24046602's blog

Month: November 2025

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Element 1 hand in for exhibiting

Final mix – Bringing everything together

This week had been completely centred around building the final mix for my film. It’s the first time everything I’ve recorded, designed and composed has come together in one place and it’s been strongly satisfying hearing the project finally take shape. A lot of the work had been focused on the foley I recorded earlier in the process. I bought all of those sounds into my Ableton session and spent time shaping them with EQ to make sure the perspective felt believable. That part was surprisingly delicate, small changes completely shift the sense of distance or direction.

Foley

Getting the foley to sit correctly also made me realise how much of sound design is invisible. If you’ve done it right, no one notices. They just accept the world is real. So I took my time placing footsteps, clothing rustles and environmental textures, making sure they didn’t overpower anything but still carried enough presence to bring life into the scene.

Music

For the music, I composed the core track first, then layered a soft synth across the whole piece. It was something I felt the film needed some sort of tonal glue that smoothed everything out and created a consistent emotional bed beneath the images. The synth sits low, not seeking attention but allowing a pulse for the film to come together. Once it was in place, the atmosphere felt complete. It’s amazing how one subtle element can hold everything in place without drawing focus.

Syncing all the audio with the visuals was the final stage and honestly it longer than I expected. Timing is so sensitive, even being a fraction of a second off can change the emotional intention of a moment. I went through my timeline slowly making sure the music supported the rhythm of the visuals and the foley grounded the physicality of the scene. When everything finally aligned it felt like the film was breathing properly for the first time.

Reflection

Working on this final mix had made me appreciate how much much sound shapes the emotional landscape of a film. Seeing my project come together through sound rather than picture has been a reminder of how much I’m drawn to the invisible, atmospheric parts of filmmaking. I realised how much control I have through EQ, volume and space and how these small decisions can change everything about the way the viewer experiences the film.

Even though the mix was challenging at points, especially balancing clarity with mood, I feel like this strange connected the whole project back to why I love working with sound in the first place. It’s the moment where the technical choices become emotional ones. Where foley becomes movement. Where music becomes feeling and where the film finally feels alive.

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Element 1 hand in for exhibiting

Foley room session

This week our main focus as a group was to start getting our final mix to speed. We talked about how where progressing within our group. I talked about my final mix, and how I was slowing working towards the deadline. Jessica mentioned to me about how panning and or playing my mix in 5:1. This made me think more critically about spacial audio and how different decisions can completely change the mood or focus within a scene. After our discussion, I decided to head into the Foley studio to start recorded my sounds for my chosen.

Foley Room

Below are the photos of mine and my friend Gil (see image right) trying our luck in the foley studio to record some audio for a film by Margret Tait called Aerial. I had started last session by adding a time code onto the screen as you can see in the first image. This enabled me to precisely record the foley into perfected timestamps which is important to get that crisp Foley Audio! Having that visual marker made the process feel more organise and definitely improved the quality of the recordings.

Reflection

Working in the Foley room was a lot more challenging than I expected. It’s one thing to watch a short film and imagine what sounds need to be implemented, but it’s another thing entirely to actually produce them in a controlled and believable way. Personally a struggle for me was the small movements. Things like footsteps, rustling clothing, or even the subtle ambience of an object took multiple takes to get right. This overall process really made me appreciate how much detail goes into sound design and how often you have to change material to get the organic sound you are looking for. Also, how the perfect sound can contribute to the overall atmosphere.

Another big lesson for me and probably more for Gil (as he was in charge of finding the material) was the importance of experimentation. Gil and I tried different materials, surfaces and mic placements. I had some prior knowledge about how difficult it could be to create Foley, however, it really opened to how creative Foley work can be.

Another thing I noticed was about workflow. Setting up the timecode ahead of time really saved me from a lot of guesswork during editing. if I hadn’t prepared that, syncing everything later would have been a nightmare. Preparation before recording is just as important as the recording itself.

Overall, spending time in the Foley room made me much more confident about the studio space and the audio side of my creative project. It also gave me a clearer understanding of how Foley contributes to a films emotional impact. As I move closer to the final mix, I feel more aware of the choices I’m making, not just placing sounds, but shaping how those sounds are experienced by the audience.

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Aural cultures hand in

Place, composition and subjectivity

Place, composition and subjectivity

What makes these things important?

  • Place
  • Presents
  • Voice

This week session is the consideration of space and our place within it. For example we see some woods as a particular place but what do we recognise in the spaces? The awareness of the space changes with ones intentionality.

