The first step had been decided, we knew we wanted to place our first delusion within the 1920’s. So to tackle this as sound designer i began to research music of the 1920’s era. However, i had to bare in mind that our group also wanted to explore what other contemporary methods we could use to create an aesthetic for Beginning delusion. Firstly, the group discussed using manufactured sounds such as Foley Sound. Foley sound is the art form where everyday objects are used to produce sounds, which could be manipulated to produce different sounds, for example within phony sound, by using a two halves of a coconut shell, being beat in a certain rhythm could give a similar sound to horse’s trotting (Ramael, 2012, 263).
After investigating Foley sound our group decided to see what we could do to incorporate the style into our production. The company agreed we should devise a sequence with involves characters carrying out certain actions that the rest of the company could use foley objects to created the actions sounds. As the sound designer for the show, i began to try and find influence to how this art form and how it is produced correctly. After researching foley sound on the internet during the rehearsal whilst the rest of the company worked on blocking, I was able to find a video that could help our group gain a deeper understanding of how to produce decent foley sound.
(The Columbian, 2016)
After finding this video by The Colombian (2016) I was able to show the show the rest of the group ideas and techniques that Foley artists use. Knowing that everyone was now aware of the process of how to produce foley sounds, our group started to experiment within different sounds which would be used within the performance. We began by trying to figure out what we could use which we had present, however, this was very minimal in regards to what we need to produce the styles of sounds we needed, such as old telephones, briefcases unlocking etc. So to counterbalance this our group decided to make the remaining unpractical sounds sounds with our voices, to essentially fill in the gaps whilst we sourced the props.
This lead to another issue, it was the cost effectiveness for using foley sound, understandably we would only be able to rehearse when we had all the necessary props, yet, with our budget at the time our group didn’t know if this was cost effect as if the company made a wrong purchase it would lower the budget further, another issue stemmed from this. Our groups current plan involved several actors on stage at one time which not leave enough stage hands, to create the sound necessary or be able to create multiple sounds for multiple people. So we thought of a more cost effective and practical method to making sound, this led to the suggestion from Dwain, the Director of the company, of using a soundscape from the actors on stage.
From this we would be able to act out the scene, without any extra costs regarding props needed to produce sound. So exploring on from this idea, each actor on stage made on specific sound which would be able to identify their character as well as identify there job role within the office. each individual came up with a range of various sounds to accompany their character all allowing them to be identified easily, for example it was obvious that holly, was playing the receptionist through her sound effect of a phone ringing followed by a “hello”. From this as sound designer it was my job to decide how these sounds could fit together to make some sort of sound collage of the office.
This process began with each individual showing me their sound, by studying each sound i was able to see the amount of beats that they had within their sound rhythm, as well as their sound style. This allowed me to create a order which focused all sounds, however, to help the office aesthetic our group was trying to create, i decided to make each individual join in at a specific time, building the noise and sound on stage mirroring the sounds and hectic vibe of an office. over the next few weeks, our group will look into improving the soundscape as well as putting it on its feet.
Works Cited
The Columbian, (2016). Foley artist shows how sounds effects are made. Available at: https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=E0pOLukIB4s [Accessed 9 Apr. 2017].
Remael, A., 2012. For the use of sound. Film sound analysis for audio-description: some key issues. MonTI. Monografías de Traducción e Interpretación, 4, 255-276.