Sound Seminar

In our last seminar we were given the brief for our first project, the project was a sound project and as such we were also taken to Chris Watson sound exhibition nearby. The exhibition was a sound map of Sheffield; as such it consisted of recordings from many different locations in and around Sheffield. Being new to Sheffield I hadn't been to many of the places that I heard in the recordings but I also found that I didn't need to have been there. The sounds were so immersive that it took very little effort to imagine being in that place.

On a later visit to the same exhibition I found that moving around the gallery, caused the sound to change slightly. This was further emphasise on the exhibitions immersive nature, I wasn't just seeing the place through the sound I could walk around it, experience it from different points. Although this was mostly done through the way the gallery was set up and is a little harder to achieve through a sound piece alone, it doesn't take away from the impressive immersion that the sound piece generates.

What I think I took away most from this exhibition was a sense of just how powerful sound could be on its own, I already understood that music was a very powerful tool and could be used to manipulate emotions and atmospheres but I had never truly appreciated how ordinary sounds on their own could create such powerful atmospheres. This hasn't so much as inspired me but more made me determined to create a powerful sound project that has the ability to immerse an audience in a similar way that Chris Watson's exhibition does.

Analyse of Love Me or Leave Me Alone

In my opinion “Love Me or Leave Me Alone” is a rather simple film what you see on the surface is really all there is to the film, it is the director’s portrayal of a stereotypical teenage relationship. Although personally I didn’t really like the film I can say it was efficient in getting across its meaning the film really highlighted the immature and bipolar nature of such relationships, an example of this can be seen by how in the space of the film the couple go from extreme hate to love.

One particular technique that was used in this film that I liked was the way the cuts between shots grew quicker as a way to build tension, this technique changed some ordinary scenes to tense filled moments. The reason for the use of this technique was most likely to capture the audience’s attention as little happens in the film yet the building tension creates a sense that something is about to happen. During the boy’s journey home the scene was almost too dark to see with only the passing headlights of cars illuminated the scene, I particularly like this technique as it not only highlights the character’s solitude but visually it is an interesting technique. When combined with the built up tension this technique really draws in the audience as they expect it to end with a car hitting the character.

The form of the film is a fairly standard structure for a film to express the sort of subject matter that the director was trying to get across. The only notable anomaly in the form was that the film started in the middle of a heated argument between the couple, the context and beginning are never shown, which is a little odd structure wise. This could have been the directors way of adding realism as without context the argument could have been about anything and so could  apply to any stereotypical teenage couple.