The wintertide festival project opened up a lot of opportunities to create a unique piece of art work, in the Heugh Battery in Hartlepool headland. During this working process there was a lot of difficulties that I had experienced, and had to find ways to overcome these, but felt like my work wasn’t at its best to my abilities. I created a layered silhouette image which almost looked 3D.
The things I found difficult with this was finding the suitable material to use to create this. If I managed my time more I would have been able experiment more with a range of different materials, but did look into the process if I would to make on a bigger scale which material I would use. I chose to use paper first but found that it was too flexible and flimsy to stand on its own and for outdoor use it wouldn’t be weather proof. Then I decided to use card which was tougher than paper and allowed me to have it standing on its own, which worked for the mock up of my design but when it comes to using it, it would have to be a stronger material, which I would have to spend more time looking into to find the right one to make sure that it was weatherproof and suitable for all weather purposes for outdoor use.
What I thought worked well the most in my work was the design idea. I used iconic and historical landmarks for the Headland which people would easily identify and throughout the project I kept with the theme of keeping it within the Hartlepool culture. The colours linked with the towns football, and the quote I used ‘Never Say Die’ is used throughout Hartlepool, which gives a powerful message. But I feel that I abandoned the typography element of the project and focused more onto completing the actual design, feeling that the typography could of worked a lot better and needed to experiment more with this, but did look at Craig ward typography and inspired me to create a negative space text, with another inspiration of Daniele Buetti, who incorporated light shining through, which I thought worked quite well and create a shadow double effect on the floor when light was shown through.
The idea of my design came from looking at layered images and Japanese puppet shows, which tell a meaningful story, which I wanted to bring into my project. Kind of telling the story or creating memories for those who come from Hartlepool, letting them share experiences with their family/friends.
A difficult part of this project was finding the right lighting to put into the box, as there was limited use of electricity so needed something bright enough to shine through to create the effect I needed. I tried experimenting with Fairy lights and spotlight, and found the spotlight worked a lot better for the brightness and creating coloured shadows, but fairy lights made it easier to place around to give off more light.
To help me get an understanding of the project it would have been better to go to the place where the project was held to go and check out the limited spaces which were available and which we had to work in. Scaling and sizing the work should have been an important element but I didn’t really look into that, only briefly to scale measurements of how it would be placed into the box if I would have to make a final piece, its important to design something which would be easy to create on a bigger scale so it would be able to fit inside the space which you are required. I needed to look into if my project was suitable height wise so small children could see it as well as adults, also would it be visible easily for those looking in at any angle and any height range of people.
As the box is dark when it would be night and the silhouette are black, colour would have to be incorporated into the box. To get this effect I experimented with coloured accete which was transparent enough to let light shine through and allowed it to beam around the box with colour on certain elements in the project, making it more appealing and stand out inside.
I feel that I could of managed my project timing a little better, and of made more time to go to visit the place which the event was being held, but having a lot of other things to do I couldn’t find the time to get myself there. I need to spend less time looking for research and balance each part of the project out equally, focusing equal amounts of time on research, experimenting, development and getting out the final piece of my work. Evenly spacing this out would give me structure and allow me to incorporate a lot more other things I wanted to do.
Annotating my work was another issue, I found I should annotate as I am going along on each part rather than leaving it all the last minute as if it was less important and trying to throw it all in at the end, as this I equally as important as the work so should be more time spent doing this.
The Truth Matters: Navigating Truth in a Sea of Falsehoods
The Misinformation Epidemic
Imagine being lost in a dense forest with no map, no compass and no clear direction. That’s what it’s like to navigate the complex information landscape of today. Misinformation, or false information spread intentionally or unintentionally, has become a pervasive problem in modern society. It’s like a contagious virus, spreading rapidly and infecting millions.
But…
On the link above is my video for my Critical Evaluation.
For this I utilised what I had been shown by Dan Thompson in our Audio/Visual sessions on Adobe Premier Pro. I chose this option as I could easily write in essay form and wanted to create something that would push me out of my comfort zone for learning but didn't choose a presentation as I wasn't quite equipped to speak in front of the group at this time.
