This activity’s prompt is to create a sound design that explores place and space. So, my take on this is actually to depict a non-tangible place and space; the mind. I’ve attached the sound design that I’ve created for a specific shot in mind for my own project.
So, just the audio itself without any visuals may feel kinda off for some people, so I’ll just talk more about it now. Basically, it’s a layer of 6 sound effects overlapping one another. The very first one being heard is actually the sound of a pencil scribbling on a piece of paper, followed by whispering sounds. Both of these symbolize cluttered thoughts and being in a distressed state of mind. Next, we can hear the sound of shallow breaths and heartbeats, symbolizing the body’s physical reactions as kind of a coping mechanism. Finally, we hear a “rumbling” noise, and this will be visually accompanied by a clip of the table shaking, but it’s all in one’s head of course. At the very end, we hear a loud “thud”, symbolizing a fist slamming onto a table in the efforts to make all those noises “go away” from their head—which they eventually do even if it’s just for a little while.
So for this particular sound design, the idea that I’d like to portray is that it’s all just happening in one’s head. In terms of the visuals, I plan to show the drawing of an eye (mentioned in a previous blog) but with random scribbles surrounding it. Since scribbles are often associated with the feeling of frustration, therefore it seems to manifest before one’s very own eyes.
To provide a better visualization of this idea, I’ve attached a video below showing a couple of scenes (the first 20 seconds only) from the miniseries Maniac (2018).
In the first shot, we can see that there appears to be some sort of “earthquake” and the corn kernels on the ground suddenly transform into popcorn. Well, this obviously didn’t happen in real life, it’s all a figment of the imagination. It could be said to symbolize what’s happening in one’s head regarding their own mental health issues; seeing things that just doesn’t make logical sense. Similarly in the second shot, the writings on the board showing the train schedules suddenly all scramble to form the letter ‘A’. Again, this didn’t actually happen in reality. This represents the female protagonist’s “addiction” to a particular drug that happens to be in the shape of ‘A’ (see image below), therefore it seems to appear as a manifestation in her daily life.
Reference List:
konradnoises 2018, ‘MANIAC – Portraying Mental Illness’, YouTube, viewed 16 September 2021, <https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=3x5GNiPuA_Y>
