Experimental Evaluation

Our film is a linear piece which has elements of a collage as we used both our own footage and footage from the Prelinger Archive. The final product is a film and audio piece about the process of where our meat comes from. However as it is an experimental piece we made it very dark and disturbing by using many clips of cattle on a farm and raw meat being cut in the same shot to shock the audience. We also used a background track of a 50’s housewife themed piece of music, which we got off a copyright free music website, to show a contrast between the disturbing images and the ‘happy’ music.

Delicatessen Opening Titles

This idea was influenced by the opening titles to the TV drama ‘Dexter’ as the titles include his morning routine but it has been edited to make it seem quite dark, so that it links with his ‘serial killer’ personality. This was done by using very sharp sounds when he was eating breakfast to suggest his aggressive behaviour; this was the most influential part towards our ‘kitchen’ theme. The main influence for the idea of contrasting the preparation of raw meat to the cattle was Richie Bierne’s ‘Meat Factory Ear Worms’ as this was a very strong audio piece also based around meat and cattle. Another very strong influence for our piece was the opening titles for Jeunet and Caro’s ‘Delicatessen’ as this piece included raw meat being cut on a white tablecloth so that all of the blood was soaked into the cloth. We thought that this was such a good idea that we decided to do the same thing in our piece using raw meat, a white tablecloth and blood (red food colouring) as this created a very strong, disturbing image.

I think that our experimental piece actually turned out quite well, especially seeing as we had a few setbacks. The main thing that I like about our film is that we used not only our own footage but archive footage as well. We also made the piece work in terms of getting the archive footage to fit with the theme of the piece, this was quite difficult as we had to look through a lot of archive material to find the appropriate footage for our film. However, if I were to re-do this project I would probably have tried harder to find other material that I could film myself and use less of the archive footage. Another thing I would improve if I were to do this project again would be to record more sounds to put into the audio of the piece. This is because I feel like we could have used more of our own sounds to make the piece more interesting, however I think if we added too many more audio clips then this may make the piece seem too busy and cluttered.

One of the things I liked the most about our piece was the camera shots that we used. This is because I think we got some really good close up shots that worked well with the rest of the piece. The fact that the camera was really close to the meat whilst it was being cut made it more disturbing to watch. Another thing I liked about the piece was the fact that we filmed all of the meat clips on a white tablecloth so that it soaked up all of the blood (food colouring) making it more visually enticing.

I think that our film worked better as a shorter, stronger piece. This is because originally the piece was longer but the shots that we have taken out included the meat being handled in someone’s hands. We thought that if we took those shots out and just used shots of the meat on its own then this would make the piece stronger, which it did.

Prelinger Archive Footage

When it came to actually making the experimental piece we tried to be quite creative. Once we had come up with our idea the first thing we did was look for archive footage in the ‘Prelinger Archive’. The clips we chose to use from the archives includes a 50’s housewife talking about the different kinds of steak, footage of cattle on farms and the cows on the way to the slaughterhouse and clips of families eating meat at a BBQ. We chose to use these clips as they matched perfectly with our idea.

When filming our own footage we tried to get as many shots of the meat and blood as possible. We also tried to include a lot of knife shots as our film is loosely about the slaughter of cattle. Along with audio that matched the footage we filmed, we also recorded a number of sounds that we didn’t have images for but that we thought would be interesting to hear. We included a number of these in our piece as we thought we could match them with different images that maybe oppose that sound, therefore making the piece more experimental. When filming we laid a white sheet under the meat so that when we added the ‘blood’ (red food colouring) it would soak into the sheet, making the mood of the piece more dark and sinister, like in ‘Delicatessen’.

Colour Corrector

When it came to editing we made sure that the mood of the piece was reflected in the imagery. As I was the only one who knew how to edit the colours of a clip in Final Cut, this was one of the individual contributions I made towards the creation of the piece. I edited the footage that we filmed so that the ‘blood’ was darker, making it look more realistic. I also made it so that the shadows were a lot darker and the whites weren’t so bright, therefore sticking to the sinister and disturbing mood of the film. We also added a slight comedic value to our piece as when the woman in the archive footage said the word 'steak' we replayed that several times to lighten the piece so that there was even more contrast between what you see and what you hear.

