“Recording yourself recording yourself recording yourself” – producer
I wander through my memories of Federation Square as well as the place itself, reflecting on minor teenage rebellion, poorly maintained bathrooms, the people I see and, more than anything else, the strange drive we all have to record these poignant, pointless moments.
I was interested in exploring Federation Square as a collection of memories and experiences rather than a place in itself, so I decided to focus on my own history with it for my producer piece. I have a lot of memories associated with it and decided to explore those as well as including location narration to expand on the idea of Fed Square as a shared space.
After Just different, I knew I needed more variation and textures. Wandering around Fed Square with a microphone didn’t exactly yield the content I expected and was frequently derailed as I followed my train of thought. I had to rethink my piece around the material I had since I wanted the location narration to have that improvised element in contrast with the studio recording. I’m happy with the segments I isolated as I think they help round out the sense of a populated space without taking the focus off the producer.
I knew I would feature my voice almost exclusively, which is why I felt it was very important to include a section of pure ambient sound to set the scene. I decided to have so close to the beginning of my piece to create a sense of the space the listener could picture for themselves, creating a sort of stage for my anecdotes. I wanted to fix the piece firmly in its location to avoid it turning into a series of reminiscences and random observations. I’m happy in theory with the idea, but I’m not sure about my execution (like so much of my work in this course so far).
I’m satisfied with how I’m progressing in Media 2 but I know I still have a long way to go before I’m at a level I’m satisfied with. I want to focus on the complexity of my work and experiment with different textures and elements, but at the moment I’m struggling with finding a way to make them work cohesively. I think, like most of the media skills I’ve been exposed to so far, it’s a matter of exposure and practice.
I loved the way Dear Birth Mother and Tupperware intertwined different vocal textures and I took a lot of inspiration from these pieces; especially DBM, and the way it used the letter as a backbone for the feature. I wanted to have a similar sense of structure, which I don’t think I managed to achieve; it was too tempting to segment my piece into rough themes. I think losing that semi-formal structure did take away from my piece but with only three and a half minutes there wasn’t a great deal of time to establish a solid structure anyway. It’s an idea I’d like to explore in the future.
“Just different” – participant
An abstract collection of voices from around the world tied together at Federation Square think aloud about their lives, in Melbourne and abroad, and come to the conclusion that perspective is everything.
I didn’t know what I would get out of the people at Federation Square, but I knew I wanted to ask them about their lives, in Melbourne and abroad. I didn’t have a strong idea of what my piece would be and let myself be guided by the thoughts and ideas I recorded. I spoke to some extremely interesting people but there was very rarely a common theme that linked them beyond the city we’re in and the fact that they might not necessarily have originated here. I didn’t really have any set questions I was seeking out answers for, although since so many people were travellers that became something that I focused on.
In many ways, I was disappointed that people were so positive (that, or were negative in a way I don’t plan on distributing) – I think the material I gathered ended up affecting the balance of the piece. I would have liked to have explored people’s thoughts on the negatives of Melbourne more than I did.
It’s made me realise that in order to get a truly balanced piece I need to ask better questions. “What do you think about x” isn’t enough – I need to be specific, and ask directly for the pros and cons. I also noticed that a lot of answers I received were nearly unusable since they were taken out of context. You can barely, if at all, hear my voice, and when I asked a question the interviewee usually launched into their answer without referencing the question. For example, a two-way conversation about if they’ve enjoyed their travels translated when recorded to “Yes; all over, lots of – ; no, I don’t think so… I enjoy it a lot, I think I’m getting better, but I wouldn’t say that; pretty much, yeah.” Not helpful.
I was influenced by Just Another Fish Story, which has captivated me the most out of any of the listening that we’ve done. I like the way all those different voices and experiences came together to give real texture and depth to the story. I wanted to try something like that around a shared experience – in my case, the experience of being in Melbourne. I think my piece has a vague sense of structure but nothing approaching the beautiful sense of flow Fish Story has.
Recording was a hurdle for me. I went out with a Zoom recorder and a shotgun microphone – which I feel are good tools for the level of technical skill that I’m at – but need to work on harvesting a clear and balanced sound. Obviously, I need to record in mono next time if I’m using a shotgun mic with the Zoom. By the end of the course I’d like to expand on my skills to produce a sound closer to what I want but at the moment I want to focus on my structural and textural skills.
