Friday, 11 May 2012

Final Editing

Myself and Jordan have just spent all day in the Sound Production Suite, it got hotter and hotter all day long because we turned the noisy air conditioner off to record some sound, we couldn't turn it back on again.

Regardless of this fact we had a very productive and fun day, recording spot effects and creative problem solving. As for the former we had to pick up a couple of sounds we didn't think to record on set; envelopes rustling, door creaks, specific footsteps etc, nothing too major for the last day of editing.

As for the latter, we obviously expected to encounter some production issues and as such we were relatively prepared to do the pick-up spot sounds, as well as keeping in contact with each other regarding editing sequences that still needed sound; Alex edited together the green screen sequences in after-effects, whilst Jacob worked on the overall editing together of each sequence, whilst Jordan and I added the sound and equalised each track and Rob served as a go-between with each of us, transporting information, hard-drives, printing production documents off and generally being helpful.

Overall I am relatively happy with the work I have done within the group regarding editing the sound with Jordan; I believe we have pushed the envelope of what was expected of us by our peers, whom seemed to generally have the same amount or less work done than us, but were less concerned about their finished product; I even found that most valued getting the project done above getting the project done correctly, which I find ridiculous, a firm believer in the 'If something is worth doing, it's worth doing right" creed.

We have yet to export the project but we will all hopefully be in for 9ish tomorrow, which I doubt will actually come to fruition; possibly on my part, not being one for waking up in time for anything regardless of how important it may be to me. Turning off my alarm clock and my 6 alarms of my phone seems to have become more of a reflex than anything.

I digress, my point was that in order for me to stand a chance in getting up early to do more work, I must sleep excessively early. I bid you goodnight.

Tuesday, 8 May 2012

Editing and Effects

Recently I have been very busy editing together all of my Sound Design ( I have previously attempted to upload some rough drafts of my sound onto blogger, but it is a fussy mistress to say the least), overlayering each sound with other sounds, pitch-shifting them back and forth, altering the speed, changing parameters, EQing and numerous other sound bits.

I have been noticing the harsh but simple effect achieved by adding something so easy as a reverb or a delay onto a sound. By altering the reverb decay time of a sound you can achieve the illusion of the sound coming from within an enormous structure such as a church of by lowering it you might make a voice source come from a pipe.

The wonders of a simple Reverb never ceases to amaze me.

As well as this, adding a ping-pong or auto-filter delay upon a sound can be wonderous; the addition of a pan to this is powerful to say the least. Reminiscent of the Acid Folk of the late 1960s, bands like Comus, utilised these to great effect, then being on the cusp of new effectation, they astonished hippies ears yet hung on the brink of obscurity.



It's simple, yet effective manipulation of sound should be a lot more widely used to morph any kind of sound into a trippy mixture of panning and echoes.

Monday, 7 May 2012

Production Stills

What follows are some production still I have been taking, from various locations with a brief description of the frame.

This was the smoke machine test we conducted within the first and primary location for our shooting, the flat, it got so smokey we did set the smoke alarm off; luckily for us no-one said or did anything, good old student accommodation. We spent the majority of our time that day setting up for the next day, set dressing mainly accompanied by several props everyone had brought around that we thought we might tie into the story; i.e. the Tibetan Book of the Dead, colourful and patterned fabric, dream-catchers and so-on.

We did some green screen tests in the same location and they turned out to be so perfect in terms of framing that we decided to use them in our final edit, partly because we got the suit after we got the performance studio booked and to get both at the same time would be to have your cake and eat it. Jacob sourced it from the firestation museum he has worked at for the past few years, it worked spectacularly well as a replacement for the last suit we used...

This was in the Warehouse location that myself and Rob discovered one day whilst location scouting and generally exploring near his apartment. It looked highly dis-used besides graffitti and even had some genuinely good graffitti on the way in, an old Phlegm piece as well. The floor was dirty to say the least and the walls were crumbling away around us so we had to be careful to put it mildly, let alone with all our heavy equipment. You can clearly see in this shot Jordan using his Home-made Fig-Rig, which proved to be utterly indispensable when panning around a room and made every shot we used it for notable more stable.

Recording and views on Sound Design.

Whilst on location it struck me how much sound is actually recorded and used on set; near none.

It is far easier and of infinitely better quality to record seperately for each scene both the atmos track of each location and the dialogue for each character. This allows me the chance to change anything I think might cause a problem, including external noises like traffic, any Plosive or Fricative words ( words which contain specific syllables like Pass, Funk, Punk etc ) that peak the Master Mix that would otherwise have to be compressed in order for it to be useable.

