Sound Design Research for Personal Project (2)

Following on from my other research, I wanted to look at the psychology of sound and how it affects you in mind and body.

Firstly I found a TED talk about how sound affects you in 4 different ways:

• Physiological- Breathing, heart rate, brainwaves, hormones
• Psychological- Emotional State
• Cognitively- You can't understand large amounts of sound at once.
• Behaviourally- fast paced music makes you drive faster, we leave when we hear pleasant sounds.

I can expand on different ways in which sound affects you and it will probably fall into one of those four categories.

Sound in language helps us read emotions just as we would read facial expressions. A study revealed that when people were exposed to a fearful sounding recording and a photograph of someone with a fearful look on their face, there was much more increased brain activity than if they were neutral.

There is also such a thing as conditioning with sound, which is manipulating memory to condition our emotions in response to certain events. For example, when you hear a piece of music and it reminds you of a particular time in your life. A rather cruel study done on rats where they were played a sound before being electrocuted over time showed the rats become fearful of that sound as they associated it with pain.

http://www.amplifon.co.uk/resources/impact-of-sound-on-the-brain/

When talking about how sound affects the brain we can again talk about binaural beats, and brain waves. When you play binaural beats at a particular frequency then you have an effect on the brain waves we produce. These then have an effect on how we feel. There are four categories of brain wave frequency:

Delta: associated with loss of awareness, deep sleep. Ranges from 0.1-3.9Hz.

Theta: Associated with deep relaxation, sleep. Ranges from 4-7.9Hz.

Alpha: Associated with relaxation while awake, dreaming, pre-sleep and pre-wake drowsiness. Ranges from 8-13.9Hz.

Beta: Associated with being active, busy, concentrated, survival, problem solving etc. Ranges from 14-30Hz.

These waves are often associated with spirituality, and meditation, but they do have their foundations in scientific research.

http://binauralbrains.com/brainwave-frequencies/

https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Binaural_beats

Sound doesn’t just affect your brain, it also affects your hormone releases. High pitched, panicked sounds like the sound of an alarm raises your heart rate and releases cortisol into your blood, which is the hormone that activates the feeling of fight or flight. In a similar vein, horror movies create tension using silence and very low frequency sounds to make you feel uncomfortable, and then breaking the tension with a release of cortisol using a jump scare.

I found a thread on a sound forum asking members what films made them feel the most uncomfortable which will aid me in my research on different sound design techniques and why they work so well:

http://sound.stackexchange.com/questions/7806/movies-made-to-make-you-feel-uncomfortable

Now I have done this research I feel more comfortable with piecing together what I want to do with my project.

Sound Research for Personal Project.

After my tutorial with Kathleen last week, where she gave me some suggestions for research, I went away and did some broad research around the topic I wish to base my project on.

I firstly researched Maryanne Amacher who was an American composer and sound designer who sadly died a few years ago. Her work was very site specific and she liked to incorporate the acoustics of a particular place in her work. She also used psychoacoustics to create auditory illusions in her work, namely, otoacoustic emissions which is mostly used for testing hearing. It is a sound which is given off by the inner ear when the ears are stimulated by sound. When you hear these sounds they feel as if they are coming from inside your head.

"When played at the right sound level, which is quite high and exciting, the tones in this music will cause your ears to act as neurophonic instruments that emit sounds that will seem to be issuing directly from your head ... (my audiences) discover they are producing a tonal dimension of the music which interacts melodically, rhythmically, and spatially with the tones in the room. Tones 'dance' in the immediate space of their body, around them like a sonic wrap, cascade inside ears, and out to space in front of their eyes ... Do not be alarmed! Your ears are not behaving strange or being damaged! ... these virtual tones are a natural and very real physical aspect of auditory perception, similar to the fusing of two images resulting in a third three dimensional image in binocular perception ... I want to release this music which is produced by the listener ..." (Maryanne Amacher)

Here is an example of a piece of work that includes this called Synaptic Island:

This led me to research other psychoacoustic illusions in connection to this one. One of which I found to have a similar kind of effect to the one above, which is called a Phantom Voice. This occurs when two tones are played or sung together and a third tone is produced, seemingly from a different source. It feels as if it is coming from the centre if you play both tones in separate ears. Here is an example of it:

If you listen closely you can hear a third higher tone here which does not exist in reality.

