Posts outlining information taken from Lectures and or tutorials and study & research I have undertook
Thursday 22nd - Lecture
In Belinda's class we looked at concept development and how ideas formulate and grow. Watched a clip on Ted talk which was quite interesting in terms of this premise and how it can relate to any field and any person of any age. We have to look and prepare to talk about what: inspires, motivates and intrigues me? How do I research and explore Ideas? Through words, sounds, images, style and observations? And how do I communicate, interpret define, story and experience ideas?
Friday 23rd- Study
My use of Mise en scene for research and study is that of "telling a story/what's happening; on/off screen, within a scene without the use of dialogue. This lets anyone watching a film to use their imagination within reason, to follow what is going on, something that also allows for the creative process.
Quite literally the opportunity is there for me to be as creative with my research and what I want to study within reason. What I have to do is define and refine my ideas because as of now I have a big subject matter in Mise en Scene.
Thinking about how I plan to refine my idea is to perhaps focus in on certain directors and their film techniques throughout their catalogue, compare and contrast using the same technique with different directors and ultimately sound designers. Are there sound designers who work closely with directors such as Ben Hermmann and Alfred Hitchcock? What exactly does the audio do to manipulate a scene using mise en scene as a technique.
My favourite Directors as of today are; Christopher Nolan, The Coens, David Fincher, Alfred Hitchcock, Jim Jaramusch. All completely different directors in their own right in terms of style, writing, obviously direction and their use of mise en scene. You also have the low budget films of JJ versus the big Hollywood films of the Coens and Nolan, and then there is the time difference in terms of creation again looking at Nolan and Hitchcock. One route is I can look at what has changed when using Mise en Scene over the years? Do directors vary when using it? Compare and contrast the use of it within a certain Genre. A lot for me to think about.
Monday 26th - Study
Looked at and answered the question set out for us for the tutorial today. I had to discuss what; Inspires, motivates and intrigues me and talk about them within the group.
For myself the motivation and most important thing I noted was that I want to forge a career in the creative industries. Other things are education, new technology, innovative ideas.
Inspirations come from things such as: creating a body of work, capturing a audience, seeing a finished project all come together. The industry is ever evolving, something I'd like to be a part of
Intriguing ideas are things such as sound design within film techniques, sound design and SFX within films. Audience participation with on screen techniques.
27th September - Tutorial
In our tutorial we split into groups and discussed our ideas and wrote them out on a large piece of paper to share around white space. Also adding our blog entries for people to look at if we liked.
Here is a photo of our group work from today
30th September - Lecture & Study
In today's lecture we watched other peoples past creations from last year to gain an insight on some final pieces of work. It was helpful as we got to look at ones which were very good and to a high standard to others slightly less interesting or captivating and let me know in my mind a bit more of what I want to create and do for my final artifact.
Using summon I found some links to journals and some other research when trying to define my question that little bit more. It's slowly getting more refined and finding that specific area I want to work within and research.
Links to what I have found -
Today we split into different groups this time discussed what people/things inspire us and how we research our ideas and express them. For me it is directors and sound composers, innovative techniques and technology and films. I watch and listen to as much as I can, which is equally good as firstly it's a career path I want to choose and it is also a hobby.
This ties in with the personal statement that we have to write for professional practice (AG1064). As I have to consider my inspiration and interests, career and creative aims, current skills and abilities and skill gaps.
Talking within the groups also helps identify different areas we haven't discussed.
Here is a picture of today's work -
Personal study - Hear no evil?
I Was thinking about how deaf people portrayed cinema in their mind. They cant hear the sounds or the sound effects, simply nothing. All they have to go on is what they are seeing on screen, do directors take that into account when they are making a film or does it come down to the masses being not deaf and consequentially winning out when it comes to creation? Does this seem fair? Another avenue of research I might be interested in.
The hard part looking at that methodology is how I would test that, a simple test would be comparing two identical clips: one with audio, one without and get the viewers reaction to what they saw on screen.
Ultimately however it still comes back to my main research question that is, how can you tell a story without using dialogue, through audio, direction and film technique mise en scene. The sub question I have been thinking about today is whether directors take into account deaf viewers when creating a sequence or a scene on screen?
Interesting article on the above -
http://fookembug.wordpress.com/2007/04/10/how-did-charlie-chaplin-become-a-star-of-silent-films/
http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=6qHTS7P-PLQ - Charlie Chaplin in the bond
http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=JF38g4z_l_4&feature=related - Charlie Chaplin in the Circus
6th October - Study
Following on from my thoughts yesterday relating to deaf people, the main thing sticking out to me is how writers/directors tell a story without using dialogue. This for me is the basis for my project, relating to how audio is used within the scene, the impact it has on the scene and the audience.