The Soundscape: Our Sonic Environment And The Tuning Of The World by Murray Schafer (1977)

  • In the book Schafer brings light into the importance of paying attention to the visual and sonic environment around us
  • He notes that modernisation has changed our sonic landscapes, cars, machines and amplified technologies have flooded our everyday life
  • He talks about a major concern in the noise pollution and the loss of subtle sounds
  • Its a great insight too look into how the world around can be digested sonically

Questions to think about when listening audio

  • What makes a place sound good?
  • How does sound create a sense of place?
  • How are you involved in the production of place?
  • What makes you feel out of place?
  • How to record a sense of place?
  • How do you effect place?

Recording in a space changes the mindset of how its listened, its important to look into this.

Reflection

This session made me think differently about how I move through and listen to places. Ive never really questioned how much of place is something I actively help produce rather than something that just exists around me. The idea that my awareness shifts depending on my intention really stood out once I started listening more carefully, the space changes.

Schaefer’s ideas helped me understand why this matters. His concerns about noise pollution and the loss subtle sounds feel even more relevant today. We’re so used to constant mechanical noise that we barely notice it anymore, yet it’s shaping how we experience the world. It makes me realise that recording a place isn’t just about capturing what’s there, its about acknowledging what has been masker or erased by modern sound.

Overall this session helped me see sonic environments as something active relational and subjective. It reminds me that listening is a form of engagement and that understanding a place through sound requires patience, curiosity and a willingness to notice things that normally disappear.

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Element 1 hand in for exhibiting Sound For Screen

NOWISWHENWEARE BFI

NOWISWHENWEARE

NOWISWHENWEARE is an exhibition that was shown in October to accompany the BFI film festival. I was introduced to this exhibition by my lecturer Jessica Marlowe and wanted to check it out. The artist is Andrew Schneider who is know in the film industry for his works on The Sopranos (1999) and Northern Exposure (1990) as a producer. However, this installation shows a totally different side to his creative practice, one that is far more intimate and experimental.

What it’s about

NOWISWHENWEARE is a new interactive theatrical installation that pushes this idea to its literal extreme. An unseen narrator guides each participant through an individualized journey into a precisely programmed matrix of light – and the cosmos of themselves. Part meditation, part exploration, the stars draws visitors into a hyper-focus of the present. The stars traces every decision that you have ever made as a contributing factor to being ‘here’ and being ‘now’.

Andrew Schneider

Andrew Schneider is mostly interested in the story telling of humans, lots of his work and art look at this idea of that when people tell stories to one another, something universal opens up, we recognise ourselves in the experiences of others. I was first introduced into his work from his most recent exhibition NOWISWHENWEARE. “Andrew’s work uses new and old, high and low tech—from Wave Field Synthesis arrays and Volumetric Lighting displays to literal smoke and mirrors. He is interested in the edges of human perception, using science as a blueprint for staging, and above all, the question of—how does it make you feel?” IMDB. As he puts it, he is interested in the edges of human perception and in how art makes you feel before you even understand it.

How it made me feel

I do think about this exhibition still now after its been almost a month since I’ve seen. I think for him it really has this human element to it that draws you into the now. When you first go in you have to give you’re eyes times to adjust to the room as to super dark. You are met with this huge cube that is emitting light that you can walk between. The audio was what hit home for me on this piece, is was so meditative. Depending on where you’re standing you can hear a reflective story from a narrator talking about the what ifs in life. This was so enjoyable for me as I like to use these types of reflective audio clips in my own work. It bings you out go your own head, it makes you reflect and look inwards. It was really inspiring for me to listen to these stories, I like the way it changed my mind set and took me out of the usual motions of life.

The voice

Going to this exhibition really shone a light into how much power the human voice can carry. I like think about the voice in my piece and how much power the human voice can carry. This exhibition really shone a light on to how stories of peoples can brings the feeling of mortality. I think my looking further into the voice might bring me to a idea of what I want to use in my films.

Jane Cardiff the “Forty Part Motet”

This is a great example of how the voice shapes a space or evokes a feeling. Jane Cardiffs 2001 exhibition drives homes the power of multiple voices. She had 40 speakers and dream, and that dream came true Jane Cardiff well done!

Seeing Schneider’s work made me think of Cardiff instantly. Both installations use the voice to create an emotional environment, one that you walk inside rather than simply listen to.

Overall, NOWISWHENWEARE really opened up something in me about how we experience time, light and sound — but more than that, how we experience ourselves. It really felty like being part of a living story when I was there, I couldn’t quite explain in afterwards but it was surreal. This experience really made reflect on my practice as an artist. I think moving forward the voice might play a part in my project. I like the way it can displace and remove you from everyday life as its a very useful tool

As I reflect on my own practice, I’ve realised that I want to explore the voice intentionally, whether thats through narration, motifs or fragmented reflections. The voice has ability to pull someone out of their everyday thinking and suspend them in a new emotional space. Thats exactly what happened to me in the exhibition, and I think its something I want to bring into my own film.

