First Task: Spectacle, Gremlins (reflections)

First Task: Spectacle, Gremlins (reflections) October 28th

As my first idea of having a prolonged VO did not prove practical, I have taken time to reconsider my attempts to create an audio artefact from an abstract perspective. I received critique that while the use of comedian George Carlin’s voice was good, I should have used more. I was offered the example of ‘Cassette boy’ who uses clips from various programs and edits them together to make them say something completely different.

http://cassetteboy.wordpress.com/

 I will keep this in mind when progressing further into the Power artefact. Additionally, I think the use of the custom music made for my ‘Macbeth’ Project worked as well however I do not wish to use this overmuch as it is intended for this other purpose. In future, I think that I will not be using a music soundtrack unless absolutely necessary.

Finished first Task

 

First task for 310MC is now available for Download here:

http://www.megaupload.com/?d=7G1841LD

I did it this way because I do not particularly want to stream it. It’s not a large file so the DL should be quite fast.

Final Draft

Gremlins, an untold terror (Final draft)

 

 

(after working with the clips in audacity, I have decided to remove the overall narrators voice as it was hard to concentrate on the various sounds and listen to them at the same time. Instead I am relying on a steady flow of cuts and a spooky music. The only spoken parts in the piece will be the ending and the beginning, spoken off to give the middle cut pieces more gravity and allow them to take centre stage.

 

The music I am using was created especially for me by Simon Gumbleton, a former student of the University and was made for my ongoing radio drama project. It is entitled ‘Puck’s theme’ and is copyright to the creator and myself as the commissioner.

 

The clips needed a great deal more work put into them than I originally thought and as such I have beefed up their addition with clips from the following;

 

George Carlin: Jammin’ in New York

 

Gremlins 2: The New Batch

 

News Coverage of the Hindeburg disaster, the 911 coverage on CNN

Second Draft

Gremlins, an untold terror (second draft)

 

(As this is an audio production, sound effects will make up for lack of visuals. Since the obstruction in this piece is that there must be a cut every three seconds, I will put (cut) in a sentence where there is a gap for this cut for some shocking piece of sound. In addition, I am making changes to redo the plot to add in the Challenger Shuttle disaster as well. This piece will feature no music as I am not certain if this will violate the obstruction.)

 

 

Narrator: Since man took to the air (cut) A shadow has rested upon us. (cut) disaster after disaster (cut) their true origins uncovered. (cut) The real perpetrators (cut) of every airline disaster (cut) GREMLINS!! (echoes)

 

(Included sound effects. 911 crashing noise Hindenburg “Oh the humanity!” George Bush clips to do with 911. sound of explosions and overhead planes. News reporting added of the new reports of the challenger shuttle exploding. )

 

 

Narrator Creatures of evil (cut) saboteurs and wreckers (cut) the true master minds (cut) behind the IRA and Al-Qaida (cut) Gremlins (‘gremlins’ echoes with one second cuts’)

 

(sound effects now include ‘imp’ like noises, perhaps taken from the Gremlins movie for them to make it a sort of parody. Have found clip from the movie so this is now compeltly practical and will be featured)

 

Narrator: No flight of man (cut) is safe

 

FIN

 

 

(New source material can be attained from YouTube via a sound ripping program that I have. Such clips can be edited in Audacity to comply with the 3 second cut obstruction.)

Gremlins MUAHAHAH

 

 

 

Gremlins, an untold terror (first draft)

 

(As this is an audio production, sound effects will make up for lack of visuals. Since the obstruction in this piece is that there must be a cut every three seconds, I will put (cut) in a sentence where there is a gap for this cut for some shocking piece of sound)

 

 

Narrator: Since man took to the air (cut) A shadow has rested upon us. (cut) disaster after disaster (cut) their true origins uncovered. (cut) The real perpetrators (cut) of every airline disaster (cut) GREMLINS!!

 

(Included sound effects. 911 crashing noise Hindenburg “Oh the humanity!” George Bush clips to do with 911. sound of explosions and overhead planes )

 

 

Narrator Creatures of evil (cut) saboteurs and wreckers (cut) the true master minds (cut) behind the IRA and Al-Qaida (cut) Grelmins (‘gremlins’ echoes with one second cuts’)

 

(sound effects now include ‘imp’ like noises, perhaps taken from the Gremlins movie for them to make it a sort of parody)

 

Narrator: No flight of man (cut) is safe

 

FIN

Spectacle; 1st development post I have chosen the comedy aspect. (Gremlins causing Stated goal: To use the shock and awe affect of big events to ‘connect the dots’ from disasters involving aircraft to gremlins. This is inspired by the way the Bush Administration used 911 to justify a war in Iraq by using the media to fool the public into seeing a connection between the two.

