Day 3

iCreative Training – Day 3
Sound recording, editing, lighting and research, research, research

Sound Engineering

We started the day hooked 'on a feeling' with Paterson’s classic theme of Escape from New York , then continued our journey into the world of sound design and Foley. I absolutely admire the work they put in, and strongly recommend to check out this short film below.


It really made me think about the role of sound in films. Previously I kind of ignored these small details that make the film sound rich and powerful, possibly because I concentrated too much on the orchestral solutions and the soundtrack.

(If you haven't listened to BBC 4's Sound of Cinema podcast then here's the time - an intense but enlightening experience guaranteed.)

As it should be we had our little exercise (see below), learned the basics of lighting for interviews, and had a bit of fun with film noir contrasts.

EXperimental sound from Film Oxford on Vimeo.




Creative Documentaries

It’s getting harder than I thought. Almost like the challenge of the anthropologist when you are becoming emotionally attached to your subject.

How do you serve the artist and the cause and get the message (or in many cases the brief) across while maintaining your own vision? The more I thought about it, the more provocative it became. Questions poured out like:

- Do they really make a difference, if yes what is the impact and how big is the impact?
- So is this a gateway to the music industry?
- Do they concentrate on artistry, community or...?

How do you respect the subject without only telling positives? How do you stay honest, reflective and constructively critical? Is being critical a vital aspect of documentary filmmaking? What's the right approach?



Looking at trailers of music documentaries also made me wonder how the image and the role musicians changed over the years... but that's a topic for another blog post. :)

Comments

Popular Posts