Learning Pro Tools

Pro Tools

Last year we had to create a soundscape as a part of our course and we were taught how to use Adobe Audition to complete it. This term however we were taught to use a completely new sound editing software called Pro Tools. At first this was very disorientating as the layout was completely different and it was the first software we had been exposed to really that wasn't Adobe, however once we got the hang of the basics it became clear that they are really quite similar - of course they would have to be as they are merely different tools to create the same thing. 

We were first of all shown how to import sounds into the clips folder and into tracks. We were shown how to rename clips and tracks so we can keep our edit window organised. 

We were also shown how to cut and edit different sounds together and how to use different tools on clips such as the fade in, overlay, highlight, cut, slow down/speed up and others as well.

Research for Text Extract for Sound

It took me a long time to find the right text piece for my sound project as we had no limitations on what we could use. This meant I could pick literally anything I wanted and even write something myself if I wanted.
Initially I thought about looking in religious texts such as the Bible, but decided that quite a lot of people would be doing that and changed my mind. I knew I definitely didn't want to write it myself as I would have no idea where to begin, and realised that getting something from a book would be my best chance.
At first I began to look at poems such as 'Do not go gentle into that good night' By Dylan Thomas

Do not go gentle into that good night,
Old age should burn and rave at close of day;
Rage, rage against the dying of the light.

Though wise men at their end know dark is right,
Because their words had forked no lightning they
Do not go gentle into that good night.

Good men, the last wave by, crying how bright
Their frail deeds might have danced in a green bay,
Rage, rage against the dying of the light.

Wild men who caught and sang the sun in flight,
And learn, too late, they grieved it on its way,
Do not go gentle into that good night.

Grave men, near death, who see with blinding sight
Blind eyes could blaze like meteors and be gay,
Rage, rage against the dying of the light.

And you, my father, there on the sad height,
Curse, bless, me now with your fierce tears, I pray.
Do not go gentle into that good night.
Rage, rage against the dying of the light.

I loved the imagery of the piece and the descriptions incorporated in the stanzas were amazing but I couldn't decide what segment would be best to use for my project and I couldn't imagine the soundscape in my mind, there would have been a lot of different ways I could go with it! 

After a while I moved on, and began looking at books such as 'Infernal Devices' (K.W. Jeter) which I thought would have a lot of descriptive text in it due to the steampunk theme. I thought the way the author wrote about different machines would be really cool to create a soundscape for. Unfortunately there wasn't a segment I found that jumped out at me, the book is also written in first person and is more about describing that persons emotions - which, while that would be cool to create a soundscape for someones emotions, it wasn't really what I had in mind for what I wanted to do with this piece.

I also looked at 'Miss Peregrines Home for Peculiar Children' (Ransom Riggs) and I found a couple of segments that I almost used but decided against as I couldn't settle on which one I liked most. 

Eventually I decided to try something else, and started looking at the most basic type of story there is - fairytales.

The one that I found that spoke out to me the most was the original introduction to 'Snow White and the Seven Dwarfs.'

Once upon a time in the middle of winter, when the flakes of snow were falling like feathers from the sky, a queen sat at a window sewing, and the frame of the window was made of black ebony. And whilst she was sewing and  looking out of the window at the snow, she pricked her finger with the needle, and three drops of blood fell upon the snow. And the red looked pretty upon the white snow, and she thought to herself, what if I had a child as white as snow, as red as blood, and as black as the wood of the window-frame.

I thought that the visual descriptions used in the piece had a really pleasant aesthetic and the simplicity of the writing allowed me a lot of creative freedom with my sound piece, so I decided that this would be the text extract that I would use.

Presentation

Initial Idea

Our concept is derived from the networks part of our theme, looking into connections and links between events in day to day life.

We looked at Chaos Theory and The Butterfly Effect, and decided this would be a good starting point to build on.

The Butterfly Effect is the notion that small events have large consequences - such as a butterfly flapping its wings creating atmospheric disturbances that could cause a hurricane on the other side of the planet. This theory also relates to everyday events and paths leading to outcomes and consequences that could easily have differed if one thing in the sequence had diverged. From this we decided we wanted to make a short video piece exploring a narrative or chain of events in a mundane situation, looking at connections and networks and how everything and everyone is connected in the choices and paths they take, affecting others without them even knowing that it's happening.

