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.

It's called a play for a reason.

So I had a little bit of a break through in regards to my final year project. 

I've been saying that I'll happily crew for people on their films/projects but I want to have my own theatre based project running along side. Then I got distracted by work and internship brainstorming along side dissertation writing that it kind of got left behind. 

Yesterday however I was sat doing some admin for work and decided to make it double productive and found a podcast with Robert Lepage. Robert Lepage is a key person for dissertation and whilst I've been reading a lot about him it's nice to get an overview of his work from the man himself. You can listen to the podcast here (interesting from around 25 min).  It's around 25 minutes in when he starts talking about his film work. He describes that whilst working in film he felt like a beggar, he was begging companies to look at his work and take a chance on his work because he couldn't prove he had a large audience. That it no longer felt like an art form but a business.

However his theatrical work is know for being filmic, it contains everything from projections of digital work to 35mm, robotics, interactivity, some of his work is even 9 hours long! But a french reporter once described him as a theatrical revolutionary because he works like a frustrated filmmaker. He break down walls because he understands that 'the audience today is radically different than it was 20/25 years ago. And that has to do with narrative vocab.' He draws on the education his audiences get from the internet, TV, Movies and adverts and treats them on that intelligence level rather than treating them like idiots.

Then he said something quiet fascinating. Theatre is a sport.

There's not actors in theatre, there's players. It's called a play for a reason.

Even the greatest tragedies are a game. Richard III is a game.

And suddenly I was flooded with ideas and visuals of what a stage production could look like, once again modernising shakespeare but treating it as a computer game. Only the lead character wouldn't be part of the game, they'd just be witnessing it through passers by as they get knocked off course, a bit like an RPG game where you meet people along the way to further the story. Only this time the story would come to them in the inner workings of the computer.

Then because I cant draw I wrote this very fast idea into some kind of script form, detailing the visual I have in my mind for the opening scene.

[Show opens to actor already onstage, actor is playing a video game. Stage floor is covered in coding. Other three walls act as giant displays for the 3 monitors the actor is ‘playing on’. As action starts within the game, it starts speeding up until the player dies. ‘Game Over. Continue? 9’ would count down and the house lights would go down in time with it. The actor would not be able to click continue, getting agitated when his mouse/keyboard doesn’t work.]

[Countdown reaches 2]

Actor: Nononono! [Frantically clicking everything]

[Countdown reaches 0]

[Gaming set-up drops under the stage. Actor screams as he falls with it. The 3 walls now turn to code, matching the stage floor.]

[Actor, still screaming drops from the ceiling onto the floor now trapped inside the coding, trapped inside the game (Possible Hologram)]

Actor: Where am I? Who did this? Show yourself.

[Actor punches walls shouting profanities, the walls just refact him back. He is stuck in the computer]

I imagine the stage to be something of a hybrid of the work of Finn Ross in Curious Incident of the Dog in the Nighttime.

And possibly the backdrop design of Robert Lepage's Blue Dragon.

I've also been doing some research into making the 'walls' interactive with the use of a Kinect camera and having actors appear to phase through walls.

It's all crazy talk for now but it seems interesting - I just didn't want to do more Shakespeare but if it works then I don't see why not. 

Hello from UCA

So this summer I'm doing a variety of projects that I feel I should document somewhere online so everyone doesn't think I've fallen of the face of the earth - right now I'm currently sat in my old house on campus, not going to lie it's very strange. 

For the most part I'm working closely with marketing helping deliver some of the Summer school actives here in Farnham, making some videos along side my Vlogs for the UCA website, helping out with photography for some new marketing campaigns and helping shape the new ambassador scheme/team for the next academic year. 

I've also been talking to marketing about possibly running some events in local feeder schools to give the students an idea of what filmmaking and arts education is like at degree level - which is all very exciting and actually quite interesting. My current thought is running a workshop surrounding video poetry, giving the students a poem or a piece of music they have to think about whilst working. Then giving them a quick overview of camera work (probably using a DSLR as these students will be around 14-16 years) and sending them off onto campus to get footage they believe represents the work that's been given to them. Then in the afternoon giving them a quick tour of Premiere and seeing what they come up with. But any other ideas I'd love to hear because the quicker this event forms the easier it will be to execute.

Whilst all of this was happening I also got put forward for a filming job via marketing for a youth centre here in Farnham. They are hosting their summer festival in the coming weeks and needed a one-person-film crew to come along and conduct some interviews for a case study to use as feedback/marketing for their trustees and anyone they approach to help fund their cause. This all takes me back to first year documentary but I'm surprisingly calm about it all. I've managed to get some very nice equipment from stores to help make it as marketable and presentable as possible as this is a very charity that not only need the money but they deserve it too.

But UCA aside for a second I've also been working on a project for a company called Seeper Arts an organisation, that I feel personally, sums up the DFSA ethos. I tweeted them out of the blue after discovering their website asking if they had any internships available and they replied saying they don't really offer them but to send my CV, website etc over to them and they'll take a look. Later that week I got an email back explaining that they are willing to offer me an internship in which I can pitch multiple ideas at them, they pick their favourite and then they'll facilitate me making said project. On the condition it produces an interesting behind the scenes video for their website. Which I'm all for.

