Production Techniques Rowan Larcher

Ideas Messthetics/Improvisation/Film Music/Foley In this piece I reference back to the lesson we had on Messthetics where we looked upon Foley work which I found very intriguing as I hadn’t known a lot about the subject beforehand. I liked the classic Foley in horror films such as Nightmare On Elm Street and The Thing where heavy gloves and belts were used to create menacing harsh sounds.

Composition Sounds for the concept of a short story of a murder within the piece: Piano playing Door opening and closing Footsteps Fight/struggle Heavy breathing (both victim and murderer), gasps, screams Sound of a drawn knife Stabbing, ‘head-rolling’ Body dropping, dragging

Recording Process Mics used - NT-2000, 414, AKG D112 Sidechain Compression Reverb - piano, footsteps, door and vocals to give the piece a bigger atmosphere rather than a sterile environment Added a basic EQ onto the piano sections to lower the high frequencies to clear some ‘hiss’ sounds and raised the bass frequencies to get a warmer sound overall. Not many plug-ins used though I did add a basic EQ onto the piano sections to clear the recordings a bit and get a lower frequency.

Improvements If I was to improve this piece I would have used more materials e.g. celery for breaking bones, gurgling water for pouring blood etc. for a longer Foley piece as I feel my piece wasn’t as long as I would have liked it to be and therefore I would perhaps prolong the beginning with the victim doing something else before playing piano, or lengthen out the struggle as I felt it was too short. Additionally, to improve on my final mix I would perhaps tried other microphone placements, change a few of the levels and add more compression to the tracks.

Research and References http://filmsound.org/terminology/foley.htm What Is Foley http://filmsound.org/foley/unsung-hero.htm This is about Jack Foley, the original Foley artist. Fascinating facts about himself and other Foley artists  https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=OONaPcZ4EAs Foley artist re-enacting sounds for a film http://www.thecredits.org/2012/10/did-you-hear-that-nightmare- on-elm-street-foley-artist-gary-hecker-reveals-how-horror- movies-scariest-sound-effects-are-made/ Foley Artist - Gary Hecker http://www.theguardian.com/film/2012/aug/30/berberian-sound- studio-review Berberian Sound Studio Review

Research and References Other research based on Messthetics – https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=iRa0j_EIth0 Imaginary Landscape – John Cage http://dangerousminds.net/comments/ennio_morricones_n oise_ensemble_gruppo_di_improvvisazione_di_nuova_co nsonan https://moodle.southwales.ac.uk/pluginfile.php/143608/mo d_resource/content/1/Mess_The%20Manual%20Of%20Ac cidents_Intro.pdf https://prezi.com/4jalnh3wai9m/messthetics/