Archives for November 2023

Story Board:

 

Scene: 0:00 to 1:17

Name: Irene Katakis

Title of Memory: The Process Of Healing

A. Concept

For my Memory Soundscape project, I’ve chosen to explore the tumultuous emotional landscape of a painful breakup and heartache. Throughout the memory soundscape, listeners are taken on a journey of emotions through the process of loss, grief, and finally, healing.

In the beginning of the audio, you are struck with the sound of a door opening and shutting, symbolizing a “being” or “thing” leaving your life. In this case, I imagined a loved one leaving me, whether it be a family member dying or a break up with a partner. Almost immediately after their absence, you are struck with grief, which shows itself through the sounds of crying and the symbolism of rain. As the rain and the cries continue, you are then struck with the sound of a phone dialing and ringing. This sound was made to represent the denial stage we all feel when someone leaves your life, as you can hear continuous dialing and ringing, yet you are met with no one on the other side. As the calls become insistent with no reply, the cries grow louder and more desperate, just as the rain begins to grow louder. Finally, the last ring ends with a “line disconnected” sound, showcasing how there is really no getting that special person back in your life. At this point, peak emotion is felt, it is almost the realization stage, where everything has finally set in, you realize they are really gone, and you are fully encompassed with grief. As the rain and cries reach their climax, you begin to hear a rustling and a shushing, representing an external force that comes to your aid to care for you. In this case, I imagined my friends and family comforting me through grief and sadness after losing a loved one. As the shushing and stroking continues, both the rain and cries begin to die down. Eventually, after the last shush, a sigh of relief can be heard. The one going through grief has now been able to heal, accepting reality and moving on.

The story of the soundscape really goes through a journey with its listeners, having a clear beginning, middle, and end. My main intention was to give listeners a view into my inner workings, allowing them to see the process I go through when I encounter grief, and bear myself in showcasing how the memory of how I went through the process of healing when I lost a loved one.

B. Process

Going into this project, I knew I wanted to once again touch on the topic of ‘Love.’ However, I was unsure of exactly what memory surrounding love I wanted to showcase. So far, I have only showcased the happy, joyful aspects of love. With this soundscape, I thought it may be more interesting to explore what love means without all the glitters and rainbows – what it means to lose love and how it feels. Once I started thinking in this frame of mind, it was a lot easier to think of memories I would be able to convey. As I wanted my piece to be a story, I didn’t think focusing only on one emotion in my memory would be very interesting, as it would make for a very one-dimensional story. Additionally, I see love as something that possesses a lot of different facets, dumbing it down to one emotion seemed way too oversimplified. With this frame of mind, I then decided to tell a story of a process, rather than just the sadness of loss in love.

Before beginning to record audio, I briefly brainstormed the types of sounds I would associate with my memory. What kind of sounds did I actually hear during this time? What kind of sounds were around me? What kind of sounds would work well as symbolism for emotions and feelings? After narrowing down the type of sounds I wanted to record, I started my process of recording.

During my process of recording audio, I did hit a few stumps, the first being creating the sound of rain. As any reasonable person would think, you want to recreate the sound of rain, then you just go to the shower and run some water, right? And you’re not wrong! In theory, that would have worked great. However, I didn’t take into account 1) the acoustics of our dorm bathroom and 2) just how noisy the piping and draining is when you’re in the shower! My shower recordings were filled with loud sounds of water gushing through the pipe and pouring down the drain that the actual sound of the water that I was trying to get was barely noticeable. When I tried to switch tactics and record the sound of the sink water, the same issue happened – the pipes were just too noisy! This definitely left me stuck, as I knew I really wanted rain sounds but just couldn’t figure out how to do it. After some brainstorming, I remembered something I had learned in a high school film class, about how in Old Hollywood many directors would use cooking sounds as sound effects for various different things. With a new idea in mind, I busted out some bacon and got to frying, and let me tell you, it worked so well! The sound of bacon frying on a pan really did sound similar to raindrops hitting the floor, and with that, I finally got my rain sound!

My next issue I came into was something I never really thought about before I started, the phone ringing sound. When I began to try and record the sound of a phone ringing, I came to realize that many numbers in China do not give off the traditional ring sound most are familiar with; instead, a cute song plays. And while I am a sucker for a cute song, the ring really didn’t fit the vibe. I found myself calling almost every number I could get my hands on until finally I found one that worked (which just so happened to be a public safety number hehe). I called the number about 3 times, recording as many rings as I could, and then was all set.

