My final idea

When I said give up, in one my previous posts I was very tempted to give up on this concept all together, however I have kept going with it and now I will pursue this new idea. Covering already existing songs but replacing the instruments with everyday sounds. With the help of Logic and my midi keyboard I am sure that I will be able to kick it off. 

I have decided to work around pop songs, not too sure what ones yet but I believe as I work I will figure out what ones work better. I am looking for songs that have similarities so they can easily dissolve into each other and also that audience members will recognise them quite easily. 

My next post will not be happening for a while as I do just need to crack on with this! Not long left till deadline! 

Research: Smule

If I wasn't convinced already about altering my idea, this app has definitely put the nail in the coffin.

What Smule have created is an app that can create sounds from everyday noises. The app is limiting but the concept is still the same. I feel that as one of my original ideas was based on the concept, I will now put it to rest. The idea has been done and clearly not as challenging with this app and so I will push my film into a different direction.

Another progress update 14/12

So I have been working on my most recent experiment by developing the Post effects in Logic further. After a few weeks of trying I believe that I will give up with this direction. The sounds that I am creating are just too fake and is taking away what I wanted to create, a piece that involves actual sounds of the surroundings, not of a music editing programme. However here is my experiment, I kept with this idea for long enough now and it is time to focus on another direction.

This 'other direction' will all be explained in my next post! 

Progress update

Sorry, it has been a while since I have last posted, I am currently knuckling down with developing the skills I have learnt from Logic. My progress is small but the main hurdle holding me back is the lack of object noises I have at my disposal. I have many ambient 'wildtracks' but not enough interesting object noises. I have those that have come from other projects or something I have found interesting but the problem is that I have not many recordings of sounds that could fit into the the song I am trying to create. I will start to get my paperwork filled in so I can be green lit by the university and continue capturing sounds that will benefit me in this project.

Research: Sound of Noise (2010)

"A tone-deaf cop works to track down a group of guerilla percussionists whose anarchic public performances are terrorizing the city."

These 'anarchic public performances' is where I found a potential direction I could take my idea. There are four/ five main songs throughout the film. My favourite, 'Money 4 u Honey' takes part in a bank, but the use of found instruments is what I find interesting. My general direction so far is to capture sounds and manipulate in post production in order to associate them into an interesting piece of music. However in this film the 'guerilla percussionists' act as a live band and perform to an audience with no post manipulation, more like real music. 

I find that the most interesting part of this song is the use of the stamps and how there are power in number. I have made the decision that I want to be the only creator in this piece of work and therefor a live band would be near impossible. What I will experiment with is creating a piece of music and then finding what similar objects will act as the instruments. At the moment I have been using sounds that are not intentionally made for music but I am forcing it to be. Even if it is just to give me a fresh pair of ears I will try this exercise, if it doesn't work then so be it. 

Experimenting with Sound (take 2)

For a while now I have been experimenting with discovering the basics of creating a song with sounds. For this project I am using a mix between Adobe Audition and Logic Pro. I decided to put a few of the sounds I have into Logic and see what I could create with them.

So, I started this experiment by using various plugins available on Logic. First of all I used Vocal transformer and Pitch shift to see if I could shift a certain sounds pitch to another. The first experiment was not a success. I didn't concentrate on volume, nor on sound quality.

However it was a success (in terms on creating different

notes! This encouraged me to try a harder experiment 

but this time creating a basic beat and melody

Here is the start and end of my second experiment. I started off using the pitch shifter to create different notes in order to create a melody. It worked. By changing the Semi Tones and varying the mix (the strength of the plugin) I was able to create 4 very different pitches of the same sound.

For the Kettle sound whistle sound the only way to create it (with a kettle) is to have the water boiling. However, I did not want this and so EQ allowed me to eradicate the boiling water.

Lastly I used I slight bit of reverb to give certain sounds some character and more instrumental effect. 

The sort-of finished experiment. The ending sounds abrupt and very dysfunctional as I realised that I was losing the purpose of the experiment and started playing around with time and more complex beats. But the confidence and knowledge I have gained from doing these experiments has helped me greatly. Depending on what route I take, the associations sound piece or the musical sound piece(most probable), either way these basic effects will be needed.   

Potential Idea

I have decided to make this it as if it were a journey to work. A saturday job, on top of the characters education. While the majority take the weekend off, many students have to work. This film will reflect through sounds, and sounds alone, how the emotions are carried across the day. 

Here is the basic plan for the film. I have other location to explore but it may be a bit to much in a short space of time. I have already gathered wild tracks of a few of these location, but the hard part of creating the music to accompany the scene and create the emotion is still to come. 

