Last year in my final semester, I was in a studio called Specific to Site where Robbie Rowlands was our tutor. This class really inspired me to make film and sound works which had my own style to them, rather than sticking to specific guidelines – I think this is when I realised it was more important for me personally to turn the task into a creative project, rather than to very plainly adhere to the task and make something basic with nothing to say for it. It was more about trial and error to see what looked good, what didn’t and what you liked, or did not like.

In this class I was particularly drawn to the sound aspect of it. I had never used any software to make sounds from before, so it was a challenge at first, but I ended up playing around making soundscapes for my work and found it really interesting. I think I will use this again in the filming for this project, as I feel like it doesn’t really tie in with your typical skate video at all, so there’s beauty in that as it is.

This clip from Gus Van Sant’s Paranoid Park (as well as the one I showed in class), has a very eerie feeling to it which is not typical to skating per se, but more to the film itself. The setting of both of the clips are still typical to skate culture, but the music does not allow for the skateboards to be heard, and creates a detachment from this culture – changing the atmosphere.

I think I want to use solely the sounds I pick up with my Nikon D3100 and the GoPro of the skating. I like the way the GoPro captures a sort of muffled sound when it has its case on. I want to alter these sounds in Garageband and warp them into something that does not correlate with the movements of the boards – manipulating the sounds so you cannot easily pick up that they’re skateboard noises. I will also try altering the sounds so they are warped with effects, but are the same sounds from the filmed clips.