We used Final Cut Pro to edit the footage as this is what we were told to use in the brief. I had never used this program before but had used a similar program previously; therefore I managed to pick it up quite quickly. We also used Pro Tools to edit part of the audio as what we wanted to do with a part of the sound was not possible in Final Cut.

When we originally came up with our idea for our piece we wanted to record the audio and film and edit them so that they played backwards. When we created our first draft for our audio piece we weren’t really confident with the outcome and we received mostly negative feedback when we had our crits where we showed the rest of our seminar group. After our crits we had individual meetings with our seminar leader who gave us a number of ideas to improve our piece. We then decided to keep the original idea of our sense of place being the kitchen, but we decided to focus on using meat as our subject, rather than playing backwards kitchen sounds. We also got the idea to use archive footage to contrast between the kitchen/live animals and the raw meat. This resulted in the end product being very different from the piece that we had originally planned.

During the production process we came across quite a few problems. One of these problems was that when we came to filming our footage, we found that the camera we had taken out of the store at university had the wrong batteries in the bag. This was an issue as we had planned to film our piece in the morning and then show our seminar leader our progress in the afternoon so we didn’t have any time to go and changed the batteries. Luckily one of my friends had a Canon DSLR that he let me borrow so we managed to stay on schedule. Another issue was that the camera’s white balance was on manual so in some of our shots the lighting would flicker, making those clips difficult to use when it came to editing. However, this wasn’t much of a problem as we used a lot of quick cuts in our edit so we managed to get away with only using small parts of those clips.

Although we worked as a team throughout the whole process, me and Ellie also contributed individually towards the project. My individual contribution was that I did most of the editing and she did most of the camera work. This was due to the fact that I was confident using the editing software and had researched how to do certain things to the footage using the software available so that we could make sure that our piece looked exactly how we wanted. This included learning how to manipulate the footage to convey the mood of the piece. We had a strong idea for our piece and I put a lot of effort into the editing to make sure that it looked the way we had planned and that it was received by the audience in the way that we had wanted.

During this project I have learnt many new skills, both technical and creative. I have learnt to use a completely new editing program that I had never used before and am now quite confident using Final Cut and would prefer to use that when editing footage in the future as oppose to software I had used previously. In Final Cut I have learnt many skills which allow me to do different things to improve the final look of my edit. One of these skills is how to manipulate the colours in the image of a film. This was very useful as the original clips we filmed were very bright and did not convey the mood of the film that we wanted, as I explained earlier. I also learnt how to change the sound of a piece of audio in Pro Tools. This was very useful when it came to creating an experimental sound. I also learnt how to correct some of the footage that wasn’t filmed very well during the shoot. Also learnt how to edit the piece to ensure that we used all the footage we wanted to use and how to edit the not-so-good footage so that it was still useable and fit with the piece.

I have also learnt new things through the creative aspect of the course. This includes how the lighting and colouring of the footage can affect the mood of the film and how it is received by the audience. I also learnt how important the editing is when producing a film. This also can alter the way that the piece is received.

For this project we were required to work in pairs. I worked very well with my partner as we were both eager to get started on this piece. We managed to meet up at least once a week to plan what we wanted to do for our piece and to discuss our ideas. Once we had come up with the initial idea we both put in our input and came up with further ideas to make our piece more interesting and stand out from the rest. My partner was very co-operative and involved in the production of this piece, making it very easy to work with and get along with her.

One of the strengths of our group was that we both had some really good ideas that everyone agreed with. This meant that there were no disagreements or confrontations so that all of our time was used productively to produce our experimental piece.

The only weakness that we had within the group was our timekeeping. This is because we changed our idea after we had received our feedback from our peers, which set us back quite a bit. Although we managed to finish the piece on time and we were happy with what we submitted, the last couple of weeks felt very stressful as we didn’t have much time to produce our work. This was also due to the fact that we both had other projects due in and both had part time jobs. We were also in university at different times as we were in different seminar groups for our other modules so it was hard to find a time when we were both free. However when we did find a time that we were both available, we both turned up on time and neither of us missed a meeting.

