Earlier this month I attended MIFF’s ‘Vertical Cinema’ event. In an earlier post I mentioned how some of the experimental films screened had given me some inspiration and ideas of my own – in this post I’ll begin to unpack one of these ideas.
One of the experimental shorts consisted largely of a intense percussion soundtrack with graphics that somewhat matched the beat of the percussion. Watching the short made me curious to try out something similar – using a drum solo to form the foundations of an experimental/visually compelling experience. I thought it’d be interesting to flash images of each drum on the screen as they were struck during the solo performance – this would create a really intense sense of rhythm and would maybe encourage viewers to feel and see the beat of the performance.
It’d be quite an undertaking to record an original drum solo, mix it, and then edit it so I began thinking of ways I could test out the idea before solidifying my idea. At first I thought that I could record test audio and edit to that (as I used to learn the drums). However, having recently watched ‘Whiplash’ I realised I could access existing audio (perhaps from the film) and test my idea by editing to that – this would have the benefit of being more professional.
I then began thinking of extending the idea past just percussion – maybe integrating other instruments into the piece – with unique graphics and visuals to separate each instrument from itself. I often like to try and identify and isolate certain instruments when listening to a song – and this could act as a visual representation of the same activity. Perhaps using different coloured patterns to represent each instrument could provide for an interesting musical/visual experience.