The Sound Of Footsteps - Barnaby Smyth's shoe colllection
Barnaby Smyth, foley artist on many, many TV series and films (Downton Abbey (2010-15), Dickensian (2015-16), Suffragette (2015), explains some of his techniques for the seemingly simple task of recording footsteps.
Apart from employing a a huge range of boots and shoes (all with a specific purpose) he also demonstrates techniques for changing the sound to emulate characters of differing stature. One of the more interesting observations is that it is not sufficient to record a straight rhythmic footstep but the scuffs, turns and idiosyncrasies that make the audience believe.
Our mission was to deliver a very short short in the style of Film Noir.
Film Noir (literally 'black film or cinema') was coined by French film critics (first by Nino Frank in 1946) who noticed the trend of how 'dark', downbeat and black the looks and themes were of many American crime and detective films released in France to theatres following the war, such as The Maltese Falcon (1941), Murder, My Sweet (1944), Double Indemnity (1944), The Woman in the Window (1944), and Laura (1944).
http://www.filmsite.org/filmnoir.html
Not initially recognised as a genre, merely a trend or a "look", a visual style identified by a French critic, Film Noir has become synonymous with gritty crime dramas. Often violent, always involving characters of dubious reputation (whether as protagonist, antagonist or both).
Looking into the mechanics of the imagery, we find several visual themes used throughout.
The most obvious visual effect (accentuated by its use in black and white photography) is low key lighting. Contrary to its apparent meaning, low key lighting is used to produce images of high contrast. The key light being far stronger that a weak (or absent) fill light.
I've mentioned chiaroscuro in a previous post but here's a reminder:
Artists recognized the power of low key lighting long before photographers came around. Painters during the Renaissance and Baroque periods often used a technique known as "chiaroscuro" to achieve a similar dramatic tone for their images. Chiaroscuro comes from the Italian "chiaro" meaning clear/light and "oscuro" meaning obscure/dark.
A brief interview with Oscar nominated animator Cordell Barker.
https://youtu.be/1DTnR32cHpQ
It always interesting to hear how someone works and Barker has some interesting takes on the production process. He leaves the tough stuff to the professionals so he can "get away" with producing the images from the imagination of a grade 7 kid.
This trailer caught my eye. I'm not pushing for an apocalyptic-zombie-slaughter-fest for my next project but I found this surprisingly emotive despite the subject matter.
I suspect I've been suckered by some beautifully affecting music and a character that's around the same age as my daughter.
I've been told the game itself is pants though I do like the theme of taking the normal and twisting it (as all good horrors do).
https://youtu.be/lZqrG1bdGtg
The story excerpt is presented backwards but, as a viewer, you yearn to see the start while almost believing that the ending can be changed.
I'm not sure if this is a means to inspiration or a means to an end.
In late 1920, the Dadaist writer Tristan Tzara wrote “dada manifesto on feeble love and bitter love,” which included a section called “To Make a Dadaist Poem,” and it gave these instructions:
Take a newspaper.
Take some scissors.
Choose from this paper an article of the length you want to make your poem.
Cut out the article.
Next carefully cut out each of the words that makes up this article and put them all in a bag.
Shake gently.
Next take out each cutting one after the other.
Copy conscientiously in the order in which they left the bag.
The poem will resemble you.
And there you are – an infinitely original author of charming sensibility, even though unappreciated by the vulgar herd.
If you're looking for a dose of the less usual for information, interest and inspiration, you could do worse than taking a look at Hi Fructose Magazine.
You can find more of George RedHawk's fantastic animated GIFs via this link and that link. He demands your attention and probably deserves a post all of his own... I'll get on to that.