As me and my partner worked so well together there isn’t much I think we would need to improve on in terms of teamwork. As I mentioned earlier, the only weakness we had was finding time to meet, therefore if we had to improve anything it would be our timekeeping.

Film Crits

This week we had our film crits where each group would show their film and get feedback from our peers. Mine and Ellie's went really well as we got mostly positive comments, which is a lot better than we were expecting as our audio crit didn't go too well.

Positive Feedback
     - Good contrast between audio and visual,
     - Liked the comedic part of the piece (repetition of the work 'steak'),
     - Edited really well,
     - Liked that we used archive footage as no one else has done that.

Improvements
The only improvement we were told we could make was that we could cut out the part where you can see hands handling the meat and just leave the piece so that you only see the meat and the archive footage.

This would then mean that our piece would not fit the brief as it would not be 3 minutes long which is what the brief stated. However, our seminar leader said that this should not be a problem as our film would work much better as a shorter, stronger piece.

Editing

Last week me and Ellie started editing our experimental film. We decided that we would start off with the woman in the archive footage talking about meat. When she says the word 'steak' we've rewound and repeated it several times. This is to show that our piece is about meat right from the start. We then added a few shots of the raw meat that we filmed.

For the atmos track we have decided to use a piece of music that sounds like it fits within a 50's housewife setting. We've made it so that the audio slows down and the pitch gets lower as the piece goes on. This makes the piece seem more dark as it progresses. We did this by importing the track into Pro Tools and changing the tempo. The reason we did this is because to get this effect you couldn't do it in the program we were using, Final Cut Pro.


We've also used archive footage of cows and layered over our own footage of cutting up meat and the sounds of knives being sharpened. This then shows the contrast between the live animals and the raw meat that the animal will eventually become. The reason we have done this is to make it seem quite uncomfortable to watch, therefore making it more interesting. We did this by lowering the opacity on the footage of the knives. This is so that the viewer can see both the animals and the meat being cut in the same shot.

Towards the end of the first minute we've sped up the pace a bit and used very fast cuts of our footage with the raw meat and also 50's adverts about beef and steak. We used the sounds of the knives sharpening to accompany these shots as we thought that it fit within the audio of the piece.

When we looked through what we had edited we noticed that the footage we had filmed ourselves was quite bright and the colours didn't look right. To fix that we used the 3-way colour corrector in Final Cut to lower the saturation and make the shadows a bit darker. This then gave our piece the desired effect and made it a lot darker, which is the look we were going for.

Filming

Today me and my partner started filming for our experimental piece. We filmed in my kitchen as it was the quietest kitchen out of the two we had an opportunity to film in.

For our piece we wanted to make it seem very uncomfortable as we would be cutting from clips of live animals to shots of raw meat being cut up. To do this we placed a white sheet on the counter and put the meat on top. We decided to use a white sheet as we wanted to have lots of blood all over the place when we were handling the meat, creating a more uncomfortable effect. The white sheet then soaked up all the blood which made the piece more visually interesting as it shows the contrast between the plain white sheet and the bright red blood.

To make it even more uncomfortable to watch, we shot a lot of the footage in an extreme close up so that you can clearly see the knife going through the meat. When we edit the piece we will make sure that we have straight cuts from footage of farm animals to clips of the raw meat being cut. We will also layer the clips on top of each other so that you can see both the animal and the steak being cut in the same shot.

We also recorded our sounds today as we wanted to make them as realistic as possible. some of the sounds included throwing the meat onto the counter, cutting the meat, sawing through bone and the squelching of the meat as it was being handled.

To film we used a Canon DSLR as we were both confident in using this type of camera. We also used a Zoom H4n audio recorder as we had both used these in the past and found it the easiest piece of audio equipment to use.

Although we started off using a tripod, we then decided to shoot the rest of the footage freehand as it was a lot easier to use as we were working in a very small space. Another reason we chose to shoot the footage freehand is because the cuts will be very quick as that is the type of film we are going for where it is very fast-paced, therefore it doesn't matter toom much if the camera was slightly shaky.

