Thursday, 19 December 2013

Experimental Project Evaluation

Our experimental film is based around the idea of trying to get across a feeling of a lack of sense of place within the viewers. We decided that one of the most interesting ways we could come up with to interpret the brief was to flip it on its head completely to show the opposite of a sense of place.

Our influences came from a variety of short experimental films we watched in our seminars, the ones that seemed to stand out to me and Elliot and get us discussing how we could emulate them are mainly the ones that had interesting visuals. Inbindable Volume for example had a very interesting use of two or three split screens that showed different parts of the same area, and it worked magnificently. Also the opening of Over Your Cities Grass Will Grow had a very similar feeling to what we were going for, so from that we took the idea of keeping it smooth and unrushed, letting the shots linger and giving people time to consider why we used each one of them.


I think the video is made for more mature audiences, as I see it as a film that would if anything be shown in galleries, and generally speaking it is an older demographic that goes to art galleries to analyse work. I think this for a couple of reasons, firstly since its an experimental film it requires analysis and thought, there is no obvious answers for why the film is the way it is and we dont overtly tell the audience the concept were trying to get across, they would have to watch it and decipher their interpretation. This is something that I think more mature viewers would be much more willing to do, so throughout production I always imagined it to appeal to an audience of 20+ maybe with an understanding or a background in art/experimental film so they know the kind of abstract style and would understand why we have done certain things here.

I think the piece has worked as well as it could at getting across our difficult concept, there is a strong feeling of unease within the film, the images are sharp and get across the sense of being in a location but not knowing where you are exactly giving off a lack of sense of place as is our intention.

I think the cinematography is very strong in the film; some of the shots are really well framed and really warrant the eye to look around and explore the frame. This is helped by our theme of using the natural frames of the windows, something else I feel works very well and sort of gives a running motif to link the shots together.

The editing of it has also been praised and is a further aspect I think works very well, it syncs up to the audio very smoothly and they end up complimenting each other very well. The only criticism I have is that I think the audio works as a piece on its own, but I dont think the visuals the way theyre edited in the film would work as well without the soundtrack, they definitely wouldnt get the concept across alone, in my opinion.
One of the problems with the piece is the tilting and panning not being as smooth as they could have been, we tilted and moved everything with our hands and since it was a cold day some of the shots dont move as smoothly as I would have hoped. This is something that if we were to do it again I would definitely try to change, probably by using an elastic band to move the tripod arm, which would result in a much smoother movement.

Also some of the things we did deliberately came across to people as mistakes when we showed it to them, the prime example is at the end where we put the sound up as high as it could go so it would start cutting out because the speakers cant handle maintaining that amount of sound. We did this to further get across an unpleasant loud finale to the film but a few of the people we showed it to thought we had just gone wrong on our sound levels, not a feeling we wanted to give off. Nevertheless we kept it the way it was because it fitted our idea and how our project has developed.

The idea of lacking a sense of place and getting that across through our piece was Elliots idea, then once we established that we both got brain storming as the best way to do that, whether it be showing people in communities or places that were old etc. After a meeting with Lee we both mutually decided that the best way to show it was to show locations that lost their sense of place.

One of the main things we did not do enough of in my opinion was definitive planning, we planned a bit but it was more just where we would shoot, then we got to the location and explored until we found something that looked good. I think we should have definitely storyboarded some shots first; maybe a set amount of close ups and zooms etc so we could have had a certain amount of each and maybe made the amounts of each shot type even, to take a kind of formalist approach.

I came up with the idea for the visuals, Elliot came up with an idea too but his was too complex and would have required more time than we had, so instead we ran with mine because I think it got across the idea quickest and easiest, it also meant we didnt have to deal with getting an actor as I think we both assumed we probably would have to at the start of the production process.

A problem arose when I had get the footage off the camera as I didnt know how to convert the file types from the camera into a type compatible with Final Cut Pro, but once I got the help of someone else and fixed that I did the rough cut of the clips, this was mainly setting up some of the timings so that the transitions synced with the soundtrack. Elliot then changed the clips and did the fine cut, before I tweaked his version slightly and we both decided that to be our final cut.

