Week 1

Only with the first class of sound, I already learned a lot. I just finished college in creative arts-profile cinema, so I have heard about sound a lot (sound on film, obviously), but this class showed us how the ears were perceiving sounds, how they work and what are the differents ranges in those sounds that we hear every day. I know a little bit about, for example, how we TAKE sounds with a pole, how we ISOLATE sounds when we are outside and there is wind, things like that. But nobody ever talked to me about how sound is DONE, how it works, etc. I cannot wait to do the practical exercices in class. Also, I downloaded the sonic visualiser and, since then, I listen to my music with that program open. I am still discovering it, but for what I know, I like it. - At thit time of the semester, I don't really know how the sound is transformed from an acoustic phenomenon into recorded data. - I did not read a lot about sound yet, but only with the concepts that we talked about in class, I know that I will not think about it in the same way that I did before. I cannot, because now I know how it goes and runs in my ears and how it is strong (I understood it when I saw the different shapes appear in the chalk!). I will probably work with it in a better way, now that I am more aware of every single sound that is present in our everyday life. - In film, sound is really really important. It is what keeps the spectator on track and what makes a movie work. Without sound, there is no timeline, nothing to keep everything together. Directors can take sounds directly from the outside or directly from the movie set, but normally, they add a lot of sounds outside of the set (what we call ''post synchro''), and then, they mix all together on the post-production. There are outside voices, direct voices, sounds taken with a pole, and all of them are generally taken with a ''mixette'', which is a kind of recorder, that is plugged on the pole. On television, it is kind of different. First of all, the technicians work most of the time on sets, so it makes it easier to take great sounds on the first take. They use a pole directly from the take, which is a thing that we do not always do on movie sets. This is what I have learned yet, briefly. On the next weeks, I will keep writing on my blog and talk about my readings (that should come soon!) and talk about what I learn.