Sound and Light Project Plan

After listening to the soundscape Will and I were assigned "Confession Booth," we felt that we should approach the project as if it were an examination of something deeper. What is within the images? What happens when you look closer? Also, we decided to add color to all of the pictures. After making various colorized versions of most of the photographs, we discussed how the pictures should flow (aside from trying to match the sounds). Because the soundscape starts with footsteps and a door opening and closing, we decided to bookend the soundscape with images of nature. Once more and more sounds are revealed, nature devolves into the city which then evolves into various images of light as the soundscape digs deeper into the confession. Also, we are assembling a flow of images dissolving into other images while moving in for a closer look and contrasting that with the same image rapidly changing into different colors and textures. Trippy man!

Response for assignment #1b

i bought a Pentax K1000 at the end of july and I have been playing around with it quite a bit, so this assignment gave me a motivated chance to learn even more. And by motivated I mean that I was encouraged to try new things. I've been fascinated by the differences the change in the f-stop can make on the quality and perspective of an image with the same framing, and seeing the results only reinforce that which I have been learning. Also, I am not sure if I would have had the idea to attempt the long exposure of the stop lights had I not been given this assignment (I did a 12 second exposure for each because I noticed that the yellow light held for 4 seconds, so I started the shot on the last 4 seconds of green and ended after the first 4 seconds of red). Of course, I forgot for a second that I was filming black and white, so I am now including a color version that I took. enjoy!

Another Random Light Observation

While driving around town, sunlight glaring off of a car caught the attention of my eye. How bright, I thought. As I continued driving, I started noticing multiple glares from multiple cars at one time. How fucking bright, I thought. It got to the point to where I was only paying attention to light bouncing off of vehicles while being surrounded by car dealerships in heavy traffic. Because I was only noticing glares at this point, my eyes started to feel weak. How ridiculously fucking bright it is on the street. It felt like I was staring at the sun... or rather, I felt like the sun was all around me. And everything went white.

A Random Light Observation

So the lamp in my living room has a green light bulb screwed in. Moreover, it is a lamp from Kirklands I believe, wishing it were antique (so the green light bulb seemed appropriate). While sitting on the couch in the dark, I turned on only the green light. The first thing one notices is how little it lights the room; the other side of the room was still quite dark. I then noticed that the light bursting out of the top of the lamp shade created an ovalish octagon on the otherwise black ceiling. No light came through the center of the lamp, creating a black hole within the green octagon. I noticed a slight shadow from the curtain rod on the wall. Curiously, a red cup sat on the table under the lamp shade, appearing as if it were lit from the inside. A book sat beside it: Lolita. Now I want to continue reading Lolita.

Fuckin Badass

Manipulation

Truth

Reflections on Assignment 1A

I found this project to be beneficial because it encourages one to really focus on the power of sounds that we do not pay attention to. I am still amazed at the fact that a leaf scraping itself on the sidewalk can be heard over constant traffic. When recording sounds, we attempted to find some sounds that are not quite common but were interesting and could be used as a sound for something else (such as when we threw quarters and corks at the wall). Doing this project encourages me to go out on my own and record tons of sounds so I can start building my own sound library for future projects. Although sound is essentially synonymous with film, I do believe that it is overlooked. (That's interesting in regards to my previous post concerning absolute film). I also found it fascinating that, when played back, some sounds were hard to decipher when trying to figure out their source. Sound is an entity that must be payed more attention to.

Response to "The Absolute Film"

Dr. William Moritz verbalized something I have often considered: film can and should be thought of as expressive images that do not require narrative and sound to function. Mortiz says, "Cinema even more than music seems dominated by documentary and fiction functions," and I could not agree more. As I have taken more film classes and more creative writing classes, I have reached the point where the narrative is the least interesting aspect because it creates boundaries (as far as my writing goes I am far more interested in the scene rather than the story). There should be room to examine all cinematic opportunities. I feel that society takes film (the moving image) for granted. Yes, music can be used in such a way to enhance the image (as we have witnessed in class by way of Ballet Mecanique), but film should not be synonymous with music. A silent image can be deafening. I was watching clips from a random documentary about Norwegian black metal earlier, and the most feared of the black metal musicians silently stared at the interviewer without flinching for over 2 minutes; the silent portrait of this crazy guy will piss you off because of the silence and progression of time. That is the power film can have and, in my opinion, is a nice example of my interpretation of absolute film.

Sounds I Heard Whilst Listening

I decided to sit in the same spot at two different times of day for two of my entries. The following occurred:

Brookstone Apartments parking lot (around 3 PM). While sitting on the steps outside of my apartment, traffic was bustling. Engines revved and roared. The air conditioning units beside the building rattled constantly, but they were not very loud. Brakes squeaked and squealed. I only heard one car honk, and it seemed intrusive. A single leaf rolled by my feet on the concrete, scraping itself in a manner that is louder than one would expect. A bus thundered off through the nearby stop light. Whenever the wind picked up, the leaves in the nearby tree sounded like a distant mountain stream. Surprisingly, I did not hear any music of any kind blasting by. I missed the sound of chirping birds.

Brookstone Apartments parking lot (around 12:30 AM). While sitting on the steps outside of my apartment, I realized how different nightlife truly is. The air conditioning units rattled constantly and were louder than they were in the afternoon because there were fewer sounds to mask them. I could hear the faint sound of a car alarm in the distance and it seemed to fade in and out. Of course the insects were thriving, chirping as a bird would if it were an insect. Moreover, I continued to miss the sound of chirping birds. Have all the birds flown away? A few cars drove by; their engines softly hummed. The loudest sound was that of another leaf scraping itself on the concrete as it raced the wind. A siren sounds off in the distance, maintaining a continuous long and drawn out call. However, another siren with a rapid call fused with the first siren to create an epic police warning.

While sitting at my computer in my bedroom, I took a moment to take in the atmosphere. My roommate had gone to bed, but every now and then I could hear her cough through the wall. The air conditioner was quite loud and masked many sounds; if it were not running, it would be a much quieter environment. My fingers clicked my keyboard. My neighbor above me stomped furiously all over my ceiling. The bass of rap of hip hop music thud thud thudded from above and I was unable to hear any vocals. It was then revealed that my neighbor was not alone upstairs, being that I soon heard multiple feet performing HULK SMASH! Either a fight was occurring or they were having some intense sex. Or perhaps I was missing out on a killer party; I think I heard the sound of a dresser falling onto my ceiling. My neighbor need not worry, for I am not one to complain.

Response to "Theory of the Film: Sound"

Bela Balazs makes it known that sound is a fundamental element of film; the incorporation of sound is what makes film a unique and nearly limitless art form (nearly limitless when compared to painting and theater, of course). His evaluation of why sound is important in the film world is, in my opinion, dead on. Film is my favorite art form because it basically combines all other art forms into one piece. His claims concerning silence being beneficial in film really struck me. "No other art can reproduce silence, neither painting nor sculpture, neither literature nor the silent film could do so." This is a great point and is something that I have often thought. NO COUNTRY FOR OLD MEN immediately came to mind, the fact being that it lacked non-diegetic music and that the Coen brothers used sound to build suspense: Anton removes his boots at the hotel and approaches Moss's room with shotgun in hand that way he is not to be heard, for he knows that the slightest sound can give away his presence, and Moss is constantly listening to the silence throughout the film, listening for the slightest of sounds. I feel that this is a clear example of how sound, and the lack thereof, can elevate film above other forms of art in terms of control over viewers.