https://drive.google.com/open?id=1JwKrYavo4P0o4awZgxQ8SSUrcd9txo8V
Audio Task Reflective Essay:
The intention of this task was to produce a multi-layered soundscape to suit a clip in any way we wish. This is to show our understanding of tone within a film, mood and relating the meaning of the visuals to the audio. The clip in question follows a character driving through a city listening to the radio, the city is in a state of riot and chaos.
My creative response for the soundscape was a form of realism, combined with heightened sound effects within the piece to show a conflict of power within the scene. ‘The experience of realism in cinema is intricately tied to the impression that the events and persons depicted are somehow real. We know the film to be screened, yet we experience the depicted events to be occurring’ (Riis, 2002). This apt quote that helps explain the reason behind my choice of soundscape, and the creation of it. I wanted the clip to seem real, immersive and true to what we would experience. Whilst also adding drama to make the audience feel more engaged as film usually does.
The realism and overwhelming power that immerses the audience, takes away the ‘real’ world from around and all aspects of the creation of the film, audio, set, acting, editing all combined, make the audience feel a part of the world the film has created (Hallam and Marshment, 2000). As I mentioned previously about the conflict of power within the audio, I had the main character turn up the radio over the sound of the chaos and rioting outside and down again whenever he picked up the phone. No speech was added because I was unable to work out what was being said within the clip, it was also due to the fact that I felt it would seem to distracting and ineffective to dub this in.
The entirety of the soundscape took advantage of diegetic sound. Initially I chose to use a non-diegetic soundtrack to make the scene seem more dramatic and add another layer of depth. However, I quickly rethought this idea, as I felt that having all the sounds within the clip had some kind of origin with what we can visually see, it added another layer of realism. This tone of realism came from the music coming from the radio, the riot sounds from outside, car horns, traffic effects to add the feeling of being ion a large city, the helicopter passing over a few times, before we see it, to cement the idea of being watched, and contained. The same applies for the police sirens, so that when the car approaches the police checkpoint it cements the feeling of being contained and by having the audio sound like it is coming from outside the car most of the clip. It adds to the feeling of claustrophobia which was one of my intended effects of this task.
In conclusion, I felt that this task, although time consuming, worked very well in helping me better my understanding of audio editing and establishing a connection between visuals and audio. I also felt that it helped me to understand how important the mood, tone and meaning of a clip can be morphed entirely using audio.