Our guest lecture this week was with Jez Riley French, a sound artist who uses raw, uncoloured sound from spaces, with a variety of unorthodox microphones. Below is an excerpt from his website, jezrileyfrench.co.uk:
“Jrf is particularly associated with the development of extended recording techniques, including the recording of structural vibrations, contact microphone recording, ultrasonics, infrasonics, internal electronic signals via coil pick-up’s and recordings made with hydrophones.”
On Thursday, I attended a guest lecture for BA Music students, run by George Shilling, a record producer, who has worked in the music industry for over 30 years. His most notable credit is for engineering The Only Way is Up (1988) by Yazz and the Plastic Population. His website is georgeshilling.com.
This meeting was a rather simple one, and it was nice to meet Mikey and sit in on some of his discussion with Lauren about the script and what it needed before it was complete. The opening flashback looks to be removed, and Mikey liked the idea of setting the film predominantly in one location. I suggested using the two already in the script, as we could use audio creatively to transition between the two spaces, and attempt to foreshadow the film’s bloody end using sound. I suggested something simple like having birdsong and a relaxed, calm atmosphere in the first space, Susan’s bedroom, which would then fade out as we transitioned to the basement. When in, the door could shut with a loud metallic clang, and perhaps a bolt could be thrown as well, shattering the atmosphere of the previous space. Then the noise of the basement, machines clicking and whirring, the claustrophobic atmosphere would rush in as Susan descends the stairs. I like it.
Aside from this, I was quiet for most of the meeting, as Mikey spoke to Lauren about using crowdfunding to gain some extra money for the film, tentatively set a budget of approximately £1500. We then headed off, and Mikey mentioned that until the script was finalised, it wasn’t necessary for us (Sound Team) to attend all of the Film Crew’s meetings with him. I expect we’ll attend in a fortnight.
Our first guest lecture of this year was with Freelance Sound Editor Lucy Johnstone, who spoke to us about Post Production Audio for Documentary Television.
Here is my Semester A project proposal, in blog form. I have taken the suggested proposal structure from the Module Guide, and used it here to maintain parity with the Proposal my group will be doing in Week 4.