I recorded the footage of myself creating one half of my final piece for the Respond week. I recorded the audio file separately using a Zoom recording device from the Falmouth Stores. The making of this video was not without it's hiccups. I had to create more than one video recording during the process of making my pastel piece as the camera I own could only record just over 17 mins of footage at a time. When I came to start editing, the length of the video depended on the length of my audio file, Joe Payne in the Mac Training Suite, pointed out when I asked why I couldn't hear my audio, that my first recording was completely unintelligible and didn't register high enough volume to use. So, on my second attempt, I made sure that I held the Zoom device closer to my mouth so it would register in the right Hz to be heard. The second recording is in the final piece heard in the video. I consulted Dan once more for help as, as you will hear, it has pops where my breath interfered with the recording. At this point, I did not have time to rerecord a third time, so Dan showed me how to clean up the audio file from the original. I also found it difficult to speak to a machine unscripted and found I stammered occasionally, the reason I was unscripted was that I felt that to make a decent length of script, I would have to write over the word count for the optional written report. I am happy with the time lapse effect I implemented even if the dialogue is choppy in places, it is still possible to hear what is said. Given more time on this project, I would rerecord the audio with a cardioid microphone, to limit breathing reverberations in the recording process.
The still above shows the raw files I had to combine in Premier Pro to be able to create the finished piece.
I hope that on the whole, the video and the narrative show my creative process in this module, for both the issues I encountered and my eventual successes.
It was a very interesting read and it helped me understand this module's Criteria better. The way Jamie draws parallels between himself and other practitioners is informative, but what interested me the most was how he explains and reaffirms the fluid nature of his work. The discourse on how “the poetic” is relevant to his work and how this foggy area of human culture can be viewed in context of, well, science, the theme of authorship, the careful framing (figuratively and literally) of his work helped me to understand what his project was really about. Moreover, it gave me an idea of what is expected of me and how I could compose my own critical evaluation.
MD5317 Music for Moving Image - Critical Evaluation of Audio-Visual Composition (Loving Me) and Restrict
For the evaluation of both pieces of work, one will be breaking them down into two individual parts for the sake of simplifying the process in which one made them with, and also for the sake of ease. I will start with the Audio-Visual piece ‘Loving Me’ and then move onto the set brief ‘Restrict,’ after which one will conclude the evaluation.
Audio-Visual Composition ‘Loving Me’:
This part of the assessment was particularly enjoyable as one had enlisted help from one’s significant other, which helped to make the footage that much more real and believable for the audience.
The idea for this music video was the result of finally giving in to the question “when are you going to make a song for me?” after nearly two years. One chose to use the perspective of ‘point of view’ partly because of one’s attempt at interpreting the ‘Observe’ concept, but also a stylistic choice of trying to put the audience in the eyes of the person behind the camera. This was actually very difficult to achieve as the only way one could obtain such footage was by using a ‘Gear VR’ headset not intended to be used in such a fashion, in junction with one’s phone camera (Samsung Galaxy S6) meaning that one not only looked quite ridiculous but also to some degree was walking essentially blind whilst doing so.
The footage was taken all in one go whilst taking a stroll at night down an urban path to Pitville park in Cheltenham. The shooting of the footage at night was intended to highlight how sometimes relationships can have their hard times due to external forces at play. The visual emphasis of the journey to the park was also intended to represent a couple's journey together through life. One also made a conscious effort to present to the camera one’s hands from time to time, to further reinforce the perspective of the ‘point of view’ shot. This, therefore, gave the opportunity to show to the camera the holding of hands which helped to promote the narrative further.
After the shooting of the footage, one then went about the creation of the audio to accompany it. It was important to try and capture the emotions of love, while also trying to keep the music upbeat. To do this one used vocal samples that literally use the words ‘I love what you do girl’ as well as using vinyl samples of Fender Rhodes electric piano which gives it a warm feeling of reminiscing on good memories. One also used two synth bass-lines, bass drum, rim shots, hats, rides and sampled bubblewrap sounds as part of one’s stylistic and creative choices towards the making of the music. To do this one used ‘Ableton Live 9 Suite Edition’ as this DAW is very effective for the manipulation of audio samples and a great software for creative workflow. One then exported the audio into ‘Logic Pro X’ where the mixing of the audio was done, then finally mastered using ‘Izotope’s Ozone 8.’
