soundart

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:

As a continuation of my sound design research, I was fortunate to attend a talk with sound designers Paul Davis and Joel Beal at BAFTA (British Academy of Film and Television).

This was my first time attending the BAFTA building and I was blown away by their facilities It provided me with a great substructure to begin my networking journey – crucial for furthering sound design research and practice.

The talk began by showing pieces of work from both sound designers. Both are very different pieces of work; Beal presented his work for Chernobyl the HBO series whilst Davis resented some work from the Harrow Film Saint Maude. Despite both showing juxtaposing pieces of work they both focussed on the sound design rather than sound fx. 

They talked about their sonic relationship with the score and music when designing – something I found intriguing. Both proclaimed that although both the music and sound design are different opponents of sonic storytelling they can weave and work together beautifully. Both took the approach to blend and dissolve the sonic barriers between music and sound design – to which the audience or listener can not tell the difference. This is my personal favourite approach when it comes to listening to sound design and their technique and skill set explained to achieve this were found to be extremely beneficial. 

Despite the director Victoria for my up-and-coming project Where The Sea Does Not Follow still being unsure of whether or not she wanted her piece scored – I still took both Davis and Beal’s advice on board for my own personal approach to the film. If she does decide to have a score then I know I will work alongside this by pitching my design to the music and keeping an aesthetic sonic house style to the piece. On the other hand, if she does not use score I shall create more compositional design work that can carry the job of both score and sound design together. The talk at BAFTA helped me consolidate my thoughts behind the relationships between sound design and score – paving me advantageous for my future and projects ahead. 

Upon reflection of my focus to create a plausible sonic story. I took myself on a foley workshop with foley artist Karolina Jedrzejczyk. Karo has worked on an extensive amount of projects ranging from feature films and TV series to artistic exhibitions. I joined Karo and her recorder Veronica in a week of foley-making on a new series of Disney Plus based on the 20th anniversary of the 7/7 bombings in 2005. This project felt perfect relating to my newfound approach to designing for Where The Sea Does not Follow and the investigation I followed regarding the post-production for Society of Snow.

Similar to Oriol Tarragó’s artistic attitude Karo chose to go down the realism approach towards her foley work. When recording feet on the tube scenes she had contacted TFL to use their carriages – guaranteeing sonic credibility.

Alongside watching their recording process I was able to help edit their foley for this series which taught me the techniques for post-production work – ready for when I eventually create sound design for Where The Sea Does Not Follow. I felt this workshop really opened my eyes to different ways of ensuring sonic truth. Whereas before I had relied on sound design and sound FX – here I was taught the importance of foley and its ample effect upon the end mix. I gained experience within the industry and solidified skills later to be used within my up-and-coming project.

Upon deciding that I wanted to create a piece of sound design for my final project – I chose to dedicate myself to this and research further into new films and their process within filmmaking. I was lucky to attend a screening and Q+A with the cast, director, and post-production crew of Netflix’s latest film ‘Society of Snow’. 

As a fan of the director J. A. Bayona’s previous work, I was intrigued to hear how recreated a portrayal of a real-life disaster. I realise creating a biopic based on such harrowing events means it is important to justify your creative decisions making them as credible as possible.

From a sound designer’s perspective, I found it fascinating hearing the parallels between creating something sonically beautiful but also keeping this plausible and true to it’s self. A paper by the Language and Communication Centre at the Nanyang Technological University talks about redefining art and the controversy of the photographer Steve McCurry.

However, is the onus of immorality really on the artwork itself? It seems somewhat unfair to put down the entirety of an aesthetically well-executed artwork just because of the message it is conveying to the viewer, whether intended or not.

I find the controversy that loiters around Steve McCurry’s name interesting and relate it strongly to the Q+A with Society Of Snow. Mccurry famously shot a picture of an Afghanistan girl which was later sold to National Geographic – making him enormous profit and glamorising the injustice and poverty the girl faced. Alongside this, the child received no benefits herself as the world made money from her face. Some say McCurry profited from someone else’s tragedy and pain – creating an aesthetic out of the truth.

When hearing how Oriol Tarragó (the sound designer) approached this film I saw a similarity behind the probability of creating art based on tragedy. Their approach was interesting and they proclaimed how when it came to big scenes such as “avalanches” it was more important to fill the space rather than creating something that is not true. They expressed the importance of foley within this film – bringing an enormous sense of realism instead of replacing this with more designed fx and sound design. Finally, they explained how when shooting in the Apalade mountains they took as many soundscape recordings as possible to capture the true sonic ambience rather than falsely recreating this later on in post-production.

I found their approach inspiring and it made me reflect upon my approach to sound designing for ‘Where the sea does not follow’. Although this is not nearly a biopic the film itself is based around Victoria’s real-life events. Inspired by her childhood trauma – I understood the importance of following the same approach the sound designer from ‘Society of Snow’ used. Although I can not state I will be working under the same budget as the Netflix feature film – their sense of truth and veracity in their artistry I knew I could copy. I hope to recreate Victoria’s world on screen as sonically accurately as possible. I intend to work alongside her when creating ambiences and fx to ensure these sound as factual as possible.

Using this map I could measure the level of influence from each area in which I wanted to include with the ambiences and soundscapes. 

The Seaside represents her old home – whereas the China soundscape represents her new home. Although primarily the film is set in China, I chose to include the wave sounds as a recurring motif – in order to create displaced unsettlement towards the piece.

