MAPS & NETWORKS 4: creation process (no pun intended)
KRAUTROCK MUSIC
I started by creating the motorik beat. It took me quite a while as there were still things i was figuring out about protools and also I had to look up what pitch the different drums were.
the first thing i worked on for this part was the motorik beat which i did using protools as I couldnt get access to W10 after emailing to ask if i could use the drums. This turned out to be a good thing, as I think it sounded good using MIDI as I was able to put everything in time and I dont think I could have done this as I am not a drummer. After the first time editing the beat, I listened back to it when I was at home and thought it sounded strange and then I thought possibly the hi hat part was slightly out so I went back onto protools and sorted it out and it sounded much better and also added some definition onto the beats to make it more the actual time signature 4/4. I also tried some synth stuff and saved that to play around with editing it over.
I then used that to listen to on my computer as I was recording guitar parts at home using a zoom. It was lowkey difficult/annoying being tangled in all the wires, i had headphones from the zoom on and an earphone with the beat playing in an earphone. I used some Neu tabs to help and also tried drop d tuning.
hought it was difficult and then I decided I wanted to edit all of it in Protools as its easier to just add extra instruments or parts using MIDI, as I began to think of adding some bass and cowbell to add the the pulling along effect on the drums. I still am unsure if the drums sound right, but when I go back into Protools, Im going to try change maybe make the bass drum more prominent, but right now im unsure. THis is the annoying thing about trying to edit the parts together on audition as I can't just tweak parts as I go along, so thats why I am not wanting to do it all in ProTools.
watched a mixing video also to help as when editing i thought it sounded a bit messy and realised i should probably do some research into mixing as that was probably the issue.
https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=YEorsfZe4vU
My main inspirations for this music is Hero by Neu! and Autobahn by Kraftwerk
When asking my friend what she thought of the beat/if it worked I showed her the Hero song as an example and by playing them literally after one another I realised mine was a bit slow, so when I was in protools I sped up the beats per minute from 120 to 150. I tried 160 but t was too fast and then stepped it down to 150.
I played around with editing and recording and moved things about and deleted things. I wanted to not make it too crowded but also make it interesting. I had two kind of contrasting inspirations as I would say Neu! is a lot more instrument/punk-y based whereas Kraftwerk is more new wave with the synths.
For the overture I wanted it to signify the different parts of the film. I feel like I didn't think or plan this out as much as I would usually do with something, but at the same time I knew what kind of direction I wanted to take it and what types of things i wanted to include. Learning music theory recently really helped and it was cool to see how I applied some of that and even playing around helped me understand it more which was cool. I also listened to some overture stuff and the only one that i 'connected' to was Romeo and Juliet by Tchaikovsky as you could clearly see how the music represented the plot.
I decided to begin with a soundscape type thing of a band/room setting up, this reminded me of when i would be in the band at school so that was a bit of an inspiration to how it would actually sound.
The choice to make an information bar reading 'This is only the overture' came almost out of nowhere. I can't locate where this idea came from, but to me it symbolises how you can sometimes get caught up in what's happening and sometimes i can feel how stupid and young i sound. does that make sense?
I wanted the creation part to be quite disjointed and almost like it was loading/thinking and coming together. I wanted the jewel part to be quite glorious and 'glass-y' and I wanted the conversation part to be almost in a talk and reply quite style with arpeggios/broken chords. I also recorded a cafe background in the canteen when they weren't playing music to play in the background, but because i changed the conversation to a story. now thinking about it i wish I had called it 'an allegory' rather than a story because it sounds was cooler and i just thought of that while typing this damn. When I did change it to a story, I thought about redoing the last part of the overture as it represented something different, however I think it still fit for the story as it still, to me, sounds like a progression.
I also forgot to mention that as I was recording I was obsessed with the new 1975 album and had in mind the kind of musical stuff thats in the song How To Draw/Petrichor so I think it's interesting to see how this has combined with the metal machine music and krautrock idea that was in mind.