Once one was happy with the audio, one then started the process of stitching the two together using ‘Adobe Premiere Pro’ as the editing tool of choice. Having had some experience using this software, as well as the stylistic choice of the video recording made cutting the footage to the music incredibly easy. The main way one edited the footage to fit the audio was the use of simple cut transitions on the beats of the music, these tended to be on either the hit of the bass drum or the hit of the rim shot. Where the vocal samples mention ‘Love’ one purposefully inserted footage that clearly reflected that and when the chorus section starts for the first time, cutting the footage of dancing to mirror the energy at this point. The second chorus section has the footage sped up extremely fast in reverse to highlight the journey took together and also to rouse the feeling of reminiscing about good times that came before. This sped up effect also has interesting ways of interacting with the music in terms of the tempo and beat.
One did some research into ‘point of view’ recording (aka ‘POV’) and used the video (link to youtube) below as a reference to how it can bring the desired effect to the composition.
https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=ScRPUZuFhd8
Set Brief ‘Restrict’:
The Restrict Video one fond much harder to work on than the Audio-Visual composition as one was not given the freedom to create the visuals, as well as having to be mindful of the director's intentions of the scenes. In an effort to remain sensitive to the visual production and also to help ones creative flare to proceed, breaking the scene down into sections was important.
The opening till 00:53 one used a pad build-up and high formant choir that sounds dreamy to reflect the sleep state of the character, then 00:59-01:56 celestial pads and choir slightly pitch bent to enhance the emotion one may feel when waking to an unusual place lost and confused. One also used a percussive sound when the character turns her head swiftly because one felt that she was reacting to some sound which one then decided to use further from 01:56-02:49 accompanied by staccato bass strings as a suspenseful build-up with a little xylophone as well.
At 02:49 when the other character appears one used a shrill bowed bouzouki for the shock straight after which a low formant choir starts then soon after some emotional strings which then feature through to the end then accompanied by flute near the very end.
All these instruments one chose for the characteristics they bring when trying to build suspense and also enhancing the sad, confused and also sometimes horrified nature that is shown in the scene as it progresses.
I used the following as research material for this:
https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=RQK01Mm7M_Q
https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=5Q88lLOL2dI
One feels that the way both projects were approached was done so carefully and methodically, this isn’t to say however that they could not be improved upon given more time. However, that being said, there will almost certainly be time limits to uphold, such as this assessment for example, if this were to be done for a company or as a line of work. So time management is vital, as is the ability to get the job done well and professionally.
How I interpreted the theme of light in my project:
My interpretation of the word light, could be anything but I feel that the most used way is being a source of light or bringing light into a situation, giving a happier feel to a mood or self being. Things in which could be explored within the work would be to see how much different sources or light there is and how light is used within many objects and things you wouldn’t even think of using light in them. Also, you could search reflective materials which links to how light prisms represent the use of light, seeing the way the light is beamed through objects and materials.
Research:
One of the designers I looked at were Cute Circuit - Francesca Rosella & Ryan Genz who created a range of fashion which incorporated neon lights, in a way of manmade meeting technology, giving a futuristic approach into the fashion world. The dresses are safe to wear and are made from completely with no hazardous materials. Beautiful and magical and give the wearer a feeling of empowerment and connectedness is the way the designer had took into mind as they had designed this range of clothing.
The main dress which attracted my eye was the dress in which they designed with twitter in mind and other social media sources. The way they have done this I feel it gets the public involved within the design, sending live tweets what they post showing on the dress, which makes an exciting new way to link to technology. The dress was commissioned by EE for a special launch of the 4G network. The dress was a Black floor-length evening dress made out of metres of delicate and floaty french chiffon. Magic Fabric with MicroLEDs that create extraordinary animations and receive Tweets in real time. The dress was designed for the singer Nichole Scherzinger, which gives a celebrity face to help promote the style in which her fans would notice and want to look more into it, which is how they get their name out there, and become more brand popular.
