Category: Portfolio 24/ 25

Pro Tools is the software of choice in which I use to create my piece sound piece. I begin by opening a new session and splitting the session into several organised segments:

Below this I will all my ambient / background sounds. The top half of the section includes spots sounds which will include object within an environment often not seen on screen. Such as, birds, cars, dogs barking etc. These tracks will often be mono so they can be panned – unless I want the noise to take up the entire screen. The second half of the segment is built of ambience tracks. Mostly a more often these will be a series of stereo tracks layered up to create background layers. This Process will be repeated as a Ambience B and C section. When designing in a film session I will use a checkerboard approach – alternating between Ambience A, B and C sections for scenes. See below examples of Ambience B and C.

(|Whilst designing the soundscapes I only chose to use Ambience A sounds as this is not a scene divided project and instead just one continuous soundscape)

When designing the overall mix I will also include a foley section and dialogue section. Finally At the top of the session I will have my Video track, Guide track, Dialogue mix track, and Music track to work from.

In preparation for Where The Sea Doesn’t Follow’s research I created an inspiration list based on sound designers and film themes I wanted to follow. As well as this I asked the producer and crew what they thought was a good inspiration to also watch.

Conveniently both myself and the producer picked Aftersun (2022) as an accurate reference to watch and follow. The sound design is subtle but also stylistic and plays a powerful part in this coming-of-age movie. 

The producer also recommended A Bright Summer Day (1991) a Chinese romantic crime film. She gave me a list of things she liked sonically during this film which I hope to copy or use within my own work. In preparation for the final post-production sound project, I have recently watched both of these films. Hoping to gain as much inspiration and reference for my own up-and-coming work. 

I recently underwent a dialogue editing lesson with Samuel. Here I learnt the basic ins and outs of RX connect – a great plug-in for editing and cleaning dialogue. Dialogue editing is something rarely new to my skill set so this was extremely beneficial for the future overall post-production for Where The Sea Doesn’t Follow. 

Since my dialogue editing lesson I have continued the practice on RX connect to try and build up my confidence and skill set ready for the final mix in April. 

I hope to continue these lessons with Samuel in the new term to reach a level of good-quality dialogue editing skills. 

In preparation for the up-and-coming post-production for Where The Sea Doesn’t Follow I wanted to retrieve as many location field recordings as possible. Despite not yet being on set, I have undergone several meetings with the crew regarding the quality of recordings for dialogue. However, I felt my work quality could be enhanced if I went and received ambiences and Background recordings myself. 

With that in mind, I took myself to Cleethorpes – a northern seaside town. One of the main locations of the film is set in a seaside town. Cleethorpes mirrored this perfectly and became a good place to begin my recording. 

I took the 3:1 recording approach to ensure I had fully surrounded recordings. When mixing Where The Sea Doesn’t Follow I hope to mix this in 5:1 so it helped to have multidirectional recordings in advance. 

I felt that the recording day was really successful and will show great benefit for the future post-production sound on this project. I opened my eyes to location recording and it aided me towards a sonically accurate sound design. Upon reflection, I wish I had dented his for more of the locations within the film. Moving forward with this in mind I hope to try and find some more location recordings in order to reach that high-quality piece of work. 

The final lock for Where The Sea Doesn’t Follow will be sent over on the 28th of April. With this in mind moving forward to the upcoming deadline – I realised it wouldn’t be possible to complete sound for screen work. Upon reflection, I chose to create 4 different soundscapes based on the previous sound maps which I had created. 

The soundscapes will provide me and the film team with a sonic taster of the audio world which I am hoping to create when receiving the film. After speaking to Victoria the producer of the film (on whom the story is loosely based). We worked together to create a list of items, animals, and sonic objects that would typically be found within each environment. For example within the flat set in China, along with the Chinese street; Victoria provided me with detailed examples which would specifically be found in each zone. This enabled me to create a realistic plausible sonic world. 

I began with 4 specific soundscapes…

1.) English Seaside Town 

2.) Chinese Mountains 

3.) Grandma’s Flat – China

4.) Streets of China

All had their own unique sonic identity and this project allowed me to create a sonic picture ready for the final post-production in April. I found this task really helpful in regards to sound designing full stop and do believe I will carry this forward into future works.