The main problems we faced were in post-production with file exporting, this was mainly down to a lack of experience from both of us so we had to spend some time sorting that out, this is something we didnt think would take up anywhere near as much time as it did and turned into quite a problem.

The main thing I learnt on the technical side of the project is mainly new aspects about the hardware used in the making of the film. Since previously I had only had minimal experience using cameras and sound recording equipment this first on location experience was invaluable to me. The camera was mainly what I enhanced my skills with considerably, when actually on location I understood the practical applications of white balance and gain control much more. Also as I did most of the recordings for the piece I feel like I improved greatly at using the Zoom and Maratnz recorders throughout the production.

In Pro Tools specifically I feel much more confident about sound manipulation and using effects such as EQ or reverb to enhance the feel of the piece. Since the piece is experimental and you can get away with things you could not in an average traditional film, as a result I could play with sound aspects that otherwise I wouldnt have touched a lot more such as reversing and changing the speed of things, this made me much more aware of all the different effects you can create and has enhanced my Pro Tools confidence greatly.

The project has also helped me realise my lack of knowledge of file types and codecs and technical aspects of that matter, I had to get the help of someone else to export the footage from the camera into Final Cut Pro as I had no idea how to do it. Now I am more proficient at it, but this project highlighted it is still a big hole in my knowledge that I need to change.

I think from a creative stand point it has helped me realise how you can get across such a strong feeling with minimal aspects to the piece, it has solidified the idea of less is more. Previous to this project I predominantly watched narrative driven films, so assumed to rely on things such as dialogue to guide an audience, but through the course of this project it became more obvious to me that that is far from necessary to get across a response in an audience. Instead this project has emphasised the importance of when to cut or how long to hold a specific shot for to get the best effect.

Also since we focussed a lot on the smaller less obvious aspects of the warehouse I think the project has also made me scrutinise locations more searching for things that look good that other people would often overlook. This has also made me learn how important it is to do a recce of a location like we did on this project, since with the previous knowledge of the area we were able to get much more abstract and much better shots, something I never really considered previously.

I think me and Elliot both worked very well as a team we both had a mutual understanding of where we wanted the piece to go and listened to each other’s thoughts and opinions, furthermore we were both willing to give up on our own ideas if the other person had one that worked better.

The main way we could have improved in my opinion would have been to plan together more, for a lot of moments we both went off alone to come up with multiple ideas as to how we could do the piece then came back and discussed our ideas with one another. Perhaps if we both sat down and bounced ideas off each other straight away we would have had more success and come up with an idea much quicker.

Also when editing the sound on the Macs there was maybe not as much shared thought on how to edit the piece as their should have been. Since only the person with headphones can hear what they’re doing to the piece one person would have sit by and wait to see what theyve done to it, we still swapped often and we did an equal amount, but nonetheless we could have improved communication in my opinion.

Another slight weakness as a team would probably be the communication we had when we werent together, since when we left the edit suite we wouldnt discuss the project much until we went back there. This meant when we went up to do more to the project again we would have to recap and summarise all the things we thought needed changing when we could have just been more involved with the project constantly rather than when we were just at the edit suite or shooting.

But overall the contribution to the project was 50/50 since we both pretty much worked on every part together and I don’t one aspect could be put down as being purely one persons input, we were equally involved. 

Wednesday, 18 December 2013

Location Shoot Ideas

*This post was published out of sync from when I thought it had been uploaded. It was meant to be before the filming trip to the warehouse.*


Here are the brief shot plans I wrote up before getting to the location to shoot to give us a brief plan to run by if we ran out of ideas. The notes are pretty self explanatory and we just wrote them down as some visual reminders as once we get to the location it could be quite easy to get caught up focussing on something else, at least this way we know we will come back with something. 

Seminar Group Screening Feedback

Notes taken of feedback from peers
The other day we had a mock presentation and screening of our experimental film in it's 'final' form. Our film had been exported wrong to start with so we had to re export it to get it to work properly, and since that was rushed we had to show a version without the last 20 secs. Nevertheless the feedback from our group and was overwhelmingly positive, which was really nice to hear. Since we'd watched it again and again in the editing process we were getting quite bored of it and personally I was starting to doubt it because you start to pick out the negatives more. However hearing all the positive comments re-established my feelings for the piece and re kindled my liking it and I noticed the positives a lot more.