As I looked at the previous designers from Cute Circuit, I found another dress which attracted my attention, it was another source of light which was linked in the material of the dress, but the dress was designed for Katy Perry for the Met Gala red carpet. The Dress was a one-shoulder couture gown. Metres of flowing ivory and blush silk chiffon and over 3000 full colour MicroLED lights. It created a rainbow colour which also reminds me of the light prism spectrum, having the rainbow style showing how the source of light can be made. The lights changed colour as she moved around the event, which makes the dress never looking the same. It fits the style and the mood of the person wearing it and brings attention to who is walking around in it. It inspires me for my work as i want to create designs which use light flowing materials but have some source of light through them, and this is the perfect combination of the two. Also this uses a celebrity as the muse for the dress, which gets people talking about it and drawing attention to them, the same way as they would when Nichole Scherzinger would wear the twitter dress.
Another designer I looked at was Yayoi Kusama. Her work gives a unique way of how light is incorporated in designs. But my main focus was on the way she uses one object to create a pattern over a variety of her work, and as soon as you see that pattern you know exactly which designer you would link that with, giving it a very distinct style to her. First she had designed the Infinity Mirror which by Installing hundreds of flashing coloured LED lights into mirrored rooms. The pinpricks of light in the dark room reflect in the mirrors, making you feel like you are in an endless space, which is one way she incorporated light into a whole room, giving a wide space to be worked into and letting you become part of. The other side of the way she incorporated light was within her fashion which was a limited marketing for LOUIS VUITTON. The collection included a yellow drop-waisted dress with a frill skirt; cropped trousers in red and black; classic trench coats, given a surreal twist with the artist’s vibrant spots; and silk scarves. Avant garde fashion. Her work inspires me as i love the unique and creative way she makes use of one specific pattern and uses it over a range of products, using bold and vibrant colours. Her Fashion matched the style in which she creates the rooms, which instantly you know where the inspiration is from. Her rooms consist of Neon colours and lights and mirrors, which are perfect examples of different uses of light and how they can reflect around an area, lighting up the whole space.
Anton Conrad Light dresses painted. London based Advertising, Fashion and Art photographer. He physically paints the subject with light brushes in a blackout studio whilst remote triggering the camera. I could use his work as inspiration of my own to create dresses with a programme digitally which has the use of lights, putting them onto my own models, i could do this by experimenting with weavesilk or with photoshop.
I looked at a range of surface pattern designers which all done similar style of work, such as Elizabeth Olwen, Rachel Taylor, Natalie Lea Owen and Jessica Wilde. The one who attracted me the most was Natalie Lea Owen Illustration, bold patterns and contemporary colour. Worked with Hallmark Cards to produce a range for the ‘Waitrose Graduation Collection’. Products are now stocked internationally in stores including Fenwicks, Museum of London, The National Archives and We Built This City. Which shows that her design can be placed on a Varity of fashion based products. This is the style I would like to do in my work, gathering a pattern together using one image in a Varity of sizes and layout to be used over a number of clothing or accessories. Another method to use this would be to create a backdrop to put my designs onto, creating a link to place all the pieces together as one thing.
Fashion sketches have been a big inspiration of my work as it is the main basis of what I want to create for my own project. I found whilst looking at these that there is many different styles you can draw these or create them. High end fashion designers tend to keep their sketches detailed and precise wanting the sketch to be as close to the end product. When I looked into more of the sketches I found sketching onto black paper worked more effective as they looked like you actually are drawing with lights and are illuminating from the page. To experiment with this I can use chalks, pastels, paint in bright colours to stand out on the paper which would give the same effect as these give and to create different styles of shading and colours.
