Thrown myself in at the deep end!

I have now gathered multiple audio samples for this experimental piece, I looked at a couple of people for inspiration for my piece, one piece being made using game sounds (found below) they have gathered multiple samples of sound from the game and placed it together to create a piece of music, I had planned to do something similar but with sticking to the rules I used in my other two pieces and using sounds of the items you could see in my photograph.

After this I threw myself in at the deep end (as I believe the best way to learn something is by trying it yourself) and started to import my sounds into cubase, After choosing which segments I was going to use I started to arrange them in a rhythmical fashion, once this was done I added effects such as reverb to make sounds last longer, I then encountered my first problem I soon had to solve, I did this by searching for a tutorial on how to pitch shift clips in cubase, once this was solved everything was straight forward.

Please see write up and annotations in my sketchbook pages 37-39

Image as manuscript: Image 2

My attempt for my 2nd final image, I much prefer this piece as it is much more pleasant to listen to as the notes and instruments work better, I tried to take what I had learnt from the first images piece and apply them to this piece (assign each colour an Instrumental family).

please see sketchbook page 34-36 for annotated diagram and write up.

final two images

Out of my many images I took I have Chosen two of my best images to pick between I have annotated them to help me when composing, they now show what each section/colours etc represent in a musical sense. What I now plan to do is create a few scores for the two pieces and then pick my best for my exhibition piece.

Colour and sound notes

I have been reading through an essay by Maura McDonnell on 'Visual' music and have taken notes, a lot was not relevant to what I was doing so I only noted down what was. I have also found other artists that have used sound and image such as louis Bertrad Castel, who created a light organ which played music and colour simultaneously, although Its not completly relevant This has helped my ideas evolve even further for my piece in terms of the relationship between music and colour as I now understand the relationships more, this will now help me to create a much more detailed score. I now plan to apply what I have learnt to my final piece.

Please see pages 25-29 in my sketchbook for notes.

Photography primary research

On the photography course I'm currently doing I had to take a series of test shots, here is one inspired by the work of Colin Prior. Here I tried to capture as much of the landscape as possible as well as trying to incorporate the sky into the piece, I then edited the colours to be a little more vibrant as a lot of Colin Prior's work uses bold bright colours.

Below is a photo inspired by some of fay Godwin's work. In Fay's photography she used black and white a lot as well as capturing big sky's, Here is a photo I recently took trying to keep to her style of work.

Please see Sketchbook Pages (-) for more photographs annotated with short analysis

Karlheinz Stockhausen

"Helicopter String Quartet"

This is a piece combining both naturally recorded sounds and musical instruments which I plan on my pieces to involve. although this is not audibly pleasing I still believe this piece works really well as he wanted to create a 'concert like no other'. I hope to surprise my audience with my juxtaposing sound piece.

What does water symbolize?

As I plan to use water in one of my pieces I wondered what it symbolized as I could use this to aid my juxtaposing sound piece. I started to search and found a few meanings, here are the most relevant.

Water is often used to symbolize things in literature. Since water is often a sign of life, many times water represents life. Water can also be broken up into two categories: fresh water and bad/polluted water. Fresh water can represent good health, and bad water symbolizes bad health.

Rivers

The river is a sign of ease, grace and fluidity; as expressed by its meandering form. Often times it is used to represent the calm beauty of nature. In Feng Shui (the ancient Chinese art of placement to improve qi flow), certain types of rivers are often described as auspicious and healthy.

A fast-flowing river can often be used to symbolize strength; sometimes calamity. Calamity can be represented through rushing, chaotic rivers that tend to flood.

The Ocean

The ocean is a sign of power and strength, dominating all other symbols of water--due to its immensity. All life was ocean-born and life still exists in the ocean; therefore the ocean represents life

http://symbolism.wikia.com/wiki/Water

Time lapse research

When searching the internet for tips on time lapsing I came across a few helpful tips.

http://www.squidoo.com/how-to-create-professional-looking-time-lapse-videos

1. Make sure all your equipment is in good working order and clean (especially the lens)!
2. Prepare a bag that contains all necessary equipment (camera, tripod, timer, lens cleaner, batteries etc.) and fully charge all batteries to avoid disappointments at shooting location.
3. Always use a tripod when shooting a time lapse sequence
4. Never touch the tripod during the shoot - accidental or unintentional movement of the camera will ruin your shoot.
5. If you shoot outdoors check the weather forecast.
6. Try not to shoot when it's windy. The camera will shake very little during the shoot and you will only see it once the final clip is done.
7. If you still shoot when it's windy, keep the camera as low to the ground as possible. The wind gusts won't be as strong and also the fully collapsed tripod is much sturdier than extended all the way.
8. Always shoot in manual mode! Expose your shots properly and manually set the exposure time, aperture, white balance, ISO and focus. Turn off auto-focus!
9. Try to shoot with a camera that allows regular intervals (not by hand). The more precise the frames are recorded the more natural the result will look. Therefore use a camera with a built-in intervalometer, a camcorder/video recording device or a camera that can be triggered by an external intervalometer.
10. Take your time. Time lapse requires a lot of time. Don't shoot if you're on a tight schedule, it's just frustrating.
11. Learn from your mistakes. Rome wasn't built in a day. It does take time and experience to achieve better results.