The majority of the comments were praising the shots and the editing. They liked the idea of natural window framing and a lot of people picked up on how the visuals fitted with the soundtrack very nicely and smoothly, this shows we managed to fit to the idea of it syncing as I hoped . There was multiple comments on the framing of the shots and how they picked up the aura of the location very well, in particular the shot of the graffiti'd woman looking our the window at the train.

One of the people that had heard our first draft of the audio praised how much better we made it too which again was nice to hear because it was hard starting completely again from scratch. It helped to hear that others felt the way we did that we had 100% improved our original version, this one is much more immersive and a lot creepier.

There was also a lot of praise about the use of the location and it sparked discussion about where it was as it was such an interesting place to go and a few other people wanted to go there to look at and use the same place. This was nice because it meant we were able to share this knowledge with our peers and friends so that we can all benefit from a location as good as this one.

A couple of people said it made them feel uneasy and unpleasant which was great news as that was our main goal as I've mentioned many times in this blog. Another comment was they got a feeling of intensity from the piece that there was a real effect from this location. One of the more passionate comments likened the film to Jaws and The Shining in the way we sort of showed not a lot but got across so much feeling through how we did assemble it. This obviously is almost an honour to have our work remind someone of those two great films and was one of my favourite responses.

One person likened the piece to the short film Inbindable Volume, which was nice since obviously I've analysed aspects on here and said we will try to emulate the idea of that film, its nice to know that was noticed. We had a comment on how the split screens gave nice movement to it, which again is good because that's what I said I liked and really wanted to emulate in my Inbindable Volume analysis, so knowing we did that successfully is nice.

The comments were so positive we're going to keep the edit the way it was when we showed it then and not do any more work to it, since we feel like we would be over doing it and we can't improve on it beyond what we already have, in our opinion.

Video Editing

The first problem with the video edit came from getting the footage off the camera since the XF100 footage can’t be directly imported to Final Cut Pro, and I didn’t realise. Eventually I found the transfer programme (Sony XDCAM Transfer) and made the footage useable.
You can see partly along the timeline that the shots have very specific lengths to sync to the music, the markers are deleted here for some reason but I used them to sync it up as perfectly as I could.

I did the first rough cut, mainly to sync up the images with the soundtrack so it flowed nicely and we knew how many clips we could get in. After that Elliot did the fine cut, changing the shots so they flowed visually and made sure we used all our best shots. For the final cut I went back and made minor changes to a couple of clips and me and Elliot decided that was our final cut. They sounds are very well synced up with the video, an effect that works and we can thank to the Star Guitar music video I analysed earlier.

The theme of frames runs nicely throughout all the shots well, it is noticeable in most of them but it isn’t used so much that it becomes overkill, they’re split up enough to avoid that. Instead it just shows that we had a specific reason for some of the shots and it has been thought about which ones are in the final cut.

The split screens develop really well, it comes in surprisingly and since we used the opposite footage (e.g. zoom in and zoom out) of the same shot it both disorientates the audience and gives them a better view of the area being shot. I like how the split screens multiply in one part of the film it gives a good feeling of building visuals without it looking unnecessary or being too visually overwhelming. The zoom split screen shots sync up very well since we used the slow zoom button on the camera, they move simultaneously and work against each other better than I expected them to.


On this screen grab you can see the track being built up on top of each other, that's the split screen building to two then three images in a line, the effect can be seen slightly in the viewer.

One of our biggest worries was how to finish the piece, since the audio builds to a crescendo but it’s a lot harder to build to a visual peak. In the end we went with a shot that zooms outside through a hole in the roof as if we are finally leaving this warehouse and escaping. Since the contrast from outside to inside was so great as it zooms in on screen it slowly illuminates the room more and more until the screen is just bright white almost too much. As it goes slowly brighter it fits in with the build of the soundtrack and with the brightness of the screen along with the loudness of the soundtrack at the end, it sort of gives you a bit of sensory overload which works really well as a finale to the piece.


