Week 8 Rotation – Sound
Single Page PDF Submission
Onomatopoeia Club Film
Film 1
Film 1 – Visuals
Film 1 – Audio
1 – Fan
2 – Squeezing Fairy Liquid Bottle
3 – Broken line on phone
Film 2
Film 2 – Visuals
Film 2 – Audio
1 – Squeezing Jiffy Foam
Film 3
Film 3 – Visuals
Film 3 – Audio
1 – Pushing a can on a hard surface
2 – Brushing through a washing-up brush
3 – Dangling keys
4 – Microwave timer
Analysis & Reflection
Film 1
For the visual aspect of this film, I merged 3 photos together, consisting of a ceramic baby head, ice cubes and a building through using a variety of blending modes and adjustments in Photoshop. As I felt this selection of images was quite random, I wanted to create an environment that makes the listener feel quite out of place and confused. Through recording a moving fan and adjusting the duration and intensity I tried to set an overwhelming background tone. As the images flick through quickly and then settle I transitioned from two audios, one of reversed speech of a broken phone line, followed by the squeezing of a bottle. The reversed speech, I thought, gave it quite an ominous effect, paired with the bottle that could be interpreted as a baby-bottle.
Film 2
When experimenting with the various audios I recorded, I found that through manipulating the Jiffy Foam, I achieved an effect that sounded similar to walking through leaves. This gave me the idea to pair this with a video of a slow stroll through the woods. To match the speed, I slowed down the original recorded audio, layering it with some shorter samples at various speeds of that same audio to give the sound some variety and depth.
Film 3
For the final film, I once again gained inspiration from the visual I had created to build the sound-world. The image I used was an edited alteration of a piece I had made during the Photographics rotation. Due to the chaotic and broken feel that the piece gives off, I decided to use a larger range of sounds to reflect the given mood. For the background tone, I used a stretched-out and reversed version of an audio I recorded where I moved a can in a circular motion on my desk. Through pairing this with a reversed audio of me brushing through a washing-up brush, I tried to create a wind-like, vacuum effect. In addition to this, to add some rhythm to the sound I reversed an audio of me dangling some keys, which ended up sounding a bit like the sparking of a lighter, adding to the city-like atmosphere. When listening back to the audio, I felt something was missing, so I inserted an audio of a microwave timer in the middle, which to me sounded like a lorry reversing, which I felt matched the tone I was trying to create.
Conclusion
Overall, considering it was my first time experimenting with sound, I quite liked the process of finding objects that can create interesting sounds, mixing them together to create a specific atmosphere. Even though I found it quite challenging, as I always used to include audio as an afterthought, focussing on the visual aspect of animation, I think that at some points within this rotation I achieved the sound I wanted. However, I think I still need more practice at this, as I’d like to learn more about sound and the various techniques I could use in the future. If I were to do this rotation again, I think I would try to implement a more musical aspect to some of the sound-worlds as this week I mostly tried to create atmospheres that didn’t have too much forward-planning in them. As well as this, I think the last film could’ve benefitted if I did more with the visual aspect and developed it to be a moving image.
Micro Film – Indoors to Outdoors – Initial Wednesday Homework