Sense of Space: Idea

Our original idea for this project was to create a 3-minute piece about the different sounds you hear in a kitchen at different points of the day. We thought we would show breakfast and dinner cooking sounds, and then contrast it with the eery silence heard during the night, for example with a fridge humming.

We pitched the idea to Esther, who encouraged us to evolve our idea a bit further, as this was something that was created a lot. We agreed with her and decided to completely started again...

Suited to the festive time of year, Clarice and I decided to completely change our idea into an audio documentary about Christmas: how it means different things to people, and how family traditions can be so different. I like the idea that what Christmas means to someone, doesn't necessarily mean the same thing to someone else, so we wanted to explore this instead.

We want to interview different age groups to get varied information from them. We will interview young children and ask what they are 'asking Santa' for, interview young people and adults to see what is their favourite part of Christmas, and interview old people and see how Christmas has changed for them since they were a child. The sounds we will use in the project will relate to what the interviewees are describe, if they mention pulling crackers, you will hear it. If they mention ripping presents open, you will hear it. You get the idea...

Now we need to brainstorm sounds relating to Christmas that we can record, and possible questions to ask our contributors.

Tunnel Vision

Created by: Pejk Malinovski (2001)

In the seminar we also listened to this audio piece about a tube. It was about different men talking about their sexual encounters while on the tube, telling how many they have slept with, and whether they loved them or not.

As expected with a project about the tube, the sounds all related to the location to give a clear sense of space. The tube screeches to a stop at the end, doors open and close, and the tube starts and stops. The humour within the piece is what makes it so interesting, the men talking are stumbling on their words because they are embarassed to talk about sex. Their stumbling adds to the awkwardness.

Meat Factory Ear Worms

http://www.rte.ie/radio1/doconone/the-curious-ear-doconone-meat-factory-ear-worms.html

Created by: Richie Beirne (2008)

On Thursday 17th November, in our seminar we looked at many different sound recordings to give us an insight into the type of thing we should be creating for our audio project.

This sound documentary stood out for me because of it's many different layers. It's about a man who doesn't enjoy the repetition of his job in a meat factory, and how music is his motivation to get the job done.

The sound of cows being taken into slaughter, and the use of knives and saw is consistent throughout the piece. They are all echoed to really give a sense of the space in the factory. There are a lot of crashes and bangs of many, which are all sounds you would expect to hear inside a factory. Although you can't see anything, this allows you to imagine where the narrator is. There is a really interesting bit at the beginning of the documentary, when the instrumental music begins which completely constracts the brutality of the job. He says the word 'sweet smell' as the music is playing, but the music stops when he says 'of a back bone being sawed in half'. This emphasises the fact that music is his distraction, when the music turns off, the reality of his job hits him. I thought this was really clever.

The man begins to tell us about 'Ear Worm' songs, the ones that get stuck in your head and you can't get them out. He also describes the process of slaughtering a cow, he voice is quite monotone during this to show how such a horrific process does not even bother him anymore. I like how the mood constantly changes with the juxtaposition of the music and the narration. It helps to distract from the grusomeness of his job.

Sense of Space: Audio Project

Our previous Edale project asked us to create a portrait of a place using solely moving image. Our next project is to do the opposite, give a sense of space through sound. It is a 3-minute project to create an actual or imagined space. There are not many rules to this which gives us complete creative freedom to record any space we want.

This is a pairs project and I shall be working with Clarice Flack.

Portrait of Place: Edale

Right in the heart of the Peak District is the very small village of Edale, which was set to be the location for our 3 minute film. Creativity was key for Portrait of Place, allowing us to create almost anything that we wanted. At first it was difficult planning a narrative and shot ideas for somewhere I have not even heard of, let alone seen. After some careful research, me and my partner Joeley began to brainstorm some ideas... Most Joeley's idea, I won't attempt to steal any credit, we settled on the story of an Edale stone. It's journey through the village and how it gets dispositioned by everyday life - we thought this would be an interesting concept. My role involved turning an idea into something filmable (if that's a word). As the group member with filming experience I planned some shot ideas and how I thought we could show it's journey most effectively.

Me filming in the rain at Edale - it was just as
important to keep both the camera and my hat
dry.

On production day, we walked around and found a beautiful river, with a small waterfall and a bridge. We experimented with different angles to try and create something dynamic and experimental. One great idea was to have the stone going down the waterfall and into a pipe, which connects it to the river. This shot was based purely on luck and good timing. When looking back at the footage we thought this worked very well, and we slowed it down slightly to emphasise it's success. We got many different types of shots and were really happy with our footage, now we just need to edit it all together!

*UPDATE
Now all the footage has been edited we've realised that we should have done more filming on the day. Because the edited is so precise, it meant the running time is a lot shorter than we intended. This has taught us to shot more footage than we need just in case, we could have done some general shots of stones in different places that could use if we needed to. In the end we are happy with our film, it's not perfect, but the narrative makes sense are shows what we wanted it to.

Skin Deep

http://www.bbc.co.uk/filmnetwork/films/p004t688

This 2001 short film by Yousaf Ali Khan is an East London based drama surrounding a boy struggling to accept his nationality, who lives a lie in order to be accepted.