Further Planning (Storyboard and Shot List)

Before we started filming we had to come up with a storyboard and shot list so that we knew what we would be filming when it came to the shoot. Although Ellie was in charge of the camera-work, we were very involoved in the project as a team so we both came up with the storyboard and shot list so that we could both have our input.

Storyboard

Shot List

SHOT NUMBER	LOCATION	TYPE AND DESCRIPTION OF SHOT
1	Kitchen	Mid shot of meat dropping onto a white tablecloth with a knife in the foreground.
2	Kitchen	Close up of knife cutting into a piece of meat.
3	Kitchen	Sawing ribs, mid close up.
4	Kitchen	More close ups of meat being cut.
5	Kitchen	Mince being squelched. Close up shot of hands.
6	Kitchen	Ripping of ribs, mid shot.
7	Kitchen	Extreme close up of a knife cutting into a piece of meat covered in blood.
8	Kitchen	Blood splattering onto meat from above. Mid shot.
9	Kitchen	Close-ups of meat, static shots.
10	Kitchen	Extreme close up of sawing ribs.
11	Kitchen	Close up of more meat being dropped.
12	Kitchen	Mid shot of blood seeping through tablecloth.



Planning the Video

Today me and my partner started planning what we were going to do for our film part of our experimental project. In our meting with our seminar leader we got some feedback which was very helpful when we started planning our experimental film. She suggested the idea of using the 'Prelinger Archive' to find footage of people from the 50s/60s handling food. From that idea we decided that we would make our film more about preparing and cooking meat and contrasting the harshness of our handling the meat to the way that a housewife in the 60s would when she was preparing dinner.

We also decided that our piece was going to be linear as throughout the film you will see the process of how a cow will become someone's dinner. Although, this piece will also have elements of a collage as we are using both our own footage and footage from the archives.

After we had decided what we wanted our piece to include we started looking at films in the 'Prelinger Archive' by searching for the word 'meat'. We found quite a few clips that we wanted to use in our experimental piece.

How to Buy Meat (Part I and Part II)





These films includes a woman talking about how to buy a quality piece of meat. This will be good to use in our piece as we intend to juxtapose clips from this film to clips of us handling raw meat and quick cuts making it seem quite dark.


Beef Rings The Bell



This film is about the process of producing meat, from the cattle ranches, to the factory, to the BBQ. We will use clips from this film as it shows all different parts of the production process which we can use to juxtapose against our clips that we will film. An example of a clip that we will use is of a calf in a field, which we will then cut to a clip of meat being cut and blood going all over the table, therefore making it quite uncomfortable to watch.

We have also decided that we will use music that you would imagine to be in a film about a 50s housewife as the atmos track. This is because it will work very well with the archive footage that we are going to use. Also the music will create a contrast between the happy music and the disturbing imagery.

Feedback and Changes - Audio

Yesterday I got feedback from my seminar leader about my audio piece. She had loads of ideas about things we could do to improve our work. As we had told her that we found the intro's for Dexter and Delicatessen interesting and that we were interested in working with meat for our film, she gave us the idea of using archive footage of housewives in the kitchen and having the contrast of us playing around with raw meat.

From this idea we decided to not only use archive footage of housewives but also use footage of animals on a farm, as this would create a juxtaposition of the live animal and the dead flesh. We also decided that we would take inspiration from Delicatessen and use a white tablecloth to cut up the meat and that we would also use fake blood to make the scene seem more gruesome to watch.

After speaking to my seminar leader we have decided that we are going to make quite a dark piece contrasting how people view the meat they buy from the shops to the brutal butchering of the raw flesh.

Audio Crits

Yesterday we had our crits for our first draft of our experimental sound pieces. Mine and Ellie's work received very mixed reviews. Here is our first draft for our experimental audio piece.

Below I will list some of the main criticisms regarding our audio piece and also the factors that people enjoyed and the improvements we will make.