Historical references to bring into the artefact:

 

Hindenburg –

911 – (2001)

Munich air disaster – (Manchester football team) – 1958

Sources for sound effects:

Freesound.org

Internet Archive

Spectacle

Spectacle:

 

Task one: (proposed Audio with one obstruction, operating with the limitation of 3 second cuts)

 

 

Method: Shock and awe/ unusual material… using the method suggested in the ‘shock doctrine’ to persuade the audience into feeling a certain way without any tangible evidence to back it up

 

 

Reflections on choice: ‘I have decided to do take the audio idea for this task as I am doing a lot of work involving radio and the use of the audacity program. Two weeks will give me enough time to edit the piece and post it somewhere’

 

 

Exploration of ideas: As I plan to do this with audio, it does not require me to acquire visual footage and I can do it quite quickly and I think this is the core of the idea. Hopefully there will not be any other tasks for this module until then.

 

 

First idea: (Comedy) Taking a series of horrible events throughout history, 911, Hindenburg crash …etc… and using a few related things between the incidents to portray them as the fault of gremlins.

 

Second idea: (tragedy) Similar to the original ‘Shock Doctrine’ put over a political and social POV using surprise and shock as a cover, but on a more localised idea than to do with international politics; local politics such as the recent spending scandal.

 

Third idea: (fantasy) This comes from a very different point of view, from within the artefact itself. The character is the one being convinced of something that is not true by use of shock, only to discover the truth. This might have inspiration grounded in the ‘Matrix’.

Media object task

Media Object: DeviantART Website

www.deviantart.com

Meaning to me:

It was this website that first got me interested in Media in general. It was introduced to me by the webmaster of a site I was uploaded material to, a site which no longer exists. Through this site was first able to experience social networking and resource book marking.

I even prefer discourse through this medium then to any other networking site or blog, such as facebook or myspace. This probably comes with  the fact that I am far more used to this site than others but its tools for sharing artwork and relaying to other users the artistic references uses in their creation has been a great source of inspiration.

Personally the site has done me much good in many ways. I have made a great many contacts through it, as well as meeting an old girlfriend. To me it has become a lot more than a simple means of posting art and comments about other people’s art. It allowed me, at a time when I was very anti-social, to connect with people in a large group.

At present I use the website to further my own projects involving artwork, fictional writing and various other forms of media including radio play style audio and animations including flash. These projects have been going on consecutively since I was about sixteen and helped me shape my entire creative process. This forum for my work has given these important projects a large fan base on the internet for which I am quite proud.

 

 

Meaning to other people:

Besides from what tools can be used on the site by its users, the site allows for amateurs at whatever they specialise in to practise their arts and receive informative feedback. This feedback appears instantaneously in the form of ‘comments’ or ‘notes’, allowing a user to develop their styles and techniques very quickly.

Like Youtube, the site allows for the creation of online celebrities, through fan based followings and the growth of a sort of online empire that spreads beyond DeviantART to other sites.

This networking is essentially what university education encourages and the site is a good place to start such a network.

Like any good social networking site, it has the ability to create communities within itself made up of like minded people brought together by a common element; such as being fans of a certain character in a movie… etc etc. This prompts the development of ‘fan art’ and ‘fan fiction’ and draws in a great deal of people that way. As such, those using the site to display their own unique artwork and media objects will be given a far larger audience to show it to than if the site was simply there for the conveyance of freelance professional artists.

As a media object, (ie, the way is interacted with), the site operates as a way of allowing fast and easy access to the work of others online and can easily be used by potential employees. I use it on my own CV this way.

 

In conclusion, given how the site has aided me and others in the development of my creative process, I would say it is a great tool to start out with in Media studies.

New purpose for this Blog, 300MC

As for some reason I can’t get a new blog for the module I will just have to recycle an old one. This will have to do as it served the previous module rather well and ties in with my ‘Macbeth’ related project too

(I hope to make Macbeth if not not my final project then at least a significant part of it.)

 

Right… before next week there  will by the 500 word thingup here  abouta media obejct that means something…etc etc