SOUND FOR THE MOVING IMAGE - JOURNAL

WEEK 1

(beginning 16/09/19)

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Upon starting the Bdes Sound for the Moving Image course I felt excited, but I also felt incredibly nervous and worried given the five-year gap I have had from higher education. In the first week of the course I felt that the staff and lecturers have been very welcoming, informative and professional which has made me feel much better instantly. The critical studies class, taken by Jessica feels like it might be quite difficult for me because I have not deeply analysed a piece of reading for quite some time. However, the Audio-Visual class taken by Ronan felt like a natural progression for me, giving me a refresher of what I had learnt in a similar class at Forth Valley College in 2013. On the Friday we embarked on a field recording trip around various locations in Glasgow like Kelvingrove Park and Glasgow University. This was a great chance to bond with other students and I really enjoyed the practical element of this class. I didn’t have my own field recorder in advance of this trip, but upon returning home from the class I went online and purchased a Zoom H2n handy recorder. 

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The interior of Glasgow University, the last stop on our visit. 

 

WEEK 2 

(beginning 23/09/19)

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In the second week of the course I already felt better and more confident than I had done going into the start of the course. We had to read an excerpt from ‘Society of the Spectacle’ for Jessica’s Critical Studies class which I found challenging. I did a bit more research online to give me more context about the piece. Discussing everyone’s interpretation of the text in a seminar made everything much clearer for me. Ronan’s Audio-Visual class again, felt like a natural progression for me. A lot of what we learnt from his lecture slides about sample rates, bit depths and electronics were just topping up what I already knew from my time at college. I was on holiday on the Thursday-Sunday meaning that I missed Paul’s classes introducing everyone to Pro Tools. This was very unfortunate for me as I felt that I could really do with a refresher on how to use Pro Tools, as it has been a number of years since I have last used the software. Whilst on holiday, I visited the museum of modern art in Madrid which made me think more about the different movements I had been learning about in Critical Studies such as Expressionism and Surrealism. I also attended the Atletico Madrid v Real Madrid local derby football game which was a real bucket list thing for me. Unfortunately, I was still waiting on my Zoom recorder to arrive in the post, but I would have loved to record the atmosphere of the crowd in the 67,000 capacity stadium. 

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A view from my seat at Wanda Metropolitano Stadium, Madrid.

 

 

WEEK 3 

(beginning 30/09/19)

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As I was on holiday at the end of week 2, I was unable to look at the required reading for Critical Studies. I was a bit worried about attending the class and being asked for my opinion on the piece during the seminar. Thankfully, the slides from this class gave me a good base knowledge of the Dada and Futurist movements, and other students input on the key reading helped me understand the jist of the excerpt. We were also given the brief for the first Critical Studies assignment of the course, which although I find a little daunting, I have a good idea of what I would like to talk about and I look forward to beginning my research. In Thursday’s class I met Paul for the first time as he took us through a Pro Tools session template, explaining how he uses buses and sends for effects and this keeps his sessions much more organised. He also informed us that he had created a video detailing from start to finish how to lay out an industry standard post production Pro Tools session. This is great news for me as it is the bulk of what I missed in week 2 and I look forward to checking it out. We had more Pro Tools based learnings on Friday and Paul showed us how to arrange sound effects libraries as well as telling us many stories about his time in the industry. This class was very interesting as it was great to get such an insight into how he has worked, and continues to make a living in the Post Production industry.  

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Vic Reeves and Bob Mortimer on their show 'Shooting Stars'. Contemporary comedians who have definitely been inspired by the Dada Movement.

