Category: Uncategorised

(Watkins, 2012)

I have always been interested in the difference between how a story is portrayed through a book vs. how the same story is portrayed through a film, specifically, the way this is shown in ‘The Woman in Black’.

The aim of my sound piece was to create a film trailer for ‘The Woman in Black’, yet for a ‘prequel’ – portraying the story that sets up the 2012 film, based on the text from Susan Hill’s book; and focusing on how the Woman in Black came to be.

As you can see above, the original trailer for the 2012 film uses sound to build the atmosphere and intensity of the piece. It begins with the howling of the wind and continues to layer the music over the length of the trailer, through percussion instruments and the voice of a child reading a poem based on the film’s story. The use of this technique adds to this psychological feeling of horror; whilst taking us out of our comfort zone, as if we were to expect a fright.

Similarly to this trailer, I aim to continue with the theme of layering sound in order to create an intense and haunting piece. I will also use the output of my headphones to control the sound I create and magnify its impact on the listener; again, taking them out of their comfort zone and encouraging them to question the sounds that they hear.

…………………………………………………………………………………………

Watkins, J. (2012) The Woman in Black Trailer. Available from: https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=dPYMUnJGURI [Accessed 20 December 2017].

https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=kNbJE0y29_c

(Sandberg, 2013)

The initial idea for my DPT project was to create a sound piece based on the distortion of an idea; aiming to challenge the perception of a song, story or poem and manipulate its message. After much research into my concept, a constant subject arose and a key theme became apparent – the psychology of horror. From this, I began to investigate the ways in which horror films use sound to create an uncomfortable experience that psychologically effects the viewer; that effect that forces them to sleep with the lights on.

During my research, I discovered the short film ‘Lights Out’ by David F. Sandberg. The sound played in the film is a great contrast between the everyday vs. the extraordinary, the natural vs. the supernatural, and the comfortable vs. the uncomfortable; bringing those haunting encounters straight into your own home.

Within the film, Sandberg uses the sound the inform the imagery and vice versa, creating one atmosphere with the lights on and another with the lights out. The contrast between these sounds, for example, the familiar sound of a light switch vs. the deep sound of a fog horn, builds the suspense and anxiety that runs throughout the film.

When initially creating my sound, I used this concept to inform my experiments. I aimed to manipulate the understanding of the piece by using contrast to challenge the interpretation of its meaning, whilst simultaneously enforcing an uncomfortable, yet known experience upon the viewer. Overall, my aim was to create an invasive sound that, as stated above, resulted in haunting encounter in your own home, emphasizing that psychological feeling of horror and creating a sound that took you out of your comfort zone, whilst at the same time, keeping you in it.

………………………………………………………………………………………………

Sandberg, D. (2013) Light’s Out 2013. Available from: https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=kNbJE0y29_c [Accessed 20 December 2017].

 

http://www.nytimes.com/2010/05/31/arts/design/31diva.html

http://www.tokyoartbeat.com/tablog/entries.en/2008/02/towering-silence.html

 

---

Staying at home in the Alpes over the holidays, I got inspired to move my project in a completely different direction. I decided to focus on home and how, today, in a world where we are always traveling, we are seeking for products that remind us of home. Because home is where family is.

I will therefore move my project away from my previously darker idea, involving how our daily lives are influencing our dreams, and towards a commercial for products that remind us of home. In my special case, I will focus on my roots: Bavaria. Bavaria is pretty much just a forest, which is why I’ll promote a “deer” collection – something I immediately identify with home.

Moreover, my choice to change project is directly linked with my course: fashion management. I thought that it would maybe make more sense for me to change to a commercial rather than to explore subconscious changes in a human mind.

But no worries, my project will only showcase the products and mainly use the sounds of the woods to tell the story of the product.

