Having taken somewhat of a lax attitude towards all classes at the start of semester, I have found myself in the unfortunate predicament of being behind. This far too familiar place has resulted in my ears not receiving the full onslaught of audio documentaries and features that they were awaiting. Having only recently listened to ‘Just Another Fish Story’ and ‘Dear Birth Mother’ it is only now that I can begin to understand the different ways to portray voice and utilise the voice in a narrative.

 

Exploring the ideas behind the ‘cascading voice’ and the type of emotions/reactions that it connotes, I am left feeling silly that I did not get to utilise its full potential in Project Brief 1; as I feel the portrait of Sasha could have been reinforced with the use of such techniques. I feel that the final third of Sasha’s portrait would’ve served as an even stronger emotive turn point if his words cascaded and fell underneath the next piece of dialogue to reach a climactic point at the final reflection.

 

This has served as a stark reminder to keep on top of future work loads and class discussions, as I feel I had not only let myself down, but also Sasha and the Studio itself.

 

– donandsherri

 

Sasha Geyer.

 

Male.

 

Melbournian.

 

In the first assessment piece for Radio’s New Wave, I was fortunate to get the opportunity to paint an audio picture on Sasha Geyer.

 

The image of Sasha that I aimed to deliver to the listener was one of a young male who is confident in himself and his place in the world (more specifically Melbourne), but also one who is highly self reflective and one that internalises his very being.

 

My inspiration came from both the hour long recording session I participated in with Sasha himself, but also from the multitude of audio pieces that the class had been listening to in the weeks prior. ‘Poetry Texas’ was a highly influential piece, as it really emphasised the importance of ‘the voice’ that is contained within a narrative, however I felt that, unlike ‘Poetry Texas’, my voice (as the interviewer) did not need to be in the finished product. Sasha’s passive tone and poignant subject matter spoke truer words of himself than I could have ever articulated.

 

Underpinning his narrative, I employed the use of numerous different sound effects and royalty free backing tracks to aid in the flow of the whole piece, as well as to add further emphasis to the mood that I was trying to achieve with Sasha’s words. The musical aspects that are apparent in the piece are (in order): Slavic Theme, Georgio By Moroder, and Movement 3.

 

I edited and mixed the whole piece using protools 10. The vocals of Sasha I left relatively unaffected, employing only the use of minor EQing on the highs and lows & adding a little bit of reverb to give some distance and emotion to the whole piece. I found it hard, having engaged in conversation for well over 45 minutes, to edit out a lot of the material that Sahsa and I touched on… however the image of him that I wished to project, required using the vocals that I ended up choosing.

 

Overall I hope that both Sasha and the rest of the listening audience is able to take with them an image of a strong, confident young man who is in touch with himself and his surrounds, however is still venerable and self reflexive.

 

– donandsherri