Skin Deep is not one for the faint hearted, it's a seriously intense experience that will leave some emotions somewhat unhinged. If you are anything like me, you will find it very difficult to determine your opinion, I loved it yet wanted someone to turn it off. If this was Khan's intention, he is very clever.

The film begins with Romo putting his head into a sink of water. There is a really interesting shot from inside the sink which I feel resembles the saying 'burying your head in the sand'. It could also link to a belief that he is able to 'wash off' his nationality. He then begins to scream racial abuse at himself in the mirror which instantly lets the audience know that something is wrong. He enters the living room where his mother is brushing his sister's hair, when he sister's begins to moan, she is told 'you wouldn't be doing this if your father was still here'. Personally i feel this line is a bit too obvious, there are other ways of letting us know this information without saying it, because a mother would not say that on an everday basis. I would have just used Romo's flashback to highlight that a father is missing. The narrative struture is non-linear, as flashbacks are used throughout the film to reflect on Romo's experiences with racism. These are cleverly positioned in places where Romo feels like someone has recognised his race.

On the way to work Romo makes his sister walk ahead because he knows that she will give away his disguise. This action shows how important his cover up is to him, as he is willing to put his sister's safety in jeopardy to save himself. Close up shots are used throughout the film when Romo feels particularly insecure, when he thinks someone has given him a weird look.

He goes to the pub with his colleagues, who clearly are not afraid to express their 'National Front' beliefs when they set upon a young Asian boy. Romo remembers how it felt to be in that situation when he was younger, but so not to arouse suspicion he joins in the racial slurs. The pace of editing increases in this scene in order to create tension and make the audience less comfortable. There are a lot of face to camera shots to give the impression that the audience are being shouted at.

The last scene is the most uncomfortable to watch. Romo returns to the house, and like before puts his head into a sink full of water. The racial abuse into the mirror begins, but this time it is more extreme. He begins to shave off his hair in a desperate attempt to remove his identity completely. As an audience you go inside his mind as you can hear the sound of bully's laughing and taunting him, along with his piercing screams. His sister stands behind him, watching his erratic behaviour without daring to interrupt.

After watching the film again I still feel confused as to how I feel about it. On one hand, I love the extremity of it as it tries to make a point by literally screaming it in your face. It is very experimental as I have not seen many films this harsh before. However, it's extremity is also what I dislike about it, as I feel a bit of subtleness can often go a very long way...

It is definitely one of those films where it is only as good as what the viewer watching thinks it is. Technically it is a very good film, but such a brutal narrative always causes controversial and contrasting opinions.

Gasman

Gasman is a 1997 short film, written and directed by Lynne Ramsay. The 15 minute film was nominated for a BAFTA and won the Jury Prize at the Cannes Film Festival.

Covering the theme of jealously within a disfunctional family during the 1970's, the film effectively highlights the problems different members of the family face over this Christmas period. Lynne (the main character) and her brother go with their father to a Christmas party at what appears to be a working men's club. They walk along an unused train track to an organised meeting with a woman and her two children. It soon becomes apparent that the father and this woman once had a relationship, with the use of a close-up shot of him touching her hair. Lynne's brother comments on the fact that the young girl they have just met looks similar to Lynne: Lynne disagrees after looking at the girl's ragged appearance, disapproving of her wearing her dirty school uniform to a party. Lynne soon becomes suspicious when she sees the other girl sitting on her father's lap at the party, and her instant reaction is to order her to get off her fathers lap. When the little girl claims that it is her father's lap she is sitting on, Lynne is confused. The audience is then able to piece together different parts of the narrative, the father has clearly created a 'secret family' at some point, and these are all his children. It then starts to create enigma within the plot: why is Lynne's mother not at the party too? Does she know about the other children? Why did they meet on the train track?

Technically, Gasman is very successful in provoking different reactions within a short amount of time. At the beginning, you never see any of the character's faces, which i feel adds to the mystery of the whole narrative. It symbolises the secrets that have been kept for many years, to the point where they probably do not know who each other are anymore.

When Lynne notices the other girl on her father's lap, a close-up shot is held on her expression to highlight her confusion. As a child she would not be able to understand the situation instantly, so she watches for a moment. I like this shot because it emphasises Lynne's innocence, she knows this as something only she does with her father. Her natural reaction is to violently pull the girl's hair, a reaction you would not expect a well-brought up child to do in front of their parent - which makes you question her up-bringing? Her father's passive response to this suggests she's had little exposure to discipline.

After the party, the family make their way back down the train track, with both girls fighting for their father's attention. These shots are effective because the characters are going back to where they came from, symbolising that there has been no development. Clearly nobody has benefitted from this meeting: the father never did appear that excited to see his secret children. He heads home ready to continue his life as he did before.

Overally I enjoyed watching Gasman, i thought the mise-en-scene was effective for the time period, as it was not over the top and obviously in the 1970's. Ramsay casted realistic characters who were believeable and appropriate, and the narrative was well suited for a situation that is occuring more frequently in homes as time goes on.