When reflecting upon the sound pieces created I found that the overall content was a little busy and overcrowded sonically. When I receive the actual picture I think going forward I will strip back certain sound fx in the backgrounds and ambiences where necessary. I felt that during this task I had over-compensated for the fact the picture was not there and overcrowded my soundscapes with too many sounds. This can create confusion for the listener and take away fluidity from the piece. Each piece needs to be sonically clear where the location is set – especially due to the low budget of the film and having to shoot this in a false scenery.

The soundscape titled ‘English Seaside’ has many background spots sounds including arcade noises, children playing and traffic drone sounds. This detracts the emotional aspect and makes the soundscape seem chaotic and busy. As this will be a recurring motif to represent home and safety I feel that within the end film I will strip this back to be more insulate with a better emotional impact.

As further research for my project proposal B I decided to continue my exploration of infrasounds ultrasounds and sonic noise that was beyond human hearing. When recording with the geophones I found it fascinating that this noise and vibration is constantly surrounding us but is not registered. Pauline Olivero’s thoughts on deep listening furthered my infatuation.

Deep Listening is an evolving practice that comes from my experience as a composer, performer, improviser and audience member. My music training was generally centred on techniques for how to perform and appreciate music of the past. This type of education is generally true for most music students. Encouragement for composing or improvising and appreciation for new music was almost nonexistent in my earliest musical training. Most students do not realize that they have the creative potential to make their music as well as learn to perform traditional music.

Her observations around deeper listening alongside the combination of infrasound inspired me to go visit an anechoic chamber. I wanted to exercise my deeper listening skills to their max by placing myself in a place with no obvious or immediate sonic influence. John Cage famously stated that he heard a noise and put this down to his blood flow whilst visiting an anechoic chamber. 

It was after I got to Boston that I went into the anechoic chamber at Harvard University. Anybody who knows me knows this story. I am constantly telling it. Anyway, in that silent room, I heard two sounds, one high and one low. Afterwards, I asked the engineer in charge why, if the room was so silent, I had heard two sounds. He said, ‘Describe them’. I did. He said, ‘The high one was your nervous system in operation. The low one was your blood in circulation.

In retaliation to this, I entered the chamber with this in mind – despite not hearing my blood stream I did personally hear a humming vibration sound. This intrigued me as to whether this was a sonic hallucination or vibration that would not usually be noticed during daily routine. I walked away from this experience inspired to explore this with my geophonic microphone at lead – trying to discover new vibrations and noise that are not usually heard. 

Upon reflection, I feel that my knowledge hindered my overall experience within the chamber. Despite finding the experience thrilling I believe I went in with pre-conceptions and damaged my initial thoughts and feelings. I hope to one day re-visit the chamber and go in again with a clearer blank mindset.

After being moved creatively by Ruth Sullivan’s ability to perform live foley I wanted to explore this as my third project proposal. 

My idea stems from overall live performance and the juxtaposition between post-production work. I hope to take a pre-recorded piece of work and perform live sound design on top. I believe that the contrast between static pre-recorded work and live sonic sound would create a perfect blend for an alternative live piece of art.

Post covid – 19 live performance and theatrical work took a huge hit in regards to viewers and sale prices. Alongside the rise of streaming sites and a cost of living crisis, this became the perfect combination to discourage people from previewing live performances. I hope that my piece of work will express the dissolution of boundaries between television work and live performance and take away the audience’s choice to flip between domesticated pre-made work to live performance.

Watching and listening to live performances enhances the audience’s appreciation for the work itself whilst boosting the sonic reaction to what is heard in contrast to the way audiences hear when watching something on screen. Within film and television work the sound is often the less appreciated medium as picture takes priority in how we perceive a story. When performed live with a pre-recorded film the priority is switched and sonic noise is the first concern to the viewer.

I hope to explore this as a project and set up a proposal to create live sound work for an audience to view alongside a pre-recorded film.  

