Post 6: Sound Design

On Tuesday 22nd 2015, we began work on Sound Design.

Seb, our lecture, explained the topic to us by playing clips from the movies, Blade Runner and The Conversation to show us how sound works in films, which was very interesting.

To help us with learning about sound, Seb gave us some Sound Recordists and told us to go round the  building in groups and record various sounds. Me and my assistant Glenna recorded loads of interesting sounds such as Crisp Packets being scrunched up, jingling my keyring, water being poured from a drinks machine, tapping four times akin to The Master's signature tapping from Doctor Who, heavy and sinister footsteps akin to the T-1000. It was so fun and interesting.

One sound I didn't think was so good was when we went next door to a restaurant to record some water dripping from a stand and the it didn't come through quite as clearly as we hoped. When we played the tape back we heard all these scrunching and scraping noises which Glenna explained to me was because the sounds we recorded were too faint.     

Post 5: Simon's Sound Journey

Thursday, 24th September, 2015.

Lately I been continuing my progress in the world of Sound Design.

For todays lecture, I was tasked with recreating and expanding upon my Sound Journey using Adobe Audition. Learning how to use the system was really interesting and just like GarageBand, I got the hang of it really quickly.

I relished in the freedom to cut the sounds to my own accord.

The sounds I used in Audition were sounds I had recorded on Tuesday at Ravensbourne were, tapping four times akin to The Master's signature tapping from Doctor Who, heavy, sinister footsteps akin to the T-1000, water dripping, the jingling of the keys on my keyring when I shook it and flipping the pages of a book.          

Post 4: Garage Band

Whilst trying to put together a Sound Journey from Seb, I decide to use the Project GarageBand to put my sounds together. I initially wasn't sure if I was supposed to use the sounds I recorded at Ravensbourne or randomly selected sounds I recorded at home.

Eventually I decide to give it a stab by using the sounds I recorded at Ravensbourne, however I didn't know how to use GarageBand. So I looked up a little tutorial on YouTube which was so helpful in explaining how the application worked. I found that once I started to use it, I easily got the hang of it. And I edited my sounds with no help whatsoever.

Next time I work on a project akin to this, I will download Adobe Audition which is the program I'm using at Ravensbourne.

Post 3: Identity Chapter 3: The Challenging Presentation.

On Thursday 17th September, we had to do a presentation about what had learnt so far on our Identity Project.

My colleges had prepared full length powerpoint presentations, I, as well as my fellow students, however had been told ahead of time that we didn't need to make a powerpoint presentation so I did it more off the cuff which turned our to be pretty daring. I did however beforehand make a word document with notes on it as well as a mind node to jog my memory.

After a bit of a struggle to get my presentation together I decided to get up on stage and just go for it. I didn't think about it I just did it.

Post 2: Indentity Chapter 2: Art Galleries

On Tuesday we went on trip around London to visit several Art Galleries as part of our Identity Project.

The Galleries we visited were the VNA, The Serpentine, The Photographers Gallery and finally the The National Portrait Gallery.

I had visited all of the them on several ocassions.

The National Portrait Gallery was the least interesting our of all of them. This was mostly due to the No Pictures Policy the Gallery has. I managed to combat this by asking our tutor Othello to explain some the galleries which I found very helpful. I will admit I could have taken some notes which is what I'll do next time.

What helped to make the trip interesting was that I took photos of portraits that caught my eye and drew sketches in my book. I hope to apply this more in the future.

Below are some of the highlights of the trip.

Post 1: Identity Chapter 1

During my first day at Ravensbourne University, we tackles the subject of Identity: What makes us who we are.

We were split into groups and we were told to plan out our own presentations. After much head scatching, drawing and tossing ideas over our heads we had our final presentation in place.

My group went for a more philosophical approach proposing the idea that Identity was made up of different personality traits - selfness, nervous, inquisitiveness, shyness to name a few.

Among things went well, I got on very well with my team mates we bounced a lot of very good ideas off of each other, we listened to each others ideas which for me is what led us to presenting a successful and well rived presentation in front of the rest of the lecture, I really hope we have more occasions like this one.

If there is one thing I feel that could have gone better it's that it was quite hot in the classroom and after lots of banter and throwing ideas around we kinda lost the plot of the activity.

Introduction

My name is Simon Arwas

My picture is here below for your viewing.

I am a big film buff and I have come to Ravensbourne University with the intention of hopefully becoming a film director - I have visions, I have ambitions, I've got stories to tell, I want to make a difference.

Actually, you wait and see Tracy Jenkins, I will be a film director, I will be the next Steven Spielberg and I'm gonna clean up this town.

First thing you should know about me is that I'm suffering from a PHD (Post Holiday Depression). I also feel I am not ready for an adults life.