Sense of Space - Douglas Gordon

In researching art based around Psycho itself, I found the work of Douglas Gordon. He has created '24 Hour Psycho'. I have included pictures and exerts from the Guardian Arts archive to describe the work and the interview with the artist himself.


Link to Guardian Arts article on 24 Hour Psycho

Douglas Gordon's exhibition 'What Have I Done?' begins with a slowed-down version of Alfred Hitchcock's 1960 film Psycho. A different take on a familiar classic, it introduces many of the important themes in Gordon's work: recognition and repetition, time and memory, complicity and duplicity, authorship and authenticity, darkness and light.


Douglas Gordon in his own words:
"24 Hour Psycho, as I see it, is not simply a work of appropriation. It is more like an act of affiliation... it wasn't a straightforward case of abduction. The original work is a masterpiece in its own right, and I've always loved to watch it. ... I wanted to maintain the authorship of Hitchcock so that when an audience would see my 24 Hour Psycho they would think much more about Hitchcock and much less, or not at all, about me...

A large mirror reflects Gordon's 24 Hour Psycho back at itself, beginning a game of spatial illusion and psychological instability that continues throughout the exhibition. Also caught in the mirror is a new work, Fog (2002). Using original footage shot by the artist, Fog takes its inspiration from a 19th-century Scottish novel by James Hogg, The Private Memoirs and Confessions of a Justified Sinner (1824).

I think it is very interesting that Gordon's aim is to elevae appreciation of Hitchcock's work by slowing down his piece: "I wanted to maintain the authorship of Hitchcock so that when an audience would see my 24 Hour Psycho they would think much more about Hitchcock and much less, or not at all, about me". This too, is our aim in creating 'The Bates Motel', to take away from what I believe is fairly unimaginative and poor sound for such a beautiful piece of cinematography, and make the sound match the brilliant tension created by Hitchcock visually. 

Sense of Space - Jym Davis

Following the theme of 'horror'/'thriller' that comes with Psycho, I have proceeded to look for some further artistic inspiration. In my research I have come across Jym Davis, painter and video artist, who does a lot of haunting pieces with evocative soundscapes.

Jym Davis Website

Link to Jym Davis Art Website


Link to Jym Davis YouTube Channel

White Space

Here is the first example that I came across; a variation on the theme of creation, inspired by the creation of Adam...
"formed man from the dust of the ground"
A human head emerges and descends from a chalky white pool, referencing the original man being created by God, though it possesses qualities of science fiction with its etherial quality.
I think that this piece is useful to my project because when you listen to the sounds, you can really sense tension and an uncomfortable atmosphere from the digital warping.

In Flux

The description on Davis' YouTube channel reads:

"If "White Space" is about the materials of the Genesis Bible creation account, then "In Flux" is about the spiritual...a figure passing from life into death. We are again presented with a figure's head, this time the white mud is replaced by a blurred light and eminating colors."

This piece is especially beautiful in terms of sound. The recordings in this can be derived from natural sounds, but they have been digitally edited to make body sounds, which I think is a really interesting concept. It is this avante garde style that really evokes a terrifying atmosphere when you close your eyes and listen to the soundtrack.

Sound and video art

Jym Davis also plays with how sound and video art is presented. For example, His works 'Chapel' and 'Peep-hole' are sculptures through which videos can be viewed. I like the idea of playing with how the audience would experience our sound art piece, perhaps through headphones rather than speakers.

'Chapel' (w/a Brett Mullinix), video sculpture, LCD screen, video loop, 2009

'Peep-hole', video sculpture, wood, LCD, video loop, 2007

Sense of Space - Rich Ragsdale

In my research on YouTube I have found director and composer Rich Ragsdale, whose filmic pieces are extremely inspired by his own music.


The first piece I came across was this test for an experimental dance piece. Like Psycho, it relies heavily on its soundtrack and camera/edit techniques to create the effect that it does, however, I have picked out some really fantastic moments of sound where the low frequencies and almost electronic wavering create such a spine chilling atmosphere. Like Psycho, the music comes to a definite climax, and I think we need to pick this out in our sound piece - we need to do something digitally to make the stabbing of Marion a landmark in the project.

Continuing to research Rich Ragsdale, I found that he takes a special interest in German expressionist cinema and silent film. Many of his pieces are based heavily around a soundtrack, so there is not much more that I can take from his work.

Sense of Space - The Bates Motel Planning

The Bates Motel

Equipment List

1 x Marantz 660 Recorder

            Settings:         PCM 44.1k

                                    Presets 1 and 2 (Mono and Stereo)

                                    Phantom Power 

1 x Omnidirectional Microphone

1 x Rifle Microphone

1 x Tie Clip Microphone set

1 x Hydrophone plus contact rubber

The Bates Motel

Visual and Audio Timelines

This is the initial stage of our planning. We watched the scene through from 0 to 3 minutes exactly and charted exactly what was happening and when.