Weaknesses
One of the main weaknesses that people found in our audio piece was that the sounds were too 'choppy' or they cut to the other sounds too quickly.
Another point that was brought to our attention was that some people didn't like the fact that some sounds were reversed and some were kept as they were recorded. There were suggestions that we should decide between playing all the sounds backwards or have the sounds play as they should and turn the piece into something with a musical aspect.
Some people found that our piece was too repetitive and that it needed more layering as the audio sounded quite 'thin'.
The last point that seemed to be a weakness was that people didn't think that the concept of the idea was very good and although you could tell that it was recorded in a kitchen, the narrative wasn't very clear.

Strengths
Most people liked the actual sounds we recorded as they liked the way it sounded clear and crisp.
They also enjoyed the fact that the idea was that the sounds were played backwards as they thought that it tied in with the brief perfectly as it was very experimental.
Another reason that they liked the piece was because they could see that the fast-pace of the audio captures the stress of a busy kitchen.
The fact that we used a variety of different sounds was also popular with our audience and they also liked the way that we edited it.

Improvements
To improve my piece I am going to make some changes after reading through the criticisms we received. We've decided that we should add an atmos sound to stop the piece sounding so 'thin'. We will also distort the sounds a bit more so it sounds more interesting.
As well as adding an atmos we also had a suggestion that we should add an entrance/exit to the kitchen. We will definitely think about this when creating our final piece.
We also were told that we should make our audio piece longer, we knew we had to do this anyway as the piece was just a first draft and not totally finished.

After hearing the crits from our peers and seminar leader we will make changes to help improve our piece.

Editing First Audio Draft

Today me and my partner began editing our first draft for our experimental sound project. The software that we used was Final Cut Pro as we both felt confident using this program and less confident using software which is specifically used to create audio pieces.

We started by importing all of the files that we wanted to use and named them appropriately. We then reversed all of the sounds as we wanted the piece to be the sounds of different foods being prepared backwards. After we had reversed the sounds we then decided that some of the audio sounded better when it was played the correct way, we therefore ended up with some sounds being played backwards and were just left as they were.

After we decided which clips were going to be reversed and which would remain the same, we then arranged the different audio clips into an order that we thought that sounded interesting.



Although we were happy with what we had produced, our first draft was only 1 minute and 20 seconds long. This was an issue as the brief required our pieces to be 3 minutes long, however we thought that we would show what we had at the sound crits we have this week and we'll get some advice off our peers and seminar leader.

Experimental Film Analysis - 'Nostalgia' and 'Telling Lies'

Nostalgia by Hollis Frampton



This piece involves a man talking about his photographs, e.g. why he took them, what the photo was of etc. The film consists of these photos burning in a pot. However, when we see a photograph on the screen, this is not the photo he is talking about. When we see a photo in the frame, the man is actually describing the next photo that the viewer will see, not the one on the screen at the time.
There is no additional sound added to this piece apart from the sounds you would expect to hear. These sounds include the man talking and the sound of the photo burning. However, there are periods where there is no sound in the film. This silence can last quite a while, I imagine this is to give the viewer some time to think about what he has just said and to try and imagine what the picture will look like after he has described it.

Telling Lies by Simon Ellis



This film contains only words, there are no actual images in this piece. This makes the piece seem more interesting as it is quite unusual. However, the words that appear on the screen are not the words that the people say, this is to show that the words on the screen is what they are really thinking but not saying, hence 'telling lies.'
This film is similar to 'nostalgia' in the way that the only sounds that you hear are sounds that you would expect, e.g. the man talking to his friends.

Sound Recording

Today me and my partner did some recording for our sound piece. We did this in her kitchen as it was the most accessible and easiest location to film. We managed to record all of the sounds that we wanted (listed in previous post) and we also recorded a few more interesting sounds that we came across in the kitchen.

These sounds included:
     - Tin foil,
     - Kettle boiling and being filled,
     - The cracking of an egg,
     - Kitchen fan.

We thought that these sounds would make a good addition to our piece as they are all very interesting sounds.

