Soundscape Impressions

Through my time with working on anything involving sound, my creativity can really go bonkers.  I am sure many could attest to that as well.  From the process of recording, towards the conceptual design of the soundscape,  I was intrigued and constantly thinking of ideas of sounds we could do and how could we alter them to create a piece that would later mold together in the edit lab.  Though my main issue was the amount of time and scheduling according to my other school courses, but otherwise it was a really fun project to be involved in.

                One thing I particularly enjoyed was the post-production, which is what I find myself enjoying the most when working on film projects.  Though I do like the field work and experiencing the creation of something first-hand, creating a way to piece all of it together is what I want to do as a career.  Anyway, back to the actual topic of the piece: creating an experimental soundscape.

                Generally, my approach to the experimental genre is to really experiment and test my skills as an editor.  Granted, there is not much skill or practice, but anyway, testing my ability is really the objective when doing these kinds of projects.  Also, with a group, it is very interesting how diverse our minds were in some cases.  For example, on whether we should lower or raise the volume, when to centralize an effect, or even what effects to use and how it would affect the overall soundscape.  Just the few little details can make such a big difference as to how the final production is completed.  Overall, the project in itself was a joy to work on, with countless hours invested into creating a two minute strip of a mix of sounds.  Onto the next one!

Class Presentations I: Jonas Mekas

In this particular class session, the filmmaker presentation was about Jonas Mekas, who is known to be the “godfather of American avante-garde film.”  He studied in the University of Mainz and shortly emigrated to New York with his brother shortly after World War II.  This is where he first purchased his Bolex camera and began filming moments in his life.  This is where his avant-garde technique is based off of.

Mekas had a very documentary like style to his film.  According to the presentation in class, it was a way to signify what he would have done as a child if he did have a camera to play with.  With his brother, Adolfas, he would then found the magazine Film Culture, which is a prominent film magazine to this day.  That, to me, shows how significant this man was to the film industry and the development of such a genre.  As his career progressed, he would stray away from using actors in his films to a more realistic, capture in the moment, type of filming.   Alongside choppy editing and physically altering the film itself to really capture the avant-garde style we know today. 

One little tidbit I also enjoyed from the presentation was the influences Mekas created within the art industry.  Artists such as Andy Warhol and Salvador Dali collaborated and were inspired by Mekas’s work.  He also collaborated with Yoko Ono and John Lennon, which I thought was really awesome.  Overall, I think that the inspiration of one man who really captured the essence of an amateur filmmaker to create work that would be known for generations is truly inspiring for an amateur filmmaker like myself.

The Beginning of Absolute Film

One thing that really caught my interest in Moritz's article was the evolution towards the "Absolute Film."  Absolute Film, or Avante- Garde as a much more known term, was a genre that lacked any kind of concentrated narrative or plot.  These certain types of film were about the artist and how he or she was displaying a piece of work that were out of the norm. Moritz discussed particularly about Walther Ruthmann, who used his knowledge in painting and music to create the first Absolute Film, Movie Opus I, that would be shown in public theaters.  He was able to conduct imagery with a music that didn't necessarily have a clear presence other than the fact that both the image and music went well with each other.  Ruthmann also physically altered the film strip, which also is a big trait in the genre as it continues to grow.  The evolution of the Absolute Film indeed is an interesting one.

The Magic of Synethesia and Cymatics

Synesthesia is the rare ability for someone to have two or more of their senses “blend together,” so to speak.  Think about it this way.  What if that every time you hear a certain sound, you taste something in your mouth?  Or you see a flash of color that no one else can see?  Personally, I had never heard of this condition but I am too intrigued.  The fact that people live their everyday lives experiencing such moments can really allow someone to exceed in certain skills, such as memorization, or even something a little more artistic, like music.

Speaking of music, being that it is a collection of sounds in harmony to create something pleasing (or displeasing, in some cases), the vibrations in the air actually can be visually depicted in a phenomena called Cymatics.  Now, Cymatics is a very interesting as the subject actually is created based on the vibrations the sound causes.  These vibrations will cause thin particles to move and form geometrical shapes based on the frequency of the waves.  I believe that this shows how the vibrations affect matter if it is solely concentrated in one location.  When seeing the visual audacity of Cymatics, people can understand the artistic wonder that they create.  It just amazes me how something so beautiful can be hidden away in front of our eyes and we would have known about it.  What is the world without experiments?

Hands-On with Recording Sound

As you can see, sound has a special place in my heart.  Whether it is creating folly from small materials, to simple recordings of sound effects and dialogues, the sound aspect of film is very intriguing in enhancing a cinematic experience for the audience, as well as the filmmaker.  That is why when I am given the opportunity to take part in the process of recording, I had a blast.  With the sound recording we did for my experimental course, my thought process with what we were able to use from the raw recording and what could be enhanced in post-production.  My personal goal is to record sounds that showed a variety on the spectrum.  Did we succeed? Perhaps.  Time to put those sound bites to the test real soon.