This is the 0 – 1 minute visual representation of our audio timeline. There will be 4 tracks, and the first track will be saved for atmos tracks.

This is the 1 – 2 minute audio timeline. As you can see, the fourth track is from now until the end reserved for the shower sound FX.

This is the 2 – 3 minute audio timeline.

Ideas for sound recording:

Stabbing – a knife thrust into a boned chicken

Quiet room atmos – near a window with distant traffic

Bathroom atmos – room in which heating can be heard, recorded near a radiator

Shower – 2 x mono tracks, one close to the head of the shower, one where the water hits the tub

Curtain rail – actual curtain rails OR coathangers

Curtain pulled off – coat poppers and metal nails

Body thump – chicken dropped on the floor

Everything else can be made with the actual object at close range.

Sense of Space - Psycho- The Bates Motel

The Bates Motel

For the sense of space project, we debated several different ideas, including creating Dante's Inferno - which we decided would be very ambitious as it required many layers of sound and a lot of tracks to keep up with - and a piece about the famous 'Hole In The Road' which used to exist in Sheffield.

However, the most interesting and evocative idea that we came up with was to recreate the shower scene from Alfred Hitchcock's 1960 film, Psycho. The idea was born out of the consideration that some very famous cinematic scenes are completely defined by a non-diegetic soundtrack. The murder scene in Psycho is a fantastic example of this. Upon watching the clip of this scene in Psycho, we noticed that the sounds are very limited and thin, and the famous score by Hitchcock's most frequently used composer Bernard Herrman creates all of the shock factor that the scene is so famous for.

We decided that we would attempt to create a 3 minute soundscape of the Bates Motel, recreating this scene with the aim to induce more tension than the film itself. We will attempt to edit it so that it could be laid over the muted sequence and it would fit completely.

In terms of the development of sounds in the piece, it will begin with Marion writing at the desk in the motel room and then move from the bedroom to the bathroom, really picking out the sounds of her movement along the way. The tension will rely on very acute attention to detail and a very quiet solitary atmosphere. We will use a variety of microphones to evoke tension in the listener, for example, the possibility of using contact microphones to feel Marion's footless into the bathtub, and hydrophones to feel as if we are with Marion in the shower. We will use sounds that cannot be heard in the film that we feel would add to the atmosphere, for example, the breaths of the killer, Norman Bates.

The biggest question is, from whose perspective should the sequence be. We could do it as if we are Marion, or we could do it from the perspective of the camera. There is also the possibility of doing it from the perspective of the killer, but that would assume that he was hiding in the room the whole time. We think that it would be most effective to act like an omniscient presence, but staying very close to Marion throughout.

We feel that the recording of the piece will be fairly easy, it is the creation of tension that will be difficult, and to do this, we need to be subtle about our manipulation of tracks. Too heavily edited, it will be very difficult to feel as if we are in a real place. The other difficulty will be making the track fit with the sequence, however, it is not an impossible task if we chart a sound map of the film as well as our project.

Portrait of a Place Project Evaluation

In this evaluation i will be covering the problems we had whilst in production and post production and also what i did well and what needs to be improved.

On shoot at Edale


Prior to our trip to Edale Chris and I came up with a general idea which was a narrative of a man who does not know where he is and needs to find civilisation. I come up with a storyboard and a shot list which we could abbreviate on whilst at Edale. We made sure we had everything we needed and that everything worked, e.g the battery on camera.

The first problem we noticed was that it was raining and in our plan we have a man laying down, falling over and climbing walls, so due to the rain our actor ( Myself ) would need clothes suitable in which he could roll around as much as he would like. Chris kindly got him some of his clothes which he did not mind giving me.

When arriving at Edale we did not know what to expect as we had never been there before so all we could hope is that it was suitable for chris' storyboard, and our idea. After walking around we managed to find a location which was perfect for the shoot. Our main priority was to keep the camera dry, in doing so chris brought along several plastic bags which wrapped around the camera protecting it.

Chris was on camera, he wanted to use different techniques in order to show a wide range of capability. In the edit we have used pans, tilts, POV, focus pulling and zooms.He did this to a very good standard as it looks great in the film. Some of the shots used are handheld as this creates a rush and a sense of worry for the audience which is vital in shots because the film is silent. Chris and I really did think we shot everything we needed, but after going in to post production we realised that we needed a couple more shots, not many but a couple. Apart from that i think the shoot went very well and i was happy that we managed to find the location efficient enough to use relating to my storyboard.