The final issue came with exporting the files into the various discs needed, but after some trial and error we were able to export them in the file types they need to be according to the brief. The playable DVD we made using Toast Titanium, and the Quicktime file was more a matter of trying the same thing multiple times to get it right eventually. As this was such a pain at the last minute I've become much more aware of this for future projects and will give myself plenty more time to work out how to export properly, quickly and easily.

Analysis of Footage

The main problem with all the footage is that some of the pans and tilts judder and don’t go as smoothly as they could. This is probably due to the fact it was a cold day when we shot so the tripod would have needed to be a bit warmer to move smoother.


The shots with the slow zoom we discovered half way through the shoot are much better than the ones without; they flow much better than the others. The zoom speed is perfect for what we want too, it is slow enough to notice all the details and textures of what you’re zooming past but quick enough to keep people entertained and not seem like it’s dawdling on the same image enough to bore people.


Only a few shots are unusable, this is mainly because of over or underexposure, but quite early in the day we remembered to use zebra lines on the camera so after a couple they’re all exposed as well as they could be. That was challenging though since we used a lot of windows where obviously the light outside is much brighter, as a result getting the balance right of exposing both the inside and outside enough that they’re both visible was hard, but mostly successful in our shots. Consequently there shouldn't be too much picture editing in post, which I like because I don’t like manipulating raw footage that much, since it gives the impression that we didn't shoot it well enough initially.


The frames theme works well in a lot of the shots, the frames within frames draws your eye around the whole image and the amount of shots of this type will give a nice theme running throughout the runtime. Furthermore they give a sense of depth to the location, since it layers it, making it all look more immersive.


There is an interesting mix of shot types too which is nice; there is a good variety of zooms, pans, tilts and static shots. This means there is plenty of variety to mix it up in the edit and not get bogged down in one shot type to the point it would bore the audience.


There is a good but not excessive amount of symmetrical shots that will hopefully sync up to work against each other in the split screen sections of the film we have thanks to the influence of Inbindable Volume. They fit in well with how we planned them, since one has two shots zooming down the sides of both walls in the main area of the warehouse and one has two shots zooming in at where the opposite footage was shot from, which should work against each other very well.

Hinting Location Example

Here is one of the examples I mocked up to try and show the idea of hinting a location without showing it. Here obviously I only have still images but I think the point is gotten across well nonetheless:
  















As you can see here I chose a location and went up to seven parts that I though were fairly important to the making of the room. By doing this it gives teases as to where we are without directly showing an establishing shot, this as a result makes the audience think about what they're looking at and engage with the images/film more.

This is the kind of idea I want to get across in our experimental film's visuals, but since it is obviously a much more visually outstanding and interesting location there is going to be much more to show and exploit in teasing where we are. This shows that we're going with the idea of the film being 'pure abstraction' just a arrangement of shots based around shape and texture to get across the aura and sinisterness of our location.

Inbindable Volume- Film Analysis

Here the two side panels are slowly tracking sideways, while the middle frame is panning down, this gives an almost embossed feel to the middle frame as if it's sticking out by contrast.
What both me and Elliot found most interesting about Inbindable Volume was purely the visual side and the use of three split screens and the way they interact with one another in the film. Generally throughout the runtime the two on the outside act as opposites while the middle frame does something contrasting to stand out. The caption to the above photo explains the movement in that example.

Here the different screens show us the same object in varying levels of detail and from different distances, so we can appreciate it as a part of the room, the shape of it and in terms of pattern. 
This use of three split screens is something I hadn't really seen previously, two is fairly common, but by adding three it gives a whole new feeling of visual of visual disorientation. As a result you view the film completely differently. They also gives the film a much more kinetic feel as there is so much moving on screen and your eyes are constantly moving to keep up with the subtle changes to each frame. Giving energy and a feel of movement to something that is showing still objects and locations is a clever ability and something I think we definitely need to replicate in our final film.

Here the middle screen fractures the two sides that look like they could almost join up if the middle wasn't there. 

