Jonathan Williams

After much experimentation and research about the techniques that could be used, it was time to actually do something. Myself and Klara travelled from the South West of England to the South East and shot a series of landscapes. Above is an early experiment using a shot of Ubley Warren in North Somerset, mirrored to create the effect of a living, breathing landscape.

Here is the full video with the sound recorded on location (The sound will be changed by creating mini soundtracks using field recordings and samples all mixed in protools, kind of like noise music as seen in the movie 'Frank').

The initial Idea was to map the unique curves of the mirrored landscape and interpret them as sound data and create a unique soundtrack formed by the shape of the landscape. However, after experimenting with different picture to sound programs and attempting to code the images manually, we felt that by mirroring them, the landscapes were given new life, as if they were living and breathing.

This was done by importing into Premiere, duplicating the clip and putting one on top of the other, cropping them fifty fifty and rotating one by 180 degrees. It does in a way resemble a waveform and it kind of sucks that we can't figure it out just yet. Perhaps this is something to develop.

So we have the  After numerous hours of research into trying to visualise things in various coding softwares, such as processing and puredata, we reached out to a visual artist friend of Klara's who recommended the program Resolume Arena. Resolume is a VJ (video jockey software) and allows manipulation and projection mapping of audio visuals so that they react to one another. Using this tutorial to get me familiar with the basics of the program, I was able to experiment with looping audio and syncing it with effects applied within the program. As it turns out this program is incredibly easy to pick up, and I can't wait to experiment further. What you see below is actually a single .jpg file manipulated to give the essence of movement. there is a video (which is linked) that has the looping sound. This is just one potential visualisation of the landscapes, but was not used with a fully realised soundtrack. Once the soundtrack is complete I will continue experimenting and create different visualisations of the landscapes using the sound.

Ubley Warren

Furthermore, the sound artist we contacted about the program is linking us his own software he developed that visualises sound, so I will post about that once it's done.


RESEARCH:

Music Visualisation in Pure Data: https://puredata.info/dev/summer-of-code/PdDataViz
More Music Visualisation: https://zf213.wordpress.com/2009/05/05/visual-musicpure-data/
Tutorials I am going through about using vvvv: http://vvvv.org/documentation/video-tutorials#vvvv-tutorial-1-installing-vvvv
Reactive audio visuals that I need to work on: http://www.airtightinteractive.com/2013/10/making-audio-reactive-visuals/

The first artist I researched was William Raban, an artist and experimental filmmaker known primarily for his landscape, performance and multi-screen films.

Raban seeems to explore the landscape around him by utilising different camera techniques, revealing hidden elements within them.

View (1970) is one in a series of films of a river taped over one whole day in winter using a static camera shooting one frame every 10 seconds running through the camera at 24 fps. According to Raban, the film was made in a 'continuous heavy rainstorm', and throughout the film, the lens got wet until it obscured the view. However, the bursts of film at normal speed were wiped  dry so that between the smudges of a blurry view was a perfectly clear, unspoiled view.

One interpretation of the film, from Peter Gidal, suggests that the film is a 'pure documentary' about how the camera copes with time (and how this mechanistic process is more important than the specifc image content), because without the means to capture the image the art would never come to fruition and the unique nuances of the landscape around Raban would not have been captured




sources

http://www.lux.org.uk/collection/works/view-0

http://www.opengallery.co.uk/video-art/william-raban

http://www.screenonline.org.uk/people/id/586498/index.html

Audio-Generated Landscapes

Refik Anadol 

Refik Anadol | Infinity Room

Immersive environmental project called infinity room. Anadol likes to create 'temporary immersive environmental experiments' by using the state called immersion which is the state of consciousness where the person who is immersed awareness of physical self is transformed by being surrounded by an engrossing environment; often artificial, creating a perception of presence in a non-physical world.

