Sound workshop 15/11

We began the session with talking about how stressed we were with our Narrative strands as we are all designing the sound for our respective strands, we were being being given till the last minute to edit sound as sound is the last on the chain of making a film. We were told about picture-lock, which I hadn't previously been told about in Documentary where it is standard to have a set number of days for an edit then picture locking it for the sound to take over. This factor was useful as in later projects where I am editing sound, I will know to talk to my group about picture lock and how vital it is to sound editors.

We looked at soundtrack for films and were introduced to Logic. We talked about the opening to A Clockwork Orange, composed by Wendy Carlos, an electronic artist. The opening is striking as it is a classical piece playing "Music for the Funeral of Queen Mary - March" by Henry Purcell" that has been electronically edited to still have the presence and tone of a funeral march but to bring into the future it is set in by enhancing it electronically. 

Neil talked about how Carlos had used a moog synthesiser for this piece and other pieces in the film and had also influenced her work in TRON (1982) where she also used a Moog synthesiser while fighting with Disney as they thought she couldn't finish the score on time so had a orchestra record a score for her which she then had to incorporate into the score. I like the way the orchestral sounds and electronic and heavily mooged orchestra sounds play around together, creating a very layered but ultimately 'futuristic' and computer generated soundtrack.

We compared it to TRON: Legacy which was scored by the electronic, house duo Daft Punk. I feel like this soundtrack represents the world of inside the computer better than Carlos' previous soundtrack although the duo didn't have the setbacks that Carlos did. The complicated electronic beeps that go up and down the scale really give the impression of a computer and the bass pounding below it helps to create the right kind of tempo for the pace of the film and the games which the users have to partake in. 

We talked discussed films such as Eyes Wide Shut, composed by Jocelyn Pook where a simple minor piano notes are played but manage to create a very eerie, suspenseful scene.  In the scene we watched, shrill, high octave notes are played to create an uncomfortable tension as Tom Cruise's character is being followed. Because the notes are so unnerving to listen to, it creates a world where it is uncertain what will happen next, as the notes are introduced quite suddenly and shrilly. 
We also discussed other simple score like in The Thing, composed by John Carpenter that uses one bass note throughout the action, which acts as a pulse to keep you in suspense the entirety of the film. 


We next moved onto Logic which we used with the midi keyboards. Logic is like the grownup version of Garageband which is incredibly useful to me in my various sound work as Garageband is so limited to work with. We went through the various plug-ins and the effects, like on Soundtrack pro, that you can use to alter the plug-ins you use. As the library was vast, it was hard at first to navigate around it but after spending a few hours practicing, it was easy to pick up. We learnt briefly how to use automation on the programme and I tried a little panning.
We were then taught how to export correctly - export - region as audio file -AIFF - 24 bit - SAVE. This was especially useful to me because I tend to export files wrongly on soundtrack pro and other programmes, either because it was hard to find the information to do so on Blackboard or we weren't taught.

Learning how to use Logic, albeit briefly, was incredibly useful for me as for my sound editing, I like to create original soundscapes and last year, only being able to use Garageband, my work was very limited.