TIMELINE

Week 1: Scout foley artists / workshops

Week 2: Attend foley  workshops

Week 3: Attend foley  workshops

Week 4: Learn how to edit foley and the limits and potentials it holds

Week 5: Find the film or a piece of screen work for the performance

Week 6: Spot the film – where foley is needed and where it isn’t

Week 7: From the spotting session – transfer this into your own type of musical score which I can follow when performing the foley live

Week 8: Explore different methods of sonic sound and instruments to use during the performance

Week 9: Explore different methods of sonic sound and instruments to use during the performance

Week 10: From my exploration narrow down and chose a shortlist of objects / instruments to use for the final project 

Week 11: Rehearsal

Week 12: Rehearsal

Week 13: Rehearsal 

Week 14: Sort out technical set up for the live performance and make a draft plan of what sound kit I will need 

Week 15: Rehearsal 

Week 16: Sound rehearsal with microphones and speakers 

Week 17: Record a sound rehearsal of my performance and make a critical judgement / plan 

Week 18: Rehearsal making improvements based on critical judgment / plan 

Week 19: Sort out transport fro the exhibition / performance and make sure all admin is correct

Week 20: Hand out invites and advertise my performance 

Week 21: Rehearsals within the gallery space 

Week 22: Rehearsals within the gallery space

Week 23: Transport and set up all kit and microphones ready fro [performance 

Week 24: Recorded sound rehearsal within the space 

Week 25: Reflect upon recorded sound rehearsal and make improvements ready fro performance 

Week 26: Performance 

After experimenting with geo recordings and taking much inspiration from Ghost In The Loop – I decided to base my alternative project around the realms of nature and geo-recorded sound.

I was inspired by the idea of creating art that could not necessarily be heard by ear but could by geophonic recordings. Infrasounds and Ultrasounds have always intrigued me and their effects affect the human body. Famous Cases such as ‘Havana Syndrome’ showed physically damaging health effects from infrasound and vibrations. Something so invisible creates such a powerful effect.

After using the geophone to record a multitude of objects and sounds I decided to take this further and attach this to instrumental objects. I began with a guitar and then moved on to a cello. String instruments proved to be the best choice as their sonic variation and vibration were different to more transient instruments such as a drum. After recording these instruments by attaching the geophone to the inside of the cello and guitar, I decided to take the sounds away and explore their potential.

When editing the sounds I created a small drafted compositional piece of sound art. These recordings captured the string family unlike other recordings and created a serious moodiness to the overall aesthetic. I was extremely happy with how this turned out and chose to use this as my catalyst for my alternative project – Project B. 

Looking forward:

Once the recordings are edited and mixed I hope to play this through various hidden speakers placed inside a variety of instruments placed around the gallery.  My piece is inspired by Ghost In The Loop but stimulated by the predictability of the music scene today. Despite genres growing wider and wider I believe that audiences have preconceptions about guitars, pianos, drums etc and refuse to look beyond what the instruments can achieve. Bound by centuries of classical Western music lore, I hope this piece of work breaks down the infrastructure of instrumental art and pens an audience’s ear towards hearing instruments in different ways. Each instrument will play its own geophonic recording – showing dissimilarity and tonal diversity. Showing the beauty of unnoticed musical undertones – often missed when listening to everyday music. 

TIMELINE

Week 1: Begin experimenting with geophonic microphone 

Week 2:  Begin experimenting with geophonic microphone

Week 3:  Begin experimenting with geophonic microphone outside using different elements such as earth water.

Week 4: Find a collective range of objects which create good geophonic sounds 

Week 5: Reflect this experimenting and practice onto instruments 

Week 6: Narrow down the instruments that have the bets potential sound for the up and coming installation 

Week 7: Record the instruments with geophonic microphones – experiment with different techniques 

Week 8: Record the instruments with geophonic microphones – experiment with different techniques

Week 9: Record the instruments with geophonic microphones – experiment with different techniques

Week 10: Begin editing and composing the recordings into a compositional piece that can be played at the installation 

Week 11: Begin editing and composing the recordings into a compositional piece that can be played at the installation

Week 12: Begin editing and composing the recordings into a compositional piece that can be played at the installation

Week 13: Begin editing and composing the recordings into a compositional piece that can be played at the installation

Week 14: Sort out technical set up by making a draft plan of what sound kit/ instruments I will need 

