Blog 2 - Sound Walk

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Over the weekend I decided to partake in a sound walk – an exercise designed with the intention to make the participant more aware of sound within an environment. For this exercise I had initially chosen to walk at the Shore Parkway (a walking path next to the NewYork Harbor), however I soon realized this particular environment would be problematic.  

The Shore Parkway, especially in the fall and winter, is extremely windy. So, as I'm walking along the pathway all I can hear is this constant rush of wind in my ears with the occasional crash of waves hitting rocks. Although the purpose of this assignment was to observe and take in a multitude of sounds, I feel my limited sound experience there helped me learn about rhythm and the role / influence it can have in a video / recording. The constant rush of wind helped me realize that a constant noise source can provide stability and consistency to a video / recording. Stability and consistency in the sense that the noise will be there throughout the video and the viewer will expect it to be there. Constant noise, for instance the wind, can be used almost as background noise which can make a video calming and more immersive for the viewers, as opposed to a video with multiple noise sources which can be disorientating and distracting since the viewer would have to differentiate each sound to understand what they’re hearing which ultimately takes away from actual video itself.  

The crashes of the waves paired along with the wind was musical, it was like a rhythm and a beat. A controlled multitude of noise sources, I feel, can add a lot to a video without taking any value or focus from the footage. Multiple noise sources can make a scene become more “alive”. For instance, the breaking of the waves against rocks broke the monotonous feel of the constant wind. The waves added another dimension to the sound which I feel made it sound more natural, as well as cause the listener to consider or imagine what the location / environment is like, which in turn makes the sounds feel more alive. 

Comments

  1. UnknownOctober 24, 2018 at 9:18 PM

    Nice work, Brian. Unfortunately wind is one of the hardest things to capture in recordings. It usually gets really distorted. That is why us filmmakers always use a Rycote Softie mic cover to drown out some of the wind. A lot of the time when you hear wind in the movies it is actually a foley artist doing some weird stuff with canvas and punching bags:
    Watch from 6:53-7:34:
    https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=TSf8Er2gV_Q

    ReplyDelete

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