Your brain also perceives beats in sound if two tones are played at slightly different frequencies, with a difference of less than 30hz. This is because of the way your brain deals with the frequency difference of each tone which then allows you to hear a beat that isn't there. Here is an example of this:

The last illusion I looked at in depth is something called a scale illusion. It was discovered by a psychologist in 1973 called Diana Deutsch. The illusion starts with a scale, with low and high notes played into both ears respectively. The illusion makes it appear as if the high notes are played in one ear and the low notes are played in the other. In reality the scale is played with some highs in one ear and some in the left, and vice versa for the right. However the way our brain processes the sound makes it appear the way it does. Here is an example of it:

http://philomel.com/mp3/musical_illusions/Scale_illusion.mp3

Lastly I researched another artist called Karlheinz Stockhausen. He works in music, but unconventionally. A lot of his pieces focus on one or two aspects of sound, enhancing them and exploring them. I looked at a variety of his pieces but I found an article which spoke a bit about a particular one called Kontakte.

Karlheinz Stockhausen created a pivotal moment in the history of music with his work Kontakte (1958-1960). According to the composer, “In the preparatory work for my composition Kontakte, I found, for the first time, ways to bring all properties of sound [i.e. timbre, pitch, intensity and duration] under a single control.” The most famous moment, at 17:03 minutes, is a potent illustration of these connections. A high, bright tone descends in several waves, becoming louder as it gradually acquires a snarling timbre, and finally passes below the point where it can be heard any longer as a pitch. As it crosses this threshold, it becomes evident that the tone consists of pulses, which continue to slow until they become a steady beat.

This famous descending tone uncovers a fundamental understanding of our hearing. Once a tone passes below the threshold of 16 Hz we stop perceiving tone, and start to hear beats. The range of hearing was never explored in this way before this moment, because there was no instrument that could perform this frequency range. Up until that time, beats and tones were considered separate musical properties – and often they still are. Beats belong to the realm of rhythm and tempo, and tones to melody and harmony. With Kontakte, Stockhausen showed that beats and tones form a continuum, and the distinction between them is an illusion. It is exclusively due to the lower threshold in our hearing, whether we perceive sound as beats or tone.

Stockhausen worked with instruments and with electronic ways of creating sound, and it is understood that he paved the way for electronic music to come about. Here is Kontatke:

All of this research has given me some context into sound, and how it manipulates the body. Now I can think about how to draw up a plan for what I want to achieve with my own sound design.

Personal Project Idea: How does it feel when you...?

This project idea stemmed from some of the sound design techniques I have been learning over the couple of years, in particular, the sound design masterclass with Glenn Freemantle that I attended during the summer. In that masterclass, he told us that he tries to design sound based on how it feels when a certain situation is happening. The example he gave was his work in 127 hours. As that is based on the experience of a real person, he asked what it felt like at certain points and then based the sound design on how it felt; essentially making it sound how it felt. To see what I mean I'll link a scene below:

Particularly in the end of this scene, the electric guitars represent how it felt. Freemantle described it as how the pain rushes through your body like lightning.

So, the project I am proposing so far is an exploration of this idea of how feelings can be reflected through sound. What I am considering right now is either having a series of situations or one situation and reflecting what each feeling of either each situation or each person in the situation might sound like. What I am also hoping to achieve, is making the audience feel some of how the characters feel.

In a tutorial with Kathleen I had today, she mentioned looking at site specific recording, whether I can use the acoustics of a location for effect, how I could also think about how I would present the work in a gallery environment. She also linked me to some further research to look at to develop my idea.