Week 15: Sort out technical set up by making a draft plan of what sound kit/ instruments I will need

Week 16: Begin building the instruments / instalments for where the speakers will fit for the installation 

Week 17: Begin building the instruments / instalments for where the speakers will fit for the installation

Week 18: Begin building the instruments / instalments for where the speakers will fit for the installation

Week 19: Begin building the instruments / instalments for where the speakers will fit for the installation

Week 20: Hand out invites and advertise my performance 

Week 21: Begin transporting and building this within the gallery space

Week 22: Begin transporting and building this within the gallery space

Week 23: Rehearsal within gallery space 

Week 24: Recorded sound rehearsal within the space 

Week 25: Reflect upon recorded sound rehearsal and make improvements ready for the installation / gallery showing 

Week 26: Gallery showing

This week I was able to attend a screening and Q+A for Netflix’s new documentary Strike: an Uncivil War. Once again this felt a great bit of further research regarding my work towards realism within storytelling.

I had never attended a talk regarding documentary work before and found it fascinating to understand and learn about the creative process. Much ADR work was used for this which was interesting to me and inspired me for my future projects. The combination of archival recordings and sound design created a perfect blend for an emotive story. It gave the miners a justified piece of art that truly reflected their suffering and pain.

In retaliation to their talks about the use of ADR, I decided to take myself further into this field and was able to sit in some ADR sessions with Sound Disposition for an up-and-coming A24 film. This was a unique set of circumstances as unlike other ADR sessions the actress needed live lines being fed into her headphones to create a realistic phone call. Unfortunately, I was burdened with the role of feeding live recordings and it proved extremely stressful! Nevertheless, this taught me the artistry behind live recording in post-production and it’s incredible benefits it can have upon the later result.

I furthered my research into ADR to explore its benefits and negatives by watching films by Christopher Nolan who famously does not like using ADR for his work. Despite the beauty and epic effect his films have upon his viewers, I realised when watching his latest film Oppenheimer that many lines were being missed and lost in translation. Despite the picture and score doing the heavy lifting in the storytelling, I found that the lack of clarity from the script and lines enhanced my understanding of the plot and created small glimpses of confusion throughout. 

Upon contemplation regarding the Q+A for Strike alongside my experience doing live ADR – realised that its benefits exceed the negatives. When done correctly the artistry is not taken away and it places the viewer into the film deeper than without it. I hope to use them when creating the final mix for Where The Sea Does Not Follow – giving a clear overall result whilst ensuring the aesthetics of the sonic storytelling is kept throughout. 

Ruth Sullivan’s recent foley lecture furthered my inspiration post Karolina’s foley workshop. Both individual artists hold their own in the industry of foley for film however it was Ruth’s live foley work which had intrigued me greatly.

Her work in theatre using live foley broke down beams and barriers between post-production sound and live performance. Unlike other artistry within the post-production world – foley is the closest medium to live performance. Ruth’s ability to further this into performance work truly stimulated me with the thought of live sound work. John Cage famously stated:

Composing’s one thing, performing’s another, listening’s a third. What can they have to do with one another?”

He discusses the notion of performance in itself and its power to override composition. To perform is to create and it should be respected as a piece of art separately from what is being performed. Although noise music and performance art have taken the reins within the sound arts world using foley within performance breaks down the idea that it is even foley at all and instead creates this magical piece of sonic performance art. When watching Foley on screen it is urged that this should not be noticed at all – instead compliment the picture so subtly that it seems natural and real. When using live foley performance for the stage – this creates a juxtaposing effect and instead enhances your sonic ear towards the foley itself. One notices the sound at a higher rate than one would if this was performed for the screen. Her live Foley influences an appreciation to the audience for what it adds to the storytelling and visual performance – not to mention the sheer skill and practice this must take. 

I was motivated by this and chose to explore the idea of performing other post-production mediums live. I felt that creating live scoring or sound design synth work could make a beautiful piece of artistry that could enhance a sonic reaction. 

As a result of this, I want to explore this further as my Alternative Project – Project C and search into the realms of live sound design paired with a pre-recorded piece of screen work. 

Further Inspiration: