Final Project

"The Phone Thief" from Kwasi Boadi-Boateng on Vimeo.

Extra Credit: Third Work

So I did attend the Third Work: Sound/Image Symposium and it was really interesting. All of its keynote presentations, and frankly what Third Work is all about is that it focuses on the importance and interaction of sound with visual mediums, like film. Third work is basically NOT what we normally find in movies -- film objects that are soundtracks plus image tracks. Meaning, directors will shoot a movie and then you add in the audio later. In a Third Work the sound takes on a whole new life. It becomes the narrative, the writing, the characters, the look and feel of the movies. It shapes and affects a film. Though the keynotes primarily focused on non-fiction media, something like a documentary for instance, I instantly started thinking about fiction.

What if you make a movie where characters barely speak to each other but instead the music does all of the talking and tells the audience the story? Alongside this class I'm also taking film music and an example we watched in that class is 2011's Drive. In that film there's barely any dialogue, and instead 1980s nostalgic disco music is played throughout most, if not, all of its run-time. When you actually examine the film and pay attention to what the music is doing then you discover a whole new world of filmmaking.

In our class I was also reminded of the 2nd project we did as the keynotes focused on non-fiction media. Just take a glance at how vital the music tracks we picked for our interviews are. They give certain flavor, character, and breath life into the interviews. The music tells the story. It is the main protagonist in a way.

Ernst Kernel's keynote at the Third Work was particularly interesting to me because of what he focuses on: editing and composing using unprocessed location recordings, which is just unique and fascinating in its own right. 2012's Leviathan is a short film he composed/mixed for and you can tell right away the role Kernel plays in that film. Throughout Leviathan, which is set on a boat and around an ocean, the camera dives deep into the water and you can hear how that all sounds. Life underwater just feels so different with Kernel's auditory take on the whole thing. Overall I just found the Symposium to really highlight and cap off a semester in which I learned quite a lot about audio and its use and importance in film.

MOMI

Despite not going to MOMI with the class, I went by myself with my best friend. It was definitely a fascinating place filled with interesting drawings, covers, and images from a plethora of well known movies. Heck one of my favorites, The Silence of the Lambs, was all over MOMI with production designs. Plus the infamous rotating head from that crazy girl in The Exorcist was pretty awesome too.

I found the sound portion of the tour to be the best and strongest part. Being able to actually record dialogue for movies scenes during the ADR process was a great behind-the-scenes look. It was actually as I pictured it would be, and how it would work. I can see why it would annoy actors as it's quite difficult to get back into a particular role after being away from it. Also, experiencing Titanic while each of its sound layers were being removed, and added, gave a better perspective and context into how important each and every sound track is. Taking background music and just leaving the dialogue, or vice-versa really does change the scene in a dramatic way. This gave me an even bigger appreciate for, and respect towards, Foley artists.

What they do is truly an art form and the vital role they play in a how movie is created. and how it comes together in the end cannot be underestimated. Imagine if the artist messes up just one time and some of the added sounds and noises during the final cut of the film make it through? That can potentially ruin the entire movie.

50th Anniversary - Bond - Editing

I watched a four minute video celebrating the 50th anniversary of James Bond. Of course the clip came out three years ago in 2012, after the release of the 23rd film in the Bond franchise Skyfall. The editing really stands out here and is a major part of the video. Why? Well it starts off with Sean Connery's Bond and his movies, and it slowly progresses to  the rest of the Bond films, actors, and era. It's like a regular timeline that's really nostalgic. A select few important scenes from each Bond era are edited together, and it just highlights how much the franchise has evolved with each new actor and era. The music also plays an integral role as the theme songs from some of the films get played in the background, complementing the video. The cuts are very seamless but also obvious in a storytelling standpoint as it's pretty clear what and when the next part of the video will be. For example, I knew that the video will end with Daniel Craig's James Bond because he's the latest actor to play the iconic character. Overall the video feels and looks very focused, nostalgic, and entertaining. And the editing plays an integral role in that.

Audio - Knicks

Video

Sound Walk

I decided to do a sound walk around my neighborhood. I live relatively close to a main highway road, a gas station, a car wash, and a train station. Hearing a bunch of different sounds and noise was pretty difficult to avoid. The first thing I instantly noticed were the cars passing by. I could eventually even tell from the different types of cars through the sounds they made. For example, a large truck will sound completely different from a minivan. Of course then came the F train that always passes by, and it has its own unique sound as well due to the rails and the announcer.

I couldn't really hear anything unique in the gas station, but with the car wash I noticed water spilling all over the car, and the employees attempting to wash these cars using towels and vacuum cleaners. Also, in the morning I could hear birds chirping and the slight rustle of trees and leaves. There are also a bunch of stray cats close by, and every so often I could hear them meowing.

I'm a writer that desperately wants to know his way around a camera.

Shooting and editing videos is the future - heck it's the present. As it stands I've been a freelance writer for quite a while now. I've interviewed video game developers about the excruciating process of making a game for three or more years; about the prospects of Virtual Reality; about the challenge of transitioning from writing about games to actually making them; and much more. I've talked to artists and painters - one of the more memorable ones is talking to Lisa Gizara, a renowned Hollywood painter that had her work featured on Mad Men. I've written a ton of news stories, op-eds, previews, and reviews. 

But at the end of the day I can't help but feel a bit handicapped. Video and audio is such a sizable weak point for me that it makes me feel a bit unfulfilled. I want to know how writing can translation into video, and how both can complement each other. I want to get into uploading YouTube videos, and having a presence in such a large media platform. And finally, I want to be a journalist that knows how to film stuff. The road seems equally exciting and tumultuous, and I hope it has a fruitful ending for me.