A thing I did find annoying using protools is its difficult to look at the overall levels of a piece rather than the separate tracks. Also, I used the same tracks for the instruments throughout the different sections of the overture, so when i edited the levels it changed in the separate parts too and i had to then take into consideration this as i was editing the various sections. It was also tricky with the tracks as I had quite a few and finding things, even with renaming them like 'guitar', was quite difficult.
The first screenshot shows the beginning of editing the overture sound and visuals. I didn't know exactly how I wanted it to come into frame and at first considered trying to make it look like a projector over the curtains, however i decided it did not work. I found this quite frustrating as it felt as though I was juggling footage in the timeline trying not to jumble or mess it up. However, i finally managed to experiment and come up to the final outcome.
i wrote a rough list of 'shots'/ideas for the studio shoot. I would say I wasn't as prepared as I would like to have been and after the shoot i felt unsure about everything. I also came up with an idea to do a white gesso painting bit in the film to add to the meta theme as before painting with oils you prime the canvas with gesso so the paint doesnt soak into the canvas and rot, so I thought it would be super cool to have this at the beginning.
I first filmed the drawing part which went okay, but the camera cut off half way through and i didn't realise for quite some time. I felt p bad about this after but then I later had an idea to add a technical difficulties sign and then have it flash with 'identity difficulties'. I ended up liking this idea which is good and i thought it was kind of funny and matched the ideas behind the film/installation.
I had things around the drawing like some books (The Idiot, David Hume), jewels, and art supplies.
While drawing I had these notes with me of recent things i had been thinking about as well as my who am I notes/david hume notes i made that i showed on a previous blog post.
I ended up shooting the conversation scene with my friend. We had the scripts on the table as we didn't know the script, but this wasn't an issue as i considered this originally anyway. Also, we are not actors so it didn't turn out great. I lowkey wish we had gone through it a few more times as I found the more times we went through the better and more comfortable we got, as the first take was pretty terrible and awkward. Below is the best take.
While editing, I decided that I didn't like it. I didn't exactly know why and I think I felt a bit narcissistic in a way. On the train home from London on Sunday the 9th I figured that I thought it looked/felt flat and thought of different ideas of where i could take it with the time that i had. I came up with a few ideas and jotted them down in the back of my book as I didnt have any paper.
Here was the full script of the conversation (i edited a few times with the help of friends to give their opinion):
note: the quantum part is referencing the movie only lovers left alive which is a really good film 10/10 recommend
tuesday 11th - after sulking on my bed for a couple of hours and stress drinking a cup of tea I decided to start at basics and just get an A4 piece of paper and write some notes/ideas/themes.
I thought by having a story would work along the theme of something metafictional. I knew a few different things that had done a similar thing of having a narrative over music like The Gift by The Velvet Underground and The Man Who Fell In Love With A Robot by the 1975 (of which is also quite self reflective on this generation and social media). Also I had this video that I found while doing my previous sound project:
https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=n9EWtPfgPwk&t=441s
I thought of tarot cards and then 'The Fool' card which I became interested in over the summer. Here is a really cool page with it on: http://www.learntarot.com/journey.htm
I thought of perceptions and driving and identity.
I was finding it difficult trying to think of how I wanted to write it as I felt 3rd person was too detached but at the same time 1st seemed too personal and diary like. I was thinking of The Idiot but also the Bell Jar and Catcher in the Rye. The Idiot is quite more detached compared to the other two which give the audience a direct personal insight of the character. I found I was frustrated as i didn't want it to be too personal as to stamp that experience onto that character, but leave it quite generic as it could be applied to anyone, like in the contemporary, generation idea i had had previously. I originally tried to write it as a story but the script that I wrote but in story form, however I found this just didn't work as I couldn't do this without attributing the character names or 'looks' which I didn't feel was right. I even tried to write a bit imitating the beginning sentence of The Idiot as a homage type thing however it was still off.
The Catcher in the Rye is the most personal of the books as it uses a very distinct idiolect and is almost straight out of the mind of the character. The bell jar is also super personal but doesnt have a as strong idiolect.