A lot of the flat is set within China – but within the confinements of her grandma’s flat. With a lack of budget, the film could not be filmed in China – instead, they had to make this as convincing as possible. This is where my sound design and ambience will play a powerful role within the piece. Creating a realistic soundscape true to Chinese culture was one of the key ingredients to making this plausible. Working alongside Victoria she helped me build a typical daily soundscape set in a town similar to the film, by providing me with items, people, jobs, vehicles, nature or music you may hear. Even during scenes within the flat, I chose to feed some sounds of the outside world of China into the home. It felt to me very important to make its presence constant throughout. To gage trapping, inescapable feeling. However during quieter scenes at night I chose to reduce this for stylistic reasons.

Nighttime is a big part of my influence on my ambience. We all know how loud our thoughts become at night time, and I felt that it was important to play on this. Due to the themes of self-longing and isolation, I felt it necessary to use the night as a means to play on this. As you can see from the graph – scenes set during the night like the seaside – have a recurring motif throughout. A subtle reminder of her old home. Bringing us a sense of longing and displacement in comparison to the location we see on screen. Hopefully, this will also create a dreamlike atmosphere to mirror her thoughts and feelings during the scenes – as well as a sense of fatigue and tiredness mentally as well as physically. Finally, wave sounds can be meditative – this will completely juxtapose the chaos heard when walking through the markets – bringing us a shift in mood and thought.

In response to my previous blog – talking about Ghost In The Loop’s work with hydrophobic recordings I chose to get experimental with my recordings.

I first began by recording underwater noise. This was only used within a small realm of a plastic box – however, I felt it was necessary to begin my work by understanding the movement and fluidity behind recording water sounds; I hope to hopefully expand this into the natural world soon.

After this, I began exploring the surrounding areas of my office – finding materials and objects which would usually give no sound. Some would say I was hunting noise. GILT’s work inspired me to go beyond and look deeper for sound, finding recordings in the lesser obvious spaces. 

Finally, I chose to use objects which I knew would have a great potential for physical reverberation such as the slinky. This provided me with some really interesting and unique sounds that I could carry with me in my library through my later practice.

It was refreshing using the hydrophobic microphone and really forced me to look beyond what is sonically obvious in our daily lives. We are surrounded by noise constantly but sometimes going beyond what we can hear – searching deeper for recordings can result in something quite inspiring and diverse. I stepped out of my comfort zone and honed in on natural sounds that were there but could not be heard. 

Listening to our earth. Within recent weeks Ghost In The Loop (GITL) released a new album named Le Chant De La Glace. This multi-instrumentalist blends his musicality with high-quality recordings from nature. His album Le Chant De La Glace was recorded in the heart of the Final Glacier in Switzerland. His hydrophonic recordings represent movement and destruction taking place within the glaciers. A beautiful trajectory to his sound art. 

Not only does his work represent the bigger picture behind global warming and the destruction of planet Earth – its creates intricate and beautiful sonic soundscapes.

I find the contrast of narrative and sound such an inspiring pair. His contextual message behind the piece provides us with first-hand sonic evidence of our planet melting and dying – yet the synthesised sounds and overall music are so meditative and calming. This prayerful-like sound completely juxtaposes the premise of the piece – however, its sonic structure leaves you space to reflect and enhances you to ponder on the idea of where this piece came from. Its meditative influence helps a listener contemplate upon the issues in their own way.

Overall I believe his work is a thing of beauty – not only has it inspired me to go and use hydrophobic recordings, it has encouraged me to listen more to our Earth. Since moving to London from the countryside, I have noticed that my being of art has solely focussed on Politics and Society. One could argue that this is a natural transition due to the lack of nature we have surrounding us in the city. However, this piece has moved me to look beyond this and back into the realm of nature and our Planet. I hope to listen more to nature and it’s natural vibrations and movement. Something that may not necessarily be heard in daily life but can be when you explore deeper. 

Finally, GILT’s work has helped me recognise that the end result does not always have to directly mirror the message or feeling behind the piece. His angelic musicality contrastingly merged with a darker message and recordings left space for reflection. Showing the beauty of nature whilst also giving you space to think about the effects and causes of global warming. I hope to mirror this juxtaposing style within my own work.

François Matarasso (2019) writes that “art creates change, but it should be in the hands of the person who experiences it, not at the command of another, whether artist or funder.”

Matarasso’s quote sparks a series of internal challenges for me when creating my piece of work. Although every artist hopes to ignite some “change” with their art, the lines in which this can happen can quickly become blurred.

First of all, as Matarasso states change should always be in the hands of the person experiencing the work. This is a strong statement which bypasses the idea that change might not happen for everyone. This comment takes away individuality. However, you may make your piece based on a certain target audience. This does not mean those people you have not targeted will not come and experience your work. Due to this, I believe that sparking change for the viewer can not be as certain as Matarasso hints. If you have not targeted or thought about that specific type of person when creating your work, it could potentially mean that the effect and results of your work may not reach the individual.

Moving on I believe that we can delve into the word change a little more deeply… What kind of change do we as artists hope to bring? Physical or mental? This can be confusing when creating work for a targeted audience. People experience art in various ways and not everyone will experience it the same. Some may retrieve your work in a more emotive response whereas others might feel more physically affected. This blurry the lines of what change you want to create. 

Moreover, who are we creating change for? However, it should be the viewer who makes the change. As an artist, you are responsible for who the change is for. Do you want to reach a certain group or minority of people or could the change be more personal to you and how you are perceived as an artist? Could it be the weather? Nature? Or even the government? This detracts the agency away from the art. The artist should not be dictated the idea for change – instead, change should happen from within; a more individual process. 

Finally, despite the conflicts this quote faces when talking about change, I do believe that it highlights that art is a collaborative experience. It empowers the audience, where typically, the artist is the only one applauded. An artist can create, but without an audience, it would not be art. Working collectively can create more meaningful work with a better response from yourself as an artist as well as the viewer.