Author: Daniel James Roberts

Posted in Ideas, Post Performance

Music – 2

Posted on by Daniel James Roberts

As our performance is now progressing, we have needed sound effects to accompany our work. We have decided that we would need a sound that would signify a bomb blast. Although we wanted a bomb blast, we also collectively agreed that we didn’t want the sound to be too literal. With this in mind, we deliberated at what sounds we could use that would imply a bomb had just exploded. After searching through several different types of after blast sound effects, we thought of the idea that we could shock our audience out of the dream state we are hoping to place them by playing a sound that ring through the ears. We decided we wanted this because after loud blasts, victims regularly suffer from tinnitus. After collecting a sample of sounds, we decided that this would be the most suitable sound file to use.

Tinnitus Sound:

In addition to this, we also wanted to add sound that would help suggest something had happened. Through further searching, we decided that we wished to add emergency sirens with the tinnitus sound file. As our script also discussed a car fleeing from the scene, we also wanted to add this. As we needed an mp3 of this, Luke went away and recorded himself speeding away.

These are the two sounds we decided to also use:

Car speeding away:

Emergency Sirens:

One we decided on what sound files we wished to use, it was my job to mix these all together. To do this I used Traktor, a DJ software package, to record myself live mixing these together. To ensure that I did this at a high standard, I mixed each sound to the tinnitus mp3 one by one. To begin with, I mixed the siren sounds together with the tinnitus.

This was the result:

After successfully mixing these together, I then mixed in the car speeding sound to complete the sound.

This was the result:

Reviewing the sound, I feel I created a nice sound effect that replicated the aftermath of a blast. I’m glad that as a group we decided that we wouldn’t be too literal with our sound effects, as it’s permitted us to have a soundscape that allows the audience to imagine.

Update.

During our tech rehearsals, it became apparent that the sound file was too long. As the tinnitus sound effect was a very irritable sound, we decided it would be best to shorten the mp3 from two minutes to fifty seconds. Here is a copy of the revised version of our sound effect.

Here is the revised version:

Posted in Ideas

Music – 1

Posted on by Daniel James Roberts

After having the idea of lulling our audience into a dreamlike state at the beginning of our piece, we then started to search for, and decide what music we wished to use to achieve this.

Firstly, I downloaded a wide range of music that had been designed to induce sleep. After downloaded over fifty tracks, I began to listen to these to find the most appropriate and potentially most suitable songs to use. As we’ve decided that I will live mix through these songs through the beginning and end of the performance I decided that I needed a varied selection to work with. After collecting an enough appropriate tracks, we decided that we would use the works in progress to explore the affect it would have on the audience.

During the works in progress we received a positive reaction. Although it was audacious to leave the audience to just lie down and listen to music, the music definitely made the audience relaxed. Due to this, we decided that we would add this into our final production. As this was decided, I prepared an already mixed recording of the mixed sleep music for the performance, insuring that we would have it available to use if we were to change our idea of live mixing during the performance.

Mixed Sleep Music:

By Daniel Roberts

Posted in Ideas, Influences

Mobile Phones

Posted on by Daniel James Roberts

During our study of Blast Theory, we became interested in the use of mobile phones in today’s society. As mobiles have the ability to create a space where we people can communicate with one another miles apart, we became particularly interested in how it’s being used. Through our discussion what we became fascinated in was how the phone can allow the consumer to have an argument or a personal conversation with their partners or family members and be listened to by passing by members of the public. For example, we have been discussing how we’ve experienced people on public transport have intimate arguments without worrying about the strangers around them. As according to Matt Adams, the users’ of mobile phones “in many countries are now familiar with the juxtaposition of private, intimate conversations with a secondary, inadvertent audience” (Adams, 2004), we now are interested in how we could use this in our performance.

We have also become interested in how the mobile has been used in national disasters around the world. In terrorist attacks, the mobile phone has been a device that has allowed its users to have the opportunity to say their final goodbyes to their loved ones. To explore this, as a group we watched snippets of the TV documentary 9-11 Phone Calls from the Towers and accessed mp3’s of calls from the towers available on YouTube. Although these are of a distressing nature, the virtual space the phone created on this day for the victims to say goodbye is a space we could explore within our piece.

The mobile phone has been something that has interested us all throughout the module so far. After exploring how we can control someone through text messages during an earlier workshop, the ubiquitous device is something we’re hoping can give us a basis to create an impressive multimedia performance that we can all be proud of.

Works Cited

Adams, Matt. (2004) Adelaide Thinkers in Residence Public Lecture, Adelaide: Town Hall

Written by Daniel Roberts.

Posted in Influences, Visuals and aesthestics

Sheep Video

Posted on by Daniel James Roberts

As a group we have been looking at techniques that induce sleep. One of the techniques that we have been discussing is counting sheep, as this is seen as a mental exercise that can help sleep due its repetitive and rhythmic tic nature. Because of this, we are very interested in using a video of sheep jumping over a fence to create a relaxing feel to our audience. After exploring YouTube we found a number of animated videos, though because of copyright issues we have decided to create our own.

This is what we had found on YouTube:

Using Photoshop, I have decided to recreate this myself.

Initially, I began by creating a subtitle background.

Sheep

After this, I then started to add the animation. For this, I designed a sheep and added frame by frame movements so it appeared to jump over the fence. Much like the stop motion we have already explored, this took patience to create a worthwhile piece of work.

This was the finished .GIF

photo Sheep2.gif

Comparing it to the YouTube video that had influenced us, I feel I created a good enough replacement that we could possibly use in our final piece.

By Danny Roberts

Posted in Influences

Immersive Theatre

Posted on by Daniel James Roberts

Immersive Theatre

Immersive Theatre is a “widely adopted term to designate a trend of performances which use installations and expansive environments … which invite audience participation” (White, 2007).

In Immersive Theatre, there are two differing types of immersion, cognitive and sensory. Although both of these are similar and the difference between the two is often difficult to define, there are subtle variances between the characteristics of each.

Cognitive Immersion

This is where the audience are placed into a fictional world where they’re made to lose track of their physical reality. Much like the immersion seen in traditional theatre, it’s crucial for the audience to enter the world being created in front of them by the performers through imagination.

In Rosemary Klich and Edward Scheers book Multimedia Performance, it discusses the importance of the audience to “forget their immediate physical location and enter another through an active process of imagining” (Klich & Scheer, 2011, p. 129).

Sensory Immersion

Although similar to cognitive immersion, this type of immersion attempts to give the audience an emotional reaction to the performance. The aim of performances featuring sensory immersions is to stimulate the senses of their audience by including them into the piece.

Klich and Scheers book defines sensory immersion as a place that brings the audience into the “immediate, real space of the performance” (Klich & Scheer, 2011, p. 131).

Works Cited

Klich, R. & Scheer, E., 2011. Multimedia Performance. Basingstoke: Palgrave Macmillan.

White, G., 2007. On Immersive Theatre. [Online] Available at: http://crco.cssd.ac.uk/143/2/TRI_37_3_article_2_white.pdf [Accessed 8 April 2013].

By Danny Roberts