Script Development and Moving on with the Pre-production.

After many different versions of the script, myself and Laura kept going round in circles about ideas for the script, particularly the dialogue. I spent a fair while on the structure, so for the most part that stayed the same.

Because we spent so long on the script, Laura decided to break the script down into a visual structure, using elements of the different versions of the scripts. This is so we can continue with the bulk of the preproduction and come back to the script later for improvements.

Because of this, I took the version that Laura produced and spent a couple of days going through and developing a rough shot list. I then relayed this over to Shahid so he could start on the storyboard for the film. As this is a longer film and there is only one of Shahid, he is only doing the complicated shots and the ones I specifically asked for.

Also, after our group tutorial with Kathleen which gave us a lot of references to use when continuing to develop the story, Kathleen suggested I write the film as a short story, which I am more familiar with, and then later pointed me in the direction of the Creative Writing lecturer for some advice on the development of the story. I'm sure this will be very helpful.

Script- First Draft and Keeping on track.

After putting together a structure of the film, I started writing the first draft of the script. It was very rough and took me a couple of days to get through but I did it! I then left it for a couple of days and re-read it. There were some elements I liked and some I didn't. I went back to my screen writing books and saw ways in which I could improve the script.

One piece of advice given in one of the books that I hadn't implemented so far was a board with all the scenes on. Using the beat sheet from Blake Snyder's book and from the short film book I have, instead of writing up scenes I put down the major plot points. I figured each plot point could come down to about a page each, leaving me with 15 plot points. This is how it looked on my bedroom wall:

each row represents an Act, with the middle 2 rows representing Act 2. It is read from left to right. This is what the cards looked like up close:

In this I've given: Location, brief description of what happens and what beat this represents in my film.

The +/- Is the emotional progression that goes on at this point. Blake Snyder points out that a film should be an emotional rollercoaster, so you need to make sure that your characters' emotions are constantly changing throughout.

> < This symbol represents conflict that happens in the scene or at this plot point. There has to be constant conflict of interests in the film between characters or things otherwise the audience will feel like nothing is really happening.

After my first draft, I put all these cards up and moved them around, took some cards away and wrote new ones. It was a good exercise as it allowed me to easily see the weakest and strongest points of the script and fix them to make them all of equal quality. After this I changed the script a lot, and while I still think it has a long way to go, I'm much happier with it now than I was. 

D-eb31e Structure

Having read through most of the screenwriting books I have a hold of, I now felt comfortable to start writing the structure of the film.

Both 'Save The Cat!' and 'Writing Short Films: Structure and Content for Screenwriters' have been very helpful in clearly laying out how your film should be structured to be successful. Although there are exceptions to these rules, in my research I noticed that the films that did follow these rules, I enjoyed the most.

In Save The Cat! the structure is laid out as such:

Opening Image- Sets the tone, mood, type and scope of the film. Gives a before shot of the character.
Theme Stated- Someone makes a statement to the main character, an offhand remark.
Set-Up- The Hero, The Stakes, The goal of the story (Opening Image and Theme Stated come under this)
Catalyst- Moments which knock the world down that you’ve just showed the audience
Break into Two- Hero decides to leave the set-up world and go into a new one.
B story- It gives us a break from the main story, but supports it.
Fun and Games- Provides the promise of the premise. A more light-hearted section of the script.
Midpoint- Something negative or positive happens here that changes the motion of the script.
Bad Guys Close In- The bad guy tightens their grip on the hero, who is about to suffer a fall.
All is Lost- False defeat, opposite to midpoint. Stick a whiff of death in there.
Dark Night of the Soul- A moment of defeat where the character and the audience know it. Short.
Break into Three- The idea to solve the problem emerges. A and B story combine.
Finale- Dispatching the bad guys, leading to a triumph for the hero.
Final Image- opposite to the opening image, showing how change has occurred.