 

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WEEK 4

(beginning 07/10/19)

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 By now I feel very relaxed in class and I am enjoying and excited about everything I am learning. On Monday, my band played a show in Edinburgh and I found myself drawn to the sound engineer, watching him EQ and manipulate sound in real time, as well as use lights to further enhance the excitement of the headline bands energetic set. The learning week starts with Critical Studies, discussing the differences and similarities between classic Hollywood cinema and Soviet Cinema. In this class we were split into groups to discuss our opinions and then asked to present these to the rest of our classmates. I thought this was a great way to hear everyone’s take on the topic and hear from people who haven’t had a chance to speak yet. In Wednesday’s class we learnt about Audio metering and measurement and how this ties in to working commercially in radio etc. I had already learnt about this at college but since then some of the regulations have changed so I found this class particularly interesting. We heard great, almost comedic examples of when music can be over compressed and sound lifeless and tiring to the ear. On Thursday, Adam Scott took our class, teaching us about Radio over the years. And how the culture has changed massively to the point anyone can start a radio station or podcast. This sparked a great debate about how we listen to audio and if this change has triggered a more communal or a less communal listening experience. Unfortunately, on Friday morning my car wouldn’t start so I missed Paul’s class about recording voice for radio. I will check notes on Canvas to make sure I haven’t missed anything too vital. 

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Open Goal is a football podcast that I listen to regularly. I really enjoy the laid back nature of the show.

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 WEEK 5

(beginning 14/10/19)

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 This week has been very interesting as it has felt a lot more hands on, particularly the Listening, Sound Alone class on Thursday. In this class we were given a choice of words as a stimulus to create a short soundscape. I chose ‘Medieval Scotland’. I actually picked ‘Heaven’ to start with but I found it to be quite limited creatively. With ‘Medieval Scotland’, I had a good idea of what I wanted the piece to sound like. One of my favourite films is ‘A Knights Tale’ which was released in 2001. I decided to use scenes from this as an inspiration for what a Medieval soundscape might sound like. At this point, I have only just started work on my actual soundscape for assessment, so it was great to use this time to get really stuck into Pro Tools and create a short soundscape. On Friday, ex masters student Jacob Topen presented his masters project in which he had edited and re-done the score for the old silent horror film ‘Nosferatu’. It was great to see what an ex-student had achieved as part of his course. It was also massively influential to see how well the score worked, and compared to the original score, it made the film so much more striking and serious. Later on the Friday I researched more of Jacob’s work. I found his Vimeo account online and I was highly impressed with the various examples of his work on show. 

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An (unfortunately poor quality) link to the scene from 'A Knights Tale' that I referenced when looking for inspiration

for the 'Medieval Scotland" soundscape. 

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WEEK 6

(beginning 21/10/19)

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With the date of the soundscape submission looming, I wanted to use my spare time this week to really get started on my soundscape. After leaving the house for uni on the Wednesday, I had a sudden idea for what my soundscape could be based on. Every single time I leave my house, I get anxious that I have left a light on, or the oven, or the TV, or anything! This fear is something that can be overwhelming sometimes. I have decided to use this as the concept for my soundscape. I also wanted to use what I had learnt in Critical Studies about hip hop editing (i.e. Requiem for a dream) to try and portray the anxiety and obsession that comes with double/triple checking things. I downloaded Pro Tools, bought an Ilok and had started on the soundscape by the weekend. During the week, I also had more time to work on the ‘Medieval Scotland’ soundscape. I added a few layers and tried out automating effects in Pro Tools. Unfortunately, there was not enough time in class to listen to my piece (which I am quite proud of) but we did listen to Ben, Pete, Ryan and Marks soundscapes which were all very, very different, and equally inspiring. It’s nice to see what level other people on the course are at, having been very worried when I first started the course. Downloading Pro Tools and getting stuck in over the past couple of weeks has really made me feel more settled and excited for the rest of the year. There are definitely some things I am still struggling with, but there’s no doubt that Paul’s expertise as well as assistance from other lecturers and students will help me out a lot over the course of the year. 

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The hip-hop editing montage from Darren Aronofsky's 'Requiem for a dream' that proved to be very influential in my soundscape project. 

