Design Book Review: Sound For Digital Video By Tomlinson Holman

Sound

This book discusses the importance of sound recordings and use of sound within motion footage and how it can make a significant difference on an audiences interpretation and feelings towards the footage.

Tomlinson Holman, author, has a wide experience and expertise of the area of film sound production including working as a sound engineer on such films as 'Indiana Jones and the temple of doom' and 'Star wars return of the jedi. Holman is one of the most prominent figures in audio and has won career achievement awards from the cinema audio society and the custom electronics design and installation association.



He describe show background sounds / ambience can be the connective tissue between soundtrack, and most people don't even notice these sounds although without them the scene would seem strange or too empty this is something i will take on board when choosing and thinking of sound for my own work. He says that these sounds however should be recorded separately to the recorded footage so they sound more crisp.
he also mentions that silent scenes are never usually actually silent and will still have some subtle sound present with the footage which is interesting.
 He talks about stretched reality sound also:
when otherwise realistic presentation of footage is shown with the sound of things we would not normally be able to hear over that footage if we were present at the camera t that time in real life, An example Holman gives of this is the opening of american pie 2 which shows the exterior of the protagonists frat house. As the camera dollies in, indicating we are being taken inside, and we hear the conversation inside and then cut inside to the house where the actors are talking. It would be physically impossible to hear this conversation from outside and then for it to also be the same volume even one the camera cuts inside to the conversation, however the audience accepts it as movie reality.

Surrealism in sound, emphasising the unconscious and might be used to to represent the point of view of a character or to symbolise an other worldly environment.
one way to do this Holman explains is to strip out much of the sound and concentrate  on just a few or one elements of sound. we know that the scene is noisier than this but we also know that we are making a transition to a more internal view of the world. Like wise is we were portraying another
world environment such as a dream for example the pitch range and transformations of the sound will be altered and made more or less reverberant or changed timbre. any of these used singly or together is an indicator that we have left reality behind. another way to lessen reality is to add music however the use of foley and atmospheric sounds can bring it make to a more realistic feeling and then the music is just an emotional add on.
This idea of the surrealistic sound could be used or considered for my silhouette animation as i was considering just using foley sounds to create a creepy atmosphere however i like the thought of representing this other worldly dimension environment with the use of music or strange sounds etc.

As well as reading this book i also found this video on youtube that discusses the importance and effects of sound in video in a simplistic and effective way:
              
          
Interesting statment at 8:58 talking about how the hardest film scores are the ones made to just fill the silence as the audience shouldn't notice it (this shows how silence is often not a good thing in film and that even silent scenes have some sound).

Kate Egan

Kate Egan

Kate Egan is an artist who specialises in taxidermy work. I attended a talk she was giving about how she came to work with taxidermy and give an insight into what that entails and the amour of wrk that actually goes into this also.
She is a self employed artist due to running her own business in taxidermy and said that this is very empowering as she can now "bang to the beat of her own drum". She gave a very inspirational speech that i can relate to myself and my own work even though she has a different profession to the one that i am pursuing.
She spoke about how the internet and social media and free advertising basically, has helped freelance artists a lot in recent years and how she utilised this for herself also using website such as easy to advertise and sell her work. She also spoke of how Instagram is good for advertising work and getting her work known to people and getting her name within the community of interest to her profession and artwork. I can apply these ideas f self advertisement to my own work as i have also seen studios such as the Killogramme in manchester using Instagram to promote their work and keep followers updated with their latest work.

Kate then went on to discuss the value of work and how artists are often made to feel like they should make their pieces as cheap as possible in order to compete with other artists etc, however she said that we should value our work enough to put a price on it that we see fit regardless of completion etc and that this will reflect the buyers perception of how they view the work also as the price indicates the artists value in their own work and the time that they have put into it and that the value reflects the quality.
She gave some insight to her time at college and studying art and how she didn't know what she wanted to do prior to going into taxidermy and spoke about how she had a job that she wasn't happy with and didn't think she would be able to fund herself by pursuing her interests in art.
She spoke about how she started her own business by getting funding from a job centre in stockport where she was given an enterprise allowance and made a business plan.
The main inspiration about listening to Kate was that she pursued what she wanted to do even though it seemed unachievable and was looked down upon by people or not sen as something to take seriously and she made a business for herself now doing what she loves doing and that in itself is inspiring to me with regards to my own work and to remind me that even if i don't succeed at first i will keep pursuing my goals.