In general I found this to be true of short films as well as feature length films. However, as feature films have the time to explore multiple concepts, things such as a B-story might not be included in a short film.

In  Writing Short Films: Structure and Content for Screenwriters I found the structure to be very similar in Save The Cat! However, it is more specified for short films:

Setup (1-3)- Protagonist and Main conflict (Something the character wants and something it needs, and something to conflict with these)- Main Exposition (What the audience needs to know in relation to the character and situation)- Inciting Incident (The catalyst that sets the hero in motion to pursue what he wants and needs)- The Problem and Sub-Problem (A main problem that has consequences for the character.)
The Rising Action (4-14)- The Antagonist (A character that personifies the hero's obstacles)- The Plan (The hero's plan to get what he wants that shows surprises and presents further obstacles)- Obstacles (Something that opposes the protagonist as he attempts to achieve his goal.)- Complications (Something unexpected that can cause a change in action.)- The Reversal (An unexpected event that turns the direction of the film 180 degrees)- Crisis (An attempt to capture the goal by the hero, but is temporarily thwarted)- The Main Crisis (The conflict intensifies and increases)
The Climax & Resolution (15-20)- Climax (The highest, most exciting point in the drama)- Resolution (Tying up loose ends and solving problems/falling action)

I found this equally useful as I could compare with the other structure type and find that they were very similar. They both explain why each point is necessary using relevant examples. When I then went on to create my structure, I decided to mainly use the one from Save The Cat! as I found it a little bit easier to understand, however I always used the other structure for reference to make sure I was putting it into a short film context. This is the structure that came out:

1. Jarvis comes into the cafe with a box of office belongings dressed like he’s just come from work and has had a rough day. He orders a black coffee. Sits down and starts looking at a picture from the box.
2. A man comes in and sits opposite him. The man, we discover, is his brother and the brother is showing concern over his well-being (job etc.) He sees Jarvis looking at the picture and warns Jarvis to not spend too long chasing something unattainable.
3. Jarvis goes to the toilet and pulls a pill from a small bag in his pocket which he takes. As he’s washing his hands a woman comes into the toilet and starts talking to him seductively.
4. He returns to the table and the woman is talking over his brother’s shoulder as he has two conversations at once. Jarvis begins to hallucinate even more and gets up and follows the woman as she walks away from him.
5. Meanwhile, the brother is trying to suss what Jarvis is up to as he starts wandering aimlessly around the cafe, talking to himself.
6. Inside the hallucination, Jarvis is trying to seduce the woman. However everything he does is also reflected in the outside world (e.g. kissing the woman looks like he’s kissing the air or inanimate objects).
7. Eventually the woman agrees to be with him
8. However, she will only give him what he wants if he chooses her over his brother.
9. He hallucinates an image of his brother, chained up and screaming. Outside of the hallucination, Jarvis is now screaming at the top of his lungs and his brother tries to calm him down. He lies him down on the floor as Jarvis starts convulsing, he searches his pockets and finds the drugs.
10. Jarvis looks into a mirror and he is suddenly gaunt, his eyes glazed over like a slave or a tortured soul.
11. The brother has now called an ambulance, and medical staff are around him trying to hook him up to liquids, attempting to stabilize him. Jarvis feels this in the hallucination, and has a moment of clarity.
12. Jarvis sees that Debbie is trying to harm the chained up brother, and jumps in between them. Debbie throws herself at them both, her hand touches his chest. Outside of the hallucination, Jarvis goes limp and the brother is crying, asking if the ambulance staff if he’s going to be ok.

As of right now I still don't have an ending for the film. I know various ways it could end, but I want to start writing it and decide on that later as myself and Laura are still in a debate about it.