Generative Sketches (); Grid Studies| Refik Anadol:

City of Bits

More Research:

http://www.refikanadol.com/works/the-aether-project/
https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=_8DMEHxOLQE
https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=lu51j9V-ti0 - Casey Reas: The Thing that Makes the Thing is More Interesting than the Thing





Further research to be done:

Dr. Nigel Helyer - Professor of sonic art in sydney/adelaide 

Dr Nigel Helyer is a Professor of sonic art at Sydney University. He is also a Marine scientist, but has become a pioneer in

Research sonic artists

Go into landscape, record sound and generate the landscape. 
User generated landscapes using microphones and keyboards.
Get users to describe landscapes.
Post results.

Casting call  using TheStage.co.uk/castings

As part of the professional toolkit unit, we have been tasked with creating a set from scratch and making some kind of campaign between 1 and 2 minutes long. The campaign we have decided to pursue is to create an advert that intends to raise awareness about domestic abuse against men. Using real life examples.


One of my roles in pre-production is the role of Casting Director. My role is to organise and facilitate the casting for all the roles in a film. This involves working closely with the director and producer to understand their requirements, and suggesting ideal artists for each role, as well as arranging and conducting interviews and auditions.

Using the character profiles created by the scriptwriters and directors, I will work with the director to plan an audition/interview process that  that will help gauge if the actor is suitable for the role(s) required. This is the first process of casting.



But first, we have to find some actors. Here are some casting websites and resources that will be used to cast them.

Castingcallpro
Thestage.co.uk
library: spotlight books
Starnow
Castnet
Contactcasting

Character profiles

Anthony (Victim): 

30 year old male, currently living in his lower/middle class house in Bromley, South London, with his wife and two small children. Anthony goes to the gym twice a week after his work as a self-employed bricklayer. Due to the nature of his work, he has developed a strong figure. Anthony has dark brown hair. Usually quite a confident guy, considered 'one of the blokes' and thus he has to maintain a certain sense of masculinity to adhere to his friends standards. Anthony loves football, especially watching it with his friends from work either down the pub or at one of their houses. Anthony is a social smoker, but only smokes when the football is on at the weekend, or when his wife and kids are out of the house running errands or visiting her relatives. Anthony is being physically and emotionally abused and blackmailed by his wife, who threatens to take his kids away from him if he speaks up about even the smallest of things. She takes all her anger out on him, and he is afraid that without him being around, she might hurt his children. Because Anthony is a man of morals, he knows that he can't defend himself when he is physically or verbally attacked because she will use it as ammunition and use it to abuse him further. He is physically abused scratches, cuts from bottles, iron & cigarette burns on his arms, and hides this abuse by wearing long sleeves regularly. This is a very emasculating situation for Anthony, because if he speaks up about it or opens up to his friends, as he is dominated by his wife which, in their eyes, is considered as 'un-masculine.' 


Mike Starling (Friend):

28 year old male, currently living in his two bed end terrace house with his bulldog Gray. He is a smoker and a keen social drinker. He is very well built guy, but does not at all deserve to look that way due to his unhealthy lifestyle. He shares 49% stake in a building company with his friend Anthony and they alternate going to each others' house at the weekend to watch the football. Anthony is probably one of Mike's closest friends, mainly because Mike is a very stubborn guy who will defend his views and his friends unflinchingly, even if he is wrong about both.  This stubbornness is often mistaken for loyalty, which is why he has so many friends but very few close ones. 

Casting call using Starnow.co.uk

A 2 minute long campaign film focusing on the stigma against male domestic abuse victims. Based on the classic sitcom the campaign will open with the male lead entering the set talking to a friend about how how his partner has been hitting him. At this point you will hear a generic laugh track. This will continue often with his friend quipping in remarks about ‘manning up’ and ‘don’t be a wimp’. The laugh track will continue until the character notices it and address the fact that it’s not a funny subject, at this point the actor will look directly into the camera breaking the fourth wall. Tracking backwards the camera will reveal the set (eg lighting, other cameras sound equipment) showing the audience how the media control our perceptions of abuse alongside the actor who will be speaking about the importance of the stigma being dropped.