The film actually mirrors our idea in a few ways, firstly that it is showing the location while it is blank and empty, and in places it looks almost derelict. Also as it reaches its finale it switches into a really atmospheric soundtrack and ends with a big musical crescendo, getting a real sense of grandeur across from it, as does our musical piece, we aimed to finish it with a big finale of over loud audio to really knock people off balance and make them feel uncomfortable. However in this film I feel like it comes a bit out of nowhere and doesn't really work as the rest of the film is so quiet and bland with the only sound really coming from the voice over. The sudden soundtrack didn't fit so much when we watched it as a seminar group we all laughed slightly at how out of the blue it was, an effect we don't want in our film and don't think was intentional here.

The shots all have a very slow moving camera them, similar to Over Your Cities Grass Will Grow, this as I said in my analysis for that is something we're going for in our film as it is smooth and subtle but gives us an eerie enough feel to give a strange feeling to the location while letting people see it all in good detail.

Here the three different screens are showing the same object but from all different sections, visually making it look disjointed and quite interesting.

Warehouse Shoot Summary

Once we got to the warehouse for the second time the first thing that was noticeable was that people had come and added a lot more graffiti from our last visit. This immediately made the colour of the walls stand out more as it was new and still vivid, this was something we decided to try and show in the footage we captured. As a result as long as the fractured lines and shape we also focussed quite a lot colourful aspects of the location, meaning in terms of the handout we got our film would be considered in terms of the 'pure abstraction' section. Another theme that came through in our footage when we got into the location, this is the idea of frames within frames, using door frames and windows etc to draw the eye around the image with all the different lines.

We shot on the Canon XF100, and it worked well for everything we needed it to. Half way through the day shooting we discovered the set speed slow zoom button on the camera, showing we maybe didn't do enough experimenting and learning the camera beforehand, since once we found that it made the zooms a lot smoother. The other problem we faced occasionally was the fact our pans and tilts from the tripod were sometimes not as smooth as they could be, but this was overcome from simply doing multiple takes until one worked.

Having been to the location before this time we were able to get to much more obscure places that you wouldn't think about going in your first visit, as a result I think the shots we got from the location are much more interesting than they would have been from just one recce.

The risk assessment was quite a good idea because we both kept an eye open and kept the dangers of the place on our mind. Since we went in different areas of the location this time there was things we didn't mention in the risk assessment we perhaps should have such as being aware of unguarded edges with drops, as we were on the roof at points, and watching our footing closely when there is loose debris on the stairs. It was a safe journey through the warehouse and surrounding areas though, partly due to the risk assessment.

Overall I think we got plenty of footage to edit together a decent representation of the location, and some of the shots we got captured its creepiness and eeriness very well.



Sunday, 15 December 2013

Over Your Cities Grass Will Grow- Analysis

The first 20 minutes of Over Your City Grass Will Grow is exactly what we’re trying to emulate in our experimental project. We are taken into a space we don’t know and shown around it through lingering single shots, often with a slow moving camera. The impression I'm given while watching the opening is that it’s as if the camera is discovering the details of this location slowly at the same time we are, since it moves so smoothly and slowly as if it is cautious of what is around the corners.

Each shot is so slow moving that it gives the feeling of a still image, and as such you view what is being presented as if it is a photograph, but the slow tracking and zooming in the shots connects them all with a shared visual style. Most, if not all of the shots focus on showing texture and line, with the occasional one showing the light of the underground locations, the colours are quite cold due to what it is presenting but there are brief moments when colour engulfs the screen, made more obvious due to the fact these moments are few and far between.

The soundtrack is of as much importance as the visuals; the minimalist soundtrack gets across the spiritual feeling of the location, and if anything aids the visuals too much. If anything I think it adds a false depth to the images. On their own the shots are visually stunning but I think that the eerie feel to the piece is brought mainly through the soundtrack, and alone the visuals wouldn't have had this effect.

The rest of the documentary is still an interesting story and a well made film, but it doesn't relate to our project, and the visual style changes to more of a standard style so it can show what's going on clearer. As a result so all the influence I will gain from this film is from the first 20 minute segment, but for such a small segment it is something I will consider very much when on location shooting.


