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Blog #12 - Week 12

Light’s Project 

I have been working on Light’s project this week and have asked for feedback from a few of my peers in regards to my sound design which has helped me immensely. Light seems very happy with the direction things are going. The first draft I sent I obviously wasn’t 100% happy with it but they had no notes so right now I’m just tweaking everything and not changing the length of the audio because it’s taking Light several hours to render 3 minutes of footage and I don’t want them to keep doing that. So, I will work with whatever comes out and just create some specific sounds tailored to the video. Hopefully this will be fine. I still have a week. 

Sunday

Rendering took a lot longer than expected. I wish I could've changed some of the sound effects to fit the video better but what are you gonna do if you don’t have the time. It’s okay. Light seemed to be pretty happy with it. It wasn’t my best work but it was alright. Obviously the video looks amazing, I’m definitely happy with how that turned out. From my perspective, I don't know that the video completely fits all of the sound effects I have added, but not much I can do about that because the video is made for the sound and not the other way around. 

Tuesday 17/10

Now having seen it in the Black Box I am actually really liking how it turned out. I think I definitely could have built on it a bit more but I like the basic structure of what I’ve done. Obviously it’s never going to be perfect, but Light really liked it and offered to have me come and work on his major project feature film next semester so I think I should stop being so hard on myself. 

I ended up doing some panning with the sound effects which I think sounded really cool in the Black Box, I would have liked to do a bit more sub bass at the end to create more of a climax but I’m pretty happy with it. I’m going to put the video on Reaper and continue building on it during the summer maybe to be able to use it in my portfolio. 

Kingdom Dance 

I really listened to Darrin and Nik’s notes about the use of red, I think a lot of the time, red is associated with hurt and danger which doesn’t really fit with my piece, but I think by the end of the song with the amount of different colours I bring in I don’t think the red is particularly menacing when the music is so upbeat, but I’ve changed it so that the red comes in later and there’s more of a build. I added the movie's original colours (yellow and purple) in the step part instead of red which I think fits it a little better, but I like the end red where it is, so we’ll see what the feedback is on Thursday. There were also some other little notes:

On the roof near the start with the shining yellow, take the roof out 

On the roof around the middle when there’s pink, make sure timing is tight and the music warrants the use of the ceiling

I’ve taken out the roof at the start and fixed the timing in the middle, I’ve added a few things there too, I think the red fits there because I’m showing a rainbow of colours, I just realised blue only shows up once in the entire piece but it’s for 0.10 seconds so I don’t think anyone will notice it’s not purple. I keep forgetting blue is a colour to be completely honest. 

Sara and Helen said that they made up a story in their heads with the lighting which I think is really cool, Ken said the exact same thing when he watched it a couple weeks ago. I think because I know the movie it comes from so well I keep thinking of it as just a dance scene but the lights definitely make it something else entirely, even though creating a story wasn’t in the forefront of my mind.

Upside Down People 

We met with Sara, Helen and the Upside Down People crew to see a draft of the show and it looks amazing. I really love what Sara has done. This whole experience has been incredibly rewarding and I’m glad I get to be a small part of it.

Sara only had a few little notes about the lighting which Mai Han and I are fixing, just some timing issues with the night time sequence. I’m also doing the lighting design for the Dragon Tree story, which is just flickering lights on the walls which mimic candlelight, just to immerse the audience further, make them feel even warmer and cosier than the story makes them feel. We tried that in the Capitol on Thursday and it looked really nice so I’ll time that to the length of the Dragon Tree Story and see how it looks with the entire thing. Here are the notes from Sara and what we’ve done and the steps we still need to take:

Blend the sunrise sequence and the green/purple morning together so there's no black gap in between as they transition from one into the other.

We have worked on this a lot and I think we have transitioned them quite well, this is something we can definitely show Sara next time we’re in the Capitol. I wonder if we should do another version just to see which she liked better but I think this one where it fades backwards and then comes back around to the front is pretty effective and since there’s not much on screen at that point I don’t think we have to worry about pulling focus, but we definitely need to make sure the transition is timed so that it ends before the animation starts when all attention should be focused on the screen. 

Blend the end of the night and the start of the sunrise so there’s no gap

Mai Han will be working on this, I think we just need to slowly fade the colours into pink/gold. I'll have a chat with her and see how she’s going with it. I have the Pharos session from Thursday so I can always have a look and see what could be done. 

Green/gold morning - I do think this could use a bit more gold/yellow, at the moment it is dominated by the green. But this is in no way urgent and I would suggest only a very subtle addition if you do add - we want it to be clearly distinct from the sunrise. This could be achieved by the blending potentially - bring some of the sunrise colours into the morning rather than adding more green.

This is something we can have a trial version of done in a couple of weeks, definitely something I can work on so Mai Han has a bit of a break!

Green/gold morning can now extend into the animation time too. Once we stitch the two videos together, I estimate a total run time, start to finish of 6 minutes 14 seconds. Work with that timing for now to determine how much longer to program the green/gold lights for.

We need to make sure the timing is really tight here - we don’t want it to be out of sync at all.

I’m excited for the next few weeks!!

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Blog #11 - Week 11

Light’s Project 

Light’s project is going really well, they’re very good at communicating which is always appreciated, so I know exactly what they want out of the audio and the feelings they want to convey. I’ll see how I go with creating a good draft for next week so Light is able to render everything in time. Freesound has actually been super helpful with sourcing sound effects, especially things like water and ocean sounds that I would have trouble recording myself. 

