We presented both ideas for Esther but gladly, our more complex interesting one was approved. She liked the idea because it was more complex, however she added that we may want to use a time scale, such as the course of day. We did think about this, however the film isn't really following time, both myself and Sophie have discussed it, and hopefully focusing on the narrative instead of passing time maybe strong enough.
We are happy with this and rearing to go!
:D
Tuesday, 29 November 2011
Tuesday, 22 November 2011
Monday, 21 November 2011
S.O.S: Sheffield Sirens (Script)
Here is the script draft from our 2nd Idea: Sheffield Sirens :)
Sheffield Sirens: Script (Draft)
SIRENS…
It’s 3:30am, and that’s the 4th Ambulance siren to wake me up tonight. It happens every night – siren here, siren there. It’s far too annoying.
Sheffield is always loud. No matter what the time, you’ll find somewhere full of life. Whether it be in the day, when everyone is shopping in town….
[Pause]
Or at night, when all the students come out to play and sleep in the road. I can’t say anything; I’ve been one of them.
[Pause]
Even though I’m a student, it’s still sometimes nice to get away to a quiet place, where you can just rest, listen to nature, just be with yourself.
[Fades to Silence]
[Sirens fade in]
Ah, the famous Sheffield Sirens again, early morning again, lack of sleep… AGAIN! I really wonder what accidents occur at this time…
[Silence?]
[Background Noise – Friends asking you to come out]
Go out to a nightclub? Should I? Hah, maybe this time the sirens won’t even wake me!
[Club Ambience]
My friends and I went to our favorite club; it’s been ages since we’ve done this. I miss just being with him, but hell, clubs are busy, you bump into so many people, and sometimes you get the wrong person.
[Background noise – club/guy shouting angrily at you for bumping into him]
I was having a nice night with my friends and didn’t want any trouble, so we ignored the guy and walked away – which only made him madder. He grabbed his drink, walked towards me and…
[Music Stops]
[Bottle Smashes]
[Silence]
[Sirens]
Now I know what accidents occur at this time. This time the sirens are my fault. I’m the one waking you, annoying you whilst you try to sleep.
[Sirens fade out]
S.O.S: Project Idea Two
Idea Two: Sheffield Sirens
I thought about this idea when I was woken in the night by ambulance sirens going off outside my window. It got me thinking about how loud sheffield can be, and sometimes how annoying that can be, especially in the morning - therefore I wanted to try interpret this into the idea of showing the space that is Sheffield whilst presenting a story of a student.
The story starts with a loud siren passing, and dialogue explains that the sirens keep me awake and are annoyingly loud and how this reflects on Sheffield as a whole. We use city ambience, (with traffic, conversations etc.) of busy streets in town and busy nightlife in clubs to show that Sheffield is always loud, night or day. Even though i'm a student, it's sometimes nice to get away to a quiet place, which allows us to change the tempo to a quieter area - the winter gardens, which is more calm and tranquil - which slowly fades to silence.
The sirens start again - it never ends. My friends ask them to come on a night out (background noise of conversations, people saying 'come out tonight, please?', and basically, I'm a student - of course I'm going to give in and go out.
So we're at the loud club, partying with friends having a good time. I accidentally bump into a man dancing, who gets aggressive about the situation (angry shouting in the background/overlapping the club ambience). We don't want any trouble, so we ignore him and try to get away. Apparently this was the wrong move and just makes the guy angrier and without warning, I get a bottle smashed on my head. (ambience stops, and the glass shattering is the only short).
Sirens fade in - aren't they annoying. This time it's my fault, i'm the one waking you up, annoying you when you're trying to sleep.
S.O.S: Project Idea One
Idea One: Morning Routine
At first we decided that if we created a film inside somewhere, that we had access to both internal and external sound effects for our piece, as we could use a window to hear traffic, people walking past and weather...
So our first idea was to use this project to present the journey of a morning routine in a flat. A woman who works from home is woken by her alarm and starts her morning routine before she sits down with her files and starts work.
It's a simple and easy idea but allows us to use a range of sounds which we have easy access to - all facilities are available all the time, so we wouldn't have problems capturing the sound. We had access to so many sounds that we would be able to create a 3-minute piece with ease, which means that we can use a lot of our time working on editing it to make it perfect.