Scene One

·      Meditation music plays in the background

·      An unknown person will be waking up to start the day

·      The alarm clock wakes the character and shifts the music t something more upbeat

·      The unknown will then travel downstairs to perform all morning rituals. Brushing teeth, eating breakfast, making coffee, etc etc

Scene Two

·      The unknown will then travel to work.

·      He will drive

·      He will pass busy members of the public

·      He will pass all the joys of the town center

Scene Three

·      The unknown is at his job in a supermarket

·      The machines beep, the customers talk

Scene Four

·      The unknown will leave his job

·      He will walk to the park

·      He will take out some food and eat.

·      He will relax

John Smith - Associations

Today I had a tutorial with one of the tutors and shared with them all the research and experiments I had to show. The feedback I received was extremely helpful, I can now take my idea in different directions and research a lot more into different concepts.

John Smith's Associations is where I started my new research.
"The film Sets language against itself by using the ambiguities inherent in the English language. Images from magazines and color supplements accompany a voiceover reading from the book Word Associations and Linguistic Theory by academic linguistic Herbert H. Clark. Combining a wry sense of humor with word/visual games and puns, Smith explores the boundaries of cinematic montage by combining elements together and against each other in order to destroy and create multiple meanings at the same time." 
The reason why my tutor told me to look at the work of John Smith is that if language can be manipulated and used to create different meaning and associations and so can sound.



Ben Burtt took sound to a next level when creating the sound effects for Star Wars. Science fiction create things that have not been invented and Ben Burtt created sounds that did not exist. He believed that the sounds he created would associate to weapons and other items invented in the world of Star Wars. If they were not listened to with the accompanying imagery, would we still believe they were laser guns or lightsabers? Probably not.

'Shattering chicken carcasses with baseball bats, cracking walnuts inside them, smacking around slabs of meat with pigs' feet, and then processing them... We've done it all, and as a result of this project our 'punch' library has become quite extensive. - Ren Klyce, Fight Club (Sound Designer) 
In order to create a realistic sound it is not always necessary for the sound to be literal. In order to enhance a sound then it is often beneficial to use a different sound and through the use of association we believe it. 

The way this could relate to my film is if I were to try and associate sounds with imagery. Potentially I could try and trick audiences, like John Smith's film the ambiguity of the sound would not matter as long as the imagery could associate in some way.

Experimenting with Sound

So now I am heading in some kind of direction I have been looking through my own catalogue of sounds and seeing what I can create with my current library. After experimenting with a few sounds to create an opening or a beat I decided that I needed a few different sounds (possibly ones from my research) to create a catchy beat.

The first sounds I decided to mix with are mostly from my atmosphere tracks. Wind, wildlife, and a few from my foley tracks, Sticks and footsteps. The beat I created was not catchy in the slightest, it kind of annoys me the more I listen to it. I have decided to scrap this piece and start off scratch. I want listeners to enjoy the piece, and if I don't, neither will they.

The second piece I experimented with using effects such as reverb and EQ. The raw audio you hear is that of a electric car window and an outside piping system. Once again I dislike this as it does not create a catchy song. I want audiences to be entertained.

I will continue with my experiments and research but I do feel that I am heading it the right direction.

Research: YouTube

Sorry about the lack of  activity, Fact into Fiction has been taking up most of my time.As I now have a vague idea of what I want to do I have decided to look at existing films that are similar to my proposal.



I decided to look onto YouTube and see what possible sounds people have already used to create a song, the results were quite disappointing.  The first video I stumbled across was this. Everyday Sounds created by YouTuber tiitsay. The film shows exactly what I wish to create, however I feel that the execution of this piece could have been better. The beat at the beginning seems promising but I slowly became disengaged and that is not what I want for my audiences.

The second video I stumbled took a different spin on things, although they used regular noises to create a melody they created a bass line through a very obvious bass instrument, not the wire they are supposedly plucking. The idea is interesting but it also seems like an easy way out, depending on their intentions, but for myself if was to take on this idea it would defeat the purpose of my film.

Finally, the last video I decided to look at was similar to the first but it had, in my opinion, was slightly better. It made a clearer attempt of making an enjoyable song that people would listen to. I want my film/ song to be upbeat, something that people may find catchy.






To conclude this post I must say that although these pieces of work are not up to the standard I wish my final film to be but I can and will take certain elements/ sounds and experiment with them to see if they fit into my film.