From there I began looking thinking about my favourite writers for on screen - they are mainly comedic writers but through that process I have found one of them who created a series of short films that rely heavily on mise en scene, little dialogue and music to tell a story. His name is Louis Szekely (Louis CK).
A very successful writer originally from Boston before he moved to NYC. He has wrote for several shows winning several Emmy's in the process. When I began looking into his history I found out that he wrote and directed several short films and I found these very relevant to my area of research. Some are in black and white some are colour, one is ten mins the others shorter. He also goes onto say how people should create short films in order to express and idea that doesn't rely on a constant feature within the sequence that has to be negotiated throughout a longer film.
http://www.dead-frog.com/comedians/comic/louis_ck - Research of his background
http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=w8QzcS7g52g - short film called "ice cream". Not a lot of dialogue used in this, relies on the music telling the story as well as the direction, and use of all things on screen. Without the dialogue through these mechanisms you can see what is unfolding on screen.
http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=EBo5s7gtsCA&feature=related - "Hello there" - a shorter film, no dialogue so to speak, however there is the use of the tape machines for them to speak, giving are what is going to happen slightly, but still there is aspect of mise en scene and telling a story without using the dialogue specifically.
Ultimately for my artifact that I want to create, I want to make a short film of my own, highlighting my synopsis that you can in fact tell a story without using dialogue, these examples above help in terms of research that is was possible before and it still is now
Some film website searches using key words as a tip identified within meeting with Colin and in prof practice lectures.
http://www.filmsite.org/filmterms12.html
http://sparkcharts.sparknotes.com/film/film/section4.php
http://www.filmclass.net/misescene.htm - a detailed look at the technique. No mention of sound design there however it does cover the other characteristics that I was to investigate within my research question
Week 4 11-18th pitch week.
As this was pitch week I just focused on reading books I took from the library and tried to find evidence to back up my hypothesis and research question and the rationale behind it.
17 October - Study
After our tutorials on how we research things, talking to others and my pitch presentation it became apparent that I had to do more study on my subject to try and iron out a few things. In particular what am I trying to investigate exactly, how am I going to investigate this and why am I doing this. What is the rationale behind it not only my personal rationale but someone who isn't familiar to the subject. Why would they be able to read and or watch my artifact/dissertation and make sense of it.
Since the pitch and it didn't go as well as I thought it would, I've decided to investigate further into the impact sound design has. Take out the part of researching mise en scene, and highlight the fact that sound design is an misunderstood and under used tool within film. Most notably how it drives the narrative to what is being seen on screen.
Going back to a previously linked website - http://filmsound.org/articles/roles_of_sound.htm
This has short explanations of direct narrative with the audience and subliminal narrative, which also helps with my research question.
One of the books I have taken out of the library is titled Sound for digital Video - 2005 - tomlinson holmen. Focal press, in print of elsevier. http://www.amazon.co.uk/Sound-Digital-Video-Tomlinson-Holman/dp/0240807200
Page 161 has a great opening sentence; "Sound design is the art of getting the right sound in the right place at the right time."
it also touches on mise en scene and how important sound design factors in modern film studies and how more critical thinking is geared towards the research of the sound design within film itself and how it leads to a more complete scene
"More recentlty the terms has been broadened within its use of film studies to include cinematography and its effects, such as depth of field, editing and sound. Thus, sound stands today in critical thinking as one of the principal ingredient of the film art, and reading a film means understanding the role that each of these ingredients play in perception, including sound"
This is integral to what I am trying to argue what my rationale is. I believe that sound design is an underused and misused element with in film. I want to investigate and examine how, manipulated in the right way, it can lead the audience to what is happening on screen without the use of words.
By doing this I will be contributing to the sound design world as well as the cinema world - explaining to anyone within or outwith the subject matter in terms they can reason with/understand - highlighting the importance the role sound design plays within films and understanding the role it is playing.
http://designingsound.org/2010/07/flower-sound-and-music-as-narrative/ - this link focuses on game companies and people who work with them and what it's like. It also focuses on narrative with sound design. Very relevant to what I want to do albeit on a game development as opposed to film, however it is still visual and audio bonds.
http://www.icad.org/Proceedings/2009/Hug2009.pdf - Once again game related but a journal that discusses the impact sound design has within narrative moving image.
http://books.google.co.uk/books?id=iGt70tqyWGwC&printsec=frontcover&dq=Sound+Design++The+Expressive+Power+of+Music,++Voice,+and+Sound+Effects+in+Cinema&hl=en&ei=PZ-cTp7TF8ycOvrG2foI&sa=X&oi=book_result&ct=result&resnum=1&ved=0CC4Q6AEwAA#v=twopage&q&f=false - A book I found that is accessible on google and is titled "Sound Design The Expressive Power of Music, Voice, and Sound Effects in Cinema". Once again investigating an area that I really want to work in and research.