Art And Graft

Art&Graft is an award-winning, motion-led design studio based in london. They have produced work for clients such as cartoon network, virgin, mtv, google, bbc and others.

One of their pieces was very useful for e as they have created making of video for their 'I am Team Gb' animation which they made in collaboration with The National Lottery, ITN Productions, ITV Creative and ITV AdVentures, they directed, designed and produced a campaign to showcase The National Lottery and ITV’s support of Team GB at the Rio 2016 Olympic Games in August.

Comprising of a set of animated commercials, promos, POS and OOH collateral the campaign aims to inspire and represent the ‘togetherness’ that each Olympic Games brings to the nation; that we’re all joined together as we get behind our athletes.

making of inspirations:

I Am Team GB : Making Of from Art&Graft on Vimeo.

this making of shows good depiction of how the first steps of character design was put to use and used and built upon within the animation. The stages of development within this making of are also very good as they show that the animation actually uses 3d work and character modelling and not just  2d animation.

This is the full finished animation :

I Am Team GB from Art&Graft on Vimeo.

Another of their impressive making of video is for their 'Leafcutter' short:

The Leafcutter : Making Of from Art&Graft on Vimeo.

Art&Graft were commissioned by McGarrah Jessee to design and develop a charming narrative film for Costa Del Mar sunglasses 'See What's Out There' campaign. ‘The Leafcutter’ shows an inspiration little ant setting out of an adventure and is a beautiful animation with the set design aesthetics as well as the ida behind the story.

I like in this animation how they show all the drawing designs for the various elements they used in the animation as well as showing other points of views within the worlds they were creating for the animation as it gives the viewer more insight etc. 

Kilogramme Animation Studio Visit And Work Crit

Kilogramme is an animation studio based in manchester that specialises in character animation. The project i am doing at the moment relates a lot to this studio as i am doing a lot of character animation and animated sets similar to the kilogramme's usual style of animations which is why i found their work very interesting and would like to visit their studio in order to potentially receive some helpful feedback on my work and see what they could potentially help me improve on.

This animation they created in 2012 was particularly inspiring because it uses silhouette shapes and characters with a simplistic style similar to my silhouette forest walk animation i am doing:

Easter 2012 from Kilogramme on Vimeo.

Work review:

For the tweak week i visited the studio and showed them my work to receive feedback on what they think of it and perhaps where i could improve with it.
I was told by Jon Turner, directer, that my animation potentially needed more of a story, as the animation is just of a boy walking through a forest following a stag to a tree. Maybe if i started the animation with the child being lost in the woods this would help the plot line, and potentially added more obstacles for the characters to cross this could add more interest to the piece and give the viewers more to watch. He also mentioned that the way the child walked was a bit eager as the arms swing a lot and gives the appearance of the child not being afraid or solemn, which is the kind of vibe i wanted to give. I might try and re record the child or perhaps try and and just animate it from scratch like i did with the stag as this gives me more freedom with the movements. He also said that in the first scene the stag looks a bit glitchy and that adding another head in the turn when the stag turns its head would help this.
But he said that he likes where its heading and that the style was nice.
Whilst i was there i was also able to have a look at some of the work they were working on which i found very interesting and made me want to try character animation more, something i could consider for my final project perhaps. The staff were very friendly and inviting and the atmosphere and environment of the studio was nice. This would be somewhere i would be interested in perhaps seeking work experience at in the near future, i have been told that when i have made some adjustments that they would be interested in seeing what i have improved on and so i might try and arrange another visit there when i have done this and potentially ask for this opportunity then.