the drone up underneath the vocals, and the synths become more textured and complex, this keeps the ear entertained so we aren’t just listening to him talk, its very effective. He then fades this melodic synth out as the next section begins, it works as a very effective transition almost telling the audience to listen to what comes next. Hinman introduces his guest through presenting his work first, he then has a kind of one way conversation with him. He has interviewed him and isolated his responses, Hinman then describes the guests life events and work whist inserting snippets of the interview to give more detail. As his guest (Bernie Krause) descries the origin and development of sound on earth, Hinman supports it with sound design recreating these sounds (or an interpretation at least). I appreciate the way he has blended the vocals with the sound design in the line “now wait for it… life on earth is just about to begi (booming sound)”. He cuts his own dialogue off with the sound design, this keeps the listener really engaged with the sound design, keeping them on their toes, its almost as though the sound design is leading and Hinman is talking ‘around’ it. At one point Krause makes a comment about the human range of hearing, rather than just ask the listener to understand the words being spoken, Hinman plays a note that goes from the lowest point of the frequency spectrum to the highest point. This makes it so much easier for the audience to understand the facts being said, you are way more likely to understand and retain information if you learn it through (or it is supported by) first hand experience. A rather strange technique I found is admitting fallibility, at one point the presenter struggles to say a word that Krause coined, ‘anthropophony’. This humanised the host and makes the audience feel as though they are learning along with the host, rather than being told facts.

The goal of an audio paper is to convey information, and gain understanding from the audience. I believe that a lot of these techniques will help me to do that, I think giving audio examples of the topic is the most effective way to do this. I also think it’s very important to integrate the dialogue and sound design seamlessly.

SPECIALISATION PROJECT

Identification of Foley Sounds

1

  • 2 laboured footsteps on gravel
  • 1 normal footsteps on gravel
  • Donkey footsteps on gravel
  • 3 rustles of clothing
  • Coffin creaking

2

  • Roar of fire starting
  • Footsteps of man on left on gravel
  • Items on donkey shifting

3

  • 2 rustling clothing
  • Canteen
  • Sipping
  • Campfire

4

  • Rustle of clothes
  • Sipping
  • Campfire

5

  • Rustle of clothes

6

  • Campfire

7

  • Moving rope on wood
  • Rustle of clothes
  • Footsteps

8

  • Donkey movements
  • footsteps on gravel
  • Chains and items shuffling on donkey
  • Clothes rustling

9

  • Campfire
  • Clothes rustling

10

  • Donkey footsteps on gravel
  • Mans footsteps on gravel
  • items shuffling on donkey
  • Coffin creaking

11

  • All of the about (10)
  • Clothes shuffling

12

  • All of the above (10)
  • Footsteps through tall grass

13

  • Footsteps on stone
  • Clothes rustling
  • Birds (quiet)

14

  • All of above (13)
  • Birds (Louder)

15

  • Footsteps on gravel
  • Donkey footsteps on gravel
  • Clothes rustling
  • Items on donkey moving

16

  • All of the above (15)
  • More prominent clothes rustling
  • Coffin creaking

17

  • Donkey chewing
  • Clothes rustling
  • Coffin creaking

18

  • Footsteps on gravel
  • Donkey footsteps on gravel
  • Coffin creaking
  • Clothes rustling
  • Glass candle holder
  • Rope
  • Bag

19

  • All of the above (18) but quieter

20

  • All of the above (18)
  • Very prominent coffin creaks

21

  • See 18, but quieter

22

  • Campfire
  • Tree cracking

23

  • See 22
  • Clothes rustling ?

24

  • Dogs footsteps on gravel (running)

25

  • Running footsteps on gravel
  • Rustling clothes (aggressive)
  • Swinging stick ?

26

  • Clothes rustling
  • Throwing stick against gravel/coffin?

27

  • Items on donkey shifting gently
  • Rubbing blood on fur
  • dying donkey sounds

28

  • Items/clothes rustling

29

  • Very slight rustle of clothing

30

  • More prominent rustling of clothing

SPECIALISATION PROJECT

Spatialisation

My auditory response to this short film will be mainly focused on providing an immersive semi-realistic environment, a large part of how this will be accomplished is through the spatialisation of the sound. I plan to mix the audio in 5.1 as a believe that this format will give me what I need in terms of spatial movement of the sound. The majority of the sequences are fairly static, and I will need to created a realistic environment with atmos and foley. There are a few visual sequences that have a lot to offer in terms of movement of sound, I will separate these scenes and identify what sound will be needed and how they must move in the space.

1

I find this short sequence very intense, and I think the intimacy could be emphasised with a spatially comprehensive sound sequence, I imagine something close and enclosing. The content of the sound could be quite melodic to enhance the emotional aspect of the intimate scene.

2

In this sequence the camera slowly pans around the subject while the fire spits small sparks/cinder, I feel this would be an interesting sound to move around the mix. I think it will align the audiences experience with that of the character, hopefully creating a deeper sense of immersion.

3

In this sequence the subject walks through a small corridor with stone walls while birds fly above. I think that this will be an interesting scene to create spatially, ill try to make it realistic in relation to the architecture through use of spatialisation and reverb.

4

I feel this sequence will be one of the most spatially rich scenes, the camera moves forward through the ultra slow motion shot, moving towards the campfire and the lightning striking the tree. This will be the most challenging part of the project in terms of creating sound effects.

5

This sequence follows directly from 4, I can use the same sound design and pan it around the character. This will hopefully again enhance the immersion of the piece.

6

The camera moves backwards through an ultra slow motion shot, the character is throwing rocks at dogs about to attack him and the coffin. The rocks pass closely by the camera, I think this will sound very good In surround. Shortly after this, the dogs appear from behind, ill create some viscous sounds that will emerge suddenly from behind the audience.

