Listening begins with being silent

For two of my projects this year I'll be working within sound design, one being a film the other being a sound installation. Sound is something I always seem to gravitate back too and the idea of being able to immerse myself in it this year is very interesting but at the same time a bit frightening because - sound is just so important.


Shakespeare's New Globe

Shakespeare's Globe from an audience POV

For this project (as it currently stands, it will probably change in the near future) I will have to go out and speak with members of the public. Since it would just be me I'd have to use a zoom with a rather small microphone attached to it. Whilst the voices of the public are very important to the project it only makes up around 1/3 of the sound design I have in mind.

1/3
Voices of the public telling me their favourite/ most memorable shakespeare quotes.

2/3
Soundscapes encapsulate the individual pieces (so The Tempest will have water, Henry V will have war/battle sounds etc)

3/3
Sounds of the entire world, bringing the piece together by bridging the gap between Shakespeare's London and modern day London.

Science on Sphere (SOS) an installation method used in galleries, tourist attractions and Universities created by National Oceanic and Atmospheric Association (NOAA) 

This will then trigger projections on a globe - but that's for another blog post.

Mirella's Film (Playing Cards)

The current synopsis is surrounding Syrian refugee and a caribbean girl born and raised in London, this story will surround them meeting whilst playing a game of cards and the cards played with trigger different flashbacks surrounding their lives. Whilst when first hearing this idea I wanted to keep music to a minimum Mirella let me listen to arabic hip-hop, which at first sounded very strange to my ears but it's grown on me. Although I still think that the nature of the film doesn't need a lot of music it did make me realise that I have a lot to learn. 

As written in David Sonnenschein's book Sound Design;

'Hearing is passive and listening is active. While hearing involves receiving auditory information through the ears, listening relies on the capacity to filter, selectively focus, remember, and respond to sound. Out two ears together allow us stereophonic reception, helping us perceive distance, spatial relationships, and our place in the world.' 

A huge proportion of this film is going to rely on sensory empathy something that sound design plays a huge role in and it's very important I get that atmosphere correct. Creating this soundscape will rely heavily on being able to listen. Listening to people's stories and interviews. Watching films immersed in that culture already. Most importantly it involves remaining silent. As a creative person it's very easy to run off with ideas and make them your own. However at this stage in development that would be the worst thing for this film because these characters don't reflect my life; I'm not the first generation of my family to be born in England, I'm not bi-lingual, I rarely leave the country to see other cultures close up and the horrors I've seen are no where near the same as the horrors the characters know.  Yet strangely enough I believe this makes me the perfect candidate for the job.

All of the decisions I make as a sound designer will be made through research and sheer gut instinct, the same instinct the audience will be using to immerse themselves in the final piece. If I don't connect with the character neither will the audience, if I feel a certain way about a scene the audience may have a similar reaction. 

OK so the obvious issue here is I don't speak arabic and I'm certainly not going to learn within the next year so a lot of this research is going to be trusting the opinions of those who do. But at the same time I'm not a huge fan of using music with lyrics during films, I think it distracts people from the actual action on screen (unless that song has been composed for that film in particular). Instrumentals will be fun to work with though especially considering the severity of the subject matter, juxtaposing them during certain scenes will be very interesting. 

For now I'm going to go back to my research and follow closely the steps within this book (this book was a life saver last year so I trust it's judgement, along with some others) it takes me through the first script reading, to visual maps, sound maps, to experimenting and the final master. 

I think it's going to be a lot of fun. 

Nothing to show.

I feel like this summer has been my most productive ever. Yet right now I don't have anything to show for it.

After speaking about my goals for the year in todays seminar I realised that I have done a lot of thinking this summer, a lot of planning and networking alongside building up my skill base however the amount of projects currently I have to show for it is very small. 

For instance the idea for 'Shakespeare's New Globe' came about because I was panicking about approaching a company on the understanding that an internship is a job based thing - as in they give me odd jobs to do around the office and I occasionally help out but mostly I learn by watching. Then I had the email for Seeper saying to send a project over and they'll have a look but here's the thing. I didn't have a project. I didn't even have an idea. I went through ideas surrounding the Olympics/Paralympics and even an interactive Shakespeare 'game' that took you through London to discover certain areas of London that the bard had significance too. But I really wanted to do a sound piece.

So I put together a proposal (with some help from UCA Careers - thanks for that!), I had a conversation about it with Anne because I ran into her on campus whilst at work and I sent it off. I also had a look around the actual Globe and it cemented the idea in my head. I have to make this thing.

Then Seeper decided it wasn't for them.

Completely understandable as this is a more art/film based piece and what they normally make is more technology based work which is something that right now I just can't do. Maybe one day in the future I will have an idea more suited to them but for now they have recommended taking the idea elsewhere because even though they don't want it, they still think it's good. They've recommended the National Theatre and the RSC/Shakespeare's Globe - so I'll see what happens there.

A SeeperArt project that was a jumping off point for the original idea

I feel like my future lies within post-production simply because having tried everything else post-filming is always the thing I look forward too. Now obviously project wise I need to have something to work on during semester 1 and if I leave Uni with a showreel of approximately 2 films with nothing much else it wouldn't look too good. 

So I'm working on 2 films both in editing (Avid and Sound Design), also 1st AD for one of said films, and working on my own project alongside. The Shakespeare project a sound and visual installation. 

To read the project proposal as it stands click here.

This idea was originally proposed as a week long project, so the proposal reflects that.

Something that really hit home recently is I actually already have a big collection work that I've overlooked for the past 2 years - my vlogs. It wasn't until marketing used me as part of their 'reinvention' of the ambassador scheme that I realised how big of a deal interacting with students through video was and how building a recurring audience was a rare thing, no matter how small. 

So I approached a company set up by ex-UCA students and asked for some work, they've given me a test video and I've been editing that for the past week or so. The fact that people can see my skills (+confidence) growing through my vlogs is a big deal and people are drawn to it, so I must have done something right.

Screenshot of rachelbramley.com showcasing my vlogs in a new section on my site

And that's what I've done. 

Like I said not much to show for summer but it's changed my perception of my work drastically.