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WEEK 7

(beginning 28/10/19)

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Since I started the course, I have been working 1-10 every Monday. This week however I managed to take a holiday so I could spend the full day getting things done on my soundscape and conceptual statement in advance of Thursdays presentation. Working on this from home definitely proved to be a little distracting, but I did get almost everything done that I wanted to. Unfortunately, all trains from Bathgate to Glasgow were cancelled on Tuesday so I had to miss the Critical Studies class for the second week running. However, Jessica’s recordings of the lectures have proved extremely helpful for me, so I can catch up on everything and not feel like I have fallen behind. I used this time at home to catch up on the past couple of weeks. It was a great experience to hear everyone’s soundscapes on Thursday and the concepts and creative processes involved. I felt that my presentation went well, despite being very nervous in the lead up to it. Filling out comments on the critique form for each person’s presentation was a great idea, and I have since reflected on comments left by Jessica and other classmates about my soundscape. It was nice to have the Friday off uni. I decided to spend it compiling a list of films that we have discussed throughout the course, such as Taxi Driver, Grave of the Fireflies and Dunkirk to watch at a later date. 

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A screenshot of my progress in Pro Tools. Setting up Reverb buses to save on CPU becoming overloaded.

 

 

WEEK 8

(beginning 04/11/19)

 

 On Monday I wrote out a list of the various things I had left to finish off for Friday’s Soundscape submission. As I had work I didn’t manage to get any of these started but it was good to schedule tasks for what was sure to be a busy week. On Tuesday I attended the first part of the Critical Studies class where we learnt about Post Modernism and Counter Cinema. Unfortunately, I had to go home before the seminar as I was going to a show in Dundee the same evening. The following day, my girlfriend and I decided to have a wander around the new V&A museum in Dundee. This was something we had both wanted to do for a while, so it was great to finally check it out. I particularly enjoyed the Nicholas Daley exhibition. Daley is a successful Scottish/Jamaican fashion designer who has a very interesting history. On Thursday, my classmates and I learnt about our next project: Short Sound Film. This project looks very interesting and a very natural progression from the soundscape. I don’t have a huge amount of experience working with cameras, but I am very much looking forward to coming up with a concept, shooting, editing and creating a soundscape for this project. Friday was spent going through the list of things to finish up for the soundscape submission. Things such as making sure my session layout fitted the brief, and making sure my logbook, conceptual statement and anything else were completely up to date.

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A photo I took of part of the Nicholas Daley exhibition inside the V&A in Dundee.

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WEEK 9

(beginning 11/11/19)

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We started this week on Tuesday with our Critical Studies class, learning about Feminism, Scratch Video, DIY and the 1968 Civil Rights Movement. This to me, was by far the most engaging Critical Studies lecture so far as I found each subject incredibly interesting. I am starting to think that I may base my bibliography on Feminism and women in cinema, despite previously having other ideas. On Wednesday we learnt about drawing block diagrams pertaining to audio visual setups such as sound carts. I found this interesting and spent quite a lot of time after class researching how all the sound design was achieved on one of my favourite shows ‘Breaking Bad’. Thursday and Friday saw us trying to digest a huge amount of information from Paul regarding Final Cut Pro X. Despite these lectures being quite word heavy and me perhaps forgetting a lot of the information, I still feel like I have learnt a huge amount. Paul also went into some anecdotal detail about his time working as a dubbing engineer and how the industry can be very fickle. I have very much enjoyed learning from Paul over the course of the semester and I very much look forward to getting to grips with FCPX. I spent the weekend at professional studio ‘Magic Box’ in Dundee recording a new single with my band. It was a great feeling to get back in the studio and I tried to learn a bit from the engineer, Scotty despite his workflow being incredibly efficient and hard to keep up with. 

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Sipping a can of Tennents inbetween guitar takes. 

