Chion and Cummings Readings on Sound

Chion and Cummings Readings on Sound

The readings by Chion and Cummings on sound remind me of the old question, “If a tree falls in the woods and nobody hears it, did it really happen?“ We as humans sometimes take our sense of hearing for granted. Have you ever watched a thriller or scary movie with the sound muted. If you have then you know that the film is no longer scary or tense, but becomes somewhat comical. This is the point of Chion’s article on sound.  Chion’s article says it well when it exclaims, sound helps temporalize the image by normalizing and stabilizing of film projection speed. Just like his point about our ears being able to perceive sound quicker than our eyes can figure out what they are seeing. It’s something I never really thought much of before when watching a film.

Sound very important in the making off a film. The choices you make for sound in a film really depend on what type of film you are making. If you are making an experimental film and want the viewer to feel disoriented for instance. Then you may want to use sound is non-sync or possibly sound that has nothing to do with the actual images being displayed upon screen. Sound can make or break a film; it needs to help guide the viewer/listener in the direction the director intends to take the film journey.

The article by Cummings made me think of an interview we did the other day for my documentary I’m working on for 495. We were shooting in the subject’s backyard, it was a beautiful non windy day outside and he has some nice scenery in his yard so we framed up a good shot and went with it. It was a good thing that we had lavalier mics though even though it wasn’t windy, because the road out in front of his house turned out to be very busy thus being very noisy. Being such a sunny and pretty day out it must have been perfect conditions for a motorcycle ride, because it seemed like about a million of them went by.  We were going for the nice light, “Natural “ outdoorsy ambient backdrop of sound for our interview and instead we got the loud, obnoxious and abrasive, sounds from the motorcycles and traffic.  We haven’t captured the footage yet so hopefully the lavs will have eliminated some of the background noise, if not our good interview will be lost. 

Side note: Why are motorcycles sooo loud anyway? I find them very annoying because of that. I have my windows opened right now; I can hear the soothing and calming sound of wind blowing through the trees and then out of nowhere…wheeeee wheeeeee wheeeeee wheeeeeeeeee wheeeeeeeeeeeee.  A motorcycle ruins it!

Wells/ AnimationReading Response

Animation Reading Response

I always loved animation since I was a child, Disney and Saturday morning cartoons like Hannah Barbera or Warner Bros. were at the top of my list of favorites, and I can remember them like it was yesterday. It was always a way to escape from the real world and make believe.  I really think animation is a cool way to make films due to the fact there are so many interesting ways/ mediums to create them.

 I took three 3d animation classes in the last three semesters here at UNCW and studied the principles of animation with the extremes and in betweens; there truly is a high degree of difficulty artistry to being a good animator. There is a lot more to it than people think and to become a great animator must take years and years.

This article really made me look at animation in a new light, instead of thinking as animation as strictly narrative, there is also a whole different aspect of experimental animation in which you can be as off the way and creative as possibly creating a whole new dream state kind of fantasy land. I like that you don’t have to stick with one medium of animation in experimental animation as well, for instance you can use cell animation, claymation, and 3d animation all in one film if you like so that you can give different feelings or moods to the scenes for the viewer.

The statement by Wells that experimental animation wants it to look more like Visual Music, is reminiscent of Brakhage and like minded avant-garde artists. I also see this type of musical feel in some of Disney’s films such as Fantasia.I also like how Wells described orthodox animation as prose and experimental animation is more poetic. I can definitely see his point in even some of the animations we’ve screened in this class so far this semester.

When I graduate in may I plan on having more free time to focus on becoming a better all around artist/ animator,  it's something I’ve always dreamed of doing.

My Thoughts/Experience with Cameraless Filmmaking

I really enjoyed the experience of working on our cameraless filmmaking projects thus far. I love the fact that we are actually working hands on with the celluloid. It gives it a true organic feeling as opposed to working on these types of effects in the digital world.

I like how we jumped into it the first week of class with scratching on film. After watching a lot of Stan Brakhage, Naomi Uman and others in History of Avant-Garde, I would often wonder how the actually went about manipulating their film stock to achieve their desired effects. Getting to do it myself really put things in perspective and made me think what I need to do frame to frame to make and image I had scratched move. It’s really the same concept as doing and animation in a program like Toon Boom or Flash. Every frame must be a little different from the one prior and you must do the math for 24 frames per second to time out how long you want the movement to take to get to the desired place. I also like the fact that you really don’t have to make things very complex; you can make your creations more simple or abstract, because there is no right or wrong way to show your vision.

I loved doing the magazine and newspaper transfers as well. It was sort of like being in art class and making collages, but on a much smaller scale being that your canvas is only this tiny piece of film. When we got to see what our creation looked like when played through the projector I was pleasantly surprised. The colors, shapes, and textures that we created in such a short period of time were beautiful. I can see where you could use this process in making something very elaborate if you took the time to plan it out properly.

Doing the Rayograms, totally made me look at filmmaking in a new way. It gave the x-ray look to the objects we place on film, which I thought was really awesome. It’s great how you can get something so cool on film from such a simple process and concept. It only took about ten–fifteen minutes total for each of out five foot pieces of film. I saw so pictures online of various Rayograms where people used their hands and bodies on the film to create the image. I haven’t got to do the painting on film yet, that’ll be this week for me. I’m very excited to do so, it’ll add yet another tool to my cameraless filmmaking tool kit.

This experience really made me look at filmmaking in a new light. It makes me realize that the options to this type of filmmaking are virtually endless, depending only on your imagination and creativity.

Synesthesia & Cymatics

Synesthesia & Cymatics

 Synesthesia comes from the Greek word together; it is a neurological condition in which one sensory or cognitive pathway is stimulated which leads to an involuntary experience in a secondary cognitive pathway.  People with this condition are known as synesthetes. An example of this would be how people see different numbers or days of the week for instance as being different colors.

 Synesthesia in art is basically art forms that blur the senses. The art forms can include or combine visual music, intermedia, music visualization, experimental or abstract film, paintings and audiovisual art. I had the luring of the senses a lot last semester when we screened many of the films in History of Avant-Garde. Some of these films showed screeching or obtrusive sounds some even use the sounds police use for riot and crowd control with a mixture of underlying subliminal dialogue and images alongside flashing colors on the screen Some of these films cause people to have seizure’s especially those with a history of epilepsy are advised against watching some of them.  

 Cymatics comes from the Greek term for wave. They are uniform patterns produced on liquids or gels type substance through he us of sound waves. This is much like waves in the ocean being produced by storms or under water forces such as explosions, shifting fault lines or earthquakes, which produce enough energy to displace the water in the form of waves and patterns. Like the way a swell looks like corduroys on the horizon. The more shallow the water the more pronounced the wave becomes. Like that of the trays or pans used in Cymatics experiments. I think the study of Cymatics is very important and may unlock some secret code to the world and the underlying power of things we never considered important before.  Dolphins use sound wave and frequency’s to communicate and maybe aliens do too like in the movie Close Encounters of the Third Kind. By studying Cymatics may be unlocking the keys to the universe? Cymatics is bringing matter to life with the use of sound waves. It’s amazing the way the patterns of sound waves look like things we find everyday on earth like snow-flakes and starfish, maybe somehow there is some direct correlation of the two.

 Both Synesthesia & Cymatics remind me of a new trend among young people today called i-Dosing or digital drugs.  This is where people put on headphones and one sound or frequency is played trough one ear and another is played through the other ear. This is supposed to create a state of euphoria or blurring of the senses for the user. This is sort of a mixture of these two topics.