For the shoe design I looked at a number of different styles of shoes, ranging from shoes in which you could just use as sculptures and shoes in which you could wear, comparing the difference between the two. I found that designing shoes to wear would work more effect as it would sell a lot more and be good for the branding itself. Two of the main shoes I focused on was Irregular choice and Christian Louboutin. Two of the higher end fashion marketing. Irregular choice are brightly coloured, unusual designs were created in response to “boring” and “very black and brown” British High Street fashions in the late 1990s. Irregular Choice trademark is the character heel. The heel becomes a main image of the whole design and you can style the shoes around that one image, which link everything together nicely. The shoes are suitable to wear but also could be used as a sculpture piece. Christian Louboutin, High-end stiletto footwear incorporates shiny, red-lacquered soles that have become his signature. Shoes finding favor with celebrity clientele. These attracted my eye as they are designed with the basis of normal looking shoes but with the red soles being the signature look, everyone instantly knows the shoe brand just by looking at that, and this helps me by wanting to get my brand out there, using something as its signature look to instantly know who I am designing for. I could use the simple style just to add colour in my fashion designs or i could place a pattern on top of a neon colour to help it stand out with it being a plain block colour.
Outlining the brief:
The outcomes in which I aimed to design were to design a range of fashion surface patterns and illustration prints. I want to do a complete brand design to get my fashion label into the public world. The line will be women’s fashion all styled with the word light, incorporating the different styles you can get the word over. For the branding, I will be creating a logo which would make it easy to identify. It will be distributed across a range of social media and over a range of fashion designs on outfits and models, and preferably high brand fashion magazines.
Secondary Research – Artists and Designers.
The artists which have influenced my development and experimentation are the ones which I had listed in my previous research, trying their techniques to put into my work.
Weavesilk fashion was something I experimented with, which I took inspiration from the photographer Anton Conrad, but also inspired by bioluminescence. The work he had done on photographing models and then placing light digitally on them, made me want to use a programme which I could use fashion to be placed onto models. The Bioluminescence inspiration took from the shapes of the creatures in which lurked below the water. They glow in different colours, mostly the jellyfish, and I found that they had looked like some form of skirts, so using this programme I tried to also create a fashion garment of the shapes of those creatures. The colours are neon and almost look they have been created using neon lights. The different formation of lines show the movement within the fashion, which show the realistic fit of the body.
Chalk fashion was something which I found by looking at the fashion sketches and different ways they draw them on different types of papers. The chalk lets you blend and create lines more easy and create the right shades on certain areas of the clothing where they would have the light hitting onto them.
Feather fashion, As i looked through my research i had found using different textiles to place onto flat drawings, making them look 3D and give them a touch feel effect on them, even when digitalised and edited they still look like an object you can touch on the paper. I took inspiration from looking at mixed media art, which they use real life natural objects to incorporate into their drawings to get the same effect and to give a whole new meaning to art.
My digital print patterns are based around the surface patterns in which I looked at in my research. I used them to create one main onject and create a pattern around them, changing the movement of the images around and having them randomly placed around to pull together as one image. This was to be used across products as a pattern overlayed on top. I played around with the contrast and colours, changing them to different styles, but found as it did this, they became to look more like balloons rather than light bulbs as you wouldn’t typically see bulbs in the colours they had came across. The coloured patterns i feel would fit perfectly if i were to design a range of kids clothing but doesn’t look suitable for an adult target audience in which i am going for.
Typography was taken from Da font and a variety of different fashion brand labels which I found worked best for my own branding. I think taking these into consideration was important as you want to create something easy recognizable and easy to read and understand what it is you are trying to promote out. Through my experimenting and developing I used a range of handwritten fonts and digital. I found that the digital fonts worked best as they were professional and could be easily changed if needed with size and colour. The handwritten fonts were effective and give a personal feel but I feel as for a high end fashion brand it wasn’t something what would come across as professional looking. Ichanged the colours and contrasts around in the development to find which colours worked best, but I found that keeping the basic black and white style like other fashion branding worked effective as it linked instantly to what it was and it also gave a professional finish and would stand out on a number of different things in which I would need to use.
Final Outcomes:
For a final design of the shoe patterns I chose to place the patterns onto the shoes in which I created using glow sticks and the bulb pattern I had coloured digitally. I chose three styles of shoes in which you could wear with a number of fashion, choosing two casual shoes in complete different styles and one which you could wear for a fancy occasion. The three shoes I chose were Christian Louboutin, Vans and Dr Materns. I feel these shoes would be easy to place the designs onto as they all give a block of colour and space to work onto like a canvas. I messed around with the surface pattern changing the vibrance and saturation so I could have more of the purple tones into them, which is the pantone colour of the year being ultra violet. This makes the shoes keep on trend. The shoe brands themselves are highly known brands in the fashion world, which make my work seem like having limited edition work on these, which helps get the brand name out there. I placed these on a page using the pantone at the side as I think it looks professional and something which is highly linked to in the fashion world, showing what colours were exactly used.