The recording of all other sounds were quite standard. As I have a bit of experience in audio manipulation and recording, everything technical went smoothly.

When it came to editing, I knew I wanted to take a “less is more” approach. Since the memory and feelings within the memory were something so raw and vulnerable, I didn’t want to take away from the story too much by adding too many effects or sounds at a time. I mainly focused on aligning my audios in a way that clearly told a story, that allowed listeners to follow what was happening, without feeling overwhelmed and overstimulated. As I would like to think the quality of the sounds was pretty good, I tried to let the quality of the sounds take the lead and evoke emotions from listeners, such as the sounds of the cries or the franticness of the calling. I felt like the sounds alone, based on how I aligned them, spoke for themselves and were sounds of a story that everyone could relate to. For this reason, I opted for a cleaner, more “empty” approach to my soundscape.

Although I did have experience in audio editing and manipulation, I think I learned more about how to use effects and edit volume. Before, I felt like I wouldn’t really mess with volume editing of my tracks, as I thought, “well if it’s too loud, just turn your computer volume down.” However, now I really get why it’s important. I can obviously always get better, but I feel like I have more of a solid grasp on using effects and how to edit volume levels of individual clips to assure the overall sound is an acceptable volume.

C. Conclusion

I feel like I did learn quite a bit through this project, especially through the help of the feedback sheets we got. Although I really didn’t implement much panning in my final (which I wish I did), I did learn quite a bit about how to do it, when to do it, and the effect it has when you utilize panning. I never even thought about the effect much before as I never really worked with speakers and sound systems where the panning would be noticeable, and quite honestly, I never saw the point of it. However, after the feedback I got, I realized panning could be used in my soundscape quite well, whether that be through the crying panning over time, or panning the shooshing on one side and crying on another to showcase to listeners it is an outside source of comfort.

Overall, though, my soundscape was perceived well! Everyone seemed to have gotten the story – clearly being able to identify the beginning, middle, and end – and felt and related to the emotion in the soundscape. Most everyone could relate to my memory I showcased and appreciated how vulnerable the audio was. There were some mixed reviews on whether the audio was too simple or not – some claiming they appreciate the simplicity as it helped bring out the story in a genuine way, showcasing the emotion, while others claimed they wish they heard more variety of sound. I think those comments really just come down to preference, as some prefer “busy” sounds while others prefer more “vulnerable” sounds. I am proud of how it turned out, and I think all my intentions clearly shine through in this piece.

D. Image of Editing
this is the only left over file of editing I have!

1. 1. The First Obstruction: Cuba
      • Rule: Leth must remake the film in Cuba, but he cannot shoot on the streets of Cuba.
      • How Jorgen Copes: Leth adapts by shooting the film inside a single, small, and nondescript room. He creatively explores this limitation by making use of the room’s props, lighting, and cinematography to tell the story.
   2. The Second Obstruction: Animation
      • Rule: Leth must remake the film as a cartoon.
      • How Jorgen Copes: Leth faces this challenge by working with a group of animators to transform the story into an animated format. He maintains the essence of the original film but explores the medium of animation.
   3. The Third Obstruction: Bombay
      • Rule: Leth must remake the film in the most miserable place on Earth.
      • How Jorgen Copes: This obstruction takes Leth to the red-light district of Mumbai, India. Despite the challenging environment, he manages to adapt and capture the essence of “The Perfect Human” with the surroundings and people he finds.
   4. The Fourth Obstruction: 
      • Rule: Leth must remake the film in the form of a minimalist, pure cinematic expression with no sets, no props, and no actors.
      • How Jorgen Copes: Leth approaches this by reducing the film to a series of shots featuring the movement of women he observes in different locations. This limitation forces him to focus on the essence of human behavior and interaction.
   5. The Fifth Obstruction:
      • Rule: Leth must play the lead character himself.
      • How Jorgen Copes: Leth steps in front of the camera and portrays the main character, embracing the role in a way that differs from the original. This last obstruction explores the boundaries of personal performance and self-exploration

   While watching the film, i was struck by the creativity that came from the constraints. The documentary provides a thought-provoking view of the artistic process, the relationship between director and subject, and the malleability of storytelling in different cinematic forms. It also raised questions about the nature of filmmaking, artistic freedom, and the impact of external constraints on the creative process. The dynamic between Lars von Trier and Jorgen Leth adds an additional layer to the film, as it captures their evolving relationship and creative exchange throughout the project.