I then, for some reason, thought of A Clockwork Orange (also a story looking into youth) and how the language is from Alex's perspective but isn't super personal and still keeps the audience at a certain distance. I came to the conclusion that this was down to it's use of bizarre language and structuring as well as this it doesn't really use the word 'I' as much. This THEN had me thinking of the piece of creative writing i did in A Level inspired by this where the character is driving down the road. I didn't want to directly reference the nadsat type style but I definitely took it into consideration when writing and structuring sentences.
I thought of the car as floating and wanted to maybe make a mention of zombies/death to signify the drifting along death/dystopian tone, in a way then thought of boat that takes you to hell so i googled 'the boat that takes you to hell' and it turns out that's Kharon. Was thinking of having him get in the car or something? but then thought it would b cool to have him just referenced at the counter. Also, Gaia is the goddess of the Earth as I had an image of the lady looking like mother nature so I decided it would be cool to mention this in a subtle way. I use some slang words and some French as it seemed fitting as to use words that seem a bit off but also not too much. I kept the date at the end of December like the conversation as it feels right to be hanging onto the end of the year. I feel like a lot of the language/metaphors are pretty solvable but it just gives the piece a weird tone to it like some liminal space.
M18 - road i often drive down
some of the lines are lifted from poetry ideas/lines i had noted down like 'brink of 2020'; i thought this added onto the theme of being on the end of something. Driving at night on an empty road is quite liminal in itself and I think this adds to it - it's quite dissociative. Also the mention of an ASDA which colloquialises it a bit. I have no idea where .7 of the 20th century came from but i think it sounds super COOL/funny, radio stations at night are strange as themselves.
The jewel station was inspired by a drawing/painting i did/was working on.
The 'view' is a reference to the book A Room With A View with its idea of beauty and delicacy.
I thought the concept of living is driving a car and consuming content is like going to the station. The jewel part came from a metaphor i've always thought about being LGBT and how i feel like as I consume queer content you gain 'a flower' and you become a stronger Gay as you gain flowers so to say like a tree, however my mind switched this to jewels and jewellery. The fool analogy at the end is a direct reference to the tarot i mentioned above. The fool/the idiot. Juxtaposing terms within themselves as the idiot can represent a dumb person, however Dostoevsky uses it to show how the character Myshkin is seen as an idiot with his intelligence. Also The fool is someone foolish but in narrative the Fool archetype is usually a servant who is intelligent and aids the king or whoever is the authoritative figure. And so, I think this refers to how sometimes as a ‘Young Person’ I feel incredibly stupid and inadequate as im aware of how young and dumb I am but at the same time I can be really idealistic and philosophical and existential even though that might be dumb. Sometimes you can feel foolish or stupid but also be aware of different things,etc.
I went out to record sounds and take photos/clips, but i also used a lot of old recordings and footage like of the light and car door noises.
I did do a few sketches of the layout, however i didn't need to as it was all in my head. I sketched out some different ideas, however I decided to keep it simple and not overcrowd it.
I played around with editing and recording and moved things about and deleted things. I wanted to not make it too crowded but also make it interesting. I had two kind of contrasting inspirations as I would say Neu! is a lot more instrument/punk-y based whereas Kraftwerk is more new wave with the synths.
OVERTURE
I decided to begin with a soundscape type thing of a band/room setting up, this reminded me of when i would be in the band at school so that was a bit of an inspiration to how it would actually sound.
The choice to make an information bar reading 'This is only the overture' came almost out of nowhere. I can't locate where this idea came from, but to me it symbolises how you can sometimes get caught up in what's happening and sometimes i can feel how stupid and young i sound. does that make sense?
I wanted the creation part to be quite disjointed and almost like it was loading/thinking and coming together. I wanted the jewel part to be quite glorious and 'glass-y' and I wanted the conversation part to be almost in a talk and reply quite style with arpeggios/broken chords. I also recorded a cafe background in the canteen when they weren't playing music to play in the background, but because i changed the conversation to a story. now thinking about it i wish I had called it 'an allegory' rather than a story because it sounds was cooler and i just thought of that while typing this damn. When I did change it to a story, I thought about redoing the last part of the overture as it represented something different, however I think it still fit for the story as it still, to me, sounds like a progression.