Like I’ve been telling Light, I want people to feel slightly uncomfortable and almost feel sick at the end, so I’ve been leaning into the ethereal, drowning, dying feeling and I think I’m getting somewhere with it. I really like the choir sounds I created and I think Light really likes it too, it’s definitely veering into surreal/uncanny territory which I like. I really enjoy this type of work! Because I really know the feeling I’m trying to convey, I just get to enjoy the process of making it and it feels more like a fun adventure rather than a super stressful experience which is how it usually feels when I’m in uncharted territory.

We’ve decided to call our project The Divine Deep. 

Kingdom Dance 

Finished the final draft of Kingdom Dance! I saw it in the Capitol and it seems like everything is great, I tweaked a few of the colours and whatnot but overall I’m pretty happy! I made a few small tweaks here and there with the colours to make everything cohesive, but apart from that I think it came together pretty well. I definitely feel exhilarated, it makes me feel happy to watch once I get over the dark feelings I get with everything I make 🙃 Now I’m just waiting to see it again next week in the theatre for the final test and for feedback from Darrin and Nik. I wonder if this is something I could maybe add to my portfolio because while I didn’t do any sound design for it it shows my research and listening skills I guess. 

One thing I have changed since seeing it in the Capitol is the green flashing light, I think it gets a bit sickening after too long so I transition that into purple sparking light on the ceiling instead. I think it’s still effective. 

Jo’s Project 

I sent a draft of the sound I created for Jo and she didn’t have any feedback for me and says she is going to work with it how it is, which is fine. I wasn’t completely sure that she wanted to still work with me but I’ll have a chat with her later in the week to see how she’s progressing and if she still wants some help. This is the project that I’m not completely sure about, but we’ll see how it goes. Not much to report on here!

Upside Down People

Mai Han and I looked at the lighting and fixed some timing issues. I sent my part of the lighting over to Mai Han because hers is quite simple to replicate and she will merge them together as we couldn’t find a way to collaborate on Pharos, which is disappointing. 

Not much else to report on this week, but next week there is a lot happening!

Research

This week I wanted to look at Thalassophobia, which is the ‘persistent and intense fear of deep bodies of water such as the sea, oceans, or lakes’. Thalassophobia is basically the fear of the unknown of the ocean and what may lurk beneath the surface. Obviously this is a phobia only certain people experience, but I think the fear of the unknown is pretty universal, I think anyone who explores the ocean has felt afraid at some point. Even watching those kinds of movies can make people feel uncomfortable/scared. I want to tap into this fear in The Divine Deep. With the choir sounds I’ve created along with the sounds of water and whales I’ve sourced, I think I can achieve something very cool. I want it to feel like you could be underwater, but I also want it to remain pretty ambiguous. I’m not sure whether I want to have a reveal at the end where there is a person speaking/gasping for air. I’m going to create two different versions and see which is more effective. 

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Blog #10 - Week 10

Wednesday

Upside Down People

Today Mai Han and I showed Sara and Helen our progress in the Capitol. They thought the colours I chose worked well, I thought they fit with the colours in the video so that was a relief that they thought so too. Sara and Helen said the colours that I used were fantastic even though the purple on the ceiling was a little mistake, so that was extremely lucky. 

Mai Han and I will also be working on the Dragon Tree Story scene, which is a low flickering candlelight. This should be pretty simple, I have already created a few different states already which I didn’t show Sara in the space but showed her after and she thought they were good. I think it would be best to avoid the arch throughout the whole scene and just focus on the walls. I’ll see how I go with improving what I have so far.

Thursday

Kingdom Dance 

I’m not sure that I liked it when it played in the Capitol and I’m not sure if it was actually bad or if I was just imposter syndrome and I wasn’t watching it right. I was really excited to see it in space so I don’t know why I wouldn’t think it was good if it was so I’m confused. Darrin and Nik didn’t seem to dislike it (apart from the music and a few colour choices). I’m going to have a look over it this week to see if there’s anything to change. I recorded another work in the capitol that I thought was exhilarating, they used a lot of techniques that I hadn’t thought of before so I will watch that again and see if anything inspires me to change what I already have. 

Jo’s Project 

Light’s Project 

Light and I had a long chat about his project and the kind of feeling he wants the sound to evoke and what he wants the sound to highlight in the video. We decided that I can just go crazy and do what I want with the sound which, admittedly, I am slightly afraid of, but Light has given me a lot of direction and has sent me a lot of inspiration from games and movies that he thinks I can draw my own inspiration from. We have very similar tastes when it comes to sci-fi movies so that’s a relief because I know I can make something that not only will fit the video, but that he will enjoy. 

We had a talk about surreal and how Light’s other project is now very Surreal and we could chage up the word in this project. We settled on uncanny, but depending on how the sound design goes, Light says I can change it again if need be. I think with the visuals we probably can’t go very far from surreal or uncanny because the stop-motion AI is so out-there that no matter what the audio is, the video would still have surreal elements. We were also talking about movies and both thought the soundtrack to Arrival (2016) was spectacular and really fits the eerie, uncanny feeling that we are going for. There’s also Coraline and a few other movies that fit the essence of the video so I will have a deeper look at all of them and see what ideas emerge. 

I had a listen to the Arrival soundtrack and really liked Sapir Whorf https://youtu.be/m87uapjnvKU?si=p4T4K9-K6JmnFtLf and Transmutation at a Distance https://youtu.be/swD1eqFSdYQ?si=AvKczhmvViMRgs0x because they both have a very otherworldly ethereal sort of feel to them which is what Light really wants the audience to feel. I love the use of vocals throughout the soundtrack as well. The whole soundtrack is honestly genius. Another great track was One of Twelve, https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=8adiipvZTRg&list=PLff_8M2LCnlCP3deJhXdYJCxlqCIJjItL&index=18 I really loved the use of (what I’m pretty sure was) distorted string instruments to create a sense of realisation and a heightened sense of danger. 

