During our Collaborative Project I have had the opportunity to experiment with the recording, editing and mixing of sound. After two extremely interesting workshops with Carolyn Downing, a London based sound designer, I am now trying to put into practice the skills that she has taught us. In our most recent workshop Carolyn divided the sound design for our upcoming Collaborative Project into three parts. Each of the students present at the workshop began by choosing which character we would design the sound for. In this way each of the separate characters will have very different soundscapes, which will be particularly effective for this performance as The Overlook Project is to be an unscripted piece of theatre.
For teh past week, I have been designing the soundscape for the character of Jack Torrance, the male lead in Stanley Kubrick's The Shining. Jack is defined by his paranoia and his resentment. He is a man who is frustrated by his place in the world and this anger is further compounded by his inability to be productive and to create. My design for Jack’s soundscape attempts to emphasize the controlling, misogynistic and obsessive elements of his character. I did this by recording naturalistic sounds and then editing them into abstraction. I recorded the sounds of drumming fingers, grinding teeth, and tearing paper. These were then mixed with metallic sounds distorted laughter and ominous droning noises.
Here is a sample of the work so far... But be warned... You are listening to the rattlings of a mad man in an empty house... This ain’t gonna be pleasant listening!
For teh past week, I have been designing the soundscape for the character of Jack Torrance, the male lead in Stanley Kubrick's The Shining. Jack is defined by his paranoia and his resentment. He is a man who is frustrated by his place in the world and this anger is further compounded by his inability to be productive and to create. My design for Jack’s soundscape attempts to emphasize the controlling, misogynistic and obsessive elements of his character. I did this by recording naturalistic sounds and then editing them into abstraction. I recorded the sounds of drumming fingers, grinding teeth, and tearing paper. These were then mixed with metallic sounds distorted laughter and ominous droning noises.
Here is a sample of the work so far... But be warned... You are listening to the rattlings of a mad man in an empty house... This ain’t gonna be pleasant listening!
3 comments:
Really spooky and unpleasant.. I like it very much! Is this the general soundscape or just for one day?
Hi Dafni,
This is the soundscape for Day Three.
Day one is going to be using only natural sound. So I must get some microphones and place them around the set to capture the natural sound of jack's movements.
These natural sounds will also be played on Day Two. However, I will also over-dub the natural sounds created by the actors in real-time with the sounds I have pre-recorded (e.g. shuffling paper, drumming fingers and scribbling pens etc.) While these are also naturalistic sounds they will be abstracted by being played out of sync with the action and at a heightened volume.
The sounds that I have pre-recorded for Day Two are also in the soundscape for Day Three, which I have posted here (you can probably hear them in among all the cacophony)... However Day Three differs from Day One and Two a lot. It is only on Day Three that the manic laughter, grinding teeth, dry thuds and sounds of shattering glass will be pulled in.
On day 4 there will be no active sound, just a constant low hum of white noise.
It will all be rather unpleasant to listen to I suspect
I’ve said it before - but i’ll say it again.... I FEAR FOR THE SANITY OF OUR POOR ACTORS!!!
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