Evaluating on Movie "M" for sound

I could tell this movie was gonna have a lot of old technology problems like hiss, clips and stuff when I began the movie at black and white graphics, also estimating the time of movie it was released about 3/4 th of a century ago. However I didn't get that disappointed by the end of the movie. A good movie is the one that expresses its self being alive without any thing making its viewers out of its magic in my point of view. For this movie "M" It was about the same to be a good movie except I felt out of the story every time there is a distracting sound that seems to not fit in the place, or the sense of lack of sound or in other term , the editing had a lot of flaws in that sense but It was made a lot years ago and still made it to entertain for the viewer like me in this 21st century. That could be made a remark that how sound could influence to make a great movie.
M has a good sense of sound put together to make it a good movie even with its flaws of feeling of unreality.

"M"

This film was not bad for being made in 1931 and having no music to progress the plot, except for the ominous whistling. I can't really say that I have seen any movie like it. My level of enjoyment that I get from watching movies is largely due to how good the soundtrack and/or themes are. So this just goes to show how good a job the director did in letting a lot of the images speak for themselves. Maybe it left more to the imagination. It is also pretty cool finding out that this was the first film to tie a musical theme to a character.

On “M”

Other than the singing of some children during their game playing and the ‘leitmotif’ (Edvard Grieg’s “In the Hall of the Mountain King”) whistled by and associated with the murderer, there was no music in the film – which, if only subconsciously, probably made what was heard somewhat more emotionally powerful.

Despite the German dialogue (and my non-knowledge of the language) the sounds of people speaking – individually, in small groups, or in crowds – did seem to carry some non-linguistic information. Crying, calling out and/or screaming are obvious evidence of emotional state, but the volume and rapidity of the speech may be as well. The sounds of the quickly gathering crowds, for example, seemed to crescendo and increase in tempo when recognizing a possible child abduction. The tonal quality of some of the individual voices – especially that of Peter Lorre (nasal, whiny, ‘demented’) as the pedophiliac serial killer – might help define some attributes of the character.

More surprising to me than the lack of music was the presence, in such large quantity and from a wide variety of sources, of tobacco smoke (and I was a four pack a day person till 1992). The clouds of drifting smoke occasionally took on a role of their own. In some scenes it added another layer of mystery, while in others it seemed to intensify the feelings of the characters involved in the scene.

I was pleased to have finally seen the film – only some seven years older than myself – and had the chance to understand a little of its importance to the history of cinema. (I knew that I’d get to say ‘cinema’ sooner or later…)

on Mon Oncle

10 September 2010

A quick note for those few who might, for whatever reason, read my class required blog entries :

I am at least three times as old as any of my fellow students in this class and more than twice as old as our beloved Professor. I am auditing the class and so am not at all concerned with grades – I’m simply trying to learn something new (can you really teach an Old Dick new tricks?) before I shuffle off this mortal coil. My entries are not meant to be curmudgeonly, clever, offensive, or erudite, they are simply what I might write if I were keeping a diary.

OK, now – about Mon Oncle:

I first saw this Jacques Tati film in the early 1960s, while in graduate school at the University of New Mexico. It was part of a series of French films being shown at the local Albuquerque ‘art theatre’ and was my particular favorite in the series. At the time I was a battle-scarred veteran (4 years in the US Army), an oc-casional user of perception altering chemicals and a paid up member of the Young Socialist Alliance.

My general understanding of the film then, in addition to enjoying the obvious comedic bits, was that it seemed to illustrate – through satire – the French hopelessness at the outcome of class struggle. Hulot and his neighbors, symbolic of the working class, having little or no chance against Arpel and the plastics industry ­– heartless, capitalist exploiters of human labor.

Watching the film again, well past my days as a ‘Young’ anything, I still felt there still might be something of the class struggle involved – if only in sub-textual form. But there also seemed to be a little more hope as well. The symbolic acceptance of the industrialist’s dachshund into the horde of worker dogs, the Hulot visits to the dominion of the well-to-do, and ultimately the acceptance of some shared values by the nephew, Gérard and Arpel, as Hulot departs for what I sincerely hope are greener pastures.

Listening to the sound (which I honestly didn’t remember even hearing during my first viewing) was an eye (ear?) opener for me. Not only the music, but also the sound ‘effects,’ offer the potential for a much deeper understating of the film. I’m beginning to understand a little of what Chion means by added value.

Sound and movie

Movie " Mon Oncle" Created by French filmmaker "Jacques Tati" This movie is the one of the most different movie I have experienced in prospect to things I hear in the movie. It is about fifty years old movie and for today's technology the things put in this movie clearly is out of date yet The conceptual grasp that it had in its time could have been pretty unique. The movie had almost all of its sound recorded in the studio and could be felt the sounds were very unlikely to be coming from the things that seemed to be coming from. The most unnatural effect I felt in the movie was the feeling of incompleteness for it to be convincing enough to make it through me. The sounds felt to be same thing repeated over and over again, There seem to be focusing of sound in limited forms. The were a lot of inaccuracy of the timing of the sound that was felt. What ever the bad comment I put forward, I am impressed that even the move had its entire sound remade in the studio and yet came out to be good. the cinema and sound had come a long way since then but we should always praise the early stages of any advancement .

