Lectorial/Readings – Week 10

This week’s lectorial featured Kyla Brettle as a guest lecturer, giving advice on how to put an audio piece together in the most effective way. I was instantly thankful to hear her speak because I knew I’m not very experienced in creating anything audio based without images or video to support, so I’m glad Kyla was so helpful.

Something that stood out to me as an important lesson was using the most powerful bits of sound to your advantage in progressing the story line or audio piece. Identifying the most compelling moments, ones that ‘make your hair stand on end’ and not just putting them anywhere in the storyboard. According to Kyla, it’s best to put your second best bit of content at or up close to the front of the piece, and the greatest bit at the climax of the piece (close to or at the very end of the piece). After this, your task is to then create the best path between these two points in audio.

Another point that seemed prominent to me was the art of being subtle in your work. When working the soundscape of a piece, using sound effects in strictly obvious places versus more subtle points in the storyline can differentiate a high quality piece from a less creative one. For example, rather than using the sound of a train when a narrator first mentions being at the station may not be as effective as working in the sound of the train earlier, so the audience anticipates it in the text, making it stick out more. This is why some sound designers, when the narrators mention a cat, use the sound of a dog barking instead. 

Something we were always advised of in drama class is that silence can be just as powerful as noise, and not saying anything lets the audience fill in the gaps themselves. I found it interesting that this can be true of an audio piece too, where a lull in sound can be used to immobilise the listener and capture their attention, often causing the audience to crave more/a resolution. I believe this is something I would like to implement in our PB4 to create a more provocative and stimulating piece.