SFX Independence – Late May 2013

There’s a whole heap of stuff going on in the independent SFX community that’s worth making note of. So, here goes…

New Libraries Available Now…

New Sound Lab’s Optical Drives

This library features recordings of computer optical disc drives (two internal desktop CD/DVD-R and one internal laptop slim CD/DVD-R slot-load).

Two induction coil pickups were used to record the electromagnetic fields emitted by the drives, capturing a very unique set of sounds and textures. These range from sharp percussive bleeps, glitchy static and noise, to electromechanical motor sounds, and drones. You’ll find use for many applications, including UI interface design, transitions, sci-fi, robot/servo sounds, technology, and computer sound effects.

Recordings include all functions of the DVD drives, e.g. disc loading, reading, writing/burning, spin up/down, errors, and disc ejecting. Also, each drive was taken apart and manipulated to create additional sounds.

Check it out here! Read More

DesigningSound.org Now Recruiting Volunteers

DesigningSound.org is on the lookout for capable News Editors and Contributing Editors for our blog.  This is an unpaid, volunteer position (just like the rest of us). DesigningSound.org has no revenue so please don’t apply expecting a 401k.

For News Editors: we’re looking for content aggregators who will keep up on interesting articles, editorials and library releases; providing “block quotes” from said content and links out to our friends and fellow conspirators in the community…perhaps with the occasional nugget that appeals to the gear lust in all of us.

For Contributing Editors: we’re looking for more people to do what we already do. News, reviews, interviews and insights into the many sorts of multimedia audio we take part in.  Contributing Editors will be expected to do much more than a News Editor and long interviews, editorials and articles which will require more effort and time.

Requirements:

-Reliability.  You will be expected to make multiple posts in a month (for News Editors in a week), sometimes at short notice. And you will be expected to do so *every* month. If you are incapable of this please do not apply.

-Autonomy. We are looking for self-motivated and self-sufficient audio professionals who also want to help out the audio community without being having to be poked to get work done.

How to apply:

-Send your portfolio (Audio and/or Writing) as well as a writing sample to: volunteer@designingsound.org

-State in the email subject which you are applying for: “Contributing Editor” or “News Editor”

If you do not have a writing sample then please make one before applying. The writing sample can be an example news post, a full article or a review of a product.

Applications will remain open for the entirety of May 2013 and we will begin selection in June.

Sonic/Temporal Ambiguity as Evidence of Psychosis in Martha Marcy May Marlene

“Where are we?”

“Connecticut.”

“No. How far are we?”

“From what?”

“Yesterday.”

Directed by Sean Durkin, Martha Marcy May Marlene (2011) centers around the damaged psyche of Martha, portrayed by Elizabeth Olsen. Martha is a young woman who, through the time spent living as part of a small farm commune, has lost nearly all sense of boundaries…from social through temporal. I believe “nearly” is the appropriate term, because she leaves the commune in response to certain events. If she had lost all sense of boundaries, that probably would not have happened. Despite retaining this small level of faculty, Martha is lost. The five lines above this paragraph are a conversation between Martha and her sister, Lucy, from early in the film. In my opinion, this is possibly the most illuminating exchange that occurs in the entire piece. Martha wants a description of the distance she’s traveled from a temporal reference point. She spends the film slipping in and out of time and place, pulling the viewer into her fractured perspective of the world. Read More

Time

Guest Contribution by Randy Thom

I’m on a plane from San Francisco to New York, May 3, and I see that the Designing Sound theme for May is time.  Two notions relating to time and sound design come to mind.  One is that fiddling with time in storytelling is always a playground for sound.  Jumps to the past or the future in a movie swing the door wide open to using sound in a subjective way, and sound is almost always most powerful in a story when it expresses or reflects subjectivity.  Our ears are subjective tools.  They are easily tickled and excited by ambiguity.  In the final version of Coppola’s rewrite of the John Milius script for Apocalypse Now the first line of description is: “Coconut trees being viewed through the veil of time or a dream.”  As he made the movie Coppola gradually turned Milius’ brilliant, but mostly objective, script into a carnival of subjectivity.  We hear and see the war through the highly filtered senses of those young American soldiers.  Walter Murch was one of the chief designers of the filters, and I had the incredible luck to be there as it happened. Read More