Sadly though sometimes this rule might have to be bent in order to allow for time constraints.

I have also been taking the advice of Mark Watson, who suggested that to get a better range of recordings, you should record the same sound, from different perspectives around the area; much like changing the light settings within photography in order to find the optimal mix. It is methods like this that I look forward to finding out and actively ask of my peers what and how they have been recording; although few have remained as enthusiastic regarding quality towards the latter portion of the project, most just wanting to record the sound let alone think about equalisation and mastering.

This is where I feel I can really contribute to the overall production quality of projects; by fine-tuning every aspect of the sound I can think of, pitch adjustment, reverb time and decay rate, background noise, crew noise and equalisation especially isn't given just time and thought. Altering the parameters of someones voice can be incredibly effective. Specifically when their voice is the defining characteristic, when done correctly though can be monumentally meaningful. If someone asked you to do a quick impression of Darth Vader, you wouldn't don a black cape, enormous mask and black gloves; more likely you would imitate his voice, the deep respiration patterns of an old Scuba diving mask.

This re-enforces the fact that if done correctly, the sound a character makes can be the defining characteristic of the person. But it's that fact that annoys me, 'If done correctly'. This means that for the majority of cases within film, for the most part these are not achieved correctly; it should be the other way around.

Sound within film should not be 'This film has a great sound track' or 'He sounds so cool', it should be every film that achieves this, not just a particular few that stand out as having good sound effects, we should be creating fantastical and memorable sounds for every aspect of film. Before Star Wars for example, the sound of a light-saber wasn't even plausable, now however, just by making a crude swooshing noise with your mouth you can instantly associate that sound with that object. And maybe this means that fiction has an edge over social realism in the mind-set of sound design; that you can't just create brand new sounds for everyday objects, wrong; you can transform anything you want into something incredible, go ahead, try it.

Well that's my view anyway, that sound can be an incredibly powerful medium, but only if people let it.

Sunday, 6 May 2012

Inspiration

I have been feeling slightly confused recently. I feel like I have been suffereing from what can best be described as a sound barrier between my thoughts and my actions. for the past week I have been unable to produce and sounds that might be of worth to anyone; whilst I have tried upon numerous occasions, I felt like I could never find the certain tone I was looking for, or the right settings or effects to use. I felt as thought my music had become quite ubiquitous and expected, making music had become a routine, too much so. As if my head had become clouded from over-use, like I had been waiting for something without realising it.

However, a day and a night spent in the woods with good friends and plenty to do has left me feeling refreshed as if the flood gates for the creative centre of my mind had been lifted. I felt thoughts and feelings articulate themselves coherantly and flow freely from my finger tips with no convolution. I felt no revelation or moment of inspiration, although it was more akin to a tap on the underside of a full barrel being slowly loosened and the demiurgic nectar realeased. I felt the urge to transmit these fresh feelings into sounds earlier today and operated my instruments with ease and maximum effiency for nearly 3 hours, writing and recording over an hour and a half of publishable material.

I have been watching and listening to some pretty interesting stuff recently so I might assume that this had something to do with that.


Saturday, 7 April 2012

Avant-Grade Inspiration

A favorite electronic composer of mine, Dan Deacon, has selected several of his favorite experimental tracks as part as of  WQXR.com's 'Maverick Mix tapes' column, arranging them in a mix tape, it's pretty interesting stuff; sounds I would expect to hear in such a 'Bicycle Day' situation, as well as some otherworldly guitar sounds that I will definitely be trying to replicate.



Playlist

Lois V Vierk - Go Guitars
Meredith Monk - View 1
Harry Partch - Time Of Fun Together
Edward Larry Gordon - Meditation #2
George Crumb - Black Angels: I. Departure
Tristan Perich - Momentary Expanse
La Monte Young - Dream house, 1973
James Tenney - Spectral Canon For Conlon Nancarrow
Pauline Oliveros - River Of Folk Dance / Rios Folkloricos
John Berndt - Grace
Harrison, Lou - Suite no. 1 (1976)
Charles Dodge - A Man Sitting In the Cafeteria
Conlon Nancarrow - Study for Player Piano no. 1

Friday, 6 April 2012

Drama Brief Response

After the Documentary project I was extremely excited to get back to sound production; so I nearly exploded with demiurgic nectar after I read the section that stated that a strong element of sound design was needed.

The aspect of the 'Journey/Trip' immdeiately triggered a response within me in the form of a headache with pictures, a memory of a story a friend had told me. My friend (who shall remain un-named) had told me about a 'trip' he went on nearly 1 year ago; specifically the 19th of April last year. It was this day in particular he spoke to me about; Bicycle day. Bicycle Day marks the invention of Lysergic Acid Diethylamide (commonly known as LSD) by Albert Hofmann in April of 1943. My friend told me the story of how it came to pass.