For my whole final piece, I created a mood board with a number of my designs and experiments stuck onto it. The layout of the mood board is a magazine style. The logo I chose was placed at the top of the page to show exactly what the brand was in which the boards were promoting out. I went with a simple style logo, which links to magazines Vogue, Elle and You, which creates a clear link with the mood board style I went for. Each board contains the magazine in which I took inspiration for my logo. Each of the magazines represents the magazine in which I would see those fashion categories going into. The evening wear in a higher branding magazine such as vogue, and the day time casual style in more of a lower end such as you and Elle. My mood board take the logo from high brand shoe designers to show my inspiration as I feel this needed to be on so it can link easy to who I look up to for my designing style. The boards show my designs and process through the design principles, ranging from digital drawings, surface patterns, logos and fashion illustrations. My muse for the fashion on these were based around the style of Kim Kardashian, I felt as though using a celebrity face would help advertise the clothing range out there as she is high in the fashion industry, already having connections to designers herself, so using her would make my brand more known and brand it more out there.
I decided to use the pantone colour app to select the main colours in which are used within the patterns which are on the shoes. I wanted to find if the shoes i designed were on trend of what the high fashion colour is this year. When i checked i found that it contained a lot of the purple shades, which links to the trend, as the colour is ultra violet, so having other shades of purple work really well to fit with that. Having pantones allows people to know what the exact colour is to use so everything stays the same, the shade doesn’t change at any time throughout a lot of designs. Having the pantone showing like this looks highly professional and gives you a sample of the colours which is used. This allows whoever takes the design to know the exact colour in which they need if they are creating a whole range of these products, so that they whole style never changes. The images are clear and eyecatching as they are just placed on a page on their own, drawing attention to the main product in which you are trying to brand out. Having this also show that the shoes can be decorated or they can be used to be on a range of different products within the fashion world. The pantone is for the pattern which is overlaid on the top, so it can be used as its stand alone image to sell different fabrics.
To conclude, if I was to take my fashion brand further I would look into designing a range of mens and kids wear aswell as the womens clothing as it would give my audience a wider range and would attract more to the public eye. As I processed through I found websites in which I could design and get printed my own fabrics, so instead of doing the fashion models I could just create a range of surface pattern fabrics to sell for people to purchase and make the clothing with. The website allows you to preview your work and also allowed you to buy the actual product with your design on it. The website I found to do this was Contrado, it means that you will be able to see your design physically without making it yourself, which would save a lot of time process as I didn’t have time to make the actual clothing itself. It also gives you a view in which it would look like on an actual person. To further my designs I could show the range on a select of celebrities using them to brand my items out, seeing how they would look in my clothing range.
Observe
When first approaching this project, I wanted to try something I’d not done before, and so in preparation I went out with a friend and shot over nine minutes of drone footage that I knew was versatile and could be applied to almost any brief I set myself. It was then that I quite accidentally stumbled on this YouTube video - https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=RmRSIgPJPKw. After hearing it, I decided I wanted to create a brief that would allow me to write in an atonal style, something very new to me, follow this link to find the full brief I set myself for this project – http://christopherhuntwatts.tumblr.com/post/174109069950/observe-independent-brief-md5317.
Once I’d decided my stylistic direction I started doing some research into the unsettling genres of music and sound and found the video ‘Second Syndrome’, found here - https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=OGbEkgEyt8k. I took a lot of inspiration from the instrumentation in this video which is particularly evident in the first 1:30 of my piece where I used the izotope vinyl plug-in to give the instruments an old creepy tone. I loved the relationship between the piano and violin and thought it would suit my brief in terms of the music being unsettling and noticeable but still background. The images in ‘Second Syndrome’, along with music video for The Wyches’ song, Gravedweller (found here - https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=Bdp3NvKyUi0), gave me the inspiration for the muted grey/black and white filter which innately works with atonal, creepy and unsettling music.
