Bleak

On Saturday Reuben and me spent the day in the performance center visiting the "Ways of Watching Winter Dance Symposium". Our stay there began with a discussion on the artist and audience in a regional context and later another on ownership and authorship. I noticed that most of what these flexible people in tights were talking about was transferable to film as well as my own background and future. We saw a total of 6 performances by students and professionals, but to be honest I mistook one of the professional performances as students, so the difference there was not that great (to my untrained eyes, I guess).
The first performance called Echoes of a Lost Music featured music by Christopher Best (first song if you scroll down) playing a solo guitar in the middle of the room. The music was this one guitar played on separate delay tracks which repeated and overlapped throughout the piece. The music accompanied a wonderful dance which involved many strange contortions. The combination of the dance and music allowed my mind to wander and I began constructing nightmarish images with my imagination. There were slugs, people rolling on the floor on fire, bodies melting into each other, it was all very intense and at times it frightened me. Another performance which I liked involved around 17 or so dancers and was very energetic and evoked beautiful images such as a wavy sea of bodies...being washed back by the waves, then coming forward just to be washed away again.
I was really surprised at the quality of the work that I saw. I know several of the students in the second year and I never thought they would be this good and professional. Being inspired by their talent makes me even more determined to perfect my work practice this year, so that hopefully, the films I make will inspire people who see them and render them speechless.
We also handed out call cards and spoke to many of the dancers in hope of finding out lead lady for Diorama. This was a success as many of the students were interested and open to collaborate with us.

Reuben and me traveled to Plymouth on Sunday to scout out a location we had heard about and looked up. The square around the Plymouth Sundial is suitable for Diorama's key scene as there is a lot of pedestrian traffic around, many people sitting and waiting, the surrounding buildings are (above the ground floor) bleak and nondescript. The sundial itself is also a very interesting image.
I think Reuben is not fully convinced by the square, but I think we made much progress over the weekend.

Sunday night after a rather downcast and hung over journey we met up with Jamie for our second weekly mealting. We went over the scripts of Repossessing Tim and Clearwater Revival and talked some serious sound. The meeting was a big reassurance as I was getting a bit anxious about the projects. I am confident though that the three of us will collaborate well and that out sound design will enrich the films we work on. Here is a small sneak teaser of the dancer's leitmotif which Jamie pitched to us at the mealting. I think we're on to something here!

We had a second recce today for Repossessing Tim. We drove out to the location with AD Nicholas Raybould and I was able to walk around the location and record. I managed to get some good clips of the tunnel and the bridge area as well as some nice drips and drops down some of the deep holes spread out around the quarry. Helicopters flew overhead several times and I recorded these for some time, I might be able to use them in some way as they possess an interesting and dynamic sound. I also did some mic tests to see how they cope with the wind. Everyone is getting ready for the shoot this weekend.
I am just happy to be making films at the moment, this is what I am here to do.

Repossessing Tim recce

This morning we drove out to our location at Wheal Maid. It was my first trip there and I didn't really know what to expect. Of course, I would have to listen to the sound of the place to get a first acoustic impression and decide whether there were any issues we should consider. My decision is to focus on the dialogue completely during the shoot and then build the whole soundscape in post. Because the sounds of the actual location (lots of wind, cockerel's, birds and the lapping of the water there) are not what we are looking for, it will be up to me to design, build up a library, and construct an emotive soundscape which fits the image and story.
Ed has also told me that he wants me to try and use the techniques I am studying in my dissertation and create sounds which replace music in order to add emotion, movement and comment on the scenes. It's one thing to look at how the master Andrei Tarkovsky does this, but quite a different task for me to attempt the same.

Tim wakes up in a tunnel which leads into the Wasteland. This tunnel represents Tim's rebirth and has therefore been named "the Vagina" by Ed and Jimmy. Now, since water is the element of birth and life, the sound of the tunnel will be similar to that of Stalker's Dry Tunnel. I imagine drips and drops, very Tarkovsky. I have the chance to play around with some reverbs here as well to enhance the mood.
The rest of the film is still a bit of a mystery, but I think I will be working a lot with wind and enhanced effects which emphasize Tim's insecurity at first and later his comfort within the Wasteland.

The crew is set, the cast almost sorted, the location is ours, and the shooting days fixed:  only two weeks left before the first shoot! Off to the studio tomorrow to check the acoustics and some ADR practice in the afternoon. Things are really starting to get going.

I am really excited about all the projects slowly moving out of preproduction and into production. I thought to myself today that I have picked the right films for my portfolio, they offer a lot of variety and I am looking forward to and enjoying each of them. Most of all I am loving my crews. Jamie from 2nd year and Reuben have joined my sound team and we had a wonderful 'mealting' the other night, eating burgers and going through Reuben's film, now under the name Diorama. The film is well on its way and we have much of the sound design figured out for the moment. Auditions for Clearwater Revival are next Friday and I hope we find some great actors for the parts.

I wish everyone a great 2012, I'll post my new years resolutions soon (a bit late) ;P