This is precisely the kind of feeling we want to get across in our experimental film, we want to put people in a place and try to explore that place without showing it overtly, almost as if teasing the place you are. The main thing we will do slightly different I think is that we will have more static close up shots, because as well as tease the location we also want to show its dereliction, so show it no longer has a sense of place. One of the best ways to do that will be to get in really close to parts of the warehouse that show the weathered effect of the location most and show them clearly.

Thursday, 12 December 2013

Star Guitar - The Chemical Brothers Video Analysis

The immediately obvious aspect of the Star Guitar video and the bit that makes it stand out as being a unique experimental video is the coordination of the objects appearing to the music. The choice of music to do this effect to is very good here, since it starts off slowly looking like a completely normal train journey due to the lack of layers in the song at that point, tricking the audience into thinking that's all it is, but as the music builds the synced music to objects effect becomes subtly clear.
..before transitioning into a plethora of repeated objects
Here it starts off as an average expected train situation..










One of the ways in which the main beat aspect is helped by the rest of the visuals is how in a few of the locations a reflection from the window of the inside of the carriage can be seen. This gives across a sense of realism and reminds the viewer that this is a train journey not just a random series of locations and objects. This touch helps emphasise the surreal repeating objects even more since it juxtaposes the ordinary with the extraordinary, a very nice touch in reminding the audience of the situation while not detracting from the main focus of the video.

Reflection of inside the carriage can be seen at the top left.
Another thing that adds to the simplicity of the piece is the fact the whole thing is shot through one single camera angle, stably mounted. The cleverness and technical skill comes from the editing of the piece, something that experimental films generally harness well. Since we are moving through such a distance we are constantly engaged by the new layered sounds and their corresponding objects. The layered feel also gives the video a great sense of depth to it, you can explore the whole frame, since each scene is around long enough for the viewer to see each landmark repeated all the way into the distance.

I also like the way it seems to smoothly transition through the different locations the train journey passes by, the effect of blocking the camera then removing it to show a completely different environment is nicely done.

Towards the end I feel the effect is worn off slightly, and it isn't as well synced and obvious, the scenes become a bit too cluttered and I don't feel like it builds to the crescendo I feel it should. The effects in the part going past the river in particular don't run as smoothly as the rest of it and the scenes look very constructed with CGI rather than authentic looking locations, this is probably due to the fact it has water in this section and it would be much harder to animate the water on top of the repeated visuals.
Despite not liking the effects as much in this river part it shows the depth of the frame quite nicely.

Another part I think doesn't particularly works is when it momentarily transitions into night time, but only for about ten seconds then transfers back to daytime footage. This to me came across more as something to try and cover the fact that the video wasn't particularly interesting at this point, so Michel Gondry kept the viewers engaged by changing to night time. This seems like a clever thing to do to keep people interested but I found it to be an annoying change with no real visual or artistic merit to it.

Overall though what I like most is the simplicity of the piece, by just making it seem as one long continuous piece there is a very smooth feel to the video. What I'm going to take most from it to use in our experimental video I think will be to sync up the video with the soundtrack, so there is a form of visual and audio harmony. Here obviously since it is a video that is made to help the audio it is near essential for it to fit together but in our piece I want the sounds and the images to work together as if they were made for each other instead of just separate bits slapped together.

I think this would benefit our video a lot since we will probably only have static/slow moving shots which alone could look a bit dull, but by coordinating them with the sound it will mean the hearing and seeing of the viewer will be at the same time and therefore will engulf both their senses simultaneously and subsequently make it a much more engaging film to watch.

Monday, 2 December 2013

Warehouse Shoot Risk Assessment


Here is our risk assessment for our shoot in the warehouse to show that we are aware of some of the main risks we face when filming there, all of which are easily avoidable however and are unlikely to pose a problem since we have already been there so we know the location well enough to avoid any major problems.

Visual Idea

The newest problem we encountered was getting across the concept through the visuals of the piece, since we had to establish a sense of place then remove it so that the audience feel the lack of place by comparison. 