SPECIALISATON PROJECT

Artists Influences and Musical Response

I will be recording and arranging sound design for a short film called ‘3WW’. The film is a music video for the band Alt J, I will be removing the music and working with the visuals only. I believe that this gives me an opportunity to take inspiration and influence from both the visual directors intentions and the musical/lyrical content.

‘There was a wayward lad
Stepped out one morning
The ground to be his bed
The sky his awningNeon, neon, neon
A blue neon lamp in a midnight country field

Can’t surround so you lean on, lean on
So much your heart’s become fond of this

Oh, these three worn words
Oh, let me whisper like the rubbing hands
Of tourists in Verona
I just want to love you in my own language

Well, that smell of sex
Good like burning wood
The wayward lad laid clean
To two busty girls from Hornsea
Who left a note in black ink

Girls from above say “Hi” (hi)
The road erodes at five feet per year
Around England’s east coastline
Was this your first time?
Love is just a button we press
Last night by the campfire

Oh, these three worn words
Oh, that we whisper like the rubbing hands
Of tourists in Verona
I just want to love you in my own language’

-Lyrics of ‘3WW’ By Alt J

Alt-J approached Alex Takacs (also known as Young Replicant) to direct a short film for their song 3WW, a song about love and loss, they also requested that Takacs take influence from a Ted Hughes book of Poems ‘Birthday Letters’. At first Takacs thought that the poems and the lyrics had little in common content-wise, but after spending some time with them both he recognised a shared sense of ‘dark sensuality and morbidity’.

Ted Hughes was a very celebrated English poet, in 1956 he married another celebrated poet by the name of Sylvia Plath. They had an infamously intense relationship, until she took her own life in 1963 when she was just 30 years old. In the years past this event, Sylvia became an object of investigation for poetry enthusiasts, and a very important figure for feminist literary theorists. Due to this, Ted Hughes often became a target of criticism in light of events surrounding Plath’s suicide, them being separated at the time and her still being devoted to him. For Hughes, this criticism was a strange experience, strangers prodding into an intense love, he equates it to a pack of dogs ravaging her grave and digging up her body. ‘Pulling her remains, with their lips lifted like dog’s lips into new positions.’

This poem is about a small pocket of something beautiful being attacked from all sides, and the person inside it trying to protect it, struggling against this barrage but ultimately realising it to be a sisyphean task.

In response, Takacs created a visual story of a tragic romance between two characters, Ramon and Julina (A reference to Shakespeare). The film follows the funeral procession for Julina after her untimely death, the coffin is then carried by Ramon alone through the mountains, wherein he builds campfires, experiences a lightning strike a tree very close to him and the coffin is attacked by a pack of wild dogs.

3WW- Alt-J

Although the brunt of this project will be foley work and atmos, I want to create some melodic elements in the sound design to respond to the poem and reflect the emotions that the poem/film invokes, I believe these to be isolation, determination, remorse and nostalgia. As a reference I’m looking at ‘Romantic Works’ by Keaton Henson, specifically ‘Petrichor’ as a palette. I feel that this will be a small part of the project, I would like to keep the music subtle, as a supplement to the sound design. Through providing a realistic audio environment I would like the listener to be immersed in the otherworldly scenes. I’m hoping that this immersion will make it easier to sneak in emotional musicality without it being the focus of the piece.

https://thehundreds.uk/blogs/content/meet-alex-takacs-aka-young-replicant-director-behind-favorite-flying-lotus-lorde-music-videos?country=GB

WITTGENSTEIN

Language Games

Wittgenstein was an Austrian philosopher that had revolutionary ideas on human communication. In ‘Tractatus Logico-Philosophicus’ Wittgenstein investigates how human’s communicate ideas to one another, he suggested that humans use language to trigger images in each others minds. This idea was sparked by a Paris court case in which the judge ordered a visual recreation of the events, in this case a car crash, to gain more understanding of the situation. Wittgenstein asserts that we use words to make pictures of facts, in conversation we are exchanging pictures of scenes, although for the majority of people we find it difficult to conjure a picture in someone else’s mind that is accurate to our own, this breeds miscommunication. Another danger is that we read into other peoples explanations too much, conjuring an inaccurate image in our minds. This book was Wittgenstein’s effort to make people speak with more forethought, and control our interpretations.

‘Whereof one cannot speak, thereof one must be silent’ – Ludwig Wittgenstein

Later on in his life, Wittgenstein furthered his analysis of language with his second book ‘Philosophical Investigations’. In this, he suggested that language wasn’t just something to conjure images, it was tool that we use to play games, or rather ‘patterns of intention’. As children we learn by engaging in games, an activity with a set of rules that lay out parameters for us to move in. These parameters allow us to interact with each other effectively. Wittgenstein saw language as a game with parameters. However, within language there are many different games, one example might be a ‘stating facts’, another might be a more emotional type of game such as a ‘help and reassurance’ game. When a person enters a conversation engaging in one game, and another person is playing a different game, the wires get crossed and we misunderstand each other. Someone might say “You never help me”, this person might be trying to say, help me and I need reassurance, while the receiver could take it as “I do help you, here’s some examples”. The key to good communication is working out what games people are playing. We use language not only to understand each other, but to understand ourselves. It is reassuring to oneself when you have to hand a word that describes your mental state, a word that is universally understood by your peers.

‘Language is a public tool for the understanding of private life’ – Ludwig Wittgenstein

This suggests that the media we consume is an important means to self knowledge, reading books, watching films, and listening to discourse gives us tools to understand who we are. This is why the voice and language in media is so important to us, the human ear is predisposed to decoding these games, and through it we seek to understand ourselves.