What I Learned About Sound Design?

The sound design project was designed to make us rely more on our ears than our eyes. In film, obviously the eyes dominate the five senses, and sound is often put on the back burner, but this project challenged me to realize the importance of sound. Listening to each soundscape in the dark was a neat experience - I was able to completely block off my sight sense and just listen to the sounds for what they were; the layers, the movement, the construction, the pictures created in my head.

The first soundscape we listened to was David, Kendall, and Miko's group. Initially, I pictured a graveyard scene in my head. The sounds of heavy breathing established a consistent tempo, along with the bell toll and rain. There was a shift halfway through that changed to a calmer, mysterious ambient sound. After class discussion, we agreed the soundscape symbolized waking up from a nightmare.

The second soundscape was created by Paul, Walt, and Danet. Immediately, I realized there was more of a narrative feel to the layered sounds. The conversation with Parker's mom that was used, paired with the car door, revealed this "person" was driving somewhere. There were sounds of metal clanging, chattering, and abrupt noises, indicating a public setting. Interestingly enough, the title the group chose was "Marriage Temple", and that proved to me how sound can be interpreted in various ways when a visual stimuli is not present.

I really enjoyed the soundscape created by Porshia, Ashley, Nick, and Joshua. They had a lot of dynamic transitions between loud and soft sounds - very crowded, busy, on-the-go. Throughout the soundscape, there was a constant ticking noise that indicated passage of time. The class as a whole agreed it was self reflexive, drawing attention to the medium, but I viewed the soundscape as "a day on a movie set". I talked with Ashley after, and she said that is exactly what the group was going for. Despite some people not interpreting the soundscape correctly, I liked how various sounds paired together can create different pictures in everyone's mind.

All in all, I believe that was ultimately the point of this assignment. To learn how to manipulate and pair sounds together without visual stimuli, in order to create a new art form. This project definitely allowed a lot of artistic freedom to flow, and truly reveals the power sound has in media.