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WEEK 10

(beginning 18/11/19)

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This week was an Independent Study Week which was great as it gave me a chance to catch up on anything I was behind on such as Critical Studies reading and starting the Critical Studies Annotated Bibliography. It also let me catch up on general things around the house, hang out with my cat and do other odd jobs that have been in the back of my mind for weeks. Monday and Tuesday were completely taken up by work, tidying and cleaning the house, but I managed to squeeze a little bit of research in regarding my Critical Studies Bibliography. On Wednesday I decided for certain that I would concentrate on the representation of women in cinema. I had wanted to talk about the portrayal of working-class culture in cinema, but the more I weighed up my options, the more I came around to the idea of the former. It is insane to me that there is still such a gap in cinema, and society regarding women’s rights and representation. For my bibliography, I chose three films that I really enjoyed, some of which were more problematic than others. I spent Wednesday and Thursday working on this and was very happy with what I have so far, which I will present to class next week. On Thursday night I went to see Fontaines DC, an Irish post punk band that I have been wanting to see for almost a year. I’m looking forward to getting back to class next week and seeing what everyone else is planning to base their Critical Studies submission on.

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Gracie advising me on her views of women in the film industry.

 

WEEK 11

(beginning 25/11/19)

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This week started off with the Critical Studies peer review submission. I felt nervous to present my ideas as although I had done most of the work, it wasn’t quite finished. However, this actually worked out in my favour, as Jessica’s comments and a couple of students comments on the peer review session helped me think about who I could reference. The main thing I was worried about was tying my idea back into the brief but after the presentation I had a good few ideas of how to go about this. It was great, again, to see everyone else’s presentation. I felt that Rory’s was especially impressive and obviously very well researched. I spent the rest of the week finishing off my Critically Annotated Bibliography (minus referencing and bibliography) so that it’s out the way in enough time that I can work on the AV assignment for next week. I was really looking forward to the FCPX Masterclass guest lecture that Paul had arranged for Fridays class but unfortunately his friend who was meant to be coming in was unavailable. Despite this I learnt a lot again from Paul as he spoke about his history in the AV industry.

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Marge Gunderson from 'Fargo' - One of the films I have analysed in my annotated bibliography. Absolutely love this film. 

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 WEEK 12

(beginning 02/12/19)

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I spent the majority of this week working on the AV Faults submission. This was very enjoyable to work on, and it helped me gain even more confidence using Pro Tools after starting of the year a bit rusty. I had remembered Ronan showing us a few different examples in a lecture near the start of the year so this helped with my understanding of the faults and how to go about fixing them using Pro Tools. Thursdays class with Paul was interesting as he spoke about the importance of Metadata and exporting from Final Cut using the correct protocols. I feel like I learnt a lot in this lecture but it can sometimes be difficult to retain all this information. I tried to take notes as and when seemed most important. Unfortunately, at this stage I don’t have anything to present regarding my Short Sound Film although I do have a good idea of what I want to do. Hopefully next week I will get a chance to start properly planning and possibly start filming. My girlfriend owns a good camera so it shouldn’t be a problem being able to get filming done without having to worry about booking equipment out from GSA. 

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Distortion: an absolute nightmare to fix in post. 

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WEEK 13

(beginning 09/12/19)

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This week (in my personal life) felt very hectic as I was starting to panic about a bit about Christmas. I took a couple of overtime shifts to help cover the costs of buying presents and other Christmas related things. This unfortunately meant that I missed Fridays class. It was quite disappointing to travel into uni on Thursday for no lecturer to turn up, especially given the fact that I could have taken an extra shift at work had I known this would be the case. I fully intend to catch up over the winter break with what I have missed from Fridays class and anything that was supposed to be taught on Thursday. Uni work-wise, I started off the week getting everything finished for my Critical Studies submission. Although I found this project quite stressful, I also really enjoyed looking into different sources and critically analysing them with a running theme in mind. For me, the hardest part of this submission as well as others has been making sure the deliverables line up with the brief. Making sure my referencing and bibliography were laid out properly was a bit of a task because I have never really had any previous experience doing so. However, it was very helpful having Jessica run through a few examples a few weeks back to give us all more of an idea of how to do this. Besides the stress and pressure of wanting to do well, I thoroughly enjoyed the freedom of this assignment, being able to pick what I wanted to write about and research things I wanted to research.