The idea we came up with to combat this is to do similar to what we did with the audio- never give the audience a sense of place in the first instance. By doing this it will mean they will not know where they are and have to try and decode the place. To do this we are planning to only show abstract parts of the building we shoot in, most probably the abandoned warehouse so consequently there will not be a sense of where we actually are in the video. We will instead just show close up sections that are visually interesting enough to keep the viewers attention for the three minutes, we'll also try to sync the video with the audio track so when the sound makes a diverse change the image will too to have synchronicity to the piece.

For example here is a the wider shot of the whole location:

But instead of showing the whole location we would only show a part of it, like in this example a section of the roof:


As a result the audience have no sense of where we are but are still intrigued since the lines and textures shown are still visually interesting. Furthermore it will hopefully be quite engaging since the audience will be thinking about where we are, but by never being shown fully they will feel like they have feeling of a sense of place. This coupled with our audio track I think will get across our complex idea in the best way we can.





Wednesday, 27 November 2013

Notes After First Crit

The main thing we took from the crit of our audio only piece is that it felt too bare. The concept didn't come across as well as we had liked, and it sounded a lot more raw than the expected. I think this partly came through the fact we listened to it on actual speakers and not on headphones, and consequently it wasn't such an immersive experience, detracting from our piece more than I expected it to.

As a result we are going to restart the project from scratch and make it busier. By that I mean we won't have as many periods where it's just the background atoms track rather we're going to try to have more sounds interplaying with one another. However they aren't going to exactly fit together, we don't want to make them flow perfectly, the plan is to get a feeling of unease within the listener, since not understanding your sense of place would be a very uneasy and unpleasant experience. As a result we hope to make all these unpleasant sounds interplay well to work as a piece but be unpleasant for the listeners.

It was helpful hearing Debbie's point of view too and from her advice we will put more unpleasant sounds in it to really make it stand out. To do this I think we will have to abandon our initial plan of only using sounds from the locations, and instead find nasty sounds from other locations and maybe make them sound more like they were from the places we visited through reverb and EQ. Whereas this may change the idea of authenticity we were trying to stick to, in the long run it will make the piece sound better and help get across our idea more clearly; this is good because we could use any help we can get to make it more obvious since it's quite a complex concept to convey.

Monday, 25 November 2013

Results of First Edit

 Here are the notes from mine and Elliot's first audio edit on ProTools. The notes themselves are pretty self explanatory, I think as a first rough draft it works well and it makes it very clear what we need to do to further our ideas. It came across as more challenging than I expected, since trying to get across the sound and 'feel' of a building is quite challenging when it has to be made involving and immersive.

A lot of the things we did to try and make it a more engaging piece is through the use of effects such as reverb, to try and make the sounds seem different and more audibly interesting without trying to overuse them. We have also had multiple bits in which we pan the sound from one side to another, hereby making it sound like its going from the listeners left ear to their right. One example of this which works very well is of a spray paint can, the effect is very engaging and when we showed it to people it was the one of the aspects they picked up on most. This gives the impression of being stood in these places quite well, so is beneficiary to the piece.


In the piece we have tried  to make it flow but still feel disjointed, so that it will work as a piece of sound that people won't just get bored at, but rather while listening it will give them a feeling of discomfort. We've done this by repeating sounds randomly, and at one point a sound comes in with a beat to it but it just drops away without any prompts. This we felt this was our best way of achieving feeling of 'lacking a sense of place' by having a variety of sounds that have no place being where they are in the audio track but compiling with one another to get a sense of atmosphere.
I think one of the best ways we did this is at the end where we bring in one of the train sounds we get and hold the sound as it builds to almost a crescendo, but before it really grows to the highest point that you would expect it to it cuts out and the track ends. By doing this the intention was that it catches the listener by surprise and leaves them sitting there in a feeling of unease and surprise at it ending at this point.



We already have to go and re-record some of our sounds as they didn't come out as clearly as we would have liked them to on the edit, and we could do with a few more sounds in general to bulk it out and fill it in a bit more, so it doesn't come across to sparse or too subtle to the point of boredom in the listener.