To record these sounds we used a Zoom H4n with an additional microphone put up close to the objects so that we could get the best sound quality possible without a lot of background noise. We also used a Hydrophone to collect the sounds of the water boiling as this mic could go underwater. We also used the hydrophone to record the kitchen fan and the blender by adding a small piece to the microphone which allows you to record the vibrations of an object once the mic comes into contact with said object.

Using these different microphones have allowed us to record many different kinds of sounds, which will therefore make the piece more interesting as there is more variety.

Developed Idea

After lots of research we have decided on our final idea that we are going to use for our experimental film project. We are going to be filming in a kitchen as our piece is going to be about the cooking/ preparation of food. However, this may be a boring subject so we have decided to make the piece more abstract by showing the preparation and cooking of a meal backwards. This means that at the start of the film the meal would be cooked and at the end, the ingredients would all be separate again.

We originally got this idea of filming in a kitchen as we thought that you can find some very interesting sounds when preparing/cooking food. We thought if we could record these ordinary, everyday sounds and manipulate them into something extraordinary then they would be more interesting to listen to. We also had the idea of making the piece slightly musical by layering the sounds recorded from the kitchen on top of each other as this could make quite an interesting piece.

We have decided that the sounds we are going to record include:

     - Chicken crisping in oven,

     - Boiling water,

     - Pouring water,

     - Chopping/dicing,

     - Peeling,

     - Pots clattering,

     - Whisking,

     - Frying,

     - Knives being sharpened,

     - Cutting meat,

     - Blending.

These are the initial sounds we are planning on using but we may add to this list if any more spring to mind.

Further Research

After deciding that we were going to do our experimental piece about preparing/cooking food, I have done some more research by watching different film clips involving food to find some inspiration and to get a better idea of what we want our piece to look like. I will now add a link to each piece that I have watched and will discuss my thoughts in relevance to our piece.


Delicatessen by Jean-Pierre Jeunet and Marc Caro


This is the opening titles for the French film Delicatessen. This piece does not have much sound to it apart from the music in the background, although it does have the sound of knives being sharpened at the beginning which I have already established as quite a harsh sound and is used quite often in films/sound pieces to do with food, therefore this would be a good sound to include in our piece.

However, this piece is quite interesting to watch as you can see all of the meat being chopped up and the blood making interesting patterns on the tablecloth. Using a table cloth to cut the meat on makes the film more interesting as you can see all the blood being soaked up by the cloth, making it more visually enticing.


The Cook, The Thief, His Wife and Her Lover by Peter Greenaway

SKIP TO 12:33


This film includes a number of very interesting tracking shots that take the viewer from one end of the dining room all the way through to the other end of the kitchen (12:33 - 13:20).

Now although this is very interesting to watch, I have included this clip in my research as the sounds that are present in the kitchen during the tracking shot have grabbed my attention. This is because as the camera goes past each chef, they are all doing something different creating the different sounds. For example the first kitchen related sound we hear is running water, then throughout the clip we the sound of knives sharpening, whisking, chopping, stirring and pans clattering. These are all sounds that I could use in my piece.


Be Wonderful and Wise - Lurpak Advert


Although this piece is an advert and not from a well known film or artist, I have decided to use this as a piece of research as it is very relevant to the piece that I would like to make. This advert is good inspiration for both the sound and visual part of my experimental film as it includes sounds that would be present in the kitchen and interesting camera shots that attract the viewers attention, e.g. the knife shot when chopping the onions and the pattern that the red cabbage makes when cut in different places.


Food Not Bombs by Hajan Aznam



This piece is an experimental film and sound piece from a film student from the University of Technology Sydney. When I found this clip it was incredibly inspirational as it had everything that I was trying to research, an experimental piece that was both sound and visually interesting.

Food Not Bombs includes all the sounds that come from a kitchen and turned it into a musical piece. This makes it interesting to listen to as its not something that you would normally hear on a day-to-day basis. Creating music with kitchen sounds is a possible idea that we might use for our final piece after talking to our seminar leader.

The film also contains good visuals with the director layering different images on top of each other. The way that he has edited as well makes it look like the images where food is involved could be lots of pictures editing together at a fast pace to make it seem like they are moving rather than a smooth flow of the camera videoing the shots.