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It's been lovely going from working in Tesco 5 days a week down to just 1 day a week. Plenty of overtime to be had during the Christmas period though. 

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WEEK 14 – 16

(Winter Break)

 

WEEK 17

(beginning 06/01/20) 

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The winter break both seemed to go in extremely quickly and extremely slow. It felt great to have a long break, but it felt even better to get back into a routine this week. This being said, for most of the week I did feel massively overwhelmed by the amount of work I had to get through. It was a bit of a nightmare trying to work on the AV block diagram assignment over the break especially, with all of the members of my group living far away from each other and having busy schedules with family commitments, work and other social things. We managed to get everything done though, and the presentation went quite well. I was very worried about the class test too but I think that went okay. Some of the things in the test I had remembered studying at college which helped a lot. On Friday I presented what was a very rough first cut of my short sound film. This went okay, but I wish I could have had a more finished piece to present. A couple of the other students work that I saw was exceptional. It’s definitely inspiring to be in a class full of creative and talented individuals all with very different ideas. I spent a little bit of time this week also preparing for the actual short sound film submission next week. 

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A still from my short sound film, based on the abandoned village of Bangour, West Lothian. 

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WEEK 18

(beginning 13/01/20)

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I spent this entire week working on my short sound film submission. I split different tasks into different days so that I could get through a huge workload in an organised manner. I spent Tuesday writing a script and recording the narration/voiceover part of my film. I then spent Wednesday and Thursday finalising my edit in FCPX, adding in effects and location recordings in Pro Tools, and generally trying to get things done according to the brief. I encountered some problems here, especially with my voiceover as I only had time to record it on my field recorder. I used various tools in Pro Tools which I think have massively improved the sound of this. On Friday I finished my conceptual statement just in time for the hand in. On reflection, I am happy with my submission despite a few setbacks. I look forward to getting some feedback on this project so I can iron out some of the things I’ve not really had time to sort. Out with uni work I had a lot of other things on this week too with my girlfriend, my brothers fiancé and my mum all having important birthdays in the next week.

 

 

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A screenshot of my automation workflow in Pro Tools. 

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WEEK 19

(beginning 20/01/20)

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Thursday and Fridays classes were both very interesting this week. On Thursday, Jessica took our class and introduced us to the next assignment - to design and create a game, sonic sculpture or installation utilising both audio and visuals. I have never used either MaxMSP or Unity so on one hand this is quite terrifying for me but on the other hand I loved seeing the different examples from last year’s students so I am really looking forward to giving it a shot. I already have a bit of an idea of what I would like to focus on, but this depends a bit on how I get to grips with each software. On Friday, Adam showed us different examples of Sound Sculptures. Although I found a couple of the examples a bit baffling and maybe a little bit pretentious, there were a few that I really liked. This made me think more about what I would like to concentrate on for the submission, as I had a few different ideas come to mind throughout the lecture. After this we took part in a noisemaking session which was light hearted and fun - a nice way to round off the week! On Sunday I watched ‘Midsommar’. I found it to be very long and strange, but I noted from early on that the sound design was incredible. There were some amazing techniques and dynamics used in certain scenes to make it even more gripping and bizarre.

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It was interesting to watch something I wouldn't usually. I ended up pretty much just paying attention to the sound design.

