Month / July 2017

by harrietread

MOI Wk 2

This week in Mechanics of Immersion we watched a few movie clips in our Wednesday class like Mad Max: Fury Road and Interstellar. What I found was that Interstellar actually made me really super emotional right there in the middle of class which was mildly embarrassing, but also kinda made me think about how it affected me.

What affects me the most when I go see a film is more often than not the familial aspect, so movies where the conflict between family members or the relationship between family members is shown in depth is more affecting. So Wild with Reese Witherspoon was pretty challenging for me, and when I first tried watching Spirited Away I was pretty scarred by the parents turning into pigs.

I think that it is not necessarily just talking about these relationships that gets me because anyone can give some exposition and make me feel sympathetic. But the scene we watched in Interstellar, there aren’t a whole lot of words spoken as the music swells but we here Murph yelling for her dad, Coop is in tears and the sombre music with the big dramatic organ just makes me feel intense grief. My own relationship with my family which is very fortunate and lucky and happy makes me feel this grief a lot, but maybe my own perception is different from others in similar situations as me.

I think that what affected me the most and immersed me the most in the clips we watched this week was the sound design. Since I am very much so a visual person, and not strong in understanding audio, the subtlety and nuances feels kind of magical to me.

by harrietread

MOI Project Brief 1

This semester, I am looking forward to practicing my technical skills in visual and audio media. I mostly want to improve my skills in Creative Cloud, especially Adobe Audition. I also want to broaden my understanding of the definition of immersion, and get a better sense of how I can apply this knowledge to my creative practices.

 

Recently I watched Baby Driver from director Edgar Wright, whose films I adore. It was so much more subdued in comparison to his other works like Hot Fuzz and Scott Pilgrim vs the World, but I felt that it was as immersive as his other pieces and probably more hypnotic. Especially in diner scenes with Baby (Ansel Elgort) and Debora (Lily James), I felt a sort of mellow lulled feeling that drew me into their world.

There is also a moment when Baby and Buddy (Jon Hamm) share headphones to listen to music, and the music literally surrounds the audience in the cinema. It was incredibly effective and really immersed me in the world of the film. What I want to get out of this semester is a stronger sense of how to use technical skills and understanding to create an immersive experience.

 

Firstly, I want to improve my skills in audio. I’m not very confident, to say the least, and my understanding of sound design is not as strong as my understanding of visuals which I have from film and photography. I want to get better at using Adobe Audition, and I also want to get a better understanding of how to use sound design, ambience, dialogue, foley and soundtrack to immerse an audience in my work.

 

Secondly, I want to be a stronger storyteller. What I want out of this semester is the confidence to use less cliches and veer away from being too expositional and too hand-holdy in the media works that I make. I love storytelling, and I want to get better at it through sounds and vision.

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