I also forgot to mention that as I was recording I was obsessed with the new 1975 album and had in mind the kind of musical stuff thats in the song How To Draw/Petrichor so I think it's interesting to see how this has combined with the metal machine music and krautrock idea that was in mind.
A thing I did find annoying using protools is its difficult to look at the overall levels of a piece rather than the separate tracks. Also, I used the same tracks for the instruments throughout the different sections of the overture, so when i edited the levels it changed in the separate parts too and i had to then take into consideration this as i was editing the various sections. It was also tricky with the tracks as I had quite a few and finding things, even with renaming them like 'guitar', was quite difficult.
STUDIO SHOOTING
I had a studio set for monday evening on the 3rd. I tried to get actors for the conversation scene and also booked R19 for the following Thursday as I wasn't sure if my friend who was helping was able to make it to the studio or if i found actors a bit later, i would still have an opportunity to shoot.
i wrote a rough list of 'shots'/ideas for the studio shoot. I would say I wasn't as prepared as I would like to have been and after the shoot i felt unsure about everything. I also came up with an idea to do a white gesso painting bit in the film to add to the meta theme as before painting with oils you prime the canvas with gesso so the paint doesnt soak into the canvas and rot, so I thought it would be super cool to have this at the beginning.
While drawing while thinking about where the film was going at the beginning of the project, I was thinking I wanted a bigger space to draw
on than the A3 I was using and I thought of a roll of paper. Then I thought of
using it in my film as I had an image of being in a smooth floored area just
drawing.
I had things around the drawing like some books (The Idiot, David Hume), jewels, and art supplies.While drawing I had these notes with me of recent things i had been thinking about as well as my who am I notes/david hume notes i made that i showed on a previous blog post.
I ended up shooting the conversation scene with my friend. We had the scripts on the table as we didn't know the script, but this wasn't an issue as i considered this originally anyway. Also, we are not actors so it didn't turn out great. I lowkey wish we had gone through it a few more times as I found the more times we went through the better and more comfortable we got, as the first take was pretty terrible and awkward. Below is the best take.
While editing, I decided that I didn't like it. I didn't exactly know why and I think I felt a bit narcissistic in a way. On the train home from London on Sunday the 9th I figured that I thought it looked/felt flat and thought of different ideas of where i could take it with the time that i had. I came up with a few ideas and jotted them down in the back of my book as I didnt have any paper.Here was the full script of the conversation (i edited a few times with the help of friends to give their opinion):
STORY
tuesday 11th - after sulking on my bed for a couple of hours and stress drinking a cup of tea I decided to start at basics and just get an A4 piece of paper and write some notes/ideas/themes.I thought by having a story would work along the theme of something metafictional. I knew a few different things that had done a similar thing of having a narrative over music like The Gift by The Velvet Underground and The Man Who Fell In Love With A Robot by the 1975 (of which is also quite self reflective on this generation and social media). Also I had this video that I found while doing my previous sound project:
https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=n9EWtPfgPwk&t=441s
I thought of tarot cards and then 'The Fool' card which I became interested in over the summer. Here is a really cool page with it on: http://www.learntarot.com/journey.htm
I thought of perceptions and driving and identity.
I was finding it difficult trying to think of how I wanted to write it as I felt 3rd person was too detached but at the same time 1st seemed too personal and diary like. I was thinking of The Idiot but also the Bell Jar and Catcher in the Rye. The Idiot is quite more detached compared to the other two which give the audience a direct personal insight of the character. I found I was frustrated as i didn't want it to be too personal as to stamp that experience onto that character, but leave it quite generic as it could be applied to anyone, like in the contemporary, generation idea i had had previously. I originally tried to write it as a story but the script that I wrote but in story form, however I found this just didn't work as I couldn't do this without attributing the character names or 'looks' which I didn't feel was right. I even tried to write a bit imitating the beginning sentence of The Idiot as a homage type thing however it was still off.