 

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WEEK 20

(beginning 29/01/20)

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To my relief, we spent all of Thursday and Fridays classes this week looking into Max MSP. On Thursday, Adam took us from the very basics of Max, explaining what it is, what it is capable of and how we could implement it into our course. We then spent a good chunk of Thursday actually using Max alongside Adam. I found this process to be very beneficial as I felt a lot more comfortable using something that is completely new to me. In Friday’s class, we went into a bit more depth creating different noises in Max routed into Pro Tools with an Xpand instrument plug in. I plan to work on what I have learnt and get to grips even more with Max as I have found these classes very interesting, challenging and creative. On Sunday, I went to the cinema to see 1917. After using a camera for the first time in my short sound film project, seeing this film made me completely appreciate the amount of skill and precision that went into this. The one take feel of this film was staggering and the sound design was also incredibly intense and impressive. I’m not usually a massive fan of war films but everything about this was new, exciting and enjoyable to me.

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It has been great being able to learn how to use Max in a very hands on manner. Here is a screenshot of what we patched together in class under Adam's instruction.

 

 

WEEK 21

(beginning 03/02/20)

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We had a bonus class this Thursday in which Jessica showed us a lot of the Immersive/Installation work that she has done in the past and it was great to hear her journey of how each event led on to another exciting opportunity. Until this class I had never even heard of AV Mixer so it was very interesting to be introduced to that and to be shown examples of how it can work in different settings with different themes and purposes. On the lunch break I had a quick play around with AV Mixer, something that I definitely plan to work more on when I have the time. The afternoon class, as well as Fridays class were spent looking more into depth at Max. In Friday’s class, Adam managed to use a tangerine as a space bar and had in running through Max, in order to stop and start the musical patch that we had created in class. This gave me a great idea for what I would like to work on for the assignment. I must admit that Max was very daunting to me when I first looked at it, but throughout these classes I have become a lot more comfortable using it, and I really look forward to using it more. Having said that, I am also very much looking forward to using Unity for the first time next week!

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

I found this video on YouTube to be very helpful and interesting. Hopefully I will get a chance to look more into this soon! 

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WEEK 22

(beginning 10/02/20)

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This week we were introduced to a new software – Unity. Although I looked forward to getting started with Unity, I would have liked an extra week or two to get to grips with Max before learning a new program. However, Thursday’s class came around quick and Brian began showing us the basics of Unity which was exciting. Again, learning something new is very exciting but also quite intimidating as there’s so much you can do with the software but it can be frustrating and off putting not having a clue where to start. Brian helped a lot during this lecture, stopping to make sure everyone was following along and understanding the process. Friday’s class featured a bit more of the same, with more of a focus on learning the scripting language C#. This to me is absolutely brand new and incredibly intimidating. I really struggled to grasp any of what was said in this lecture but hopefully it will become a bit easier over the few weeks we have with Brian. After this class, we took a class visit to Tramway to see the artworks/immersive installations of France-Lise McGurn and Pakiveli Hardeep Pandhal which was a great learning experience. 

 

Tramway Trip

The trip to tramway was great. Sometimes when I visit art galleries and spaces, I leave feeling a little bit underwhelmed, but the fact we were there as a group, able to interact with Tramway staff and discuss the exhibitions at length helped me better understand both the works of McGurn and Pandhal. I really enjoyed getting lost in the colourful, fluid world of McGurn’s ‘In Emotia’. Learning that McGurn lives in Glasgow and wanted to explore the way in which people are sometimes living on top of each other in sublets gave a lot of insightful context for the piece, and I actually found it quite humorous. I haven’t lived in Glasgow for a long time, but when I did, it was in a flat with no living room, and no real living space to actually feel comfortable. I really got this from this piece, especially given the use of the gallery walls to truly depict the concept. It was much more enjoyable to look at artwork this way, rather than walking around a white cube gallery looking at a canvas then moving on to the next one. I found myself finding new things to be intrigued by throughout this trip, picking up on the texture of the painted lines. I asked the tour guide about the materials used by McGurn to which she replied that she thought it was just paint, but couldn’t be certain. Some of the line work was almost quite childlike and innocent, and looked a bit like it could have been chalk. I felt that the variation in line thickness and sporadic nature of the immersive composition yet consistent subject matter implemented a notion of each body having its own place and voice but all living as one in such a cultured, busy and engaging city. I also liked the grey washed background, it gave the whole piece something else to focus on rather than a plain white background, and I thought it almost felt like such a dreary background could inspire the colourful and varied paintings that were to be painted on top by McGurn. 

