As a sound designer and recording artist, this immersive journey of creating “Sweet Slow Rot” is not only an image manifesto against the “rat race” culture, but also a profound exploration of the power of auditory narrative. To turn each experience into a driving force for future learning, I have reflected on this creation as follows:
- Sound is the carrier of emotions.
At the studio exhibition, the audience’s knowing smiles at the relaxed atmosphere of the film confirmed our direction. Sound design is the key medium to evoke empathy. I believe that creating a “rotten” sense in the ambient sounds, such as doorbells, glass collisions, and muffled conversations, is very important. These are not pursued for clarity but deliberately retain a rough texture. This echoes Pink’s (2012) “sensory ethnography,” where the imperfection of background sounds precisely constructs a real “lying flat” space, allowing the audience to immerse themselves in that idle and intimate chaos. Additionally, by splicing electronic music and jarring sound effects (such as heavy hits), I deliberately created auditory disruptions. This dissonant humor subverts the inspirational narrative of growth themes, reinforcing the core proposition of “refusing hustle” (Schafer’s 1994 “soundscape” theory is embodied here). Moreover, the brief silence caused by lighting issues during the re-shot scenes unexpectedly became emotional breathing points, proving that “silence” is as important as sound. It forces the audience to focus on the characters’ stagnant state.
Therefore, sound is not only a technical component but also an aesthetic tool to deconstruct the narrative of striving. The quiet slices in the noise are also important tools for presenting the film’s emotions.
- Doing the sound design for “Sweet Slow Rot” is like learning to ride a bicycle – the more painful the falls, the louder the laughter when you finally learn.
Those shining moments: The magic of humor in the door closing sound. We suddenly cut off the background music by 0.8 seconds, making the silence after the door closing the punchline (it was like the “embarrassment of pretending nothing happened after farting”). This deliberately disruptive editing instead made the audience smile knowingly. It turns out that absurdity doesn’t need exaggerated sound effects; the quiet blank is the true high-level humor. The pre-recorded footsteps and glass sounds also became lifesavers during editing. When the scene switched to the empty dining table, these sounds seemed like invisible characters breathing. It turns out that sound is the shadow of the picture, and preparing in advance is like giving a gift to your future self.
Those nights of hitting the wall: The betrayal of the voice recorder. I will always remember discovering two dialogues missing when exporting (suspected to be due to the battery running out and automatically stopping recording). The lesson is deeply engraved: Recording is not just pressing the REC button; it’s like a mother checking homework – immediately check after each recording.
After completing the entire film, I discovered that faults are hidden scripts. Moreover, silence is also a line of dialogue. The sudden stop of the music created a silence that was more powerful than any background music.Now I understand: The glory of the recording team does not lie in how expensive their equipment is, but in their courage to turn accidents into stories.
- Future Expansion Direction: Deepening the Metaphorical Layers of Sound
If this project continues, I will focus on the symbolic development of sound. I will add metaphorical variations of environmental sounds, such as distant sirens and mobile phone notifications, as “external pressure” sound effects. By controlling distance and volume, I will imply the invisible infiltration of social discipline. I will also attempt to use blurring to process the POV sounds of the drunk character, allowing the audience to immerse themselves in the character’s scattered mental state through hearing and enhancing the “rotten” subjectivity. Additionally, sensors can be set up in the exhibition, where the audience’s movements can trigger different sound effects (such as knocking over a wine glass to activate a laughter clip), extending the “anti-internal competition” concept from viewing to participatory experience.
- Key Takeaway: The Creative Value of Technical Glitches
The battery depletion of the recording equipment and the loss of materials unexpectedly taught me to embrace imperfection. To make up for the missing audio, we was forced to re-record the environmental sounds and discovered that the rough sound effect of accidentally clinking wine glasses was more vivid than the original. This confirmed Flusser’s (2000) statement: “Technical glitches are the cracks that break through instrumental rationality.” From then on, I will proactively reserve a “loss-of-control experiment” section. For example, deliberately recording distorted human voices or environmental interference to explore the aesthetic possibilities within technical limitations.
- Core Essence of Collaboration: Creative Compromise
In the dispute over music style, we ultimately merged electronic music and jazz segments, giving birth to a new layer in the midst of contradictions. This reveals the essence of collaboration: Disagreements are not obstacles but pressure tests for creativity.
References
Flusser, V. (2000). Towards a philosophy of photography. Reaktion Books.
Pink, S. (2012). Situating everyday life: Practices and places. Sage.
Schafer, R. M. (1994). The soundscape: Our sonic environment and the tuning of the world. Destiny Books.