Example of The Butterfly Effect in films

To start our research off we looked at scenes within films we were already aware of such as The Curious Case of Benjamin Button and Mr Nobody.
In the following clips they show a chain of everyday acts in different peoples lives, all happening by chance but if any one of them had happened differently, the outcome would not have been the same.
These scenes try and explain this in narrated short stories.

The Curious Case of Benjamin Button



Mr Nobody



Twin Screen Idea

For our idea, we thought of making our short film into a twin screen piece. This would enable us to show two different outcomes for the same person. Both screens will show the same footage for an amount of time, until in one of the films, an action is different to the other, and therefore the paths diverge and both sides of the screen have two different possible endings to the scenario.

Sugar Water


Summery of Film Plan

• Twin screen
• 2 different outcomes
• One main character - Nicole's Grandad?
• Follows path of small actions/events
• No narration
• Two screens, one on top of other
• No dialogue
• Primary location - Grandads house

Maps and Networks Initial Ideas

When we got given out maps and networks theme, I instantly began to think about where this topic could take me. As our piece is an installation piece I didn't quite know where to start as this was a very new area for me. I ended up having quite a few ideas of how I could make the piece an installation but not having any sort of thought of what I wanted to show behind it.
I was thinking along the lines of interaction for the audience as well, so what I was thinking was placing a giant map of the world on a wall and getting the audience to place a pin on where they're from. It would be displayed of course inside the uni, and there is a very diverse range of countries that are represented here so I was thinking it would be interesting to see how widespread it was.

It was inspired in a way by the work of Arem Bartholl, who did an interesting piece about maps and technology. He used large red map markers from Google maps and placed them in the spot that Google maps said the city centre was.

I found this an interesting notion and began to plan similar ideas. I quickly found however that I wasn't very invested or interested in this notion and realised that without those key feelings this would end up being a very dull project that I wouldn't be very motivated to complete.

Another issue with this idea is that it wasn't really an idea, there is no meaning behind it and it was a very shallow notion with no depth, so I quickly moved on.

I decided that I would probably produce something better if I 1) looked at subjects I find interesting and 2) considered collaborating with someone else so we could bounce ideas of each other, make filming easier and help spread out the work enabling us to do a better project.

So with that in mind I proposed the idea to Nicole who agreed with me and we decided to work together for the project.
We began by doing some mind maps around the theme and finding as many different possible directions we could go in as possible.

We spent some time thinking about what direction we wanted to go in from the theme, and decided networks/connections would be a really interesting route to go down as it's so broad and we could interpret it in so many different ways.
We came up with the concept of 'The Butterfly Effect'. This is the notion that tiny events can have large consequences - such as a butterfly flapping its wings creating changes in the atmosphere that eventually result in a hurricane. It is another name from a branch of mathematics called 'chaos theory'.
We originally thought of the sequence in the 2008 film 'Benjamin Button' as a perfect way to explain it.

Props

Props

An object used traditionally in theatre during a performance. They are usually fake copies of objects from real life, such as fake guns used in movies.
The earliest known props were masks used in the theatre of ancient Greece.

These masks were used in celebrations and rites to honour the Gods and were made out of organic materials that were placed on alters after the performance. They were used to help the actor vanish into the role and covered their entire face with just holes for the eyes and mouth.

The word 'prop' comes from the term 'theatrical property' and was used to describe objects used in plays to further the action.
Originally used in plays, musicals and circuses and over the years extending into television, film and other media.
Props are kept on a table/in a room backstage and are managed by the props master/mistress and they are in charge of all the items.

Props table

'Prop' is a that moved easily over the film and tv, and over the years a rising popularity of 'movie memorabilia' (often also including costumes) extended the after life of props as many collectors will pay a lot of money for items from films/shows they love. In some cases after the film has been released, directors/actors/producers/people who made the film will sometimes put items in an online aution or a charity event to raise money for a cause.