Research

https://www.tate.org.uk/art/art-terms/s/surrealism

Surreal artwork is about artists finding ‘magic and strange beauty in the unexpected and the uncanny’ 

As we settled on the work Uncanny, I thought I would do some research on surreal and uncanny. They’re have very similar meanings and sometimes used synonymously. Something uncanny is strange and unexpected, and surreal artwork is the celebration of that. AI is something that is widely considered to be ‘uncanny’ because it’s new and is not something we have seen before. Especially when talking to chat AI’s, it can feel as if you’re talking to a real human being and that can be jarring for a lot of people. What Light is doing with the AI generated images is quite uncanny and surreal already so so far it hasn’t been difficult trying to match that feeling. 

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Blog #9 - Week 9

Kingdom Dance (Exhilarating #1) 

I never linked the video to the song I’m using (starts around 0:29): https://youtu.be/Tpqpq0mPMl8?si=xuh11rlbCLs-tA_w 

I finally finished the lighting design for Kingdom Dance to show Nik and Darrin. I got some notes about the colours so I changed things around a little and made the colour choices more coherent. I also added a little more pizazz at the end so there is a buildup of exhilaration. I hope it works in the capitol. 

Light’s Project

Light asked if I could work on his project as well so now I have 4 projects to work on. This seems like quite a big project but Light’s ideas are very cool and I’m excited to work on it. His word is Surreal, which is not something I have worked with before but they have very clear ideas on what they want from the sound. Even the AI generated music didn’t sound bad so I think possibly I could work with AI or create something that sounds similar. I like the way he has used AI to create a stop motion video. I have seen videos like that on social media and they are always entertaining. It’s also pretty similar to Jo’s project so I get to learn a lot about what they’re doing which is great. 

Upside Down People 

I finished and downloaded the Pharos session to show Sara on Wednesday, hopefully she likes it. I have edited the scene so that the ceiling doesn’t light up the theatre too much. Sara prefers it darker to immerse everyone in the experience, which I completely agree with. Sara is going to send over the soundtrack that matches the opening scene hopefully this week so I will add that to the lighting if I can. Because Sara’s project is about her experience with autism, I want to research more about the autism spectrum to gain some more knowledge on the disorder. I know quite a bit from personal research but it would be beneficial to know more. 

Jo’s Project 

I have started to work on Jo’s project. I've collected some sounds that I think she will like so I will show her when I see her next. She gave me some information about what she might like: 

Ambient, natural

Birds 

Ocean 

Water flowing

Natural chimes 

Warmth, sun

Dynamic

Around 1 minute, max. 2 mins

I have done ambient sound before and it can be time consuming but I also find it very enjoyable to create! I really enjoyed the video Jo showed me of what the AI is able to create, I found it really cool because I haven’t worked with AI before but it’s definitely one of those things that is sticking around so it’s good that I am able to familiarise myself with a little bit of what it can do. 

Research 

Since Sara mentioned that her audience will be mostly autistic and neurodivergent and the need for the lights and sound to be quite low in brightness/volume, I was curious about the different ways people on the autism spectrum process sensory information. ‘Sensory perception in autism’ by Caroline E. Robertson & Simon Baron-Cohen talks about how 90% of people on the spectrum have differences in sensory processing including vision, hearing, touch, taste, and smell. ‘These differences can have a significant impact on an individual's daily life and may contribute to other symptoms of autism, such as social communication difficulties.’ Every person on the autism spectrum has different lived experiences but this article suggests that some autistic individuals have a ‘reduced strength of perceptual suppression’ meaning they can have a hard time suppressing a sense and when there are too many stimuli. For example, when someone is talking in the same area as loud construction work, an Autistic person may have difficulties with suppressing the sounds that they don’t want to hear so they are unable to hear the person talking to them. This is very helpful information for my work, I don’t want my lighting to be too distracting from Sara’s work so, like Sara mentioned, it’s important to keep the lighting basic but effective. 

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Blog #8 - Week 7 and 8

Tuesday 29/08

Showed the reviewed version of my test for The Upside Down People project.

Notes: 

Colour - colours are better, yellow is basically orange in Pharos Designer, and orange is almost red. I got to go down and trial the colours so I know what yellows and oranges are nice. Yellow is green until you put a lot of red in it.

Timing - The timing was okay, I just need to fix one of the transitions because it looks very clunky. The birds at the end run a little long.

Twinkling lights - they end oddly so I will need to fix that 

Tuesday 05/09

Meeting with Sara for UDP

She was really nice and was very passionate about her work which was awesome. I'm very excited about this project and I think it will be great. She is coming down on Thursday so we will show her the lights we have done so far and get some feedback on it. I will fix the transition between the beginning of a sunrise and the sun on the ceiling so it's a bit smoother. I will also ask about sound design and if she’d like me to do anything. 

Thursday 07/09

Upside Down People

It was fantastic to meet Sara in person, she is so inspiring and I feel like she will be an amazing person to collaborate with. 

When looking at mine and Mai Han’s lighting she notes that the walls were more effective in producing the kind of effect she wants, so Mai Han and I will adjust the lighting accordingly. I think the ceiling lights were definitely a bit too overpowering in the space, and there was another lighting piece that Sara really liked because they utilised the walls to make twinkling lights which lit up the space less.

