Sound Entry #1 - Simple Mixdown

The task given in class was to produce a simple mixdown of a place using sounds from a BBC library bank. I worked with friend and classmate Salman. We created a beach setting and atmosphere with a little twist. The uploaded track can be listened to here: 

https://soundcloud.com/benjamin-martin-eagle/week-1-test-mixdown

Our homework task was to listen to something we do not usually listen to and note what is going on. I chose to listen to Nick Grimshaw's Radio Breakfast Show on BBC 1. Link to this radio broadcast here:

http://www.bbc.co.uk/programmes/b04xnny3

In the broadcast, the sound is clear and the host, Nick Grimshaw, talks to directly to the audience. "How are you all?" and so forth being used. It can be noted the overall tone of the show is it's very informal. He talks to his co-host and the listeners as if they were his friends. Telling stories about his day with his dog and so on. He splices up his content with his talking and then a segment of music or a news broadcast. His voice does not have any wacky sound effects going on with it. It's very clear and distinct. Although he has a bit of an accent, he pronounces well so it would be hard to mistake what he was saying. 

We were also told to think about music and sound in video games as they are becoming well affluent with their music and sound. I have been playing Mass Effect 3 this week and thought it would be a good example. It is a role playing game set in the future where other races coincide together with humanity. With the inclusion of other races, there'd be different languages and sounds when speaking happens. But everyone speaks English and sounds relatively normal bar a couple races. 

One example is the character, Thane:

His voice has been slightly altered to give it that non-human feel. It has a slightly robotic tone.I can't quite tell what other effects are on it though. It sounds very similar to a lot of the voice actors in the mass effect series. Slightly robotic with a rumble or reverb sound that seems like it's coming straight from the throat. Notable ones are Garrus and the Krogan (Grunt and Wrex). They can be heard here as well as the other voice actors:

With the sound of the males primarily in this, a lot of them are grizzly and deep, whether this is effects put on, they all seem to have that same tone except a few. The females voices all seem clear though, no effects put on even if they are alien, bar the ones who are robotic. I found it quite interesting the males are portrayed typically in this as rough and ready as are the females most of the time, but their voice work is different.

Video Entry #1 - What is Documentary? Reading notes for "What is Documentary?"

Reading Notes

Documentary is important:

"You will see that documentary is that rare medium in which the common person takes on large, important issues and shakes up society"

Documentary cannot be defined rigidly

"Get two documentarians together, and the chances are high that they argue about what documentary is. Even though documentary has evolved continuously from its inception, its preview and methods remain ambiguous, and its parameters keep enlarging...The disagreement arise over allied issues:

- What any given actuality really is

- How to record it without compromise and without injecting alien values

- How to honestly and truthfully convey something that, being more spirit than materiality can only be discerned subjectively"

Documentarians think highly of themselves

"People who make documentaries put a high value on the joy, pain, compromise and learning that come from being completely alive. No wonder they make great company"

Documentary is socially critical

"Documentary always seems concerned with uncovering further dimensions to actuality and at the same time implying social criticism"

Documentary is an organised story

"Successful documentaries, like their fiction counterparts, tell a good story and engaging characters, narrative tension, and integrated point of view."

True documentary goes beyond and incites more in the viewer

"True documentary reflects the richness and ambiguity of life, and goes beyond the guise of objective observation to include impressions, perceptions, and feelings. Human reality under pressure becomes surreal and hallucinatory, as you see so memorably in Errol Morris' The Thin Blue Line (1998). Modern documentarians must be ready to represent not just the outward, visible reality of those they film but also their inner lives, because thoughts, memories, dreams and nightmares are the inside dimension of their lives"

Documentary must be fair and balanced

"Fairness. In a world of ambigiutiies the documentarian's responsibility is to be fair...A film may be accurate and truthful, but it may fail unless it is perceived as such"

Documentary is

"a branch of the expressive arts, not a science"

Working on my project 04

Focusing on another one of the ideas I'm going with. I decided to put the Helvetica text block as the background and then use the manipulated text on top. I then decided to try it in different colours and see what ways I could go with it

Working on my project 03

As suggested by a classmate, I decided to try using the cursive I created and integrated into line work of a bulb and use that. So I had a go:

I like how it has turned out so I think I may try to follow this idea and see where it goes

Working on my project 02

Another idea for my project was to do something with a flow and the idea of a fuse. The fuse being the start of an idea or a spark but the effect was quite hard to pull off in photoshop especially on line work. So I did not carry on with the idea I still liked the cursive aspect of the writing though so I still want to do something with it. The designs however are below: 

Working on my project 01

From my previous attempt at a homework to manipulate three letters. I did like the way I had done it so I decided to try at manipulating the other letters I would need to spell "Reasons to be Creative" (the digital media festival I have chosen to rebrand). Below are picture to illustrate what I have achieved and what I manipulated to get there:

After doing a presentation on Joshua Davis. I was inspired by him to try to recreate some of the designs he does. However, they didn't turn out as well I would have though and didn't really know what direction to take it. Below are the attempted designs: 

I then decided to have a try at the background for it but again, it did not turn out too well on the first try:

Taking photos in Worthing, Bognor Regis and Portsmouth

After my trip to Eastbourne and Hastings, I went on another trip to Worthing, Bognor Regis and Portsmouth. At this trip, I took just over 300. Here are a couple:

I don't think I shall be using the Portsmouth photos though as it got really dark when I went, so the photos haven't turned out brilliantly. I did however get good shots of the other places though so I will be using a couple in my project.