Sense of Place: Audio Project Ideas Development

Art by Leif Podhajsky,
Splash
Mixed Media, 2012

Creating a 3 minute soundscape & ideas:

I want to show a binary opposition of sounds and character change with this experimental audio and moving image.


Locations: Office/ City streets/ Forest
Office and City street Sounds: office keyboard, footsteps, cars going past, staples, coffee sipping , random chatterings, gun shots
Forest sounds: Leaves rustling, birds singing, man running, heavy breathing,

An iphone application 'ThumbJam' would be used for spot effects and sound effects, the sounds are free to use and not copy righted at all.

Narrative, sound and monologue:

A monologue/ narrator will be edited over these atmospheric sounds, he will be talking about how life is so mundane and it is on repeat. Things are the same, everything he wears is the same (suit and tie, sound: rummaging of hangers), a routined life, crossing the same street, seeing the same people, the same coffee mug, the same pen, the same computer screen, the same after shave, the mundanity is slowly making him insane
It's kind of inspired by Fight Club and that short video we watched in class last week.

The audio is supposed to show the contrast between office life and nature.

The protagonist keeps complaining and struggles with mundane corporate life, he wishes to be the opposite of what he is, it is an experimental audio that creates enigma for the audience.

He runs to the forest, wishes that he wasn't in a suit and didn't have perfect bouffant hair, everything goes dark, He ends up wearing a pink wig, a dress, heels, a banana next to him lying on the forest grounds with stigmata on his hands and him crying/ bleeding blood.

Then the monologue explains how he wants the opposite of everything. It ends with the camera zooming out from his face slowly and with the words: Consume me.
Sad and sombre atmosphere.

My thoughts on the film Primer (2004)

I've recently watched Primer (2004), no film has ever confused me in such a fascinating way about time traveling. This film is a bit similar to Synedoche New York (2008) with its non-linear narrative.  

These may be reliable sources for the explanation of the film in diagrams/reviews:

• Diagrams 1
• Diagram 2
• xkcd version
• Review of Primer (2004)

The film explores one possible sequence of events and consequence that occurs from the time machines, but from a vast perspective, we would imagine there would be millions of other possibilities that occur, that is not shown in the film. It is as mind blowing if you looked at it from Cthulhu's cosmic perspective. So many possibilities and timelines created from one straight human timeline, while Abe and Aaron went through endless loops, back and forth, diagonal and horizontal, warping time and creating multiple selves within the same time frame and alternate realities. The internal aspects would be viewed as dark and light hives, like a permanent drug induced psychedelic and psychonautic experience. Putting yourself in the shoes of the time travelers, they seem to be suffering from insane brain trauma and the way they speak is unclear and illogical. The film shows an example of this [SPOILER]:

"6:00; Aaron (0) is knocked out with drugged cereal, Aaron (2 the hooded one) puts him into the attic. Aaron (6) appears and starts a brawl with Aaron (2). But Aaron (6) is too exhausted from time travelling so the hooded Aaron wins. However, after they speak, Aaron(6) convinces Aaron (2) to leave: the reason is that Aaron (6) has already lived through every event, and recorded conversations just like Aaron (2) wanted. So Aaron (2) leaves but before that Aaron (6) tells him what happened with him. Aaron (2) becomes the narrator, who called Aaron (0) to inform him what happened. What happens after this, that is not known by Aaron (2), because he leaves here."

Some trivial questions about the film:

If Aaron 3 steals his own (Aaron Prime's) passport, how did Aaron 2 (Hooded Aaron) get to France? Won't they have 3 passports? Because it is implied that there would be multiple phones but only the original phone would be ringing. Only prime human's phone will ring.

• Rule of thumb: always take a time machine with you when you go inside one. 

  • In Diagrams 1, there are 9 different time frames in 6 days. 

    Abe and Aaron have gone absolutely insane.

  • Their time traveling addictions is humorous even though it's suppose to be a psychological sci-fi/ thriller. 

  • Why so many time lines?

     I guess there's no choice but to move on and on and on in a loop. Once you decide to time travel, you never go back to the original logical time frame.
  The consequences of time travelling would cause ear bleeds and knocking other doubles unconscious from time warp. Which is similar to the H.P Lovecraft's ideology of the the Old Ones and the lost city of R'lyeh, rising up from the oceans at the end of time. People turning mad and their brain collapsing, similar to Aronofsky's Pi (1999) when Max lobotomises himself because the protagonists can't understand what is going on and it's beyond human comprehension. But they might as well be mad if they created at least 100 different timelines, and those time travelers would decay and suddenly disappear. I understood that Shane Carruth wanted the audience to feel the consequences of time travelling, and the confusion plays a huge part. As most people would say, Aaron and Abe are confused with the series of events in the film, and we as audiences might as well feel the same.

By Phoebe Jaspe