SOUND RECORDING Reflection

Assignment 3a: Experimental Film

FST 201 SPRING 2014

For the first part of our third group assignment, we had to go out and record sounds (without video). We dicided to go to the Ten Pins Bowling Ally on Tuesday and we recorded an array of sounds. We have over 25 sound effects, ranging from bowling pins to ping pong balls to pool tables and glasses. When we were going through all of the sounds, we decided we needed more ambient sounds, so our director, Lydia, took the equipment home and recorded sounds like the sizzling of a pan on the oven and the dryer tumbling. She also got animal sounds, the doorbell, and strange sounds like a shovel scraping the sidewalk and a zipper. We also met again as a group and recorded the sounds of people walking by the library, and utilized the voices of a conversation that was had outside as well. We caught the ambiance of birds chirping and skateboards going by, along with funny quotes such as a guy saying, "This campus gets more weird every day," or "People have no dignity."

It was great to hear things later on and see how differently they sound. Some sounds can be mistaken for others. For example, Lydia's wind chimes sound like a cat toy and, if you fuse it with the sound of her cat meowing, then you begin to believe you are hearing a cat playing with a toy.
We ended up with all of the requirements. However, we had issues with some of our media going offline, and we also didn't know what to do with the sounds yet. So we started playing around and made a "song" out of all of the sounds. We are aware this wasn't the assignment, but it's really cool nonetheless. We also turned in our equipment 3 hours late due to a miscommunication and are now suspended for a week. I want to cry.

And, on that note, I can't wait to see what the remainder of the project entails.