M U L T I M E D I A
this collection of sounds follows the story of a relationship between two people. lovers, friends, something in between… it’s up for interpretation. whatever the dynamic, it ends up going south. the first sound of this is the crying of the dog. i incorporated human sounds with sounds from nature like wind, insects buzzing and animals. often nature gives us warning before something disastrous happens- like the sky changing color before a storm- but sometimes it doesn’t- like the falling of a tree. no time to prevent or prepare, or even to run. the end of relationships often follow this routine too. i chose to follow a storyline with distinct sounds rather than give an overall feeling of repetitiveness or rhythm as you would get from a pop song or movie score.
This video is meant to illustrate the story of the soundscape previously posted. As the audio follows the story of two lovers, so does the video. However, it’s not such a literal love story. I wanted to use an array of clips that gave the distorted feeling of a love gone wrong. I chose to use all vintage-esque videos to give a sense of nostalgia and whimsy. I began with a visual of a tape rewinding and the movie begins with an old Lucky Strike ad with a romantic air to it. Most of the cuts that begin shortly after this clip came from a 1924 Dadaist, post-cubist film by Fernand Léger called Ballet Mécanique. I felt the frantic and disorienting artistic direction of this film suited the audio so well I segmented it and used it for most of the video. Some other clips are from a film titled Where’s My Wife by Herman C. Raymaker, mostly used to give a sense of commotion and socialization. Another clip I used was a close up shot of bees to emphasize the swarming sounds. I used a lot of repetition in the clips as I did in the audio with the heartbeat and breathing sounds. I would have loved to get my hands on some longer clips of the faces I included in the video. I found it difficult to line up the cuts of the video perfectly with the audio but learned that even if imperfect, adding a visual element to a story can create much more depth and understanding to the listener.