Coming into the class a week or so late, I was unable to attend the first couple of tutorials were the class discussed immersion and what this studio will be pin pointing and tapping into through the semester. But for me, when I hear someone ask the question “what is immersion?” I think of the deep mental involvement someone has when they either listen, watch or dream. When talking in terms that links to Media Communications, I seem to always draw back to when I’ve been immersed in albums or films.
When I watched the film ‘American Honey’ (Arnold, 2016) I was instantly immersed in how the visual and sounds cape works together to make beautiful mis en scene. First of all the camera is predominately handheld from a 3rd person view, but it makes sure to get close and personal to the characters even in moments of intercourse and frustration. But what is interesting is that Arnold picked the music for the film and got it all copyright released before they even starting shooting. This was done in order for the characters to immerse themselves in the music in the car (when they were travelling from destination to destination) to show a raw pure genuine reaction to the music, whilst improvising their actions to illustrate what the sound does for them in real life and time.
Another film that really taps into music and sound to explain the narrative or help to establish the romanticism and beauty of the location is the French film, ‘The Intouchables’ (Nakache, Toledano, 2011). Similarly to ‘Me and Earl and the Dying Girl’ (Gomez-Rejon, 2015) where it uses diegetic sound in which the characters can hear and coming from instruments in the story space and the same music acting as non diegetic sound which we can hear as mood music. In one of the final sequences where Greg shows his goodbye film to Rachel in the hospital on her deathbed, the song ‘The Big Ship’ by Brian Eno is featured to create overpowering suspense in the room. Using pianos, synths and repetitive drumbeats to leave the viewer in despair and have a deep mental involvement in the scene. Overall, the editing and placement of sound and visuals in these films allowed me to look closely at the meanings that are trying to be evoked in the rest of my film education.
With this idea in mind, for this studio I want to be able to create a series of quality audio pieces for my portfolio that create suspense, love, hate and other abstract moods. Much like Pink Floyds album The Dark Side of the Moon where it uses abstract sounds and voices in between its songs to give you the right mindset and highlight the power of their lyrics. Another goal is to learn Adobe Audition and Ableton and to be comfortable using it for films after I finish this subject and to be able to edit a series of visuals together that create a solid depiction of immersion.