Post Production


Chris and I both wanted to try and edit the piece, then bring the two together to give each other constructive criticism. As we wanted to use our own MacBooks, Chris went out to buy a firewire as we could not get one from the university. After doing so he booked out a camera and bought some DVDs. The editing went well we thought for a rough edit, this was when we both realised that we had a couple of shots missing. We were communicating via Skype to discuss different ways to edit. I finished before Chris, so he took a look at my piece and we both agreed that we would use mine as it was sufficient enough to show our story.

A problem we encountered before taking the film to Debbie was that Chris managed to buy DVD-RW's instead of DVD-R's which was a big problem which we could not do anything about at the time, the only thing we could do it take the MacBook in to university which is what we did.

After taking the edit for Debbie to see she gave us some tips to help create a mood for the audience. Debbie told us to tighten up the middle and make it more fast pace so it shows he is running faster with a sense of urgency. We took it away and did exactly what Debbie had said on my laptop. The films runtime is around 2:30 which is about 50 seconds off what it was. I am happy with the final edit as it successfully shows what we were looking to do.

If i did this again i would make sure that we films more than enough to cover everything that needs to be covered especially cut aways which we did not have many of. Also i would try and be more professional by making sure we take the correct DVD in to be assessed.

Paper work for Edale

Shot list

WA: Jordan Laying in the middle of the field

CU: Jordan lying on the ground then opens eyes slowly

WA: Jordan’s view

CU: Close up, Jordan looking around

LS: Jordan slowly getting up

WA: Stretching with hands ending up on head (confused)

CU: Jordan looking around

WA: Jordan’s view looking around

LS: Falling to knees

MS: Jordan’s face, frowning. Pan down to pockets – Jordan checks pockets + pulling out tissue, coins lighter and cigarette

CU: Lighter sparking up and lighting cigarette

SCU: Taking a puff, fag burning

LS: Jordan has a final look around, then walks in a direction exits right of screen

MS: following Jordan walking as he looks around.

LS: Jordan’s walk becomes a slow jog

CU: Jordan’s feet starting to jog

CU: Face puffing

WA: Jordan comes to a fork in the road and chooses to go right

WA: Running

CU: Feet from behind running

LS: Tripping over and landing (wall in background)

CU: Jordan looks at his bracelet

CU: Jordan pushes himself up

LS: Jordan Getting up

MS: Jordan staring at his bracelet and feeling it

CU: Jordan kisses his bracelet and looks up

WA: Jordan heads towards the wall

CU: Jordan’s face brightening up as he notices buildings

WA: Jordan’s view

LS: Jordan jumping over the wall

WA: Jordan running towards the buildings

LS: Jordan walking next to pub puffed out

MS: Jordan’s happy, enters the pub.

This was the shot list we planned before going to Edale, but we improvised and used a lot more shots.

Equipment list

Canon XM2, with 2 batteries

Tripod

Paperwork

-      Treatment

-      Storyboard

-      Log sheet

-      Shot list

Cigarettes

Lighter x2

Bracelet

Clothes (willing to get dirty)

Old shoes

Plastic bags

Masking tape

Money

Tissue

Edale Shoot Contact Sheet

Name                                                  Number                                  E-mail             

Christian Slater                            07518177464                      b1031229@my.shu.ac.uk

Jordan Jones                                  07557733802                     b1030495@my.shu.ac.uk

Debbie Ballin                                0114 225 2673                     d.ballin@shu.ac.uk

Esther Johnson                            0114 225 2676                   esther.johnson@shu.ac.uk

Dominic Green                             07769 845 826                   dominic.green@shu.ac.uk  

Christopher Hall                          0114 225 6308                christopher.hall@shu.ac.uk

Jordan Jones and Christian Slater

Treatment

Our idea is a drama, about a young man, lost in the outskirts of Edale trying to find his way back to civilization.

He wakes up in a field in the middle of nowhere, dazed and confused as to where he is. With nothing on him except, a copper coins, tissue, a couple of cigarettes ad a lighter. After lighting a cigarette He then begins walking in a direction, hoping to find a populated area.

On his travels, he begins to get worried so his quick pace walk becomes a slow jog, eventually he comes to a fork in the road, after a hard moments pondering, he chooses to take the right hand path. Running down the path he falls over a log ?, he then looks at his wrist to see his bracelet, he gets up fondles with the bracelet, kisses it and looks ahead to find a wall in front of him, to which he peers over to see a couple of small village buildings. He then jumps over the wall and runs toward the buildings with a big smile on his face.

After he arrives in the village, exhausted form running, with a look of relief he walks into the pub.

first blog

don't really know what I'm doing with this as of yet!! hah! won't be long and ill be laughing!

i'll start with a film i went to see the other day! it was called "whats your number?", i'll be honest it could have been better, it did not live up to my expectations. It was a good film, but just not really to my taste.

Looking forward to this weekend though, THE LION KING!!! Fucking whoop!!