surrounding sounds. 'computer lab'

Throughout this assignment I've tried to find the most unique ambient sounds as i could, when i decided to go to the computer lab in the library. I figured the sound of a large group of people, like the fisher center, or wag, or the mall would be redundant.. so i tried different things.. the computer lab was notable, i'm a firm believe you can find a rhythm in almost anything.. and the lab proved that all the same. while the most obvious sound is the constant taptaptaptap on the keys of the keyboards like little tiny robots doing manual labor, which i expected.. the other noises fell in nicely.. my favorite being the hum of the printer along side of the sound of the machinary inside dancing to produce patterns of ink on paper.. which lead to the shifting of papers being picked up from the tray. Also, its one thing to hear a group of people talking, but a mass amount of whispering.. if you can imagine is like a lull of falling water...whispering telephone conversations, the whispering of freshman and giggling to their facebook finds.. the mice clicking that are a higher pitch that add a nice layer of noise. to finally the buzz of the AC above...that seems to fill the room with not only cold air, but a musical piece to the rhythmic puzzle of the computer lab.

surrounding sounds. 'catch your breath'

I tried to think about scenarios of sound that usually go unnoticed in general, although it goes a bit astray from going out into the public world to find songs, i fell upon an interesting find that serves the same purpose. I was listening to a ballad the other day by some female artist, can't remember who... anyway i was getting really into the song, or actually just really into her voice, at the way she could mold this melody into an amazing sound.. when i noticed she would take quick deep breaths in between certain areas of the song, it makes perfect sense when you think of how long artists need to use their breath when holding a note for a significant amount of time, but the subtle quick deep gasp for breaths go pretty much unnoticed..(or i've just never noticed) but i think began to tune out the actual song and her voice, and paid attention to those gasps, when i started to follow them, the gasps themselves started to have a rhythm, i imagined a way where i could make every aspect of the song obsolete and really just form a song of the breathing....i then took it a bit further and scrolled through my itunes to pick out other songs that i know to have a lot of singing, and sure enough i found more and more subtle songs of breath...

surrounding sounds. 'the little dipper'

the place that i work is called The Little Dipper downtown. It's a fondue restaurant so we are a little bit different from others... the funny thing about this assignment is that my mind was automatically drawn to my work, because I've done it before unintentionally.. I can remember a time where I was cleaning a dirty table and all of a sudden i just zoned out from everything around and me and just let the sound of the place take over my senses. It was almost meditative to me. this past weekend I decided to do it again, but paid more attention to the different sounds rather than the orchestra of voices, dishes, and footstep as one. one of the main differences our restaurant has is that most of our parties are celebrations.. like birtdays, anniversaries, first dates, bachelorette parties.. all kinds, it's easy to work in the environment because most of the time, people are just happy. so the most interesting and beautiful noise that filled the room was laughter at one point it seemed like at every one of the 15 tables we have, there was laughter. I had never imagined i'd think it so lovely, but the notes and range of all the different types of laughing was just melodic. After, i stepped outside of my laughter symphony I picked up on the other sounds as well... we have tiled tables because fondue often gets messy, so theyre easy to clean.. the sounds of the silverware being picked up and placed back down, or the glasses being picked up and set back down made a significant noise of almost percussion, especially with the variations of amount of liquid in the glasses. the footsteps, usually high heels, predominantly females come to fondue, unless it's a family or a date. the clinking of the ice in the drinks. and the chatter all accompany my laughter symphony with a rhythmic notion and instead of just an interesting experience, I found it pleasurable and like I said earlier meditative. A way to escape my normal work routine driven job... shit i think that's a little more than 150 words..

about me:

I first moved to Wilmington a little over a year ago from Virginia when I transferred to UNCW from VCU. I transferred specifically for the film program that I had heard so much about. Film has been the only thing I have wanted to do for as long as I can remember, and especially movie trailers. I can remember being 12 or 13 and going to the movies by myself and hopping from theater to theater and watching the beginning trailers and then leaving. I've always been fascinated with the way the edit of a trailer can make the viewer so intrigued and anxious that they HAVE to see that movie. Since those days, I've realized that I want to be a part of the process in making those trailers, and cultivate that feeling. My goal is simply to graduate from UNCW with a film degree and hopefully gain an internship with any company in New York or California that make trailers. My main company of interest is one called Buddha Jones located in L.A. mostly, because I've loved a majority of the trailers they have produced. I'm looking forward to finishing out my college career here at UNCW and then continuing on with my goal. (=

Reading Responses

The Film as an Original Art Form:
It's apparent to me that Richter's main point in the article is that the entertainment industry in today's world has a view of cinema of being less of a filmic sensation in art, but rather a mechanism that captures other forms of art, like performance. Richter claims that there are two forms of cinema that still value the camera as a form of art, and that is documentary and experimental. He states that both forms are more cinematographic than your average entertaining narrative. I value his opinions, but I still believe that the act of filming anything, including narratives, still acts as a puzzle piece in the grand scheme of things to form the art itself.

Introduction to Avant-Garde Film:
This article to me was more of a review than anything. In previous classes such as History of Avant-Garde Film, we spent very much time going over the kind of attention and effort you need to put forth to really grasp the experience of watching Avant-Garde movies. It was also a review for me to read about how the average person is in a way trained to view movies in a classical way, like hollywood narratives and then do not know how to accept an experimental film. The latter part of the article was also a review that goes back to classes such as World Cinema and History of Film, when explaining the earlier aspects of cinema with the Lumiere brothers and Eadward Muybridge and their contributions to cinema today. I didn't mind reading it though, because a refresher is always nice.