S.O.S: William Thompson IV's War
Piece: William Thompson IV's War
By: Alan Hall
Year: 2006
Length: 27 Mins 34 Secs
The first thing you notice about this piece is the piano. It appears out of place of the story - it's unsettling, and low - there's no piano themes in Iraq. A bomb effect is played throughout the piece - it represents an explosion, which links with the dialogue straight away and sets the scene of the piece, you know it's going to be about war. This bomb effect is repeated throughout, to remind you - and also make it realistic, as bombs never stop going off when you're at war - I assume.
You also hear background noise from the radio, which once again makes it realistic - as it's how units tended to communicate at this time in the war.
One piece i like from this is when the dialogue says that you're 'free to listen', and the background is completely silent. It has a big effect, because it makes the audience relax and feel more involved in the piece, without taking it too far. The silence under the dialogue shows how important the script is - it needs to be clear for the audience to understand the piece.
The more of this you watch, you notice that the piece is about both THE war and HIS personal war, as you hear street sounds, birds, cars etc. - Which would not be heard in the war zone.
Overall, the sounds and the dialogue are both presented clearly, which means many soundscape tracks must have been used and edited with great detail & you are constantly reminded of the space he is talking about - by the repetition of the 'bomb' sounds.
S.O.S: The Sound Of Sport
Piece: The Sound Of Sport
By: Dennis Baxter
As soon as the piece starts, you can tell that the sound artist has used many soundscapes over the dialogue (main). The piece uses a range of sound from sport events whilst Dennis Baxter explains how to capture sound of sport in such a way that is so effective today.
You hear a lot of ambience, in a crowd at a range of sport stadiums, as well as commentary for example in the Olympics. The piece uses ESPN rips of commentary when Dennis talks about ESPN - the dialogue and sounds blend to allow the video to flow - as well as give the audience a sense of space - you know exactly what he's talking about straight away. However, it is clear to see that the dialogue is the main focus of the piece, as it is always louder, and always clear - sometimes there's even silence under the voiceover.
The music (country) is soft and calming and automatically creates a character in the audience's mind - you can hear where he comes from, and the image comes to mind - and is helped further with his accent.
It's clear to see that sport has been his passion, and the video has a nice turn in the idea of him talking about his life and how he came to be the successful sound artist he is today.
I love this piece. The juxtaposed sound and dialogue works very well together to create a space in my mind - I feel like I can picture exactly what he's talking about. It's a very powerful piece with good conventions used.
S.O.S: Tunnel Vision
Piece: Tunnel Vision
By: Pejk Malinovski
Year: 2001
Length: 5 Minutes
When we watched this film in class, it was so strange and different to the others. It seemed to be about different men talking about girls and sex on a tube journey. Saying how many they slept with, or how many they loved. The tube is referred to as the 'Tunnel'.
You know the space of the sound when you hear train/tube sounds, such as when the tube screeches to a halt at the end.
Most of all I found this really funny. I like the accents added to the personality and creates a character in the audience's mind - also throughout you hear mistakes, coughs, 'urms' - which are usually cut out of films - however it works well in this because it shows the embarrassment the man is feeling about what he is talking about - makes the character more realistic and allows the audience to familiarise themselves much easier.
Background sound is mainly a beat rather than tube ambience. Which suggests it's quiet maybe, but also that they are underground.
I liked this piece mainly because it was funny. The story distracted me from the sounds, however the sounds juxtaposed with the story to make it whole - and therefore allows the audience to understand.
Friday, 18 November 2011
S.O.S: Jarman's Garden
Piece: Jarman's Garden
By: Sherre Delys
Year: 2000
Length: 14 Mins 49 Secs
Sherre Delys' aim for this project was to show her journey of Derek Jarman's garden (a filmmaker who loved and laboured to create a unique garden of his own).
In this piece, there appears to many more layers than in Beirne's work. So much is going on at once that there must be around 7 soundscapes flowing through the piece. The dialogue and sound effects are once again juxtaposed - by having high pitched beeps and a deep bass at the same time. You can hear feet walking through gravel throughout as the dialogue plays, which suggests that the piece contains movement. One downside I think to the idea of so many soundscapes is that sometimes there is too much, so it's distracting from what the dialogue is presenting to the audience - is it meant to appear in a way disorientated? Maybe Sherre Delys aim was to present the place's rugged and uniqueness compared to normal beautiful green gardens.