Each of these pieces are inspirational to my work in different ways but have helped me gather a better idea of what I want to do for my piece.

Initial Idea for Experimental Piece

We have been informed that our first project is to create an experimental film. However before this we must make a sound piece that we will then later record the film for. For this project we have to work in pairs so I have been grouped with Ellie Marsland, another girl in my Creative Media Project seminar.

We have had a few ideas for this project but the one we found the most interesting was the idea of filming in a kitchen whilst someone was preparing a meal/cooking. We originally got this idea after listening to the sounds in Richie Bierne's sound piece 'Meat Factory Ear Worms' as we thought the sound of the knives in this piece was especially interesting. We thought that by recording in a kitchen we could get some very interesting sounds from many different things including cutting meat/veg, frying something in oil, boiling water, sharpening knives etc. There is a link to this piece in the previous blog post.

Another influence we found for recording our piece in a kitchen is the award winning opening sequence for the TV drama Dexter. I have included the video below to show examples:




This is very influential as there are a lot of sharp and interesting sounds used in this piece that we could also use in our experimental film, e.g. when he cuts the grapefruit, the sound of the egg/meat being cut/fried and also the sound used when he is eating the food.

Short Sound Analysis - Meat Factory Ear Worms

In this week's seminar we watched a number of different sound pieces and tried to pick out the different sounds that we could hear. The piece that I found the most interesting was called Meat Factory Ear Worms by Richie Bierne. This piece is very interesting as it uses a variety of different sounds including, speaking, music and background noise.

Here is a link to the clip on RTÉ Radio 1: www.rte.ie/radio1/doconone/the-curious-ear-doconone-meat-factory-ear-worms.html 

The piece starts with a man talking about his time working in a meat factory, apart from the man talking; the first sound we hear is a butcher knife being sharpened. This is a very harsh sound and has a strange effect on the listener as it is not very pleasant. The sound of the knife is repeated throughout the piece to show the brutality of the factory.

In the background you can hear the sounds of the machinery on the production line and the sound of the cows mooing as they are being killed. This is repeated when he talks about the negative or practical parts of the job. However, when he talks about the positive times where he was thinking about something else, there would be music playing in the background, which he referred to as 'ear worms'. The music helps him escape the brutality of the factory. At some points the sound of the knife is played over the soft music to show the contrast between where he was and how he escaped it.

When Richie talks about his journey to work, you can hear the engine of an old car revving in the background and a song playing on the radio. This is an example of how the form of the piece relates to the content.

At one point he talks about the time he went to the hospital after he stabbed himself in the knee when skinning a cow. The sound played over that is Richie saying the word 'beep' over and over again. This has been used to symbolise the monitors at the hospital. The sound is also played when he talks about the factory at the end, which then symbolises the production line in the factory. Also when he stabs himself, you hear the noise of a cow which sounds like it's in pain. Once again this is another example that shows the form relates to the content.

Sound Tutorial

In this week’s Production Skills seminar we got a chance use some audio

equipment and play around with a few different microphones to see which one records the best sound in different situations. The piece of equipment we used was a Samson Zoom H4n. This handheld audio device already had a built in mic, which meant that we could start recording without having to add on an external microphone. There are 2 microphones located on the top of the H4n, which cross over at either a 90° or 120° angle. This makes the mic more versatile for different recording situations. I found that this mic would be best to use if I needed to record the audio of a place where there are lots of sounds (background noise e.g. a crowd, train station etc.) as oppose to recording somebody talking or a specific sound.

To do this I would use an external microphone which would fit the XLR/Hi-Z Input Jacks at the bottom of the H4n. This was good for recording a specific sound as the mic just picked up sound that was close of it, therefore the closer you got to the object making the sound, the better the audio.

 The third microphone that we used was a H2a-HLR Hydrophone. This mic allowed us to record underwater, which I found very interesting as we got to take the equipment out and test it so I got to hear what this sounds like. This mic also records vibration if you put what we referred to as an ‘egg cup’ on the end of the microphone. If you put this against a hard object and then hit the surface, this will make an interesting sound as the mic will pick up all the little vibrations that go through the object.