Final Project...

For every class the projects had always been challenging and interesting in its self... Ever one of us in the class were required to build a circuit in a prototype for our final project.. Complete soldiered and fully functiong prototype was required for the project. We each had individual ideas over the project. For my submition, I made a prototype using a photo register. The pitch of the sound was processed by the litght sensitive registor. So every time I brought something to block the intensity of the light the pitch of the sound produced would differ. I could actually have different frequency come off with the circuit.
To give my project an interractive edge, I used a webcam to capture a minute of performance with the circuit. Then overlapped the sound , the previous recorded data to be the back track of my new performance. I countinued that for third time and came up with musical piece which was interactive to the self performance. Beside the sound intercation, looping video cincept was used to make the video interactive as well.

DIY Advice

- Always use a wet sponge to clean the solder from your soldering iron tip. Soldering tips degrade very quickly, especially if solder is left on them.
- Work in a well lit space where you can remain organized. DIY projects can get confusing and really disorganized, really fast.
- Do whatever you want. If you are doing it yourself, you should do whatever you want.
- Experiment. Breadboards are a great tool for experimenting with an unlimited amount of circuit combinations. Try anything; you never know what sound you will get.
- Acquire a de-soldering tool. Soldering can be pretty tough, especially when you are finalizing a circuit to a circuit board. If you drop a huge glob on your board, a de soldering tool will save the day.
- Lick your finger and touch things. Electronic things that aren’t plugged into wall outlets.
- Photo resistors and LEDs are best friends forever.
- Soldering guns are very hot. They will burn your flesh or melt your de soldering tool if you aren’t careful where you place them. Melting your stuff can be a bummer and filling your workspace with burning plastic fumes is just plain no good.

Tape Music

A microphone can be turned into a speaker and a speaker can be turned into a microphone. All you need to do to make the switch is switch things backwards. If an air microphone is wired to an audio output, the diaphragm will vibrate at the same frequency, making the signal audible, just like a speaker. If a speaker is wired backwards and its cone is vibrated, the frequency of that vibration will be turned into an electric signal can be played by a speaker. Electronic motors can also be turned into speakers. If the power input of the electronic motor is an audio signal, the electronic motor will turn on and off at the same frequency of that signal. This action effectively turns the motor into a speaker. Kristian Twombly demonstrated one of the possibilities that electronic motor speakers present by placing a small electronic motor on a 5 ft long span of packaging tape, suspended in the air between two points. The motor vibrated the tape and turned the entire span of tape into a very unique speaker. The motor was hooked up to a personal music player. The music could only be heard clearly if your ear was within a few inches of the tape. However, if you pressed your ear right up against the tape, the sound quality was much better. Also, the volume, tone, and timbre of the music is altered if you move your ear across the tape.

STUD STICKS

Look out Les Paul, guitar pick-ups are pretty easy to make and cheap too. In DIY audio we learned that an electric “guitar pickup” can be created by spooling copper wire around a sewing machine bobbin. A magnet is then placed in the inside of the bobbin. I placed my bobbin pickup on a wooden stick, just below a metal guitar string, strung up the length of the stick. When the guitar string vibrates, the copper wire and magnet create an electric signal which is sent down the length of the copper wire. I soldered the wire to an 1/8 in connector which I then plugged into a mini amplifier. The result was a surprisingly loud and rich timbered stick guitar! Stick guitars are a great fix if you need an electric guitar in a jiff. They can be used in performance, but are the most fun to just play and jam out. The total cost of one of these guitars is only a few dollars and if one string isn’t enough, it wouldn’t be too difficult to rig up five or six more!

DIY Audio and Beyond

DIY Audio taught me much more than just how to create microphones and electronic instruments with little or no cash. Before DIY audio, I had a very minimal understanding of electronics and wiring. That understanding was enhanced by DIY at “paradigm shift” levels. DIY taught me that most electronics are very simple at their most basic level. DIY also taught me skills like soldering and circuit construction. I learned how to make circuits that can be used for electronic sound, lighting, video, or just about anything electronic. I also learned how to repair or modify my own battery powered electronics. This class gave me skills that will save me large sums of money in the long run. This class also exposed me to an entire new world of artistic possibilities. The materials for DIY audio projects are cheap and easy to come by and their possibilities are limitless.

Final Project

The circuit I mentioned in my last post used a bcm14093 nan gate chip. I used this circuit to create the electronic instrument for my DIY final project. The resistance on the first oscillator is controlled by a 1 megahertz potentiometer and has a .1 uf capacitor. The second oscillator is controlled by a photo resister and has a 35 uf capacitor. The third and final oscillator is controlled by a 10 k potentiometer and a .1 uf capacitor. From the final oscillator are an audio out and then a 100k resistor and red LED. The LED lights up whenever audio is being produced. The two potentiometers are mounted on top a small black box, about the size of a tin can. The circuit is mounted on the long side of the box. The photo resistor is mounted on the left side. The 9 v battery is mounted inside of the box. The LED light is mounted on the top of the box, between the potentiometers. The instrument also has a large power switch mounted on its right side. When the switch is activated, a green LED inside of the switch lights up. The instrument can be played by altering the potentiometers as well as varying the amount of light exposed to the photo resistor. The potentiometers control the pitch of the sound and the photo resister controls the tone. The potentiometers can be controlled while leaving a finger or two free to control the photo resistor. I am very pleased with this instrument. The sounds it produces are awesome. They sound pretty good when played out of a mini amplifier and sound amazing out of a large amplifier. I have already begun recorded music with this awesome instrument.

