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.
