Sound Evaluation

I think sound might be my favourite element of film or just everything in general.
When there was an opportunity to spend a few weeks focused completely on sound I was really excited. I first started by thinking of what scene to do from one of my favourite films. I wanted to do something from Batman or a superhero film but nothing was really working or sticking out as something good.
I couldn't think of anything so I went about it a different way and recorded sounds and thought of what could go with it.
I have a sound bank that I've built up over a few years of different sounds like foley and atmos sounds so I tried some different things with those, I had a collection of footsteps, different room sizes and background hums that I could work  with. I layered them all up and added different reverbs to create a small room with the sounds coming from outside. I recorded conversations I had had with  various people and put those sounds outside the room. It became apparent to me that I should do a quote from Anne Franks diary when I had put the conversations in the background outside of the room I had created.
At this point I had quite a lot of sounds within my final piece and it was sounding quite cluttered and messy. I had more room noise that was necessary and it needed to be simpler.
I still hadn't chosen what part of Anne Franks Diary I wanted to use as the base of my piece but I continued with it and as everyone knows the basis of what happened so I could take away and add specific things and be able to put a voice over onto it.
I started taking things out of it, I cut it down to around 7 tracks with the voice over by the end.

It turns out that in this situation less is more and it worked out quite well. Once I had decided on a segment I moved around where the conversation began and finished and where the footsteps moved towards the front of the space.

Adding the pencil writing on the page added some centre to the track, without the voice over still makes it linkable to Anne Frank I think because the size of the room created makes it feel very claustrophobic and small.
The isolation of the sounds reflects the literal isolation the Franks experienced and the building up of the footsteps and faint talking in the background is how I imagined the suspense of living in that situation.

After looking at the different pictures of where she lived it gives a good idea of how small and cramped it would have been. This image was of the door to the annex in which her and 7 other people lived.

It makes me think that I could have perhaps added one more sound of people breathing in the background, but I think the simplicity of the final piece emphasises like I said earlier the isolation of their situation.

Initial Ideas for Maps and Journeys

When looking at the brief for maps and journeys I didn't really know what I wanted to do, but with the psychogeography work it gave me the idea to link the theme of being lost or stopped from going on your journey.
After realising that I don't really know what I'm going to do with my life I began to think about how I feel when I worry about my life, which is often.
When the holidays were in full swing I had a job and everything was great. I genuinely considered taking a gap year from uni and working full time to earn a bit more money.
The thought of going back to uni terrified me and the idea of the debt and similar loneliness I felt last year was not something I wanted to experience again. Granted I did enjoy uni last year, but this year I'm not in halls and without that security my anxiety and constant feeling of being paranoid has doubled.  So I thought as a way of coping with the stress I could channel it into my work.

My first idea was to use sound as the main focus, creating a space for the audience to experience how I feel on a daily basis. The idea was to recreate the panic and anxiety I often get when thinking about what I have to do to be considered successful.  My initial thoughts were to have headphones that the audience would wear and by using different frequencies create different feelings. The lower the frequency the less you can hear and the more you can feel so my idea was to layer things on top of a low frequency so you feel the sounds you are hearing.

After an hour and a big headache I figured out that the best frequency for the effect I wanted to create was around 30Hz. Just above what the human ear can hear, so there is a slight tone to the sound but you mostly feel it on your chest. I probably could have lower but with the headphones I was wearing 30Hz was the only one having the effect.
After listening to it for too long I started to get dizzy and I realised that that would be a health and safety risk so it would have to be limited to maybe 5 minutes.

As I would have to incorporate visual into this idea I felt on its own it wasn't really strong enough to stand alone as a piece. So after to talking to Laura we decided to join forces to create a stronger idea that would work better.

I forgot to type this up before!!

I was meant to type this up a week ago, but me being me I forgot.


The idea of psycho geography used to confuse me, to be honest I didn't really get it. After having to make multiple journeys without my ipod I realised what it means, I think. The task of making a trip is optional, you chose to go somewhere. However only some of those trips are journeys. I think that journeys are a trip where you learn something. Whether it's about yourself or something else. The art of wandering is also linked to psycho geography. where you don't have a specific route but you still are on a journey. Technically life is psycho geography as you are constantly on a journey. I like the idea of drawing lines or words on a map and following the lines. To link both those ideas of following a route and life they could work together but at the same time also contradict Some people follow a path in life and have a clear vision of where they're going. However many people live for the moment and don't follow a path or have a direction they want to go in. This could highlight the idea of life being art. In terms of my own bath and life psycho geography I don't know where I'm going, hence in this project I am following the theme of being lost. Or trying to. I like the idea of getting lost and trying to find my way back/ This links to my life in terms of the fact that I don't know where I'm going but I trying to figure it out. I am currently in the process of making a path to get me back on track.

The adventure that turned into a photoshoot.

I wanted to draw the word 'lost' on a map and follow it round Guildford in hope to get lost... however it turns out I actually know Guildford pretty well regardless of what I had originally thought. After going out and realising that I wasn't going to be able to do what I originally wanted to do.
Lots of words.
I went with my housemate Kate as we didn't have anything to do, we wandered through the high street, thinking about where to go and move my idea too.
We stumbled upon the castle. I must admit I had no idea there was a castle. My ignorance towards geography has been shown.
This castle was incredible it had loads of hidden passages. I actually managed to move my idea of being lost into the castle grounds. genius.