Since the last tutorial and pitch week I have really started to delve deeper into critical existing context on studies such as my research proposal question. The tutorial really helped me search within new areas and applications that could help with me finding reasons to continue existing research within this subject area and justify my rationale.
18th October - study
Today I went on summon to try and find some more evidence to support my rationale for my research question. I found an excellent journal titled "Sound art? On/off film." This was actually an article and it discusses the importance of sound within film, and how you it'd be wrong to think about film without taking the sound into account. Another excellent quote - "This is of course familiar to electroacoustic
music theoreticians through the listening modes discussed
by Schaeffer in 1966 in his Traite´ des objets
musicaux. Yet Altman’s emphasis is precisely on the
inference of referential audio cues from the sound
object as opposed to the reduction of the sound event
to its musical potential. Arguably, this difference is
key in understanding how sound creativity on film
generates different formal choices from sound creativity
in electronic or electroacoustic music.
Altman’s views provide further understanding of the
idea of source identification in the context of film,
because he discusses the potential narrative content of
a sound; how the sound conveys the context in which it
was listened to and how this has representational value.
For this reason, the choice of sound objects in film
(even when they are not used as sound effects) is subject
to their referentiality and not to their reduced
characteristics in the Schaefferian sense." - Organised sound 2009
Further supporting my argument that sound design is needed to work with film and they go hand in hand when creating strong visual and audio bonds, especially when you are looking to drive a narrative from the audio. http://journals.cambridge.org.libproxy.abertay.ac.uk/action/displayAbstract?fromPage=online&aid=4867620&fulltextType=RA&fileId=S1355771809000090
19th October - Study
I found more journals today that I need to contact Colin about in terms of getting them from the library. They stemmed from the tutorials we had discussing where we find out things that interest us and how we research them. I tried some new methods and linked them together with the professional practice and research methods modules and it has helped me locate some new work to support my rationale and understand my context further.
Also I continued research into people who inspire me. Although I admit to not quite understanding his film works, his work as a sound designer is fascinating just as his approach to every film.
This man is David Lynch
Lynch's work on films such as Mulholland drive
Most recently Inland Empire.
The sound plays such a large part in trying to stick with what is going on on-screen. However one of the most important and defining was his first feature length film Easerhead. For this Lynch recorded the sound track using two tape recorders and sampled sounds and put it through filters to get the correct mood. Over 6 weeks was spent on the sound editing to acquire the correct mood, which highlights the importance of sound once again within film. Albeit he isn't driving the narrative directly but he is setting substance, depth and ambiance through the sound design he is creating which made Easerhead such an iconic film.
Example of a short film - http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=q1B7jgU9J0Q
This is an excellent website helping me understand more about film and their techniques. This a skill gap that I have and that I will need to develop and enhance for my final artifact. http://filmdirectors.co/top-20-film-techniques/
The same website also highlights his use of sound with narrative and how when we see the characters miming we believe they are talking through the sound. "Lynch has also used sound as a way to manipulate an audience with the miming in the performance scenes in Blue Velvet and Mulholland Drive, where despite knowing that the characters are miming, we are still taken by how real it all seems with the use of sound so accurately depicting what we expect to hear accompanying the visual images."
This is another supporting factor for understanding the context of whats out their in terms of studies for my project and confirming my rationale that I can add more to the film word by my investigation on the impact of sound design when driving narrative.
October 27 - Study
I missed the last tutorial on how I communicate, define and interpret ideas - due to a funeral. So I don't have a picture unlike the other two tutorials on this however I worked through the process and ideas myself.
If I were to communicate or projects in my particular domain it would be through; online sources, websites, digitally or presentations even a blog like this one. I try to define ideas by letting them grow naturally, I feel a lot of research is needed in a project like this, which can't be achieved instantly, so I started with a large domain and try to identify exactly where I want to go with it and through this module I have helped define my research question from a large domain/field into a much smaller refined area.
I have used this blog to also express and communicate my ideas and define them as well as showing how I interpret different avenues of research.
http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=8p6h0ERqsQw&feature=related
This link shows a drummer, Glenn Kotche and how he uses a drum kit to create experimental designs. This isn't entirely relevant to the project at the moment but when it comes to me creating my own sound design for my end of year artifact it will be. It demonstrates how I don't need to limit myself to the "norm" and use whatever I can find to create/recreate sounds. There is no right or wrong when being creative as it is all subjective and I should follow something through that I love as opposed to what people may want to hear or what is expected.
I think I have gauged that, especially doing research into more directors that If I have an Idea I should run with it within reason and proper context to my project. I shouldn't be afraid of criticism and put my work out there to be expressed. In creating art I am creating expression to be seen and evoke emotions and not everyone is going to like or enjoy it necessarily however without the negatives there would be no positive from peers or any form of academic.
