Week 4

The past’s presence in the future

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Easter break brought me to Metung where I found an antique store, one of my natural habitats. I bought three post cards:

  1. One from Adolphe to Germaine, 1914 Lyon. I got a French speaking friend to translate it for me and I like to imagine that they were childhood friends who were flirting with each other. It’s quite an intimate, playful photo of friendship on the card so this wasn’t a courtesy post card. His handwriting is also so oddly childish and curly – very sweet.

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2. One from Marie Conard to Marguerite, 1911 Chantilly. I haven’t translated this one exactly yet but I like to think that this was from an aunt to her favourite niece. The hand writing is very small, long, and grand. I like to imagine this is a post card for me.

3. A Myrna Loy postcard originally released by RKO Films. I’m guessing this is from the 30s, the height of her fame. There’s still a hole at the top of the card from when someone had thumbtacked it into their wall – now it’s thumbtacked on my cork board. Loy is one of my favourite old Hollywood actresses, star of my favourite Thin Man series. I just thought it was funny that I had all her movies on my harddrive and now I have a relic from the past, her present.

I can hardly imagine what it must have been like to uphold friendships and maintain intimacy from so far away. The patience and faith required when there is no instant gratification and read receipts!

I also got a Marvel comic from 1967 which is SO COOL. I’m a big Marvel Cinematic Universe fan so it’s cool to see the completely different art styles and technology in the stories.

 

HEAR I AM

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5 Sounds I Love:

Saxophone

Rain outside my window

Applause

Stepping on a crunchy leaf

Paper rustling

5 Sounds I Hate:

Nails against a chalk board

Motor vehicles zooming past

Movie jump scares

Bicycle bells

Furniture being dragged across the floor

 

5 Things and How I Think They Would Sound:

Stars. Like crickets and glockenspiels.

Sun rays. Like violins trembling in unison.

Diamonds. Like dainty forks hitting champagne flutes.

Cabbage. Like the bouncing belly of a timpani.

Red wine. Like velvet and fur slowly rubbed together.

 

5 Favourite Onomatopoeic Words:

 

Zing

Crackle

Sweep

Fizz

Whip

EARLIDS?!!?!

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I keep thinking about the fact that we do not have “ear lids”! Sound really is just a constant thing that happens and all we can do is to physically or psychologically allow or hinder what we would like. I really also loved the imagery of eyes pointing outwards and the ears drawing inwards. There is something visceral about human reaction to sound, it’s so based on sensation, and I dare say I truly believe sound can portray a truer human experience than sight. Sound can reveal a person’s character through voice or a place’s character through the soundscape that permeates it. You can hear distance, energy, mood…no wonder sound media is such an art so creative and extremely technical.

I also loved the whole thing on

“Experiencing sound: psychoacoustics, complex interactions of physics, physiology, sensation, perception and cognition”

Our reaction to sound is so complex and deeply rooted in every sound we have ever heard in our lives up until that moment. It’s so rich and I loved learning about the “layers” of a sound frame. To create worlds like that – life like and consequently invisible – is actually incredible.

Lastly, I keep thinking about this saying we have in theatre “The sound guys. You don’t notice them  until something goes wrong.”

miss-array: My Self Portrait

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My video is very uptempo, colourful, and chaotic, depicting my frantic and inherently not calm personality. I also love performing and believe there are many versions of people all as sincere as the other so I tried to bring a humorous performative aspect of it as well. The aesthetic value was also very important and maintaining a clear tone was a priority during the editing process.

miss-array is made of many short clips, most in fast motion as if on some feverish caffeinated frenzy (which I often am). Shots are fragmented and change at a rapid pace to depict my mind – a chaotic place with too much running through it. The heavy colour tinting of some clips were inspired by the Czech New Wave farce Daisies (1966) which floored my creative mind the first time I saw it. I thought it was an interesting way to portray my tendency to obsess over certain things and also a way to experiment with unnaturalistic colouring. The 1920s film graining was a tribute to my absolute adoration for old films as well as emphasising the farcical aspect of the piece a la Charlie Chaplin.

I think I was successful in maintaining the tone and portraying the mayhem I had originally set out to do. I got the look and rhythm I imagined and am fairly content with it. I had a solid vision of what I wanted whilst simultaneously having no idea about the specificity of the in-between process. I “filmed to edit”, yes, but Premiere Pro was also unfamiliar to me and many of the things you see in the end were figured out along the way, sometimes by accident. I had such little concrete plans that I don’t even know how I ended up with a final product.

I struggled with the variety of sound because I so firmly had the montage idea in mind and found it hard to stray from that when the piece is so visually focused. I also think the piece looks very amateur and would like to refine my style and knowledge so I can portray and experiment without my work appearing so juvenile.