Last session

Today was the last session and probably the shortest. We spent the first half of the session looking through peoples challenges and what they managed to come up with. One of the challenges that seemed most popular was the 'What if' challenge. The challenge was to think of only 'what if' questions, not to have the answer, but just questions. Im guessing the purpose of this was to stretch the imagination of the person, it was encouraged that the what if questions could be anything they wanted. It seemed enjoyable and stimulating so I want to have a crack at it myself.

• What if I had the opportunity to transport to any country I wanted by pressing my finger on a map?
• What if Adventure time was real and we were the fictional characters?
• What if I lost all my socks?
• What if this list never gets read?
• What if fruit and vegetables were bad for you?
• What if my curtains were yellow? 
• What if I lived alone?
• What if my boiler worked properly?
• What if I faked my death?
• What if the internet went for good?
• What if all the money I owned became useless? 
• What if clothes never existed?
• What if the only means of transport was horse and carriage?
• What if death never existed? 
• What if I had sandy feet constantly?
• What if I had a pet cow? 
• What if I never felt hungry?
• What if my girlfriend was a dinosaur? 
• What if I could control time?
• What if we had the memory of a goldfish? 
• What if we could see in the dark? What if there were 25 letters in the alphabet? 
• What if classical music was the youths favourite genre?
• What if I was to leave the country right now and never return? 

That took me a lot longer than I thought. The reason being after each 'what if' question I was thinking how they could be turned into a short film, something I will most definitely be trying again. 

I wrote very little in my little brown book but I suppose now I have an idea I should develop it and research as much as I can. 

Sound I Hear

Today I went to visit my Great Grandmother and I noted down all the noises I heard in my little brown book. Below is everything I wrote in my little brown book as I heard it.

• The buzz of the door as I let myself in 
• The elevator as it makes its way down to me 
• The distant murmurs of resident's televisions
• As I walk past the living room area I hear cups and mugs clinking and being drank out of
• As I enter my nan's room I hear her voice "Oh come here, Darling"
• I took the old visitors chair and took a seat - the creaking of the chair shows its age. 
• One of the more louder residents is marching up and down the corridor screaming at the top of her lungs - this is a normal thing here
• A carer walks past whistling and singing
• The sound of the biscuit tin 
• Slurps of tea from myself and my nan 
• Knock at the door and  voice saying 'Time for dinner, Elizabeth"
• As I leave I walk past the loud resident who is now p[laying with the xylophone that is placed upon the corridor wall. 

This activity really enhanced my listening abilities, although I was there to visit my nan, I never realised how much actually went on. I believe this activity has helped me in realising that I must create a sound map for when wishing to record atmosphere tracks, it allows me to get a deeper understanding of the place I am wishing to create.

Experimental Found Footage

In todays session manipulating and playing around with already existing footage was the subject.

The first film we watched was created by artist/ director Christian Marclay. The Clock is like something I have never seen before, it is a montage that indicates the passage of time. We didn't watch the whole 24 hours but only 3 minutes of it. With regards to giving me inspiration for my film it did not help in slightest, I just don't have the time.

Qaeda Quality Question Quickly Quickly Quiet, directed by Lenka Clayton is another film that I have no interest in making. I don't have a strong opinion on politics, I know who I like and I dislike and that's as far as it goes. The idea is interesting it allows everyone to break apart George Bush's speech for what it really is. 

The next film we watched sparked an idea for my own film. RIP - Remix Manifesto is a documentary that looks at the work of GirlTalk. The music GirlTalk produces is not his own but is a montage of existing pieces. When I came home from University I decided to have a look at this work and from it I found other artists who mash up existing found footage into something entertaining. cassetteboy a Youtuber mashes up everything contemporary into something enjoyable.













Instead of copying these artists, I wish to create a song with everyday noises, birds tweeting, a microwave, anything that mashed together that could make a piece of music. I understand that there are many existing versions of this out there but I would just like to give it a go and challenge myself. 

The final film we watched, Talk To Me was directed/ created by Mark Craig. In 1985 Mark Craig bought an answering machine. He then kept every message it recorded for 20 years. If I had the archive material I would definitely experiment with something like this. However, to my knowledge, my family have not kept something so unique that others would find interesting in a film.

At the end of the session we were asked to pick a task that helped develop creative flow. I picked up several sheets. One was a capturing sounds, bus as I kind of do that already I have decided to challenge myself with the 'Sounds I hear' task. What I must do is go into a significant place and list down all the sounds that I can hear. I'm not too sure where I will do it yet but I will post it up here when I have completed the task.