Field Production Reflection – Ruby Moves In

For my field production I focused on a big development at Flat 18; a new housemate. Ruby has organised to live there for a month as a sort of trial period to see what living out of home is like. A factor of this is based on her sometimes turbulent situation at home and it has been a fun and cleansing change. The natural domestic sounds that this narrative provided are quite obvious and I knew that the way I organised the piece was imperative to how engaging it could be and thus make it sound less predictable and formulaic.

I positioned each natural sound to how Ruby’s room is mapped out and my bigger goal was to create a sonic floorplan in that sense. I used the aux chord feedback (I don’t know that the technical word for that is!) as a motif; I’ve noticed sonic motifs are heavily used in the listening material and by my peers.

Certain things about this piece were challenging: I didn’t really have enough recorded sounds and wish I collected more as it would have made the final product a little more flexible. It did however enforce a great focus on recording natural sounds – something I’ve looked over in previous briefs in favour of focusing on voice (learning to move away from this though). This project has also developed my skills in finding found recordings and how to manipulate them into strengthening your work. Ideally of course it’s best to record everything yourself but nonetheless it’s a good emergency service. I would also like to be more inventive with field production – think of how natural sounds can be surprising and innovative. Similarly to my studio production, this piece has made me look forward to the next brief as I feel ready to really challenge myself in sonically depicting a new concept and involve all the trial and error lessons I’ve learnt in the last three briefs.

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