WEEK 4b – Media Tutorial ‘Sound’ (31/03/2016)
This week’s tutorial focused on the showcase of the classes self-portrait films, secondly a discussion was held on a ‘source’ (documentary sound) ‘Affairs of the Mind’ which focused on a women hiring a private detective. Our lecturer said to take not on five important characteristics.
- Perspective
- Social Distance
- Figure, Ground, Field
- Intimacy
- Immersion
Notes for when recording: Best signal -12, -6Db ‘gain’ *in regards to microphone levels (L & R)
(Collaborative partner; Grace Thomas) Our Informal Interview was recorded in the hub of building 8. The atmos contained a lot of conversations, movement and other central sounds which can be easily heard in the background. The gain was brought down slightly to peak around -12 so that we could cut out slightly more of the atmos although it was informal and allowed to be included. We played around with the proximity of the sound source and distance of the microphone to see which distance worked best (aka best signal to noise ratio).
Our Formal Interview was recorded in a lecture room in building 80 (level) 1, It was a challenge to find a quiet room where we could record something formal without eliminating all atmos but we tried our best and it ended up sounding more professional than we imagined.
To mix my sound I’ll be using Adobe Audition I’ve used the program before working with the Student Youth Network (90.7fm) but haven’t mixed as much audio as I’d like to so this will be fun and definitely a task for which I can learn more about the program especially for future use. In my next ‘activity’ post which I’ll be uploading soon I’ll be writing about the trials I went through when mixing as well as uploading the mixed audio/finished product from this weeks activity. Attached to this post is the raw audio recorded from the condenser microphone.
WEEK 4 – Media Initiative ‘Sound’ (21/03/2016)
Since this week’s lecture focused on aspects of ‘Sound’ I’d like to link that to a current TV series I’ve been watching that takes careful consideration into what the audience hears, that’s right Daredevil (Season 2).
If you don’t know the main character in this TV series is blind which causes his senses to evolve using sound as a tool for being able to locate and observe his surroundings. This means an increase in diegetic sound effects especially when there are closeup’s of the protagonist’s face (as this is how we know what his thinking as we don’t always see what he sees when it comes to point of view as he sees nothing at all).
This series was created by Netflix using a well known and loved marvel character, and we know that in recent history Marvel seems to do no wrong when creating projects that seem to sell (take into account their most recent flick ‘Deadpool’ which grossed $340,941,383 US) but I find compared to the blockbuster movies we see on our big screen the netflix TV series brings something different into the comic book adaptions, It’s dark, edgy and the acting is well done but not only that I feel like it isn’t afraid to step out into the deep end whilst the big screen adaptions stay in shallow water.
I really admire the colour pallet used in this series; very dark, earthy tones- mostly blues and reds to be exact- these represent the overall mood of the show. Blue representing ‘good’ and the characters morals and red accentuating the violence. The image attached to this post is a good indication of these colours and the beautiful contrast they create esepcially since Matt’s Murdock’s (Daredevil) suit is red when he fights representing again the blood he spills whilst fighting.
I’m also glad the story line isn’t completely rushed and muddled- for example if we reflect on other comic book adaptions such as ‘The Amazing Spider man’ they try to squeeze as much action into the plot as possible- aiming probably towards a Hyper attentive audience although for many it’s just a puddle of jumbled mess. Overall I look forward to watching more of this program and taking into account how they use sound to describe their character as well as the cinematography and colors to represent mood. Until next time (check out the Daredevil Season 2 trailer below for more information on the show).