On November 16 1938, the strain LSD-25 was first synthesised but remained unused for 5 years, when on April 16th the psychedelic properties were discovered when after getting home after a hard days synthesizing unknown chemicals he began to feel more relaxed than usual and found his thoughts were racing around and he found the world around him seemingly different as well; but not anything definitive, nothing he could measure.

Three days later on the 19th, Hofmann comes back to his lab and creates what he thought was a Threshold dose, which is the lowest does wherein the effects of a drug become apparent; a Threshold dose of a standard hit of LSD is around 20 micrograms. Albert Hofmann synthesized and ate 250 Micrograms of LSD. So, you can begin to understand how he felt after about half an hour. After about an hour his condition hadn't got any better so his co-workers decided to take him home; although due to some form of curfew they weren't allowed to ride vehicles after a certain time and so Hofmann hitched a lift on the back of his friends bicycle; the world changed forever that day. Without whom we certainly wouldn't recognise the world that we currently live in, what he did defined and entire decade, a generation of people all over the world suddenly became aware of something that hasn't and won't disappear.

When the two eventually got back to Hofmann's home, a doctor was waiting but after nearly 24 hours, when Hofmann was relatively lucid again, all the doctor could find wrong with him was a pair of severely dilated pupils.



This is the basis for our project, an incredible story, and certainly a 'trip' worth making a film around the theme of.

Thursday, 22 March 2012

Project Reflection

As Director for this project I feel the project has only been acomplished due to the hardwork of my team-mates.

As much as I had been wanting to Direct a piece I found it didn't suit my outlook, telling people what I wanted all the time and how they should do it. It felt very confusing.

Although, I have learnt a lot from this project, and consider it to be more of a learning experience more than a piece I am particularly proud of, I will definately go away looking to improve my direction instead of avoiding it as it is something I am avid about doing (as well as sound) on a professional level.

Wednesday, 21 March 2012

Editing Reflection

Due to some cock-ups, Rob and Brendan have taken it upon themselves to edit the piece together, with myseslf overseeing what goes on in each sequence.

I was getting worried for a bit, I feel like the project got stale inbetween the filming and editing process, people stopped texting me ideas and everyone got distracted by other works. However with the help of Rob and Brendan the project has been editing into what I feel is a moderate sucess, the takes are long and the music is relaxing. Whilst some features could have used a finer tuning, there isn't much we can do with our obvious time restraints and having no particular person editing.

In the future I believe I won't leave it so late as to edit the piece and will devote a wider range of my time towards it.

Monday, 12 March 2012

Editing and interviewing

Due to Amy being hospitalized ( don't worry, she's okay ), our edit plan has been slightly set back. I plan to construct the piece into three definable parts. begining with the footage of Another place, setting the tone and leading the viewer into a false sense of security in order to give contrast to the second part, the city centre; which will come storming in through a speeded up timelapse of the centre, panning to the Banksy Rat. The constant sound of traffic within this section will quietly merge with the traffic around the Strawberry Fields gates. This then merges back into the peaceful abandoned tunnels underneath the forest, eventually fading to black, serving as a contrast between the opening fade in from white. This is my edit plan, whether my storyboards like it or not. Rob has also been busy conducting interviews with members or the 'Urbex' movement, which I am anxious to hear.

Wednesday, 7 March 2012

Filming reflection

For our shoot in Liverpool we intending to spend the first day scouting out the area and finding the easiest (and cheapest, I have lost my debit card and only had £25 for the entire trip) bus routes to the planned locations, testing equipment and recording some atmos tracks. For the second day we planned to go to each location sequentially (we had initially planned to split into two units and do two locations each, but were put off by our peers who had stated that they had tried this method in the path and it didn't work out so well in smaller groups) and get a list of shots from each location depending on the weather, how we were feeling and what we thought worked well in comparison to other shots. What actually happened on both days was an amalgamation of this, we weren't as organized as I had planned and as such didn't gain such a variety of shots, as well as the time restrictions we also struggled with the difference in weather, Another Place in particular showed us it's full range of weather, rain, lots of wind (which I fear interferred with our interviews), clouds and as much sun as we wanted whenever we weren't shooting. Overall, I am pretty happy with what we filmed on the day and i'm more than pleased regarding the sound we recorded. Particularly I enjoyed the Tunnels despite their diminuitive size, I was expecting them to be a lot bigger, they gave us quite good, albeit dark footage.