The Catcher in the Rye is the most personal of the books as it uses a very distinct idiolect and is almost straight out of the mind of the character. The bell jar is also super personal but doesnt have a as strong idiolect.I then, for some reason, thought of A Clockwork Orange (also a story looking into youth) and how the language is from Alex's perspective but isn't super personal and still keeps the audience at a certain distance. I came to the conclusion that this was down to it's use of bizarre language and structuring as well as this it doesn't really use the word 'I' as much. This THEN had me thinking of the piece of creative writing i did in A Level inspired by this where the character is driving down the road. I didn't want to directly reference the nadsat type style but I definitely took it into consideration when writing and structuring sentences.
I thought of the car as floating and wanted to maybe make a mention of zombies/death to signify the drifting along death/dystopian tone, in a way then thought of boat that takes you to hell so i googled 'the boat that takes you to hell' and it turns out that's Kharon. Was thinking of having him get in the car or something? but then thought it would b cool to have him just referenced at the counter. Also, Gaia is the goddess of the Earth as I had an image of the lady looking like mother nature so I decided it would be cool to mention this in a subtle way. I use some slang words and some French as it seemed fitting as to use words that seem a bit off but also not too much. I kept the date at the end of December like the conversation as it feels right to be hanging onto the end of the year. I feel like a lot of the language/metaphors are pretty solvable but it just gives the piece a weird tone to it like some liminal space.
some of the lines are lifted from poetry ideas/lines i had noted down like 'brink of 2020'; i thought this added onto the theme of being on the end of something. Driving at night on an empty road is quite liminal in itself and I think this adds to it - it's quite dissociative. Also the mention of an ASDA which colloquialises it a bit. I have no idea where .7 of the 20th century came from but i think it sounds super COOL/funny, radio stations at night are strange as themselves.
The jewel station was inspired by a drawing/painting i did/was working on.
The 'view' is a reference to the book A Room With A View with its idea of beauty and delicacy.
I thought the concept of living is driving a car and consuming content is like going to the station. The jewel part came from a metaphor i've always thought about being LGBT and how i feel like as I consume queer content you gain 'a flower' and you become a stronger Gay as you gain flowers so to say like a tree, however my mind switched this to jewels and jewellery. The fool analogy at the end is a direct reference to the tarot i mentioned above. The fool/the idiot. Juxtaposing terms within themselves as the idiot can represent a dumb person, however Dostoevsky uses it to show how the character Myshkin is seen as an idiot with his intelligence. Also The fool is someone foolish but in narrative the Fool archetype is usually a servant who is intelligent and aids the king or whoever is the authoritative figure. And so, I think this refers to how sometimes as a ‘Young Person’ I feel incredibly stupid and inadequate as im aware of how young and dumb I am but at the same time I can be really idealistic and philosophical and existential even though that might be dumb. Sometimes you can feel foolish or stupid but also be aware of different things,etc.
Checking timeline is something referencing something amongst young people. Timelines can be endless and I feel people look at phones a lot of the time when you don’t have the energy to do anything
else or feel lost and unsure what to do with yourself/feel a bit lost and are searching for something. The film wasn't really meant to be around the theme of youth and this generation at the beginning and I found this to be a theme that came out more.
JEWELS/OVERTURE PHOTOS/EDITING
Shooting B-Roll is always really weird because I feel like i haven't done it properly in a way? While editing I tested out different orders. I took time to figure out where the gesso part would fit best and the 'you are here' part and whether the jewel act should go before or after the drawing act. I also had a part that said 'The Overture' however I ended up cutting that. I really liked the way the red title worked out opening and closing like curtains.
INSTALLATION LAYOUT
I did do a few sketches of the layout, however i didn't need to as it was all in my head. I sketched out some different ideas, however I decided to keep it simple and not overcrowd it.
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