First Visit to Park Hill Flats


 For our next sound visit we went to Park Hill flats, a largely abandoned flat complex. The difference with this place is that it is much more open, and has a feeling of a grander scale to it. Since it is more open the sounds we recorded don't have the same eerie ambient feel to the ones done in the warehouse. This I think will help us if anything, as I think to get across a feeling of lacking sense of place some elements of the soundtrack will need to seem as if they lack a sense of place themselves. If there is sounds from two slightly different places then they wont quite fit perfectly consequently fulfilling the feeling we're trying to get across.

One of the interesting things about here is that its not completely secluded, it is well within the city and and a handful of people still live there, this made it interesting in the fact that it hasn't entirely lost its sense of place but it could be said it's in the process of it. Something even harder to try and represent through audio but interesting to think about nonetheless.

Again here we used a Zoom mic, and since we had already seen photos of the place we didn't think it would be necessary to bring a contact mic. In this location we focussed on a bit longer sounds as we planned, so we have sounds of branches being dragged across various surfaces and things like footsteps through long grass. We also left a lot of the sounds to resonate for longer and fade out, in the warehouse there was a lot more just throwing bricks at discarded objects there, but here we left the sounds for longer to see how they disappeared.

After visiting this place with the sounds we have accumulated over the two locations our idea has become quite solidified to being the idea of using locations that have gone through a loss of sense of place. I think the fact we're only going to be using sounds from the locations it adds a level of authenticity to the piece, and hopefully will help it feel more immersive in the long run.

First Sound Visit To Warehouse



 Here are some of the images from our first visit to the abandoned warehouse. The visit was very successful we cam out with a plethora of good sounds, since it is so open there is a very eerie feel to some of the recordings too, with slight echoes being picked up from any sense of movement. One thing we'll have to do on our next visit is take a contact mic, since there is a lot of areas that have large metal panels and furthermore there is plenty of different and strange surfaces around that could've created some really bizarre and obscure sounds.

However we just mainly used a Zoom recorder because that's what we were both most experienced with. It worked well for what we needed it for, we mainly took stereo recordings since we thought if we can integrate different things into different ears then ultimately it would make for a more immersive experience as you would feel like you are in one spot with things happening around you.

The location was perfect for the feeling we were trying to get across since just being in there it gave a great sense of unease and like this was not a place that had sense of reason to be there, due to it having been vandalised so much. As a result this will probably end up being a place to definitely consider shooting the visual part of the project as it almost epitomises the theme we're going with.

At our next location we need to get more long sounds, and long atmos tracks that will be able to run in the background of our piece so that there is always something going on in it. Here we got a lot of short sounds, such as bricks being thrown at things, cans being kicked, glass being thrown etc. But to make the track better I think we need more than what we just got here, for it to last three minutes well. Since the setting is so big we only had enough time to explore the main areas thoroughly but the sounds we got here I think get across the aura of the place well nonetheless.






Thursday, 21 November 2013

First Meeting Discussing Audio Project Ideas

These are my notes after our first meeting with Lee to discuss our audio only project. We clarified that our theme for the piece would be to try and get across the feeling of a 'lack of sense of place' which is quite a challenging concept to decide to get across purely through audio.

The initial ideas we came up with are to try and counter sounds against one another, for example establishing a few sounds from one location then pushing another sound in that makes no sense thus throwing the listener off balance at the random part that doesn't seem to have any sense of being there.

Another idea we discussed was the idea of community and the lack of belonging to a community, we could achieve this a very similar way to the first idea but counter two communities such as the cheers and roars of football supporters with the calmness and stillness of a church congregations, both strong communities, both with distinctive sounds and they both cross over with each other in quite a few ways.

The final idea we discussed was the plan to record sounds at buildings and locations that themselves had become derelict and abandoned, therefore losing their own sense of place and exploit the available sounds that we can find in those locations. The two locations we came up with that are abandoned are Park Hill flats that are largely abandoned and unused now and an abandoned warehouse near Tesco.

I think now the idea is clearly established we can experiment with these ideas to see which one comes across best when we make rough edits.