Sara wanted us to work on a candle flickering effect for the Dragon Tree Story so Mai Han and I will work on that on Tuesday as well. Sara also talked about sending me bats and a voice over so I can figure out the levels for her. I might send an email next week if she hasn’t said anything about it. 

Notes:

Crickets and birds in the morning and blue fading into green in the sunrise

Sara said to minimise light pollution that bursts the fantasy. She really likes the use of negative space in lighting and wants us to reduce the intercity of the brightness and the colours. Sara also mentioned that the side lights are much more effective for keeping the theatre dark rather than the upper roof lights which overpower the space.

I am going to time my sunrise to the opening sequence to see what it looks like

Call if you want a quick response

The Dragon Tree Story lights may only be used for the beginning and end of the story so it doesn’t overpower so it would be good to make 2 versions with Mai Han to show Sara. But she said she wants it to have an ‘old-timey story telling by candlelight’ feel so I’ll see how we can balance the lighting to achieve that. We have a little while to complete this because the section hasn’t been filmed yet. 

Kingdom Dance 

I have almost finished the lighting design for Kingdom Dance, I will show Darrin on Thursday in the Black Box to see what he thinks about the colours, I should have had it done by the 7th but I lost quite a bit of work on Tuesday when Pharos crashed and it really set me back, but all I have left to do now is the dancing sequence before I go through and make sure all the colours and consistent or the right shade (I know what the good shade of orange is now) so that won’t be too hard, getting the timing right is a majority of the work anyway. I might even tone down the lighting more at the start so it has more of an effect later, but at the end of the song I have a few big flashy showstoppers so I think that will be quite effective. 

All I have left work on is the dancing sequence at 1:16-1:40

Notes:

Footsteps start orange with small flash and go to light yellow/white

Change back to orange when the green light starts and transition to red/pink/purple maybe? 

1 pair at 1:16

2 pairs at 1:22

4 pairs at 1:28

Third Project 

Jo from class asked me to make a 2 minute piece of ambient sound that is focused around the ocean and the sun and other natural sounds so I will create something for her to give her options by Thursday. I unfortunately didn’t get her email so I could ask more questions before giving her a snippet, but I will create some options for Tuesday or Thursday that she can have a listen to and see what’s more her vibe/what she was going for. It would be great to collaborate on a project like this because she is working with AI and digitally produced images which is something I haven’t personally looked at before so that’s very interesting to me. I found some ocean and water sounds and will create something with them for her very soon. 

Research 

I will hopefully have more time for research next week. I want to do a deep dive on ASD. I have researched it before in my own time but there’s always more to learn and there is so much more information about ASD in the past couple of years. For now I found a couple of websites to look into:

https://www.autismspectrum.org.au/about-autism/our-research

Autism Spectrum Australia are constantly researching and finding out more about the autism spectrum and have many different studies going on right now, such as ‘Exploring loneliness of Autistic adults’ and ‘Aspect Self-compassion Program for Autistic Adults (ASPAA)’ which is about teaching autistic adults to be more self-compassionate. 

This is the Autism Research Institute and they have been operating for nearly 30 years. They seem like a very good resource when it comes to understanding autism and I will look at the website further next week. 

:)

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Blog #7 - Week 6

How does gracefulness relate to exhilaration? If danger is handled gracefully, could that make one exhilarated?

Tuesday 

Kingdom Dance can be exhilarating yay, there is a possibility I could do more clapping sound effects and maybe dancing and build it up more at the end but I also really like it the way it is. I will do the lighting design for it for Thursday and see how everyone feels about it. 

I also need to think about the narrative and what I’m trying to tell, and not to give anything away too quickly. 

Graceful 

I could create the idea I originally had (running scene) with a new work. Darrin thought my first attempt was more graceful rather than exhilarating so I could always go with that word instead but that would require a bit of research, which I am very willing to do but depends whether they think this is a good plan for my final projects. 

I found some great articles to read: https://journals.plos.org/plosone/article?id=10.1371/journal.pone.0218728 

https://www.jstor.org/stable/26510558?seq=5

I will read these if I decide to do this project. I think graceful is synonymous with elegant so I found an article about elegance as well. 

Thursday

I thought we were going to The Capitol this morning, luckily I saw the email saying that we were in the black box today. I worked on the lighting design for Kingdom Dance in class and I will complete a draft by Tuesday. 

Lighting Design 

I completed some of the lighting design for Kingdom Dance, but because the song starts quite fast, it’s hard to know how to build up the lighting to make it more exciting and not give away too much. Because it’s 2 and a half minutes long, I don’t think I’m at risk of boring the audience, but I don’t want the lighting to be too repetitive. I have a few tricks, like using the arch for when the violins build. I will finish it tomorrow hopefully. I’m still not sure about the colours, I’ve introduced white into some of the colours to make them lighter, I think making the colour darker will make it show up less in the Capitol because the default colour is black so I might see what I can do with that as well. I have gone from a lighter green to darker green on the walls to highlight the lighting on the arch. It will be good to see how this works in the Capitol.

Upside Down People 

I am in the process of creating some more states for UDP including a slow sunrise, twinkling stars and pink/orange/yellow flowers. I will also be trialling these on Tuesday.

Not much else to report this week. The blog will be more in-depth in week 8 as I decide whether I want to commit to another project.

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Blog #6 - Week 5

Pharos 

I finally found out why some presets don’t go where I want them to. It’s because they actually have a specific place they need to go. I found this out because when I was placing in the audio file it wouldn’t let me just drag and drop it into the timeline, I had to scroll down to ‘Simulation Audio’ and place the music in there. This is the same for some of the presets, they go in the ‘Ceiling’ section right at the bottom. I’m very glad that I figured that out and answered another one of my questions. 