Solder Practice

The first time I attempted to solder together a circuit was a complete disaster. All of the circuits I had created up to this point had been done on bread boards which do not require soldering. The reason for my failure was that I assumed circuit boards are set up in the same fashion as most breadboards. This is not true. It seems that circuit boards require close examination in order to determine how to set up your circuit. I had made the mistake of setting up my circuit on the circuit board in the exact same way I had set it up on the bread board. I had spent about six hours carefully soldering and de-soldering before I realized that my circuit was completely useless. On the bright side of things, the experience made me much better at soldering circuits. Re-doing the entire circuit correctly, took only about three hours. I also learned how to adapt my circuits to the interesting and sometimes confusing designs of circuit boards.

Bubbletron 4000

The Bubbletron 4000 is a giant, interactive, inflatable instrument/sculpture and was created by myself and Kirissa Grams. The first step to creating the Bubbletron was to tape many large sheets of clear plastic together into a large dome-like sphere. This sphere was about 8 ft wide on all sides and 12 ft tall when inflated. The “bubble” was inflated by connecting a large floor fan to the inside of the sphere with an 8 ft long tube made out of the same plastic material used for the “bubble”. We also created a hatch-like door on the side of the bubble so that we could get inside of the bubble once it was inflated. We then attached two different contact microphones to opposite walls inside of the bubble. These contact microphones were taken from the Kawasaki Drum Kit mentioned in an earlier blog. We soldered ¼ inch female jacks to the contact mics and then connected the microphones to multiple audio effect processors housed inside of the bubble. We also taped a contact microphone to the end of the inflation input tube. As air flowed into the bubble, the input tube flailed and waved around. The sound of the waving tube was also sent to an effects processor. All of the contact mics were amplified by a large amplifier and speakers housed inside of the bubble. The waving tube created a constantly changing sound that was very similar to the sound of thunder. The contact microphones placed on the inside walls of the bubble created very interesting sounds when the bubble was touched by someone on the outside. This sound changed depending on where the bubble was touched. The bubble could also be played by firing a “super soaker” at the sides of the bubble. All of the electronic equipment was protected from the water by the bubble walls. The bubble was set up outside on the St. Cloud State University campus and was up for about four hours. During this time, many different people interacted with the bubble and created many different unique sounds. One individual discovered that very dramatic squeaking sounds could be created by pushing their fingers hard across the plastic. The next time we set up the Bubbletron, it will have more contact mics and therefore, more potential sounds. We will also set it up earlier in the day when there is more foot traffic in the area.

4 for $4

The other day I visited a thrift store and picked up some old electronic toys. One of these toys was a Kawasaki Electronic Drum Set. The drum set is about the size of a shoe box, has 4 different drum pads and only cost $4. I dismantled the drum set and found that there was a contact microphone glued to the backside of each of the drum pads. When the drum pads were impacted, the contact mics created a signal which triggered a sample of a drum sound. The signal sent by the contact microphones is actually the sound of the impact on the drum pad, however, this signal was used by the toy to trigger a pre made drum sound. The chip inside of the toy also stored samples of music which could be triggered by buttons on the surface of the toy. The tempo and volume of the music could be controlled by two fader switches. While tinkering with the toy, I found that I could also control the tempo of the music by licking my finger and pressing it to different areas of the chip. The tempo change was much more radical and unpredictable with this method. This method also caused the audio to suddenly cut out. Flipping the power switch off and then back on again fixed this problem, but had to be done every time the audio cut out. I decided to disconnect the contact microphones and drum pads in order to use them for a future project.

Deep Contact

Air microphones are not the only way to amplify real world sounds. In DIY Audio, we also made contact microphones. Contact microphones are placed in direct contact with an object then amplify the vibrations of that object. We made our contact microphones by opening a piezo buzzer and removing the copper and quartz plate inside. We then soldered the two wires coming from the copper plate to an 1/8th inch male connector. The copper plate is glued to a very thin piece of quartz. When quartz is compressed, it creates a very small electronic signal. When the copper plate is pressed against a surface, vibrations from that surface compress the quartz and create a signal representative of the surface vibrations. This signal can then be amplified. When we plugged the copper/quartz plate (contact mic) into our mini amplifiers we were able to create all kinds of interesting sounds. Contact mics can be used to amplify heart beats. They can also be used to turn ordinary objects into musical instruments. Contact mics are best used for percussive sounds. These microphones can also be used underwater which is one of their biggest advantages over air microphones.