Presentation- Monday 28th September

Here is the link for my presentation of my ideas . https://docs.google.com/presentation/d/1XTB2Dy-O4xwyopcspd5Xd2TEcYiNKwuvSEXAmgv402w/edit?usp=docslist_api

Personal Project Initial Idea

While I was working on my installation sound piece in the gallery in Year 2, which involved data of a biological kind, which I will link down below



While I was working on this I was getting a frustrating amount of spam emails, which may seem funny, but I was trying to work! And now I had to wade through loads of rubbish to get anywhere! This is where the idea came from. When I yet again received another email stating I'd won $1,000,000 I began to wonder how much I would have won over the years of having my email account if these emails were genuine? And I began to realise that this was an interesting topic to explore.

Having seen the work of Aram Bartholl last year, who's website you can access here. I thought there might be something worth exploring.

However, I am not sure what form this will take yet, but I am looking to get a result out of this idea.

Script Development and Research

In the first few weeks back in Farnham I have begun writing and researching the script for our film. To start with I read a few books on screenwriting to aid me with the structure and how to build a stronger film. Although most of the books I have are made for feature film writing, I also have read a book on short film writing to bring it all into the context I need it in.

The books I have read are:

Syd Field's Screenplay: The Foundations of Screenwriting
Linda Cowgill's Writing Short Films: Structure and Content for Screenwriters
Blake Snyder's Save The Cat!
Mark Axelrod's Constructing Dialogue: Screenwriting from Citizen Kane to Midnight in Paris

I all found these very helpful in trying to build a structure for the film, and also for just general screenwriting tips and advice.

The next step was to screen films which relate to the subject matter we are trying to address and review their structure, and why the do or don't work. I analysed their structures to see where the main plot points were and then made a note of one line or two to about what I thought of them. I won't give all the details, but here is generally what I said:

Feature Films

Altered States (1980)- Not enough of a likeable main character, I'm not rooting for him as I feel sorry for his wife.
Trainspotting (1996)-Very funny, likeable main character even though he's a bit 'damaged goods'. Clear story, clear plot points.
127 Hours (2010)- Interesting exploration of hallucination, killer sound design,

Short Films

The Going Away Party (2015)- A bit all over the place, no real character development.

                  
                  The Going Away Party from Connor Hurley on Vimeo.

Good Grief (2015)- Funny, clear story. Some character development but I don't root for the main character.


                  
                  Good Grief from Jim Owen on Vimeo.

Fallin' Floyd (2013)- Funny, uplifting, good character development. However the demon is too cute, I feel sad when it leaves.


                 
                  Fallin' Floyd from il Luster on Vimeo.

I have yet to look at a few more films, but I now feel comfortable doing the structure of the film.

Summer Work and Adventures

Over the summer, having discussed our third year film ideas with Laura, Tom, Shahid, and Laura, I went away and started working on the character biographies. Laura also started on a version of the script to start off from.

I have been using Adobe Story for the character biographies as it provides easy script formatting and can be accessed anywhere as it is completely on cloud.

Also, over the summer I went to a masterclass with Glenn Freemantle, who did the sound design on the likes of 127 Hours (2010) and Gravity (2013). I found it personally fascinating and he gave great advice and industry secrets on how to approach sound design which I think will really help me this year.

Sound Masterclass with Sound Designer Glenn Freemantle. Really insightful evening! #sounddesign #masterclass

A photo posted by Lucy Jones (@haveyouseenlucy) on May 28, 2015 at 1:29pm PDT

Towards the end of the summer I also went to an exhibition called 'Soundscapes' at The National Gallery, thanks to Kat, who notified me of it. It was basically an exhibition which showed different sound artists' responses to different chosen paintings. I found it really interesting, even though the Guardian and Telegraph gave it bad reviews!

Find out more info: http://www.nationalgallery.org.uk/soundscapes/

Finally, right before we came back, myself and Laura sat down and discussed our ideas for the film, and I feel developed them further. I am now working on the script whilst she works on the budgeting and initial pre-production organisation.