I liked some of the points in Jeffrey Ruoff’s essay on sound in Documentary. Even in the opening paragraphs he points out that location sound “makes discrimination between sounds difficult, if not impossible.” This is something I’m interested in experimenting with in the documentary I’m helping make this semester, and rather than relying on location sound I’m interested in building soundscapes that speak more to the thematic concerns than the visuals. So far, no location sound has been used at all. This works primarily because our documentary is one that is more concerned with the abstract.

The section on music also seemed very relevant to this. He explains how music “comments on the action, providing an editorial perspective for interpreting the images.” Music is a very powerful tool, especially when it comes to documentary and images that we can more readily identify with as real. Of course the copyright concerns can complicate things, but the option to network with independent musicians and producers is a fun option as it gives you a chance to explore music communities too.

We’re going to be using a friend’s track in our documentary, which saves any copyright issues, and has allowed us to learn more about local music producers which is far more interesting than simply paying for a copyrighted song.