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.
Friday, 22 November 2013
Friday, 15 November 2013
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.
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.
Tuesday, 12 November 2013
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.
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.
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.
Wednesday, 6 November 2013
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.
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.
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