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C.R.E.A.M

September 14, 2015 — Leave a comment

https://soundcloud.com/donandsherri/cream-clouds-rule-everything-around-me

C.R.E.A.M (Clouds Rule Everything Around Me) acts to encapsulate the multifaceted approach that studio sounds have on an audio piece and their ability to augment an environment while still staying true to the story.

The literal locale of the piece acted as both inspiration and detriment for myself as the producer, for I found that the unwelcoming and downtrodden environment of the Atherton Gardens Commission Homes both scared me and intrigued me. Having the already well founded frameworks of the Helping Hoops Basketball program to work under, I felt comforted in the knowledge that I would not be hassled too much; however, when I went out to record all the background sounds, I felt highly vulnerable and out of my comfort zone.

The experience surrounding the act of recording the sounds for the ’24 Hour Folio’ was a wash of excitement and anticipation that unfortunately often culminated into a lackluster affair, where sounds blurred into one and became somewhat indistinguishable. However, this muddiness and non distinct nature that the sounds took, also acted to generate new and unique sounds that employed their blurred aspects.

By centering the conceptual piece around ‘the life of a Helping Hoops coach’, I aimed to take the listener on a journey through their weekly routine of arriving to work; and play on the idea that through this repetition, the coaches could almost find a beat and melody in the mundane banal sides of their session. The washed out children’s voices and the coupling of the Cello to the beat of their footsteps acts as testament to this beat in repetition. By adding a reverb emulator to the children’s voices, the piece was able to effectively create a sense of distance; however I feel that the distance felt by the listener was a literal one, rather than the mental one I had hoped to create.

After receiving feedback from my last pieces, I headed into the production of C.R.E.A.M with a more genuine approach to narrative and the cause & effect relationship that generates listener engagement and interaction. C.R.E.A.M as a conceptual piece, employs three different scenes or movements, and aims to transition through each scene with bridging Cello sounds. By softening the transition between scenes with the Cello, I attempted to draw less attention to the changes in locale, and further this sense of noises culminating inside the coach’s head to reach a washed out feeling.

Double Dribble

August 23, 2015 — Leave a comment

https://soundcloud.com/donandsherri/double-dribble

Double Dribble is a 3-minute audio piece centered around the producer and acts as a pseudo exposé into the internal battle that the producer is faced with when recording their material. I decided to structure the piece in its narrative nonfiction state, so that I could further explore the internal struggles that can sometimes plague a producer. Drawing on audio works from ‘Radiolab’ and ‘This American Life’, and employing the type of narrative structure that they utilize, I aimed to deliver a piece that explored the concepts of mental instability and mental insecurity.

After visiting the Atherton Gardens Commission Homes and obtaining all the audio that I could, I discovered that the recordings were plagued by repetition. Be it the constant bounce of the basketball on the court, the infrequent bursts of rain or the children’s screams of excitement and frustration. This constant repetition inspired me to develop the ideas of the unstable mind. Once I had a concept in mind, I then needed to develop a script for the narrative structure of the piece.

After listening to Kyla’s recommended audio feature by Jad Abumrad and hearing how he employs the use of differing voices to build scenes, I decided to script the narrative with a my voice as the external dialogue and having a different persons voice acting as the thoughts of the producer. By having two opposing voices acting as the interior and exterior dialogues, I feel that I was better able to convey the idea of the unstable mind. However, to ensure the listener knew what was happening, I made sure to use similar turns of phrase for the two voices.

By looping the background sounds of the kids and their conversations, I was able to (I feel) further this idea of an unstable presenter. Hearing the same audio on repeat in the immediate background would prompt the listener to reconsider what exactly it is they are listening to and hopefully allow them to see the ‘picture’ that I was painting.

The choice to use the rain as a final scene and to then hard cut the whole piece after the producers inner dialogue eludes to it, was done to leave the audience in a state of bewilderment and an attempt to get them to listen to the piece again. By prompting the listener to hear the piece a further time, I feel that the dual narrative structure of the composition could be better understood and the ideas behind it to be absorbed.