Monday, 5 March 2012

Sound

Whilst it isn't my specific area for this project, it clearly still concerns me greatly as I firmly believe that sound makes up a good 50% of any film, if done correctly that is. I want a particular mixture between diegetic sound and slow slow slow ambient music, whilst remaining different from the last experimental project. The diegetic sound should be considered, as should all sound, but specifially placed in order to justify itself or make an impression upon the audience, such as the inclusion of traffic sounds or that of people walking speeded up. This is to convey a sense of urgency and business in order to contrast it later on with the quiet tranquility of Another Place and the Tunnels in the forest. I have already said that I wanted to record all sound in stereo where ever possible as I have found that stereo sound can make all the difference when trying to convey a sense of space. Various Atmos tracks in each location we will be visiting, including the Abandoned 'Lower Lees' school, the Strawberry fields gates, anywhere else we happen to visit and of course the Banksy rat. As for the Non-diegetic sound I wanted something that would portray the relaxed mood I am trying to get across without boring viewers and making a decent contribution as to the final atmostphere. Some slow, minimal, drifting notes with as much reverb as possible might suffice, i've also become a fan of having a theme for projects, so i'm sure I find a few notes.

Sunday, 4 March 2012

Liverpool Locations - Another Place

Antony Gormley's Another Place


As far as I can see this is the perfect location, Rob, who is currently acting producer showed me the location yesterday and we're pretty excited to see what kind of footage we can produce in wonderful locations such as this. The beach itself is situated in Crosby, a small town situated just north of Liverpool, a short train ride away, perfect.

Saturday, 3 March 2012

Documentary atmosphere

Speaking to friends and peers regarding the subject matter of their documentaries, it is clear to me that most people intend to document a particular place or event. this has led me to give extra thought as to the mood or atmosphere of the piece, especially if this was the main focus of the piece, to convey or document a particular mood or feeling. I recently saw the snowboarding documentary 'The Art of Flight' , which I felt was as much about documenting the mood of snowboarding and extreme sports as it was about actually doing them.
The film spends much more time talking about snowboarding and the ideas and philosphies behind it rather than other docs I have seen on the subject; which is admittedly few. However this idea struck me as an interesting subversion upon the conventional Doc format and is something I will specifically be trying to replicate.
Initial Documentary Treatment Our initial treatment, thanks to Rob, who took it upon himself to type it up in full due to our Producer being away.

Thursday, 1 March 2012

Liverpool Stories

Banksy Rat mural to survive when derelict Liverpool pub is refurbished

When Rob showed me the story and explained his idea to me we immediately started thinking about ways to convey a juxtaposition between nature and the city and the contradictions inherent; such as the fact that the whilst the city is busier, nature is ironically dirtier. We also talked about other types of art in the city, mainly the differences between public art spaces and graffiti.

The differences between the two subjects to me seemed somehow intrinsically linked, public art such as Banksy's now infamous pieces, started off as illegal graffiti. Everything has to start someplace.

Friday, 24 February 2012

Production Stills

This shot took a lot longer than was anticipated, for little pay-off as well because the entire sequence was sped up so that it instead of the 5 minutes slow walk it was closer to 5 very jumpy seconds. But all in all our actor served us surprisingly well and put up with a lot more than I expected.

Shot of the ridiculous fake-blood we used, it took a lot of editing to make it look like decent film-grade blood. You can see Ben in the background wearing Will's (our actor's) coat from the previous still for the sake of continuity, we were filming a POV shot and felt Will's warmth was secondary to the plot of the film.

The beautiful sounds of the stepping stones water gushing away, it was so loud it over powered the sounds of the forest around it, I had to combine the sound of water running with the forest ambient track I had luckily recorded earlier. It becomes clear to me just how useful wild/ambient tracks can be and I will in the future make sure that these are taken care of properly.

Friday, 17 February 2012

Score planning

Brian Eno and his 'Music for airports' has been keeping me firmly relaxed for some time now, combine this with Aphex Twin's Selected Ambient Works and you have what I want to create, a melancholic, almost dreamlike ambient soundscape.



Effects and instruments commonly associated with this melieu would be the Piano, alongside lots of reverberation, delay and low frequencies.

Saturday, 11 February 2012

Sound tracking inspiration

An assortment of songs which I have been listening to, which I might consider to be suitable for an experimental short.








I met Dan Deacon at a show once, he was a really cool guy

First draft of script

http://www.scribd.com/doc/79879874/9

Rob's first draft of the script, as I am doing the Sound production and soundtrack I need to start thinking about both Diegetic and Non-Diegetic sound. This includes Foley effects, i.e. footsteps in the woods, ambient crowd sounds, Water running etc.