Sometimes the director will give a prop to an actor if there was something iconic linked to that character, such as in 'Lord of the Rings' when director Peter Jackson gave the main cast each something related to the character such as 'The One Ring' being given to actor Elijah Wood who played 'Frodo'.

The key thing for props is that they look real to the audience. They shouldn't be able to tell if a gun is made out of plastic, or if that giant piece of metal weighs next to nothing. The harsh lights and hd cameras also mean that even if a prop is real then it might not look it on screen and so has to be made to look even more realistic than the real thing does. If that makes sense.

Sometimes props have to be designed differently to normal for the sake of safety. For example guns and swords. 'Prop weapons' need to look real, but not be able to hurt anyone. Guns will fire only blanks, swords have dulled edges and knifes are usually made of plastic or rubber. The proper handling of the real weapons being used as film props is the primary job of the props master. 

Installation Artist Research

Marina Abramovic

Marina Abramovic is a Serbian performance artist who takes quite a radical approach to her work, using her body as an instrument to get across her message. Through her work she explores the relationships betweent the artist and the audience and the limitations of body and mind.
In her work she often risks harm to herself.

In one such performance called Rhythm 5 also known as the firestar, Abramovic almost lost her life when she became so immersed in the piece, she ended up losing consciousness and had to be rescued by members of the audience. The idea of the piece was by burning the five pointed communist star, she was representing a mental and physical purification and addressing political issues of her past.

A piece I thought was really disturbing was a piece called Rhythm 0 in 1974. Abramovic placed on a table 72 objects to be used on her as she stood passively in the middle of the room. Some of the objects were items like honey, a feather, olive oil and a rose, and there were also items such as scissors, a scalpel, and a gun and a single bullet. By the end of the piece, her clothes had been cut, she'd had rose thorns dug into her skin and people had aimed the gun at her head.
Abramovic noted that at the start of the performance people were much more reserved and over time they became more aggressive.

Rest Energy

One of my favourite pieces of hers is an exhibition performance called 'The Artist is Present', where Abramovic sat on a chair in silence and members of the public came and sat opposite her for a few  minutes in silence, whilst maintaining eye contact. The piece attracted many different people, even some celebrities heard about it and came to take part. I think I like this piece the because we so rarely look at someone in the eye for more than a second without talking. There must be a very raw connection between two people who look one another in the eye with no conversation filling the silence.

Maps and Networks -  Everything Marina Abramovic does is about connection with the audience through her performance, and to me that links strongly with our theme, with connections and networks associating with each other.


Chris Milk

Chris Milk is an artist who experiments in many different mediums, beginning his career in music video and photography, and expanding out into more experimental territory. He investigates the possibilities available from using interactive technologies and arts and is CEO and Founder of several different virtual reality companies such as

Evaluation and Final Piece

Technology rules? from Chloe Debonnaire on Vimeo.

I found this unit really engaging as the topic was an idea I came up with, so I found it an enjoyable topic to investigate. I find the idea that corporations and the government have access to all of our online data not only possible but likely. I suppose in a way I have a bit of the heart of a conspiracy theorist in that way, although I don't worry enough about it to stop using social media and various other technological methods of communication.
I think my group ended up working really well together, as we all were very interested in the topic and came up with really 'out there' ideas about what sort of things our data might be being used for and ways to interpret this. We did struggle with the fact that all three of us are very unorganised characters, which meant that sometimes we really had to take a step back and think 'hang on, this is important and we need to get it done by this time' because otherwise we would never have completed anything. Once we had done that we were able to get on with the project and complete our paperwork and everything else we needed to do.
We had a few hiccups along the way where we lost footage, due to misplacing hard drives which ended up being really annoying as we then had to re-shoot a lot of the footage. I think that if we had used that footage we would have ended up with a very different film although whether that would be for the better or not is hard to say.
As it is I actually rather liked our final outcome although there were perhaps a few things in the edit that could have been neatened up. I really enjoyed doing the sound for this project, and after just completing our sound projects I was now more familiar with Audition and so I could create a soundscape with more ease than I would have otherwise.
All in all, I think our project went better than I hoped it would, although if I did it again, I would probably edit it slightly differently.