Composition is a big part of being a sound designer and allowing myself to loosen the rains on my creative ability and going to places that I might have never before will allow for ideas to be created that might have never happened. At this stage in my project it might be a bit premature to start creating sound ideas but I am still thinking about the process and where I'd like to go with it.
The only doubting part of having the ability to create what I want is how will it answer my question/aim that; can you tell a story without words. I believe the sound design has a key role in this and manipulated in the correct way will allow for certain emotions to be evoked out of the audience, so in turn that would mean I would have to gear the sound design and composition toward the more traditional side of love story with strings or sharp eerie noises for horror
Developing my Concept and Research Aim
My area of research has changed somewhat since the start of the year. I originally wanted to work with Mise en Scene and how it is used within film and the examine the impact sound design has within that technique. Through further research and the discussions with my peers in the tutorials I was able to start reigning in my idea as Mise en Scene is such a large subject matter. I was always interested in looking at how directors told a story without words/narrative. Is that purely down to the direction, the correlation with the sound designers or the actors ability. The research I hae undertaken so far has helped me identify the role of a sound designer within film, parts of the pshycological influence music can have on the audience and I have read enough articles, books and journals to understand the context behind my project. There are some discussions and investigations into this area but it can be developed
The past six weeks have led me to believe that the role of the sound designer is undervalued and underused within film. This is my main rationale behind this project, aiming to investigate the role the sound designer has within film and the impact it has when driving the narrative within a scene or moving image. I believe this project will add to the understanding of the role of a sound designer in a particular area and highlight the importance of such a role within film or creating a piece of art that involves moving image and audio. It will also help add to my current skill set and skill gaps within this area from a personal perspective.
http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=aQOs9j3ZooA - This video highlights the importance of the sound designer within film, and the problems that happen when bad sound design and editing doesn't go well. http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=5KWtnqJkUNQ Part 2.
That video alone highlights the importance of the context of my project along with all the other research I have undertook so far. The sound designer is an undervalued and misunderstood and highly important piece of the jigsaw when creating film especially when you are trying to drive a narrative or evoke emotions out of the audience. I believe I am understanding the context and the importance behind my project the more I research and continue to develop it.
8th November - Study
It's pitch week tomorrow so I have been developing my learning contract and proposal drafts for the past few days. After speaking to Peter O'Hare today about my project aim again, I've had another slight tweak I want to make.
He identified that when I was describing my aim to him that it didn't sound as interesting as when I was loosely talking about why I thought this project was important in terms of how the role of the sound designer is misunderstood and undervalued. He also highlighted that, in most cases we can look at a film and state the obvious, yes we feel emotion watching scene A or scene B and yes this is lead by the music. He suggested that I dive deeper into the understanding of how this is done and really search for what I want out of this project for the year.
Looking at that aspect, the thing that really sticks out it how you can tell a story without using words and how do sound designers do this, and I can actually do this by looking at specific films. Comparing and contrasting two different films, or different directors work and how they can relate to each other in being successful but entirely different approaches.
Two excellent articals looking at the Coen bro's work and an interview with their ever present sound designer Craig Berkey
http://www.nytimes.com/2008/01/06/movies/awardsseason/06lim.html?pagewanted=all
http://designingsound.org/2011/02/an-interview-with-craig-berkey/
An actual sound designer website exists too! http://designingsound.org/category/articles/
http://muse.jhu.edu/login?uri=/journals/music_sound_and_the_moving_image/v002/2.2.kulezic-wilson.html
http://www.offscreen.com/Sound_Issue/barnes_bartonfink.pdf
http://digitalfilms.wordpress.com/2007/12/16/no-country-for-old-men-coen-brothers/
http://muse.jhu.edu/login?uri=/journals/music_sound_and_the_moving_image/v002/2.2.kulezic-wilson.html
11th November - Aim update
After discussing ideas with Peter O'hare the last few days and after my crit, my question area has become a bit more refined.
I identified films that I enjoy, areas that I want to work in and tried to find an equilibrium between the two.
The Coen brothers, right from Blood Simple to True grit have released a varity of films using different approaches styles and achieved success. Two of my favourite movies by them are Fargo and No country for old men. Both completely different and contrasting in style, visual esthetics and sound design, however they both acheived success in driving the narrative. Here is where my project is at, at the moment.
An investigation into how the Coen Brothers effectively drive narrative through sound design. Drawing comparitative studies between Fargo and No country for old men. Examining their approach and how sound design can lead to a more complete cinematic experience.
Book and artical research - more context for lit review
http://designingsound.org/2007/11/no-country-for-old-men-exclusive-interview-with-sound-designerre-recording-mixer-craig-berkey/
http://www.kobobooks.com/ebook/The-Coen-Brothers-Fargo/book-F1uXrvJZmkmKgAqdMcYSTA/page1.html - Download adobe ebook reader from this website
