Final Cut Sound Video

I played with the breakdown of sound and image along with the combination and perhaps confusion of audio and visual. Click here to view film.

Rough Cut Sketch #3

The following is my attempt at distorting image through relying on the audience's assumption that audio and visual will forever be linked, hand-in-hand. Click here to view film.

Rough Cut Sketch #2

The following is my focus on finely detailed editing and more natural distortion of sound. Click here to view film.

Rough Cut Sketch #1

The following is an attempt at experimenting with visual reversal and natural sound distortion. Click here to view film.

Production Strategy

I plan on basing my third trek at the playground in Germantown which I visited during the first two treks. In an attempt to appeal to small children, the playground has various bright colors and amusing patterns which will only aid me in creating a visually pleasing visual audio trek.

I will still base my project on creating the sense of motion, however I will make an attempt to create a tighter look by photographing close-ups with a span of a foot or so for the most part.

As far as sounds go, my only goal is to attempt to attach sounds to the visual which stir the memories and emotions of everyone recalling their childhoods spent in such places.

10 Questions

1. Could I have used food as a lure for the animals to get better sounds?
2. Could I have extended the slide clip to turn into a quick run around the playground?
3. Would my as-low-to-the-ground pictures have turned out better if they had been from a high angle, aiming down?
4. Would my pictures have been more interesting during a different type of weather?
5. Would my sounds have been more interesting in an urban setting vs. suburban?
6. Would my sounds have been more interesting if I had always kept my mics 5 feet apart?
7. Would the sounds have varied at all by night?
8. Could I have added a slight shake to the camera as I was taking pictures?
9. Could I have taken my pictures while continuously walking, not taking steps and stopping to photograph my targets?
10. Would my pictures have been effected if I had been in the presence of a group of people?

Trek Assessment #4

My favorite experience of my treks is an easy pick. During the first trek when I was recording only sounds, I made a decision to stop at my old church and see what sounds I could find. I vaugly recalled the priest having wind chimes set outside the main doors so I went to find them. There was a walkthrough between the church and the rectory which was covered by a roof extending between the two. This created a wind tunnel that carried sounds and reverberated them. Through the eight years I spent at St. Mary's, I never really paid attention to this, but when I was wearing enclosed headphones, it blew me away how beautiful the full, rich sound of the chimes echoing and reflecting a hundred times all around me as I walked through that tunnel. To top it all off, I was all alone, enjoying those moments between me and God.

Trek Assessment #3

The following is an account of the various situations that I encountered during my treks that opened my eyes to such things as cultural and social issues I ran into, surprises, emotional reactions, and outcomes of my on-the-field decisions.

One rather interesting social issue that I came across came when I visited the Germantown park. I should have known better from the beginning, but it was funny to see just how many skeptical glances a mother with a child at a park will give a silent, beared, wool-capped, microphone toting man. Another surprise was my reaction to the projects as a whole. After learning about the style of this class and the projects, I was definitely skeptical. After experiencing the harmony and peace of the sound recordings and the asthetic beauty of the locations I photographed and filmed, I had a much more positive outlook. One more instance to document was my on the spot decision to create the stop motion ride down the slide clip. I was originally going to do a stop motion clip of me on the swings, but after realzing that I had to redo part of the clip a few days later, I found myself unable to (after starting) due to the fact that the weather was drastically different the second time around (a factor I had not accounted for until I got out to the field). Thus I decided to change the entire clip to a series down the slide which became one of my favorite clips.

Trek Assessment #2

During my first trek I almost immediately found peace unlike what I have felt in years. To be able to listen to the world through the headphones was a very new experience. Despite the fact that wearing the headphones with the microphones amplify every minute sound, I felt very isolated, as though I had all of the time and the space to myself. While recording the sounds of the chimes at my old church, I felt a sincere connection with my hometown, my church, and all of the peace around me.

Trek Assessment #1

During my first and second trek I encountered a couple a stressful problems. During trek 01 (sound) I had trouble finding original or entertaining sounds. I started off near a waterfall which sounded like a good idea in the beginning, but after realizing that it just sounded like white noise, I moved into a forest to find something interesting. I quickly found that leaves rustling on a windy day sounds a lot like a waterfall. On my second trek (visual) my problems came with my original hopes to match my pictures with my sound locations. In an attempt to match the sound of the ducks vs. the geese, I failed to get any decent photos of the ducks or the geese.