Sound Symposium EC

     The lecture I attended aimed to talk about a “new” kind of sound, which uses sounds normally used as background noises as score. David Barker and Pacho Velez started off their talk by redefining the elements of sound in a way that best relayed their ideas using known terms. This did not sit well with many audience members that attended the symposium, who ended the conference by lashing out and criticizing the men on the principles of their discussion. They used several scenes as examples to help define their versions of the words foley, ambiance and score.

Their example they drew upon most to express their ideas was a clip from the film Castello (2011). The scene showed a man in a well-lit factory like setting unpacking and repacking boxes full of lobsters. Barker and Velez described the sound of the lobsters being placed on the table as (their definition of) foley and the noise of the room, which was the sound of a possible HVAC system as the ambiance. However to describe their 4^th category of sound or new idea of score they pulled upon the sound of unraveling tape that was present throughout most of the scene, while the we as the viewers saw no tape.

Their argument was that the tape possibly acted as a new idea of score, setting the mood and revealing an invisible meaning.

The audience however was unimpressed with this revelation. Proclamations of “been there done that” or “been their seen that” seemed to be the general consensus. Other arguments came up that the word foley was being misused and a possible better term for what they were describing was diegetic sound (to which the men had no comment). An audience member even went as far to say that it was disrespectful to the incredibly difficult task of foley and to foley artists everywhere.

While it was clear to some (me at least) that Barker and Velez did not intend to disrespect foley artist, most of the conversation post presentation seemed to revolve around this issue and not what they talked about.

I personally understood their intent. While it angered many elders of the craft I think they focused on the wrong elements and could have brought healthy critique and advice to these men. They seemed to want to start a discussion on how background sounds can be put together to operate as score in a way to start a new trend or fashion in films. 

Updated audio project

This scene is a triangle. The camera bounces between each of the three corners of the room creating an intensity that wouldn't be there otherwise. There is a character in each of the three corners reacting differently to the situation. The first cut in the scene is a reaction shot. Lisa (Angelina Jolie) enters and slams the door. As the door closes shut we hear the slam and then it immediately cuts to Susana (Wynonna Ryder) who is across the room and her reaction to the door slamming. It's seemingly perfect an un-noticeable. Directly after we see Susanna's reaction we see Georgina (Clea DuVall) in the third part of the room who is the bystander in a confrontation that involves Susana and Lisa. As Georgina is speaking it cuts to a close-up to a chair which Lisa uses to block the door. The camera then pans up to Lisa's face revealing her emotion. Then we see a wide shot of Susana, she backs into a corner as Lisa walks towards her. We can hear faint footsteps from Lisa and loud banging is the sound in front. Once Susanna is trapped the scene cuts to Lisa as she screams at Susanna then quickly to Susanna to capture her reaction. Once there is screaming and banging taking place in the scene the camera cuts to Georgina so that we can see her reaction to all that is happening giving us a third party's perspective. The scene then cuts to a close up of the chair blocking the door as its being rattled. The door bursts open at the peak of the noise level (the height of the screaming in collaboration with the banging). It is simultaneously cut to a wide shot of Valerie (Whoopi Goldberg) busting into the door. Another cut that is seamless. The wide shot becomes a medium (more obvious) low angle shot as she walk closer to the camera and freezes asserting her dominance. Two quick cuts follow, both close-ups, one to Susanna and then to Lisa to get their reactions. The camera stays on Lisa, no-one is moving and the scene that once had a lot of stuff going on at once is now focused this one character's emotions. It cuts to  and then back to the close-up of Lisa. Once the moment is gone and the scuffling begins it its to a wide shot of the aid grabbing her and then Georgina's reaction to everything that has taken place and then back to Susana.

Audio Portrait on Michael Cady

Media 160 Audio Project

https://soundcloud.com/danielle-wright-308385056/new-york