Sound Design

I spent a few hours creating a little draft for the sound design for my ‘running scene’ idea. It was in no way polished but I thought it would give an idea of what I was going for. 

Didn’t work. My original plan, ✨Plan A ✨, was to record the audio myself, but I wanted to have something to show a quick proof of concept so I thought I might as well do it since I had some time. To record original audio, I think a quiet park would be best to record the running, and I will borrow a Zoom H4n to record everything. I’m not going to give up hope quite yet as I think there is something to my idea here, I really think, if done right, I can immerse the audience into a scene and create my heightened experience. But I fear even if I do it right I won’t achieve the feeling I’m going for. Otherwise, Plan B is to create lighting design for a piece of exhilarating music, which I definitely could do, but the problem is I have looked around and can’t find anything I would be interested in creating lighting for. I think I might have attached myself too much to my original idea, but I don’t want to let go yet because I haven’t done all I could do to try and make it work.

Plan B 

Turns out I can record the audio from any song on Spotify by screen recording on my iPad, airdropping to my computer and converting the mp4 file to wav. Easy and helpful, and I will bring my iPad to class in case anyone else needs me to record audio for them or wants me to show them how to do it. I looked up how to do the same thing on a mac and I’m not sure if screen recording works on a macOS like it does on IOS. I also found an extremely helpful website that has almost every game soundtrack that exists. It was super helpful for me when looking for exhilarating songs. Unfortunately, while I did find a few good ones, nothing jumped out at me. Luckily, I was thinking about songs that make me feel exhilarated/excited/energised and I thought about Kingdom Dance by Alan Menken (from Tangled) and how I could do so many different things with the lighting design to push the feeling of exhilaration. I’ll get some opinions when I do a mock up of the lighting to show in week 6. 

Capitol Test #2 

Blue needs to be vibrant to show 

Lights on ceiling cut out weird even though I did a 10s fade 

Ask Ryan what he meant about the light being able to go faster

Top of the arch orange/red with walls yellow 

Sparkle wasn’t working at the top, I need to change to a dark blue. Although Sarah asked for twinkling stars. I'm not completely sure what I should do. I might do a trial for both, but the white was a bit strong so I wonder if I can change the colour to grey to make it less white and more of a subtle sparkle. I will see what I can do with the preset otherwise I'll try it manually. 

Redefining Exhilaration 

Merriam-Webster’s definition of exhilarating is ‘causing great emotional or mental stimulation’ and the example is ‘no recording can capture the exhilarating feeling of being at a live rock concert’. I really need to think about what will make a majority of people feel exhilarated, not just myself. I need to stop thinking too outside the box with how I approach exhilaration, because it’s very formulaic, and if I don’t get it right, no one will feel exhilarated. 

Colours

I think I have figured out how the colours work in the Capitol but it would be helpful to go through them all and get a demonstration of the colours with their RGB values to see what they show up as. 

To-Do

Go out and record running/breathing for the running scene to see if it could possibly work for exhilaration (Plan A) if not, refer to plan B

Create lighting design for Kingdom Dance to see if that could work instead (Plan B)

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Blog #5 - Week 4

Sound

I want to borrow a recorder to go out and record running on grass, most likely at a park, and layer with wind and breathing to create a running scene. I want to see how the lights work with this, and how exhilarating it can possibly get. I have to have a little draft by Thursday morning. Soundsnap has been very helpful with collecting sounds for the wind, I have mostly got that part all sorted. I want all the sounds to build at the end, but I will need to add the rest of the sounds first. I’m hoping to get around 4-5 minutes, so I think I will start with more of a serene but happy feeling for the first 1-1.5 mins and then start the ‘running’, which will build for about 3 minutes. With the ending, I’m not sure if I want to keep it exciting or resolve everything with something more calm, but this is something that I will need to test in the Capitol I think. 

Lighting 

I think Nik and Darrin are right and I should probably use a colour other than yellow as my main ‘exhilarating’ colour. Last week I did some lighting tests for UDP, and I really liked the pink, orange and yellow ‘flowers’ that Sara wanted for her show. I will have to test it out next week once I have some audio but I think using multiple colours simultaneously could be interesting.

I know emotional investment is important to feel exhilarated faster, so I thought possibly the lighting could start to follow the sound effects at some point, like the walls for running (green or red), the arch for breathing (blue) and the ceiling/everywhere else I’ll have wind blowing around. Not sure if this would be too much, but it’s definitely something I want to try so I will create something for each of my ideas on Tuesday and play them separately in the Capital on Thursday morning.

Research

Willibald Ruch’s study ‘State and trait cheerfulness and the induction of exhilaration’ states that ‘high levels of cheerful mood were considered to represent a state of enhanced readiness to respond to an appropriate stimulus with exhilaration and laughter.’ (Ruch, 1997)

So, I think it’s important to get everyone I can into a more cheerful state before I begin to increase the excitement in my piece. 

Upside Down People 

See what’s happening with the meeting and if Sara is in Melbourne or if it will be on Zoom

Create the rest of the lights that Sara might want in Pharos

The excel sheet says there is meant to be a meeting on Thursday.

Presentations 

I really enjoyed listening to the presentations from everyone this week. I’m not a very good public speaker, so it was very inspiring to listen to the people who were very engaging and comfortable talking about their ideas in front of everyone! 

Answers to questions from last week

Is there any way to copy and paste a light to a different location or can you only copy and paste on the same line? Answer - You can’t do this in Pharos, possibly might be able to do it with a mouse but I’d need to buy a mouse. 