I feel that the piece as a whole is quite strong and delivers the ideas that I wanted to convey to the audience. However, I think if I were to do it again, I would have the concept in mind earlier and try to gain recordings that would help the narrative evolve further.

Bounce

August 23, 2015 — Leave a comment

https://soundcloud.com/donandsherri/bounce

The audio piece bounce is a 3-minute audio expose that comprises of both recorded sounds and minor Foley effects, to deliver the listener into the chaotic and childish space that is the Atherton Gardens Housing Commissions.

The recording process: getting the kids to be quiet, battling the weather and getting release forms signed and returned, turned out exactly as difficult as it sounds. Working with children under the age of 12 meant that there was a lot of audio spill, with other children screaming and making sounds in the background. By using a shotgun mic and a H4 audio recorder, I was able to minimalize (as best I could) the amount of foreign sounds spilling into the microphone and gain a slightly cleaner recording. This minor achievement was only to be outdone by the natural elements, having the basketball session interrupted by a severe downpour of rain. The rain initially proved a major inconvenience, as the equipment could not be exposed to the wet conditions; however, I was able to use the sounds to gain a greater effect in the mixing and narrative process. Having now overcome two problems and recorded enough material to produce coherent audio pieces, I faced my greatest challenge yet: getting the release forms signed by the children’s parents. Although not all the kids returned their forms, I was lucky enough to have recorded enough material to only use the audio from the children that did return their forms.

When I first chose the Helping Hoops basketball programs at Atherton Gardens as the space in which I would like to record and display to the listening audience, I immediately conceived the idea of portraying the chaotic and childlike place that it can become. I aimed to achieve this childlike feeling by using a combination of editing techniques and appropriate dialogue. Drawing from the ‘cascading voice’ that I heard in set class listening’s, I aimed to have the childrens voices cascade under the next child voice and further the sense of chaos. Aiding to the cascading voice, I also added filters, pan and volume changes to the voices heard saying “bounce”. This was done in an attempt to have the words of the kids swirling around and gradually getting louder to give the listener a sense of how intense that space can be. After achieving this chaotic sound, I decided to then introduce the listener to the coach that keeps the chaos to a minimum, and to do this, I felt his voice needed to be heard.

Coupling Omar’s (the coach) words with a royalty free piece of music, I felt that the calming positive message he was hoping to achieve gained greater poignancy.

com(place)nt

August 7, 2015 — Leave a comment

Searching for my place in the world…..to record material for Project Brief 2 (PB2).

 

After class discussions and my own private discussions (which may or may not have been externalised), I have managed to narrow down the scope of places in which I wish to record the audio for PB2. The list consists of:

 

1) Arthurtan Gardens Commission Homes

2) Woolworths Fitzroy

3) Henkle Street Warehouses

 

All the locations have both positive and negative aspects to that will both aid and hinder the production of the ’24 Hours Folio’, however I feel that if I can employ the use of correct microphone placement, I should be able to limit the amount of unwanted noise in the production.

 

– donandsherri

Take Aim

July 25, 2015 — Leave a comment

The contribution that I aim to deliver to radios New Wave over the course of this semester is one that will align itself with the principals of John Biewan’s article ‘Intro Into Reality Radio’; one that is grounded in reality, interesting and resonant.

 

I am hoping to employ the skills from my audio production background into effect to create pieces that are both interesting and truthful, but also technically diverse and technically exploratory. Furthering this, I am hoping that the technical explorations that I aim to utilize in the pieces will remain concurrent with the New Wave’s emerging language approach.

 

– donandsherri

Short and Tall of It

May 22, 2015 — Leave a comment

winning.