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Element 1 hand in for exhibiting Sound For Screen

Emotional narratives and subjectivity, filming through sound

Paul Davis

  • Paul Davis is a sound designer and he is great at articulating what sort of practice is necessary within sound design. He has this ability to explain why sound design in a really compelling way. He has this ability to explain why sound is not just an accessory to film, but a psychological force. Listening to him speak, you realise just how delicate the balance is between noises silence and music.
  • The anti form of narrative or noise still has a emotional response. Sound design is crucial to evoke a feeling or creating the psychological response in the POV of the character

Why use music on film?

My response to this was multifaceted. I think it has several uses, one might be too evoke a feeling where it is needed. We are able to do this in several ways, like to have a sad song played at a sad part of a film. However, directors like David Lynch would play a really harmonic and happy song when sometimes something quite horrific is going on visually. Another great use of music could be to add narrative when the visual doesn’t. A characters motif is used in story telling a lot, the motif can change over time thus showing the development of this character sonically. Music can also help build the film up and to change the pace.

Walter Murch

Walter Murch has a bit of a different view when it comes to using silence in a film. He has worked on films like The Godfather and explains his reasoning into why silence is a powerful tool in film making. He explains the reasoning behind using silence in powerful scenes and because it can have the opposite effect if you add music where sometimes its not needed. Music is a powerful tool but you need to know when to use it. I think it’s important to know this and to be aware of music and be conscious about it.

  • Subtext is very important with music. The music is in there at the correct place. however you as the filmmaker seem fit
  • Rhythm of the film also applies to music, music has the ability to change the direction pace and feeling off the film
  • Non-diagetic and diabetic sound are mixed together to show the POV of the character on screen
  • When a film is visually main a statement there is no reason to for the music to follow

Reflection

Thinking about the ideas of David and Murch together has shifted my understanding of how I want to approach my own films sound. They both speak from experience, but they meet in one place: sound is emotional architecture. It holds the firm upright. It carries what the character cannot say. It shapes how we breathe with the images.

As I build the sound world for my film, the atmospheres and the music and Foley. I’m realising the responsibility of choosing what to include and what to leave out. I’m drawn to the idea that silence is not absence and that noise is not always presence. Sometimes the most powerful thing is restraint. Other times, it’s leaning into instability or contradiction like Lynch does.

Ultimately, I want the sound for my project to feel lived in, something that doesn’t just accompany the imagery but reveals it. My goal is to craft a sonic experience that reflects not only what is happening on screen but what is happening internally, psychologically and emotionally.

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Aural cultures hand in

Fiction, poets and voice

Week 6 reminder of class crits for the audio paper

What fiction do I know?

A lot of the fiction that I digest is through books, I read a lot as it calms my mind before going to sleep. I love to get lost in these stories and tap into a fictional world so far from my own. Not only books but when I listen to music, music allows me to tap into fiction from what the music is doing or going and puts me into another headspace.

It’s also good to note sounds ability to trick and deceive us and make us question our own reality. Sound is sometimes misleading, as a piece of bacon can sound like falling rain when listened to quietly, foley allows that effect too take place within film.

Foley

On previous blog post I’ve talked about foley and the creative expression that comes with the art. It’s created in a studio outside the actual shoot, we talked about how a lot of the nature documentary’s don’t take audio from the actual shoot as animal can be dangerous and hard to get close to with a mic. This is a great example of why foley is sometimes deceiving and it can flip the perception of someone watching, it shows how we are constantly mislead sonically.

Listening exercise

We listened to a piece of audio with our any visual context and we had to figure out what is what. The audio without context was strange because I could hear humans talking but not in a language I understand. What I wrote down in my notebook: “Feels like a big room and from the point if view from a fly or insect flying around the walls”. The word the popped into my head at the time surveillance.

Turns out the audio was from this little fella. A type of mimicking bird that is near human civilisations that copies their voices. I was wasn’t far off!

Do I use voice in my practice?

In the past I have really used voice as the forefront for a lot of my university projects. The last hand in for year one was a piece that works around a narrator of some old flats that got demolished. I like the voice in my work as it is a power driver.

How can voice change you?

The voice can carry so much with it. I think the voice as a medium is what grips us to the art work, I find it to be a useful tune to create art with. I like the memory and reflection you can add with voice.