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.