 

(win-nig)

 

noun

1. the act of a person or thing that wins.
2. Usually, winnings. something that is won, especially money.
adjective
3. that wins; successful or victorious, as in acontest: the winning team.
4. charming; engaging; pleasing: a winning child; a winning smile.
After receiving the communal email about the St. Kilda Film Festival competition and the chance of winning tickets to the opening night, my frugal senses started to tingle and I applied into the competition.
This venture ultimately proved to be a profitable one as I received confirmation back that I had won the tickets and would have the opportunity to preview the short stories.
The night was one of meeting, greeting and velvet seating as myself and my friend entered the Palais Theatre and found a good position to view the short films.
The calibre of the films that were screen was excellent, with every director managing to keep me entertained throughout their short pieces…however there were some films that stood in a league of their own.
Most notably was a local production that depicted a domesticated mother enjoying the rare time she gets to herself by preforming a dance // singing routine to a heavy song.. all the while being engulfed by the detergent leaking from the washing machine.
I can’t wait to hear which film takes out the top prize of $50,000 when the festival concludes.
– donandsherri

MAD IMAX

May 21, 2015 — Leave a comment

20-05-15

 

There is no better way to break through the despondency that usually comes around every hump day than settling ones self into the comfy cushioned seats of an IMAX theatre to watch the latest action thriller.

 

This time around it was George Miller’s latest effort: MAD MAX – FURY ROAD

 

The anticipation was building (as it always does) when the large blue 3D numbers come flying at you engulfing you in the sensory experience. It further gained traction as the new trailers for Bond, Jurassic Park & Star Wars occupied the 3rd largest screen in the world.

 

However the hype and sense of excitement that built up before the feature, soon dissipated as the film began to unravel itself. As much as I tried to connect with the film in all its over-the-top glory, I couldn’t. It might have been due to the fact that Nicholas Hoult (Skins, Warm Bodies) made his appearance so early on, or that the calibre of acting in general left much for the imagination, but I just couldn’t find resonance with the movie.

 

The rare enjoyable aspects of the film that I did manage to engage with appealed only to my sadistic side and my lust to see blood and violence on the big screen.

 

Hump day managed to regain its curvature and leave the remainder of the week back in its familiar place, a giant leap between work and freedom.

 

– donandsherri

Charge It – Point It – Zoom It – Press It – Snap It – Work It – Quick…Erase It

May 14, 2015 — Leave a comment

Technologic.

 

Been gifted the theoretical framework of ‘Technology’ to base our group media artefact around, our group has gone into overdrive on conducting research about all the advances that has been made in the last century.

 

Dividing the advances into three distinct periods and assigning those periods to each of the group members has resulted in a breakdown of:

 

Patrick ~ Inception – 1960’s

Bianca ~ 1960’s – 2000’s

Gloria – 2000’s – Future of the Technology

 

As it stands we have yet to fully assemble all of our ideas and collate them to a point where we can start to format the artefact, however, I am hoping that today will serve as a good opportunity to finally get to the point where we can complete the final product.

 

For your audible pleasures:

 

 

(Music credited to Daft Punk)

 

– donandsherri

∆

May 12, 2015 — Leave a comment

Triangles are my favourite shape.

 

On Sunday night, I had the audible and visual pleasure of attending the Alt J concert at Rod Laver Arena.

 

This was to mark the third time I have seen these three (formally four) guys play live and it proved to be a night of validation, reinvigoration and disappointment.

 

As usual the guys were on point. Every note played filled the exact space it was intended to, from the flanging guitars, layered bass lines and lead vocals…they proved again my already well founded opinion that this is one of the tightest groups that I have ever seen play live.

 

Having been inundated recently with a multitude of new music to listen to, Alt J fell out of regular rotation on my weekly music listenings. However, seeing them play live reinvigorated the passion and respect I have for these guys, both from a performance stand point as well as a musical one too. Being able to experiment with the obscure choice in instrumentations and vocals employed in their performances and albums, while still holding a solid fan base truly makes them one of the best groups doing the circuit in the modern era.

 

Acting in complete juxtaposition to my love for Alt J and their music was the venue it was held in. Rod Laver Arena is no place for music!! Its hard, industrial architecture and its total lack of personality leaves the audience feeling cold and unwelcome once the music stops and sometimes even while the music is playing. This serves as a good learning outcome in the end, as I hypothesis I will never attend another live performance at Rod laver Arena again.

 

– donandsherri