(I shall follow these tips when shooting my final videos)

Pick a place that is safe for your camera out of the way where people walk past or a bit further away from water/wind exposure. Remember, the camera has to remain still at all times of the shoot. Otherwise your time lapse won't look good

.

(I have already chosen my locations to shoot from thanks to my test shots but i may need to think about different camera placements to avoid people walking past my camera)

cloud research

So I've been looking at what clouds form in certain weather conditions I wish to capture cumulus clouds in one of my pieces as they are mainly seen in Colin Prior's work.

Cumulus clouds:

Often form in fair weather

fair weather ;

light winds (less than 10 knots)

less than 0.4 sky covered in low clouds

Symbolic meaning of clouds

Ive found a few meanings online I shall take this into consideration when creating my project as this could be a big part in my pieces.

'In the universal language of mind clouds represent the separation between the superconscious mind, which is a self contained unit, and what is below, which is the subconscious and conscious minds which work as a unit or marriage, as an ideal. Awareness of clouds in a dream for instance, will indicate the dreamer has some awareness of this separation and it's significance. Further exploration into understanding mind woud be in order.'

- wikiawnser -

Clouds hold the symbol meaning of revelation. Consider out of the mists of our deepest thoughts suddenly an epiphany comes, a bright idea comes out from nowhere - this is the basic cloud symbol meaning. Depending on the card, clouds can also symbolize confusion or clouded judgement. Primarily, clouds represent higher thought and messages from the divine.

- Tarot card -

Inspiration

Ive started to put a collage together inside my sketchbook of photographs by various photographers, so then I can compare what the similarity's are and try to show this in my work.

Please see pages 19-22 in my sketchbook for the collages

I have also started to research the optimum weather conditions for clouds to form so I can start planning which days are best to film on by keeping an eye on met office weather reports.

Time lapse test - location two

I visited location two on Monday and recorded a few test shots.

This shot is inspired by Colin prior photography work. I reworked the colour of the video and sped it up (x36) to give it a short time lapse feel in Sony Vegas 10 I believe this location would work really well to record a piece to show in my exhibition.

(Please see page 18 for a short evaluation on this piece)

Time lapse

Been taking notes on how to make time lapse video's and have realised they are traditionally made using a DSLR camera, I have worked out this is a long process and I do not have the appropriate disk space on the camera/equipment to capture enough photos so I have decided not to create a traditional time lapse video but to create a Time lapse effect video using video recorders.

(please see page 17 in sketchbook for notes)

I have been looking at time lapse effect videos on the internet that people have created using video cameras. below one of a few I have looked at.

I personally much prefer this method as it feels less jumpy as it is constantly recording.

Research - Collin Prior

Colin prior is a landscape photographer I have been looking at please see pages # in my sketchbook for notes and more images.

Test shot - Primary Research

Edited - sped up and colour reworked.

I went to my first location today just to take a couple of test shots but my camera ran out of batterys as Forgot to charge them, I only ended up with around 6 minutes worth of footage before it died, but I believe this location would be great, a couple of people walked past which I feel ruins the piece but if i was to get a shot with no people walking past I believe this would be a great location for one of my exhibition pieces. - Inspired by Fay Godwin

Research - Fay Godwin

Just a few images; see page # in my FMP sketchbook for more research.

Location Scouting.

As I started in a previous post i have decided to create a series of images/videos with sounds I have created, so I have decided to start location scouting currentlyI have 2 places in mind.

This is my first location, there is a now a sculpture of a UFO up there, I plan to Gain a shot which shows this sculpture as well as the Sky and surrounding areas.

This is my second location, its a reservoir close to my house

Relationships between Notes and Emotion.

After researching around the internet trying to find relationships between Sound and Emotion I finally came across this article on 'Christian Schubart'

http://www.biteyourownelbow.com/keychar.htm I plan to apply this information when I start to compose the score for my piece.

(Please see fmp sketchbook page 7 for notes)

Website research and Inspiration

I've been looking through other film websites just to see how they present there work in a professional looking format and layout here are a few images and links to some sites I have looked at.

Harry Potter

http://harrypotter.warnerbros.com/harrypotterandthedeathlyhallows/mainsite/dvd/

Saw

http://www.officialsaw.com/

Skyline

http://www.iamrogue.com/skyline.html

Whilst looking at these sites I noticed the similarity's, They all have somewhere you can purchase the Product, They all have the Trailer available to view as well as additional content so my website must include both content to purchase and the trailer/video to view.

Inspiration and research

I decided to look for some information on animations directly from the sound designer for some inspiration and research, I managed to find a couple of videos on Youtube with the head sound designer speaking. here are a few I have looked at

A bugs life - Gary Rydstrom (sound designer)

Ben Burtt - (sound designer)

Watching these videos has inspired me to make my new sounds out of existing sounds, for example if I wanted a rain sound instead of going out and trying to capture the sound of rain I could merge two sounds together that when merged together would give me the sound of rain.