 

I also enjoyed Pandhal’s works as a whole. I felt that the composition of the wooden blocks was well thought out, with the lighting serving a real purpose. This influenced the way in which I digested the artworks, at first paying attention to the unique knitted sweaters, then concentrating on the inside of the circle, looking in depth at the very detailed illustrations on each podium. I also felt that the circle of podiums almost had religious connotations, and although it felt like a novelty to walk around artworks in this way, it also felt slightly strange, like I was visiting something even more precious and well thought out than a normal gallery setup. I did find it more difficult to fully grasp some of the concepts behind Pandhal’s exhibition but I enjoyed it none-the-less and I feel like I did grasp the main idea that he was challenging some very troubling racial and religious issues that are still present today. I particularly enjoyed the interactive aspect of the short animation/rap that he had put together. It felt good to sit down with headphones and fully immersive myself in this animated world covering elements of Pandhal’s past. 

 

I felt that the trip to tramway was a great learning and bonding experience for everyone involved, and it has certainly inspired me to be more aware of exhibitions and installations of its type. Although I didn’t feel that the concepts covered strictly related to the work I am doing on the course, I still very much appreciate the experience and I thought everything about it was well thought out.  

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It was impossible to get a photo of the whole room but I tried to capture my favourite parts of France-Lise McGurn's exhibition. 

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This was my favourite part of Pakiveli Hardeep Pandhal's exhibition. A purpose built cinema where you could interactively sit down and watch his short animation. 

 

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Noisemaking Session

A few weeks ago, the class took part in a collaborative noise making class led by Adam. We were each asked to bring in any object that could make any kind of sound, preferably not a musical instrument. The session began with Adam organising the group into a circle and making sure everyone present had a noise maker. A portable recorder was set up to record what would soon become an array of strange noises emanating from everyday objects such as a hammer, a water bottle and some bells. When Adam pressed record, we went around the circle in order, each using our object in a way that would create an interesting sound. The first time round was quite uncomfortable and awkward. I, alongside many others in the class didn’t understand exactly why or what we were doing which made for an underwhelming first take. Fortunately, we kept recording and each take got a lot more inventive, fluid and sonically interesting. My noisemaker was a roll of Sellotape, that I found made a great, abrasive zip like noise. The person before me in the circle had an extremely quiet jar of seeds that meant there was a great sonic contrast and dynamic change when I let rip with my roll of tape. Adam began to conduct the group at a much quicker pace proving to be difficult to keep up with and making almost everyone try very hard not to laugh. After a few practices, the group were responding really well to Adam’s direction. In the space of about five minutes, we had gone from silence, to a very awkward fumbling array of noises to a glorious combination of weird noises. Although I found this task to be very light-hearted and fun, I actually feel like I learnt a lot too. It’s very interesting to think outside the box and be able to use or manipulate objects in strange manners in order to get different effects. One of the noises in particular that stood out was Ashley’s metal bowl, half filled with water that seemed to make a different noise every time it was flicked, struck or rubbed. Something like this could actually be used productively in Foley in order to portray the ‘see a car, hear a car’ theory. I also learnt from this project that improvisation and spontaneous collaboration can lead to some really unique results. The session also made me think back to videos that Jessica showed us a few weeks ago of the improvisation group that she is part of. Before seeing these videos, I had absolutely no idea that such a group existed, and straight away I was curious. Upon watching the videos, it was clear to see that as well as the members having fun, they would also come up with some really intriguing moments that were completely spontaneous. I like the idea that these sounds or noises might only be heard once, and there is a very slim chance of ever hearing it in that space again. 

 

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