Firstly we decided our groups. We initially started with a group of 3:Amara, Flora and me and then in the second week Axel joined.
We decided on the idea of writing the script to an imagined film which we would write the sound track to. I wrote the original synapses to generate the mental image of where, what, when and who our ‘film’ was based around. We decided on the order that we wanted to write for based on the outline of the scene we resonated with most and then each wrote our scene.
The story of the film wasn’t extremely important. I used a generic storyline with cliches so that we could all have a familiar mental picture we could visualise and understand and then be more experimental with the soundtrack.
For my scene the three characters were on the run and had to burry bodies in the dessert.
I was inspired by the image of the three people digging in the hot sun. Thinking about the repetitive rhythm of the digging I thought about how I could achieve this in my piece. Sitting in my flat I noticed the repetitive dripping of the kitchen tap. I decided to harness this sound filling a metal pan with water and placed it under the tap then used a condenser microphone which I hung from its chord into the bowl. I then added some effects and EQ on Logic to get the sound that I was imagining. I imagined this as the drums. I then took guitar feedback ,which I altered in logic again trying to fit with the eerie feeling I was imagining, from another track I was working on which gave the composition a cohesive sound throughout and was good starting point to work off as the other sound could be paced around this. With a friend I had discovered that you could create interesting unpredictable sounds when putting a penny whistle through distortion pedals. I played it without a tune in mind just quickly releasing my fingers on the valves to create a fast flurrying sound. After putting this through the distortion pedals it worked well for the beginning of the track and then I scattered it throughout working with the pace of the feedback and dripping. Next I added a vocal using a zoom vocal processor which added chorus and reverb to create haunting dreamy sound which introduced the more harsher sounds.
Thinking about the structure of the scene I wanted the beginning to feel dream like as the characters had just commit murder and were not e run. I thought about their emotions and how they were dazed at first but as what they had done settled in more the harsher jarring sound chipped in and then during the burial it would be at its loudest most intense part.
The scene takes place in the dessert so I sampled a recording from YouTube https://youtu.be/LoO63RtYqP4?feature=shared which I placed in the background through out the composition. Right at the end of the scene the characters drive away and to visualise this I added the sound of a car speeding off also sampled from YouTube. I was originally going to capture the sound through a field recording but I ran out of time. I took time to listen through imagining the scene and then altering the structure rearranging until I was happy.
The original idea for the cover was to do a photoshoot which we would then collage. Our inspiration was old western movie covers. But this idea also fell through due to time. Flora put together the front cover using photoshop and images we ripped off the internet. I think it was still successful as this is an imagined film anyway. The name the group came up with was ‘Crimson Dirt’ which I don’t particularly like but you have to make compromises in group projects I’m told.
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