The idea of wind is presented through a variety of sound effects: the wind blowing itself and the wind chimes chiming. The wind fades out and the audience is presented with silence, which appears to be the method that Sherre has chosen to change the scene in piece, as afterwards the dialogue begins again or completely different sounds occur. This is clever because it allows the piece to flow as a journey, instead of quick cuts to different parts of the garden.
Sometimes the dialogue presented isn't clear, at first I thought this was a fault in the piece, however after listening over, you can tell that the dialogue wasn't the aim, the aim was the place itself, rather than him describing it - the place overpowers him and his words wash away with the water.
The piece sets it's scenes very well. For example, when the dialogue talks about fishing, a sound file of the sea waves crashing against the shore is used - makes the audience feel like they're there in the moment, allowing them to listen and paint this space as their own.
At the beginning of the piece, the sounds collide to create a calming and relaxing effect on the audience, the majority of sounds makes an impression, the variety of noises identifies it's uniqueness to any other garden. Towards the end, the sounds get louder, closer to the audience. The sound of the waves becomes more aggressive, and the deep bass slowly starts to overpower it - until the sound quietens to silence all together. It creates tension and excitement, which isn't usually something I feel from a garden!
I feel that the end kind of drifted a little. Maybe the aim was to present a calming, or the drifting of words - showing they mean nothing in the piece, however the beginning had dialogue and a range of tempos, the end had one deep tempo it followed for over 3 minutes...
I liked this piece, but some of it was hard to understand. For example the amount of soundscapes at the beginning was sometimes too distracting from what the piece was supposed to be saying, almost like too much was going on at once, however it calms at the end, allowing the audience to relax and portray the calm side of the garden space in their minds.
Sense Of Space: Richie Beirne's 'Meat Factory Earworms'
Piece: Meat Factory Earworms (The Curious Ear)
By: Richie Beirne
Year: 2008
Length: 13 Mins 47 Secs
This sound project by Richie Beirne follows a young man who feels trapped in his job at a meat factory in Ireland. He works on the slaughter process and has trouble coping with it. The piece shows how music keeps him going, as throughout he explains that he has songs that are stuck in his head, which he calls the 'ear worms' - because you can't get it out.
There appears to be several layers of soundscape used - one for the dialogue, knives sharpening, machinery as well as background noise and voices in the factory. Not forgetting the music layer.
Throughout the piece, you hear the machinery working and revving up, ambience of other people working to make the piece feel like you are there listening to him - almost like he's the voice in your head, juxtaposing the idea of him having music 'earworms' in his head.
The music is used throughout his story and silenced at others. The songs are cheery, almost dream like, suggesting that the songs allow him to switch off from the dead end job he can't escape. The songs tend to be about love or dreams, which create an empathy affect on the audience. The music seems to be soft and calming, but also uses quite horrific lyrics to help link it back to the story of the piece.
The sound effects are carefully juxtaposed with the dialogue of the piece. For example when he talks about someone 'giving a lift', you hear a car pull up and screech to a halt. It creates an image in the audience's mind - making it more realistic in the audience's mind - they create the image - the space themselves. Also, when he explains when he stabbed himself in the knee by accident, you hear a squeal coming from the machinery, which sounds similar to a man's scream of pain, making it slightly scary to it's audience - more tense than empathy.
The piece also likes to create tension, to show his hatred and anger for this job, for example, when he talks about the factory being a 'blood bath', the knives are sharpening louder, there is a high-pitched saw in the background and the machinery is slightly louder. Makes it feel closer to you, makes you unsettled in the situation.
The use of accent gives the person character straight away. You know where he's from, most likely a working guy, who lives a regular life, who has a job he doesn't enjoy. If he did enjoy it, you would hear the enthusiasm in his voice at the beginning of the piece.
The dialogue and the music are juxtaposed, the music is sweet and calming, whereas the dialogue is sour and almost disturbing - it makes the story itself more shocking and allows the audience to portray the place.
Also, the editing is quite jagged. It gives the piece an unsettling and uncomfortable feel to it. However it is clever as it reacts to the way our human minds work - we don't think linear thoughts, our minds flit between various things - therefore the piece gives the audience a more realistic experience.
I enjoy the piece, it's clever and works well to create the unease in it's audience. The layers work well together and the way it is edited is realistic to us - it's less predictable too, which makes it much more interesting. We expect it to flow - but the jaggedness is intriguing as well as unsettling.
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