Floey Performance

20/10/14

Live Performance

For this project i am going to be further exploring the possibilities of sound to add new depth to the Pixilation Shoot i did with my group previously in my projects. 

We will be working again as a group to add the foley sound effects to our short film that we all collaboratively made in project 1. However we will approach adding sound in a slightly different way and will "preform" the foley sound in a live performance. This means that we will have to be aware of our bodies in order not to make background or unwanted noises in the performance and also means that we need to know where to stand and what order we will perform in with regards to where the microphone is (different sounds need different distances from the microphone as the sound can not be made to be louder or quieter like in premier, it must be the right level of sound) We also need to make the sound right on the point in the animation where the sound should happen, meaning we must be aware and keeping track of timing. Organisation will be a big aspect of this task. 

We will watch our animation that we created as a group and create a table to note down all the sounds that need to be considered and possible props we could use to make the sounds, we will then delegate who will be responsible for each of the sounds and work out the order and timing of them, this will come more when we practise the performance a couple of times.

Today foley is still used in radio, however the decline in popularity for the radio has cut down that work significantly as well as the fact that sound effect libraries mean that not much foley needs to be performed live. For film foley artists, they are given the media they need to make sound for and can record each sound and then even edit the sound after to perfect the sound they need for the film for example footsteps and cloth sounds etc. However in live theatre the foley technique is fairly different as instead of perfecting one sound it is the artists job to do as many as possible as good as possible on the spot. The emphasis in the sound become almost visual and really adds to the atmosphere and visual aspects of the performance and in some cases can make a situation more clear in what is happening at that time. However as the performance is live and on a set there are also safety hazards to consider which the artist in the video about explains for example he mentions that it is unsafe to have water on the set and so he has to come up with a way of creating a splash sound with out using water. This shows How foley makes the artist think more about what they are using to make a sound and how they can manipulate objects in various ways to create certain sounds. 

The productions of Waves and ...some trace of her approached the use of sound in a very different way to conventional theatre. This film looks at how multimedia productions can incorporate the techniques of radio plays into live theatre by using Foley sounds in their live performances to add a theatrical performance  the plays and to emphasise all the noises .

This video shows the high impact that foley has when doing a live performance. It shows examples of some of the methods the actors used to create sounds for certain scenes in the performance such as the pages of a book burning it shows the woman crumpling paper to create a crackling sound. With out this sound the emphasis on the destroying crackling flames would not exist and the scene would not be as dramatic and powerful. The sound create a feeling to a scene and draws the audience in as though they are fully involved (all the senses are being engaged) 

This is our Pixilation "Big Shoot" animation we will be working from :

We decided to consider the aspect of using lateral sound as well as literal to create narrative in some ways and to have a sound that represents something in a less literal representation. For example in the animation we will be making sound for the actor when she makes glasses appear over the face like magic. We decided, after looking at some of the props we had to work from, to use a harmonica tune to represent the appearance of the glasses and to emphasise the almost magical cartoony nature of the animation.

The added sound and our live performance: 

The video shows how we had organised ourselves in order for each person to be ready to make their sound for the different parts of the animations. This was a fairly tricky animation to add foley sound to as in the first animation the clips of the letters over lap and so at points it sounds like there is possibly too much busy noise happening in the animation in contrast to the simple appearance of that animation and possibly takes away from the humble qualities of the animation perhaps. however we were all in time mostly for this and worked well as a group and the task was a good experience overall of having a go at live foley. For the second part of the animation we added sound to the 'seasons in motion animation'. This animation happened rather quickly and so again was a fairly difficult timing wise animation to add sound to it and it meant we all had to be very aware of what time we made our sounds and order of events happening in the animation. Considering this i think the results were rather good for this project and it was good fun experimenting with various objects to make these noises along with performing it as a group.