Can I use something that’s copyrighted? Answer - Yes, at least other people are. This might be a good option.

Questions

Why do some presets not work when we drag them over? Do they work differently?

Research for next week

How to minimise background noise when recording running (on grass) with a zoom recorder :)

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Blog #4 - Week 3

Tuesday

Pharos Designer - I started to play around with Pharos and created some tests that I would like to play in The Capitol on Thursday. 

I really liked the effect that the ‘wave’ preset gave, I think that would look really cool in space. I’m not sure how bright it will be though, possibly a lot brighter than the wall. 

Music: Not Impossible Vests - The vests were a very interesting experience. I had a bit of a sensory overload and I don’t know whether it was a good or bad experience. At first, it felt weird, but once I knew what to expect, I was less nervous. I liked the music more because I could somewhat anticipate what the vests would do, and I think the vests actually do enhance your experience when you already enjoy something.

Thursday

Colour Theory -

Yellow is the colour that represents happiness/cheerfulness, but I also think exhilaration/excitement is yellow. Maybe it’s because I don’t think red is a very happy colour, I associate it with things like anger, passion, blood and death. I think it’s quite a heavy colour if that makes sense? And orange is too warm of a colour, when I think of orange I think of more delicate emotions like contentment and optimism. I associate yellow with sunshine, energy, happiness and fun, which I think describes my definition of exhilaration quite well. 

The Capital Second Visit - 

I haven’t decided on what I will create on the sound side of things yet, I’m thinking of some sort of running/chase scene that starts off serene, maybe some water flowing, and builds into this exciting running sequence with yellows and reds and oranges. I wonder if I could achieve exhilaration by just using sound effects and no music? That’s definitely something to consider. 

Upside Down People - 

Darrin has a meeting at 3:00 today to talk about the project - will update. I’m quite excited about it, but it would mean that I would have to sacrifice some of the time I can dedicate to my solo project. 

Ask if you can add new folders - I assume you can do this? I added new folders to be able to control singular wall lights to make cool effects. Upside Down People mentioned that they would like colours that represent flowers appear on the wall, so I tried to create something like that. Unfortunately I did this in Pharos 2.9.3 before I realised that I had the wrong version downloaded so I couldn’t show it today but I will recreate it in the right Pharos version so I can see how it goes in the theatre, but I have a pretty good idea of what it’ll look like based on what my test showed me today. 

Questions for next week 

Pharos:

Why do some presets not work when we drag them over? Do they work differently or are they just not able to be used?

Is there any way to copy and paste a light to a different location or can you only copy and paste on the same line? 

Sound:

Do I have to create my own sound/get someone else to create it for me or can I use something that has already been made?

Notes from my Capitol test: 

Ceiling light overpowers wall lights when all turned on. 

Green was slightly teal/blue. (had it on R0G150B50) - Changed to R0G160B0, funny how it didn’t look blue in Pharos but looked very teal in person. Stick to main colours.

Yellow is hard. Sometimes the yellow had a little bit of a green tinge to it so maybe adding a little bit more orange than you think it needs might be good. 

Start green and blue and transition to yellow/orange/red? Try with an audio

I think it needs to be around 4-5 minutes to make people feel exhilarated. The build up needs to be long enough that it's exciting but not too long. 

How fast can we go with the footprints? Do I want it to speed up until it can’t anymore? 

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Blog #3 - Exhilarating

My chosen word is:

Exhilarating

adjective

‘making one feel very happy, animated, or elated; thrilling.’

Synonyms: thrill, excite, elate. 

In order to achieve exhilaration, I believe there has to be somewhat of a build-up and/or emotional investment in the situation. Willibald Ruch’s 1997 study examines how a high level of cheerfulness leads to ‘higher frequency, intensity, and duration [of feeling exhilaration than] low cheerful individuals. Also, when the participants were asked to laugh, those who felt most cheerful felt more enjoyment than those who were not feeling as joyous. This leads me to believe that the more positive the ‘starting’ emotion that the person is feeling is, the more likely they are to feel exhilarated more quickly and intensely. 

Reference:

Ruch, W. (1997). State and Trait Cheerfulness and the Induction of Exhilaration. European Psychologist, 2(4), 328–341. https://doi.org/10.1027/1016-9040.2.4.328

Examples:

Paris Car Chase from Ronin (1998) https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=MxxH0lZSYgU 

Good car chase scenes can make most people exhilarated. I love this particular car chase because it's exhilarating without the use of a heavy soundtrack. There’s a light soundtrack that starts halfway through but the diegetic sound remains predominant. I think the reason why it’s so exhilarating is because it feels so realistic, and you feel connected to the characters almost instantly without having to watch the entire film. There is a strong build-up to the more chaotic exciting scenes too which is important when it comes to getting your audience to feel exhilarated. There was also a lot of danger and restriction, one car was being chased by the other, and the stress of ‘will they catch up’ just increased how exhilarated I was.

Dog Days Are Over by Florence and The Machine https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=vDHr85LiwUM https://genius.com/4107734 

This has always been one of my favourite songs and I find that my mood instantly improves and I feel energised and exhilarated, especially when I listen to it while walking or exercising. I think having an emotional connection to the song probably means that not everyone would feel exhilarated by it. Although, the song is about feeling suddenly very happy and being quite uncomfortable with how positive the emotion is. It’s also about her leaving behind the ‘dog days’ and going onto better things and struggling with that. The main character is having such intense emotions and I think that’s why this song is exhilarating to me. It was also featured recently in the new Guardians of The Galaxy movie, which made the song quite popular again. It was played at the end scene where the mood is sad because the characters have lost so much, but turns into a very happy, exhilarating scene as the song progresses.

