AA3B Major Assignment

My approach to this film was use Sound FX not only for Foley, but as thematic material. Emulating ideas such as the liet-motif for particular characters and places, linking scenes and emotions together. I feel it was a huge success.

You Tube Video

CC3B Major Assignment

I think this is SC patch is a massive step up from my attempts at creating a improvisational virtual sampler last year in MaxMsp. To me Super Collider is definitely the programing language of choice. I quite like the piece I created with this code, although I have a lot of additions I desire to make to add further improvisational possibilities.

12 Backwards on a Platter.mp3

Code

PIMT Research Project

I have created a 6 channel Panning software and outlined its use with a hardware touch screen control interface.

There are two codeing examples. The one labeled 'Panning Code Finised' is a working patch, the one labeled 'Panning Example 3' is an attempt at the process from a different angle which I feel is relevant to include.

PIMT write up

Panning Ode Finished

Panning Example 3

MTF3B Wk12

Pleasure vs Form

Today's forum was an open discussion of the nature of this degree. It basically revolved around what people want to get out of the course and how things are limited by the need to ensure there will still be enough students to fund the course. It seemed as though people wanted more freedom to follow their individual interests and less rigidity to adhering to specific styles and prescribed learning.

Stephen emphasised the importance of understanding the aesthetic and artistic understanding being as important as the Practical learning, yet it seems that the aesthetic is too heavily dictated and therefore the creative freedom suffers.

David's point about needing a compositional focus was the pinnacle of the discussion. 1 to 1 mentoring is definitely required but he University doesn't like funding where they don't get a return.

MTF3B Wk11

AI and cyborg inspired animations and short films was the focus of today's Forum. Of particular focus was the idea of technology getting out of hand. The music suited the films quite well. Overall it was quite reflective of ideas an concepts presented in the Stelarc workshop I attended last semester. The use of electronic composition as part of these films was an obvious deliberate choice in suiting with the themes of the film.

MTF3B Wk10

Poppi presented the animated works created by Betty (Yisheng Qian) for which she did the sound and music for. It was wonderful to see progressive works from what was presented in last years forum. The animations were really enjoyable and in conjunction with the music and sound is quite emotive and personally invokes child like innocence. This could be because as Betty stated (not an exact quote) "It is dream like in its nature" and the gentle attributes of the sound and images remind me of a child's daydream or story book. Interestingly enough the final film was related to child hood memories.

http://year-of-the-yoghurt-frog.blogspot.com/2007/12/moonhare-2007.html

Although technically brilliant, artistically Martins internet data as control Data didn't grab me. I think the link between internet data and sound is too arbitrary.

AA3B Wk10

http://www.craigerscinemacorner.com/Reviews/dark_city_the_directors_cut.htm

If you read this article the picture makes sense.


This film project demonstrates the ability to use foley as the source of tension and horror for a film sound track. The non-diegetic sounds have been chosen for there harsh and disturbing qualities, but have also been tied to the film.

Some are more direct such as the screams and whimpers which have been placed to heighten the tension and to mark out particularly frightening moments in the film. I have also attempted to use sounds in a similar vein as a liet-motif. The drips of water are placed as part of the castles ambience, yet when nosfuratu is on screen they go in reverse, to create an association of unnaturalness to his character. The screams are also part of the castle's ambience, as to create an association of torture and pain with the place.

The 'demonic' like screams are used to denote the internal workings of the womans mind as she is pulled under the power of nosferatu and uncontrollably sleepwalks. On the scene where nosfuratu almost looks at the woman, I intend to have a blend of both the natural screams and the 'demonic' screams to tie the two places together.

The use of the grinding sound is the most 'musical' of all the sound. It has no relevance to the film other than emotional intensity. It serves to put the audience on edge due to its harsh sonic qualities.

Overall this film draws upon inspiration from David Lynch and Mike Patton in the “I am Legend” Film. It is an attempt to avoid typical film score clichés that are especially prevalent in horror films and try a semi unique approach to music and sound.

MTF3B Wk9

Ben Probert's improvisational interface was really cool. I think if the data was sent to an actual MIDI piano it would have been quite amazing, although I don't think it could match the nuances and sophistication of an actual pianist.

David Downling's improvisational Super Collider work was not as sonically interesting as I think it could have been. It was very intelligent and well thought out though.

Will Revill's graphical interface was very clever and inspired, it is a pity we didn't get to hear it used with a sound source worthy of it such as Atmosphere.

Finally Jake's add was well done even if it was a rip off add.

Reference:

Whittington Stephen. “Forum – Week 9 – Semester 2, 2008: Student Presentations.” Workshop presented at EMU space, level 5 Schultz building, University of Adelaide, 9th of October 2008.

AA3A wk9

Popular music, beginning with jazz, began to proliferate and indeed dominate the film score from the early 50's. In the 60's this soon progressed to the popular rock music of the time. This was largely due to the marketing possibilities of selling the sound tracks as records to a increasingly younger audience.

Many have argued that pop music took away from the film, as they were void of such devices as the 'liet motif' which enhanced the on screen action in a subtle and sophisticated way. It's use can be completely non-diegetic in nature.

Furthering the part from classical musical in films was the advent of synthesised sound, which could quite often replace acoustic instruments altogether. However composers such as John Williams brought the “classical film score to its position of pre-eminence. He very sophistically used the music to create mood and emotion which tied to the narrative content of the film. His use of the liet-motif as an attribute of characters within a film is possibly his greatest classical scoring tool.

The article “John Williams and 'The Empire' Strike Back” by Kathryn Kalinak details quite succinctly all the classical compositional tools he uses to create great orchestral film works in the same operatic style of such composers as Wagner.

CC3B wk9

I used an extension of my patch from Wk7 for this weeks exercise. The constant triggering of the karplus synth from wk 6 lent itself well too being panned around a space. It would be really cool to be able to save panning automation data into a buffer which you could then play back on the fly, so you could set different panning paths for each sound which repeat over and over as part of a live performance. I don't think I'll get a chance to do it this semester, but I'll probably implement something like that over the summer break to use in the Fringe.

CC3B Wk9.rtf

CC3B Wk9.mp3s

http://www.all4mp3.com/tools/sw_fhg_demo.html

MTF3B Wk8

David Harris's favourite film is David Lynch's 'Eraser head.' It was bound to confuse and frustrate people in forum as its a very cult film which you need to be in the right mind frame to see.

The visuals and sound design in the film are brilliant. Because the film is so highly symbolic it gave a lot of freedom for sound exploration beyond basic foley and immediate story telling, but audio links to psychological states.

I think the film explores various psychological states of mind with highly subtle (and not so subtle) references and symbols. Ultimately I think Lynch is alluding to the drudgery of lower working class life being a torture of the 'soul.' This film for me highlights the need for people to live beyond a mundane existence. "When people are subjected to the force and expectations of a culture whose influence is so strong that they can never entirely be sure of what's going on, and can never do anything but let things happen to them until they break.1" They never get a chance to actually understand themselves let alone the environment they are in. The lady in the radiator's song is mirroring the hope of peace and joy in the afterlife as a respite from mundane existence. It also gives an active example of someone who is following there desires and is free from expectations.



http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=RctPKy25LBU

1. Sidler Faolan "Foalans opinion" 18/9/08.

CC3B Wk8

This week I decided to use the PV_Freeze object. I mainly chose this because I remember the cool spectral freeze stuff Ben Probert did with Max/Msp last year. The use of this object was really strait forward as was the GUI implementation. I really like the sonic results I achieved. Some of the frozen harmonics of the string recording sounding really rich and full.

CC3B wk8.rtf

CC3B wk8.mp3