During the course of this assignment, I have had to adapt and change plans and research quite a lot. As I started this project in a group working to a completely different brief before my partner left university for personal reasons, I had to come up with this project in a very short amount of time. I managed to construct a proposal and present it on quite short notice which was a fun transition as I had to think on my feet and develop the brief for this assessment under pressure and I think it has worked quite well. It was also an interesting addition to have to develop a blog alongside this project though at first I wasn’t really sure how to construct it and what content to add, but got to grips with it once I had started developing my ideas and added some of my inspirations and thoughts to the site.
Through my development of my soundscapes, I think I have created a series of interesting, descriptive sound pieces that work very well alongside my chosen imagery. As I have explained previously in my assignment paperwork, these soundscapes have been developed in the style of and for the purpose of use in theme parks or similar themed attractions based around horror. I believe I have adequately presented the idea I proposed at the start of this assessment and taken into account my research into horror sound and theme park rides to not only create soundscapes that are potentially unnerving and frightening, but also fit the criteria of being able to be used in an entertainment setting.
I have utilised a range of online sound archives as well as the university’s archive, developed my personal recording skills and constructed my soundscapes using the university facilities, arranging and mixing them in ProTools and experimenting with a range of digital tools in developing my sounds. Experimenting with sounds in ProTools has definitely increased my proficiency in the operation of the program and I feel much more comfortable and knowledgeable about arranging, mixing and editing audio.
In my opinion, my project turned out much better than I was expecting; through analysing the images I had chosen to base my soundscapes around, I had a degree of creative freedom and the only limit really was my imagination. Basing some of my development around the conventions of horror sound and theme park sound installations, and then adding my own spin on what I think the image would sound like. I stuck to my original proposal very closely, only developing from the option of my installation being part of an art gallery and I thought it would be a lot more suited to a theme park. With this in mind I created a series of interesting, atmospheric soundscapes that would effectively heighten the mood in an entertainment setting created to scare people.
I think that working alone for this project was a good decision, not only in terms of creative freedom but also so that I could develop my own individual skills in the production of ideas and creation of a project like this. Though it may be on a smaller scale than it would be in a group project, this still doesn’t affect the quality of the product and allowed me to focus much more on honing my own skills in this area. A problem from not working in a group came when I needed human sound such as breathing and screaming but these were easily overcome when I used sound clips I had recorded for use in previous projects and looking through online archives and the university sounds library. Another problem came when I began this project in a group of two but didn’t end up working out, but I quickly overcame this by using a previous idea I’ve wanted to do for a while and developed it into this project, giving it real-world uses and logical implications in the industry.
When researching I contacted numerous theme parks in order to learn about commissioning but only Alton Towers responded informing me that their entire media department is in-house and they do not commission external companies to develop sound an visuals for them. Instead, I chose to develop my soundscapes as samples working to a fictional brief based on what I learned from speaking to Ryan Twyman of Cooz’s in Oxford. He told me that his audio team were contacted by ‘Studio 8’, also based in Oxford, and asked to work with them on a brief that they had received from Thorpe Park to develop an audio-visual installation for use in a walk-through ride (in the style of a haunted house) involving zombies and a government facility where a viral outbreak had occurred. I managed to get a look at the work he developed for this brief and his advice and information about his work was very helpful in developing my own work.
This has been a very enjoyable project and I have learned a lot about my personal abilities in developing soundscapes as well as alternative methods of research and new areas of the media industry that I was previously unaware of and now have a greater knowledge and understanding of these sectors. The audio-visual sector is something that I am becoming increasingly interested in and I am happy that I got a chance to look into it as part of this project, make a contact who has worked on a commissioned project, and this will be something that I will look into when applying for jobs after I graduate. My soundscapes are some of my favourite pieces of work that I have developed this year and I am grateful for the opportunity to further develop my skills on ProTools and explore areas of the industry that are becoming increasingly interesting to me.
