propaganda

The viewing of different documentaries has led me to taking a closer look at how sound has been used in propaganda films. for example this russian film about rising up to fight the nazis

Youtube has been a good source of these videos and i find it fascinating to see how these were used to unit the population to fight against the nazis.  i like how as the russian character rises up to fight the music becomes more triumphant and celebratory which must have had a positive effect on the russians at the time who fought.

But while i'm interested in going down this route i'm still no closer to a proper question for study and it's getting late on in the term which is making it harder and harder to work.

Battleship Potemkin

Having watched this film has led me to look down a different avenue of sound.  While the film is silent i read up a little about the history and saw that it was considered one of the best propaganda films made.  This reminded me about what i read earlier (and for the life of me now, i can't remember where) that some people consider that a documentary can't be a documentary if narration is included as it means that what is said may be at the behest of whomever is paying for the making of it and as such is not neutral.  But here is a silent film about the uprising of a ships crew against the officers and it is considered one of the best propaganda films made.

I don't think there is a real correlation between the two and my ramblings but the thought that a silent film can be propaganda has got me thinking about how it could be used with sound.

Pitch and crit 2

Pitch and Crit sessions, as i should have mentioned before, are when groups of third and fourth years get together to discuss their ideas on how the work is getting on and offering advice on how best to go about each others work.

The second session is when as a 4th year i present the work i have carried out to the third years and get advice back.  but i've been really struggling to focus my ideas onto one specific project and as such i had very little to say during the meeting which is frustrating as i feel i'm going nowhere with my ideas.

The Arbor

To gain a better idea of how sound in documentaries work i watched different documentaries to see how sound is used.  the common ones such as planet earth, some Louis Theroux, Michale moore but it also led me to watch some more alternative ones.  The one that sticks out most in my mind is The Arbor.  The Arbor is a film about the life of play writer Andrea Dunbar who died at the age of 29.  I series of interviews  was carried out with her children, parents, partners etc.  Different scenes were filmed with actors and then the interview recordings were dubbed over as used as the audio dialogue.  i thought it was an interesting and different approach to making a documentary. http://www.telegraph.co.uk/culture/film/filmreviews/8078688/The-Arbor-review.html

Music of the stars?

While browsing the interweb i came across this news article on the bbc website talking about the sound made by the stars.  http://news.bbc.co.uk/1/hi/7687286.stm i find it quite a remarkable idea as sound cannot travel in a vacuum but they so the scientists look at the oscillations from the light of distant stars and convert that back into a sound that we can recognise.  I find it fascinating that different planetary objects make sounds that differ from one to the other depending on things such as size, age and chemicals.

Planet Earth

The idea to look at sound with in a documentary came from the enjoyment that i have  had from viewing this BBC series.  The  idea came from thinking about how they use music to help tell the stories of the animals which they feature in the show.  I like how they use music to anthropomorphise the animals that feature so that it is easier for the audience to relate to.  At times it feels as though you are watching a film due tot eh tension built up from the music

This video of wild dog hunting an impala is a good example of the story telling that i was referring to

This is Your Brain On Music

I bought this book due to a recommendation during a pitch and crit session.  while there are some interesting thoughts on music and how it has different affects on the human brain and the emotions that we feel.  I didn't get as much out of the book that i had hoped for and i'm thinking that this may be due in some part because of the writing style.  it is caught between textbook and general stories/thoughts, while this made the book quite easy to read through i found that some of the facts have been lost in all the waffle.

First Post

This is the first post of my blog for my Honours project.  As it stands i still do not have a specific question in mind yet but i have been doing some reading into sound use during documentaires http://filmsound.org/film-sound-history/documentary.htm is one blog i've read. i've also ordered a book called his is Your Brain on Music: Understanding a Human Obsession by Daniel J. Levitin which i hope will provide me more understanding and help focus me on a specific path and question.  i will also add posts and general thoughts about sound and what  interests me and may well lead me off on different tangents.