I'm trying to keep it relevant to this summer in particular as I believe that will be the best marketing technique for the company (and maybe improve my chances of them liking the idea). So I'm back working on Shakespeare as it's currently the 400th anniversary and the Olympics/Paralympics as soon that will be all over our TV screens.

Medium wise I do want to branch out a bit and venture into some territory I'm planning on using for a final year project, so using this opportunity as a way to experiment before term starts up again. But that seems terrifying so I may tone it back a bit from holograms (I'm not crazy I just sound it) and venture more towards projection mapping something I know Seeper work with often. Seeper Arts as a company thrive on interactivity within their work and I'm afraid that as of now I'm not that well versed in it which is something I hope to pick up on. You know, if they accept any of my pitches.

For now I'm going to go back to work for a week or so, working on these projects whenever I have some free time, then hopefully dive straight back into them once Summer School season is over.

Also made a website a few weeks ago www.rachelbramley.com - thought I'd put that out there too. 

OK. Bye. 

Why I make films

Here's my latest vlog that's going live on the UCA website soon and it includes some BTS footage from My Daughter that I thought could up here until the actual BTS video has been edited.

They sense fear!

So assessment went well, no major issues and it's time to reedit the film in order to meet the standard needed for some dance festivals we have lined up. I'll be getting rid of the fire exit, the plug, the piece of tape (I hope you missed first time around) and retiming somethings - nothing too strenuous.

I concluded most of the project during the presentation but this is my own, personal evaluation.

As producer I should have been firmer (I say this every time I produce, I'm beginning to get the message), I set deadlines most of which were met but some pretty important ones weren't which caused a bit of a domino effect. When I realised how big this project was my first instinct was to make sure we could afford to do it - this included saying no to a lot of things which didn't make me the most popular person. Especially when, in the end, we met our target. Something I had just not expected to happen, so I planned for the worst. On set I have this thing were I think everyone knows more than I do, so I just let them get on with whatever it was they were doing without really questioning anything (well out loud a least) which caused a problem later down the line when I did speak up and no-one really listened to me, it was like they sensed fear! In the edit I would have named my files before I put them into Avid - rookie mistake, I won't be doing it again. I wouldn't have taken on so many roles because whilst I do love what I do it didn't end well, my sanity and will to live got left behind in the Avid suite. 

But most importantly - I would take more ownership of my work. 

When I realised we couldn't use the music I had been working on in the film it hit me harder than it really should have. I've been working on this project for 4 months (and I'm still going!) yet I had pinned most of my creative input into the music, so when it was gone it didn't really feel like my film anymore. Working on projects I tend to take the apolitical role and act as mediator when people are fighting, or the voice of reason when people make impossible demands. So getting a creative input is becoming rare, we made our film so in the edit it would be easy to piece together and it was, it was made by the storyboard. There wasn't much I had to fight for to get into the edit, but I can point out I did and I'm proud of it. I'm proud of the soundscape (note: it's pretty different from the music) and I worked hard on it. We communicated well from start to finish between heads of departments and other crew members. I'm proud of the fact this movie exists because so many people were originally against it. I just wish I had voiced and stood up for more of my own ideas, nothing that can't be fixed for third year. 

People rarely bring me onto projects to be anything other than producer, I hope working in post-production on this film has changed their mind. I think next time I'll try something new, doing something crazy and slightly insane worked in our favour this time around, I may as well try my luck again. 

Boom's in shot

When I agreed to do VFX on the film I thought there would be 2 shots to do - the crazy mirror scene, and the crazy powder drop scene - this changed quickly.

Crazy powder drop scene never happened, there wasn't enough time and we just didn't film with effect in mind which would have made the entire thing a lot harder. But the crazy mirror shot? We had 3 attempts at this shot before the final try, 2 with me and 1 on the second day of shooting because we were ahead of schedule. Now our dancer was wearing green so common sense meant we had to use a blue screen, right? I mean, what can go wrong? Somehow the natural lighting from the location made the blue section of the RGB pixels in her hair the exact same hue of blue as our blue screen - something we couldn't notice until we go into post and tried to key out the screen, and ended up with a clean key of the mirror but also her hair was missing alongside it.

I worked on fixing it with Phil and tried a lot of different keys to try and fix it, changing saturation to get more of a difference before keying it out, using multiple keys at the same time to make a difference. When my last resort was rotoscoping a friend offered to try his hand at fixing it - he got the shots to match up but the blue screen was still a mystery to him so I have the project file with me, it's just a case of cleaning it. Tomorrow I'm going to be rotoscoping a lot - or I may find a solution on adobe.com, We'll soon find out.

Now you see him

Now you don't

One of my jobs was also cleaning up the shots - in some shots you can see people in mirrors, it was destined to happen at some point and my general threat on set was 'if you're in shot, you VFX yourself out'. But when it's the boom in shot, you've just got to deal with it. I spent today masking it out and trying to fill it with something similar, frame-by-frame, as the shot in question is not only a moving shot it's a shot in which the camera was dutch and returned horizontal meaning tracking wasn't the easiest either. I ended up tracking it manually rotating and moving a cover up as and when needed - hopefully you can't see it. When we take this film into festivals and I've had more time to work on it I'll have taken out the fire exit signs, the plugs and anything that ruins the overall aesthetic of the film.

Also update we got the VFX mirror shot working! It took a lot of masking (from Phil, I had seen enough of masks today) but we got it working and now it's in our final edit.