With requirements for the piece to be between four and five minutes long, I felt piano and violin alone wasn’t dynamic enough to meet my brief and keep the backdrop interesting. To liven things up and avoid getting stuck with a repetitive musical motif, I added percussion, synth and vocals which come in at around 2:30. The inspiration for this addition came largely from the track Sikiliza Kwa Wahenga, found here - https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=CbvnvweeSR8&t=24s. This midsection in which these instruments are most noticeable starts at roughly 2:31 and adds to the dynamics and unsettling feeling of this piece by syncopating the hits and messing with the established tempo. The percussion at the beginning of the 2:31 section is one of the key points that puts almost 100% of focus on the music and serves to bridge the introduction of synth into what has by that point, been a piano and strings piece.
I found the intro and outro audio, from some YouTube found footage, and chose it to counterpoint the darker musical style I was going for. The piano piece, which is a cover of ‘They'll be bluebirds over the white cliffs of dover’, already evokes the feeling of flying as its composter Walter Kent would have intended because of the lyrical content. This is a very wholesome piece of music with deep historical, patriotic and nationalistic connections. Along with the use of coloured images behind it, I was aiming to create semiotic confusion when that song fades into static (using the izotope vinyl plug-in) is replaced with a more atonal piece on the same instrument and the grey/black and white footage. This works in revers in the outro section where end text appears, and the colour of the drone footage is restored.
While I met my brief of making an unsettling piece of video/audio, I would now like to contact a couple of poets I know and see if they would be interested in having some of their work overlaid on Observe in the way my imaginary client would have.
Restrict
The first step I took when starting work on the sound for Restrict was to watch it from beginning to end until I had a rough idea of the different sections. As show in the picture attached, I categorised the video into five sections and the moods that I wanted to covey in them.
I kicked off my composition by working on the dynamics, making place holder synths to show the level of power and intensity I to bring out in each scene. After my first real introduction into creating synths in a number of previous projects (which you can find here - http://christopherhuntwatts.tumblr.com/tagged/MD5317), I found it fairly easy to make a good dynamic synth ground on which to build and begin to zero in on which instruments and sounds I wanted for the different moods. High strings were an obvious choice for section 1 and 4 as a life time’s diet of Hollywood and cinema has conditioned us to associate them with moving scenes. After some twiddling, I also went with deeper strings low in the mix for some of the intense and dark moments as, when put atop a heavy synth pad, they gave movement without removing the audience from the visuals as, for example, brass or electric guitar could have.
To move further into the dynamics, I didn’t want to be scared of leaving silence if I felt a scene wouldn’t benefit form music. The main examples of this can be found in section 4 into 5 where the protagonist’s final decision to end her life is such powerful imagery that the music being absent leaves 100% of our attention of on her emotion. A couple of examples of this happening in famous movies is this 4:58 scene in Wolf of Wall street (https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=idOQXlHVrQE) and 3:49 scene from the first Hunger Games (https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=e3PJ3Du_zDc).
A very present sound in my final video is in fact an example of real world sound I used. This was made from my Di-ed bass guitar which I palm muted and plucked before pitch shifting down an octave and adding compression, EQ and reverb. Varying in volume and note value, this worked very well as a rhythmic beating, similar to a cinematic heart beat that is present throughout a lot of the video. I also used a bass slide with these effects on for the moment the protagonist realises she is trapped in the dark at the beginning of section 2 (1:55).
The Conclusion
In the final analysis of my audio interpretation of restrict and my own brief, I can say that I have learned a lot about synthesisers, MIDI instruments, sampling and adapting real world sounds and how all of that can be used to bring out or subdue emotions in the visual medium.
Here is a link to my brief - http://christopherhuntwatts.tumblr.com/post/174109069950/observe-independent-brief-md5317
Here is a link to my Observe video I created - https://youtu.be/ZsmqKhN0ThE
Here is a link to more information on the construction of my brief - http://christopherhuntwatts.tumblr.com/post/174112902950/more-about-my-brief-md5317
Here is a link to my sampled audio - https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=tRxtx3PMX_Q