Eureka Skydeck

Heights are exhilarating for some people, beyond scary for others. From my research I have found out that the difference between feeling exhilarated and feeling terrified is the presence of fear. If you’ve ever been up to the Eureka Skydeck and gone on the Edge with the glass bottom, even those without a fear of height will feel a little scared, but this experience is still exhilarating. There is definitely a fear/exhilaration combination with this sort of experience, it’s quite similar to the feeling of skydiving/bungee jumping. The idea to build a see-through deck was great, and I think a lot of people find it exhilarating to be up there. The exhilaration most likely stems from being in a place you usually can’t be, feeling danger and thinking you’re going to fall but not falling. 

Kites https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=WyhJhf6Q7lg 

I think the reason why kites exhilarate me is because they make me feel pure joy. Also, if you build your own kite and fly it, you feel accomplished, which always makes someone happier. I hadn’t yet thought of exhilaration as pure happiness without any sort of lingering stress/fear, but I think in this case, it's also quite exciting, because you get to make something fly.

Ceilings by Lizzy McAlpine (trend on TikTok) https://www.tiktok.com/@lyssmj.w/video/7203013293047450926 

This was a trend on tiktok for a while, to dress up and run away from the camera while playing a 30 second clip of a sped-up version of Lizzy McAlpine’s song Ceilings. The song follows the story of a girl who is a hopeless romantic, and they are imagining a scenario where they’re in love with a person who doesn’t exist. I think it works so well because running combined with the music has a very freeing effect. Another reason why this is exhilarating is because the character is so happy with their false reality that the audience feels their happiness. 

Woman with a Parasol by Claude Monet https://www.nga.gov/collection/art-object-page.61379.html 

I think this painting, as well as a lot of Monet’s work, evokes a sense of freedom and happiness in me. He uses a lot of bright colours and small brush strokes to create his artwork, which is usually of natural things like trees, flowers, and water, a lot from his own garden, which makes me feel a lot of joy. The artwork also feels relaxed and calm, but somehow I still feel the same amount of exhilaration that I get from something more traditionally exciting. I think another reason why it’s exciting is because you get to see the artists unique perspective. 

Clair De Lune by Claude Debussy

There is also another version of this song by Flight Facilities which I also enjoy. With Clair De Lune (French for moonlight), I think the feeling of exhilaration comes from the way the music builds. What’s quite interesting about this is that Claude Debussy’s music has been described as ‘musical impressionism’, which Monet helped invent in the 1860’s. I think, at least for me, there is some sort of connection between impressionism and the feeling of excitement/exhilaration. There’s something extraordinary about seeing an impression of what real life looks like to an artist. 

30/90 - Tick, Tick… Boom by Jonathan Larson https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=eh6-ZfWdnLQ 

This song is exhilarating in a different way. This song is fast paced and exciting, if you didn’t listen to the lyrics you’d think it was just a happy song. Once you hear what the character is actually feeling, how they’re sort of spiralling out of control because of the fact that they’re turning 30 and they feel like they’re running out of time to make a meaningful contribution to society, you start to sympathise, and it makes it exhilarating for me because I want him to succeed, but also the feeling of time moving too fast resonates with a lot of people. This play is written by Jonathan Larson, the creator of the revolutionary Broadway show Rent, and is about his journey to becoming a famous lyricist, composer and playwright. He succeeds in getting his first Broadway show, but tragically dies 10 days before it debuts on Broadway.

Oxenfree (Adventure/horror game) -  https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Oxenfree 

The main reason I find this game exhilarating is because of the horror aspects. The ghosts in the game mess with time, often glitching the game and sending the main characters through time loops. I think the jump scares and the fact that you need to make sure you’re making the right choices make it exciting, but also scary. 

Guildford Lane

Street art is objectively exciting because it’s something that is considered ‘unsightly’ by some,  but looks beautiful when done right. This lane, as well as a lot of other spots in the CBD are a great example of that. I really like the addition of the plants as well, it makes me very happy to walk through here. Lanes with street art are commonplace in the city, but Guilford Lane is unique. 

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Blog #2 - Week 2

The word I have chosen is:

Exhilarating

adjective - ‘making one feel very happy, animated, or elated; thrilling.’

Exhilarate synonyms: thrill, excite, elate. 

First I wanted to do a deep dive and figure out what ‘exhilarating’ means both to me and in general. 

What ‘exhilaration’ makes me think of:

Overcoming a sense of danger, possibly a time constraint, when something that could turn out bad turns out well etc. 

An idea/experience that pays off in a very pleasing way, something you work hard on working out perfectly etc. 

Escaping a tense situation in a way that makes the audience feel freedom

Sense of freedom, feeling trapped/unable to do what you want and then 

Sometimes has an emotional connection/investment, feeling connection to a character or a story 

Always has some sort of arc, starts with fear/repression/tension, something with a more negative valence and turns into a very positive moment

Fleeting - exhilaration can’t last forever, usually builds up, peaks, and wanes. 

What ‘exhilaration’ could also be:

A very happy feeling - being excited for something or even someone, happy about something enough that it makes you feel energised, mix of happy/elated and excited/thrilled

Music with high arousal that you feel very positive/happy about - music with medium to low arousal, maybe you are hearing it for the first time, that you relate very well to, speaks to you on a level that most music doesn’t

What can stop you from feeling exhilarated? 

If you’re stressed/anxious - I think that in order to feel exhilarated, the stress/tension of the situation should have mostly passed. There may be past stress that is still lingering, but I think the feeling of exhilaration is usually pure happiness/excitement, which is hard to achieve when you still feel stressed.