---

References:

Video 1: 321Relaxing (2014) Rainy Sound and Rainforest Animals Sound – Relaxing Sleep Available from: https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=8myYyMg1fFE [Accessed 31 December 2017]

Video 2: EDEKA (2015) Weihnachtsclip #heimkommen Available from: https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=V6-0kYhqoRo [Accessed 31 December 2017]

This Buzzfeed video may be a bit ridiculous, but it does relate to my film.   Some of them after a few minutes can play their instrument. Its like learning a bike, you never forget how to ride one after. But this is honestly like how I play my cello, since I have joined university I have played my cello less and less and I constantly have to relearn everything even though I know a lot of it. However if these people practice, even after all those years, it would be like nothing changed.

 

Article – http://www.huffingtonpost.co.uk/entry/powerful-art-exhibit-powerfully-answers-the-question-what-were-you-wearing_us_59baddd2e4b02da0e1405d2a

In the University of Kansas an art exhibition was curated called “What were you wearing”.

The exhibit, showcased 18 sexual harassment stories, with the outfit they were wearing at the time of their assault. The outfits were all very varied, from bikinis, t’shirts, jeans ect.

 

“What were you wearing?”

It’s a question people ask survivors of sexual violence all too often; a question wrought with victim-blaming and an implication that, maybe, the survivor could’ve prevented their assault if they had worn something less revealing, less sexy.  – (HuffingtonPost.com,2017). 

 

This particularly stood out to me, as it resonated with me that it shouldn’t matter how another human being is dressed, no form of dressing is ever an invitation to assault another human being sexually against their own will. This become a source of inspiration for the visuals for my video. The huge text throughout the visuals “THIS IS NOT AN INVITE’ and “SHE WAS NEVER ASKING FOR IT”, were influenced by the motivation and meaning behind this particular exhibition that I stumbled upon during my research.

 

My source of inspiration for this project is somewhat, to an extent, a sensitive issue – ‘Sexual harassment’.  The subject matter is something which normally isn’t spoken about or explored on a day to day basis, maybe being due to the fact that it’s almost a slightly ‘taboo’ issue. However, with the current boom in today’s social media, its become a topic which has been brought to the surface. The tremendous number of stories that have risen to be apparent was brought to my attention, as everyday.. a new story would appear on my phone across an array of different social media platforms. I began reading stories, articles, blog posts, interviews and youtube content by people effected. Being a woman, this all sparked a huge level of interest, after coming across so many shocking stories. However, after exploration, it was the number of ‘small’ stories that evoked emotion in me. Thus, I came to the conclusion that I wanted my video to have a purpose in society and to most importantly create change, and enlighten the viewers. I wanted my piece of work to be a form of activism, which led me to researching into art as a form of activism.

Through my research, I become aware how art can be an amazing way of provoking change. The video above states that activism in art causes “conversations to be sparked” and “controversy is sparked”, it can “enlighten” and most importantly to “educate”. Shannon Galphin, created a portable photography exhibition in open spaces around Afghanistan, she reinforces that art in war torn countries and places in severe distress is needed more so than in the safe western world and that art can be a powerful tool to send out messages or to make people feel a certain way. Her passion and remarkable work truly inspired me, to create a piece of art, that too, would hopefully make a change in a positive manner.

 

 

https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=ta8X3gqOw1I&t=144s

The media recently has been bombarded with sexual harassment stories from woman in the film industry in particular, which resulted in the formation of the #MeToo Campaign on social media platforms such as Twitter and Instagram. The astonishing amount of these stories taking a surface has been absolutely shocking. Being a woman myself, I can completely resonate with fortunately somewhat a lot lesser versions of sexual assault in a ‘verbal’ manner. This has been a huge inspiration for the sound for my project, as I wanted to create a sound that will be highly emotive on the matter and help to continue to create awareness on the situation. I wanted my sound to make the listener feel a certain type of way and to use it as an educational tool on the topic, to underpin how crucial it is to understand that sexual harassment is never justifiable.

I used this type of vintage sound along shocking real life images of the poultry farming industry in order to better emphasise the opposition between what people think about when consuming versus what the process is before the food arrives on our tables.