Even though the castle grounds weren't particularly big the scenery and places within them were awesome.
You can see on the map how I marked out the word lost and to be perfectly honest at points I did feel lost because I had no clue where I was. If you asked me to take you to the castle now I wouldn't have any idea where to go!

Im not usually one for photography I don't really consider myself to be a great photographer but I'm really pleased with how these photo's came out! 

I used my Wes Anderson research to frame all of my shots and I really like how they've come out. It turns out that the castle grounds were quite symmetrical and easy to frame things in the middle. 

The art of psycho-geography still confuses me but I do get the art of making a journey. 

I left the castle grounds thinking about how I'd really like to return and soak up the area a bit more. 

It was really peaceful and I just enjoyed being there. I can see that even though I am feeling lost at the moment this could be like my new beach (when I'm at home I drive to the beach to think... how very tumblr)

Even though I don't really remember where it is, I think it might be one of my favourite places in Guildford. 

Preparing for Psycho-geography - Why am I not Wes Anderson

In preparation for going out and shooting my Psycho-Geography trip!
I've decided after my rant about Wes Anderson to take photos of my trip in his filming style.
I set up my camera with a specific picture profile and made markers out of a train ticket. I have also drawn a line down the centre of my camera screen so I can see where I need to put the anchor of my shot.

I then tested out using some things in my room (ignore the bed frame and highland cow)

I edited them using similar colours that Wes Anderson uses in his films and also practiced with the framing I had set up on my camera screen.  It isn't ideal to use the screen instead of the view finder but to be able to get it how I want I will have to deal with it!!! 

Wonderful Wes - A Wes Anderson Appreciation Post

I've never shown Wes Anderson's work any attention before, and this summer I wandered into my brothers room whilst he was watching The Grand Budapest Hotel and was instantly hooked.
In all honesty I can't tell you what happened because all I was watching was the cinematography, grading and general aesthetic of the film.

I must admit I can't really call myself a "fan" yet as I have only technically watched half of one of his films. Thats like wearing a Guns N' Roses t-shirt and saying you like their music when the truth is you can only name Sweet Child O' Mine as a song and only really know a bit to Welcome to the Jungle. It's just not a thing.

I went about my research in a weird way and instead of watching his films like I probably should have I read a book instead. This book was filled with interviews and stills from his films, along with pictures of behind the scenes (it was Wes Anderson by Matt Zoller Seitz - 2013)
Classic Hannah only really looks at the pictures - but that tells me a lot about what I currently take from his work/films - The style and over all look of the shots is what I love.
Obviously I plan to have an Anderson film binge and watch all 11 films of his but at the moment I'm sticking to just looking at the aesthetics for inspiration.
             
 http://vimeo.com/89302848 < this video on vimeo montages some of Andersons work, putting a line through the centre of each shot, showing how he uses people or props to anchor the shot.
These examples are from Grand Budapest and The Life Aquatic, the shot from Life Aquatic shows how he seems to completely ignore the rule of thirds in the traditional way.
It is also noticeable that he keeps his shots at eye level which I really like.

The Auteur Theory applies with Anderson's work because of the colours that he uses and the general style of his films.
http://prezi.com/vxi534bdahww/auteur-theory-presentation-wes-anderson/

There is always a certain warmth to the colour and grading of the film. You can look at the specific colours that he uses and there is always a yellow and orange, green is hardly ever used and if it is it is made warmer.

I don't really understand the point of this post, except I want to use Wes Anderson cinematography/style in my projects and play around with how he shoots and see if I can recreate the look.

Sound Joy - Professional Toolkit

The classic creative block always there when I show the most enthusiasm towards a subject, typical.

The horrible memories of A-level Music Tech return as my migraine like headaches return.

I was thinking at first that I would do a scene from The Dark Knight, where the Joker crashes a party and intimidates all the guests. It is set in a high-rise building at night with a lot of people drinking champagne and eating food.
I thought it would be a good opportunity to include lots of layers of sound, firstly the muffled sounds of the city that would include helicopters, police sirens the list could go on. Then the guests and the party, firstly talking you would hear glasses, plates cutlery making the noises you expect to hear at a cocktail party. Then when the joker comes in, the guests are quiet only faint noises like breathing the odd glass noise and gasps.

When I recorded my sounds I had all this in mind and it was fairly difficult, however I kept going and thought I'll be able to make something of them when I came to edit them in protools.

However this of course was not the case.

After messing around with EQ, Compression, Reverb and panning it still didn't sound like the Joker could burst into the make believe room I had created.

I listened to the sounds individually and when listening to the one titled "ew breath" there is a second at the end of the clip where you can hear me gasp. When I was recording I tried to move without making any noise and instead fell of my chair. I would say this then got me thinking about situations where people couldn't make noise but it didn't I continued to listen to my sounds making the reverb longer and shorter seeing if they would sound like anything I knew. That added with the gasp got me thinking about Anne Frank and how her and her family were trapped in the annex hiding from the Nazis. Not really sure how my brain made that connection, but never the less it did.

After editing my sounds some more and panning them to a more appropriate place I got it to sound like it was in a box or a cramped space.

To conclude this update of where I am with my work, I have to find a short passage from Anne Franks diary. I'm really pleased with how it's going so far, I also enjoy the simplicity of it, in that I won't be including typical World War 2 sounds, like tanks and guns, I will be including the scratching of Annes pencil, the creaking of her house, things that scared her during the war, other that the risk of being caught.