Amendment - I asked for my friend’s opinion, they said stress can coincide with feeling exhilarated. A situation that is exciting can also cause you stress at the same time, it doesn’t mean you’re not exhilarated, but there is an element of fear there. 

I’m not sure whether someone can feel the full extent of exhilaration if they are still feeling fear, though. 

Sophios, P. Liveris Academy. (2022). Overcoming Fear: Turning stress into excitement. https://liveris-academy.uq.edu.au/article/2022/07/overcoming-fear-turning-stress-excitement#:~:text=The%20key%20difference%20between%20the

This article from University of Queensland states, ‘A rollercoaster ride for example can result in one person being terrified and another exhilarated. The key difference between the two being the presence of fear. Therefore, whilst stress and excitement are within the same physiological state, the distinguishing difference is your own perception of the circumstances.’ (University of Queensland, 2022, What I have learnt: How the presence of fear alters our perception of the situation, para. 3).

The article somewhat contradicts the notion that fear and exhilaration can coincide as it infers that fear is not present in exhilaration. In fact, it states that one can feel excitement once they overcome fear.

Reading further into the article it says to ‘sit with the fear’ and enjoy it. Is this overcoming the fear in order to be exhilarated instead or is the fear still present? Is the fear still stressful if we accept it? I don’t think it is. Can exhilaration also be the feeling of enjoying fear? Some situations can be exhilarating without previously feeling fear, but something like a car chase can be exhilarating and also scary as there is a feeling of risk? 

Exhilaration is an extremely complex emotion with many layers. There are different ways to feel exhilarated, and different emotions associated with it depending on the situation, the person and their past experiences. 

People with types of depression - People with this condition can experience a reduced ability to experience joy or have a weaker reaction to stimuli that usually make those without the condition feel joyous/excited. Anhedonia - ‘inability to feel pleasure in normally pleasurable activities'. Not everyone with depression experiences this nor do only people with depression experience it but I thought as a person who sometimes suffers from it, it would be important to point it out. 

Beyond Blue. (n.d.). Types of depression. https://www.beyondblue.org.au/mental-health/depression/types-of-depression

Beyond Blue. (n.d.). Depression. https://www.beyondblue.org.au/mental-health/depression 

Beyond Blue. (n.d.). Anxiety. https://www.beyondblue.org.au/mental-health/anxiety 

Other negative emotions - anger, grief, sadness, embarrassment and jealousy can all make you feel unable to be happy/excited as they are such polarising emotions. 

Better Health Channel. (2012). Negative emotions. https://www.betterhealth.vic.gov.au/health/HealthyLiving/negative-emotions 

Colour:

I associate yellow with exhilaration and excitement, but upon researching, I found that it is most commonly seen as red. Red symbolises passion, love, urgency, anger and blood. I also saw it described as ‘the ultimate energizer’. Red as a colour for me can sometimes symbolise fear as I find anger quite scary, but as we were talking about today in class, a lot of negative emotions are useful tools for creativity.  

I asked my best friend what colour she thought of, she immediately said purple, which I was very interested in. I asked what emotions she thinks of when she thinks of the word ‘exhilaration’, she said the feeling of anticipation, being overwhelmed but also the feeling of being fulfilled. Then I asked what other emotions she categorised as purple, she said anxiety and fear. This relates back to the University of Queensland article, how fear is the difference between being terrified and exhilarated. 

Project Idea: 

Something like this scene from Wolfwalkers (2020) https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=vzroFLun6Xk 

What I like:

The excitement/exhilaration coming from the feeling of freedom, connection and a sense of belonging

The feeling of excitement that comes from the character reaching her full potential

Overcoming something dangerous/scary makes it quite exhilarating

What concerns me:

Whether someone who hasn’t seen this movie would feel exhilarated - it makes me feel like that and I haven’t seen it for a while but I still have an emotional connection to it

Is it possible to create a piece that creates the feeling of exhilaration without the specific emotional connections that stem from narrative structure 

Lighting and sound ideas: I’m wondering if the Pharos lighting system is capable of producing a somewhat clear shape? Like if I wanted paws running around the space would that be something I’d be able to achieve? 

Upon investigation of the Pharos design system, it seems like all the lights are quite far apart? I’m wondering if one light could be effective in producing the imagery I want? 

I want to be able to also create things like a sun/sunrise/sunset - this will hopefully be quite simple, there are hue fades, and colours can also be placed so different colours can be in different areas. It will be good to see what the lights will look like inside The Capitol, so I will wait and see what I can do. 

Update: The Capitol Visit 

You can program singular lights but Pharos has set groups of lights. Rob’s collaborator did the lights in that 8 minute project that lit up singular lights so I wonder if someone else knows how to do it. I will also have another play around on Pharos 

I had a small lighting sequence I wanted to try on the Pharos system today but I think I will wait until next Thursday so I have some time to learn more about Pharos to see what else I can test. 

I wanted to have a sound piece where you can hear running, and I wanted to be able to sync that with the lights so I will see what I can do. I also heard it's important to test the colours to get them right so I will need the test done before next Thursday. 

Upside Down People 

I read through the Upside Down People show and I really want to be a part of it if they’ll have me. They seem like they’ll be an awesome team to collaborate with. I’m not sure if my sound design experience is enough for the level of quality they’re looking for so I would even be happy to just help with the lighting once I learn more about Pharos. I have some previous experience with theatre/performing arts and would love to be a part of that sort of team again.

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Blog #1 - Week 1

I missed the blog post for the first week. I will include my week 1 thoughts in my week 2 post.