Here in all of its glorious 11 minutes and 46 seconds is Luke White’s short ‘Tide’

A beautiful short made at LCC last year. Here’s a short description taken from Luke’s website blackpaint.co.uk

“A boy and his father live a harsh existence against a desolate backdrop. Whilst the father is stranded, the boy’s physique allows him to pass through a small tunnel leading to a place very different from their own. He brings back footage to satisfy his fathers desire to re-live memories of when he too could make this journey. Tide is the story of a father’s obsession that will ultimately lose him the respect of his son, and in turn his companionship.”

TIDE from luke white on Vimeo.

I (Chris Box) was lucky enough to be involved, creating the sound design for this, recording foley, ADR and mixing it at Borough Studios here in London.  Since completion it has gone on to be screened at both the BFI and London Shorts Festival (and many more).

Hope I’ve included everyone in this list.

Father – Liam Thomas, Son – Luke Williams

Writer & Director – Luke White, Producer – Emilia Dobrogowska, Cinematographer – David Stafford-Clark, Production Designer – Jessica Bernard, Assistant Director – James Fisher, Associate Producer – Zuzana Markova, Costume Designers – Jessica Bernard & Ruth Wade, Make-Up Artists – Claire Belling & Jessica Bernard, Production Assistants – James Winterflood, Nicolas Crew & Anna Jurkoweicka, Focus Puller – James Stafford-Clark, Johanna Lietha, Jessica Greene, Alba Moronuiz & Jack Newman, Clapper Loader – Johanna Lietha, Holly Cleary & Alexandra Michaels, Sound Recordist – Chris Box & Chris Mcquillan , Gaffer & Grip – Paul Kemp, Sparks – Holley Cleary, Chris Brown & Ritvan Mislikovjan, Continuity – Analisa Tremolada & Anna Meller, Set Construction – Fred Mercer, Mirela O’Prey, Matt Hansell, Joe D’Ovidio, Yoku Ishida, Chaperone – Mark Bromley, Editor – Armen Antranikian, Sound Designer – Chris Box, Foley Recordist – Palani Bala

Over the last few months we have been amassing as much gear as possible to make your productions as proffessional, stress free and with a variety of options.

We have equipment for any small drama, documentary, eng, interviews voice overs… pretty much anything really.

We have a wide array of microphones for use on location or in the studio, for both dialogue, effects and music.

For dialogue in interior locations we strongly recommend our Schoeps CMC641.  This extremely high quality condenser mic sounds incredibly natural and has great rear rejection which heps combat reverberant spaces. In outdoor locations we have the new Rode NTG3 shotgun microphone.  This sounds identical to the Sennheisser MKH416, a long term industry workhorse.  Not only does this microphone provide great rejection of lateral sound (great for noisy locations where distant traffic is an obstacle), this RF mic will also work under the harshest conditions in low temperatures and high humidity.  When there is no way to get in a cabled microphone, we can also provide new Audio Technica wirelees mics.  There are two available which can also be used  connect a mixer to your camera.  There are also a range of microphones for other applications such as Rode NT1 (for voice over or music application), NT3 (voice or foley recording), Shure SM57 (music, voice and loud effects recording such as gunfire), contact mics, telephone pick ups and plenty more.

There is an SQN 4S series IV location mixer that can mix up to 4 tracks of audio into 2 channels that can be recorded into camera or any other device.  SQN’s are highly reliable and have been used for film and broadcast for over 20 years.  We can also record remotely onto 2 Zoom SD recorders or to hard drive through a Laptop.

We also provide facilities for post production with a choice of several small facilities operating Pro Tools Le, Logic Pro, Soundtrack Pro and Final Cut which are cost effective and can work remotely.  For larger productions we can provide high broadcast grade facilities at Borough Studios right near london bridge which houses 2 Pro Tools HD recording studios.

For rates and more information conact chris@sound-spot.co.uk

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Just this afternoon Illiterate knife rack and I have started development on a new project.

Details on this project are still under deep talks and I you will be all updated when things are solidly in place.

However in the immediate future we are planning an experimental shoot in a months time in Dungeness.  This will involve IKR and myself spending a few days in a cold tent as far away from anything as possible exploring the landscape with sound and vision.  What we will find will greatly affect our plans for the project and what we really want to say so stay tuned.

Although ‘The Jazz Singer’ is widely referred to as the fore-bearer of the talkies, I have often read of a great many experiments in the field of synchronized sound in film.  Such examples date back decades before ‘The Jazz Singers’ 1927.

Here is Dickinson’s experiment with his and Edison’s Kinetophone which dates over 30 years earlier in 1895.  This is a film I have not seen for some time and it is interesting to take note of Edison’s huge cone microphone taking up much of the left of frame.

In the years leading up to ‘The Jazz Singer’ there seems to have a fair amount of competing systems that run in a variety of ways ranging from accompanying gramaphones, phonographs and photographic methods, however Gaumont is a company that I have often read about but have still not seen any examples of (if you have some please post them, please)

Anyway I have been hunting down examples of sound film that predates ”The Jazz Singer’. I am particularly interested in this first example of Vitaphone which contains strictly the on screen human voice, something of which that mainstream avoided for quite some time.

Audio Post Production Showreel by Palani. Autumn 2009. Featuring works from University of The Arts London Alumni.

Palani Sound Post Showreel from Palani Bala on Vimeo.

After further reading of ‘Film a Sound Art‘, Chion mentions something that resonates with all of my previous experience in sound design, that of subjectivity.

He argues that the sound film has ’succeeded in creating codes to translate physiological subjectivity but not psychological subjectivity.’

By this he means that when the soundtrack shifts from it’s the objective to the subjective, this is almost always to signify the physical ills of a character.  Think of every time a character is poisoned and the dialogue echos and or filters of into obscurity as the character drifts out of consciousness. Chion himself uses two examples to illustrate this point, these being: the diabetic sequences in the ‘Panic Room‘ and the poisoning of Ingrid Bergman in Hitchcock’s ‘Notorious‘.

Panic Room 4:00

This focus on the physiological still seems to me to be hanging on to aural objectivity, an attempt to objectify the sensation of ones illness.   Although there may be no clear intent to portray psychological subjectivity in cinema, there does however seem to be many intelligent and creative ways of suggesting the psychological through the physiological.  For example, during the beach landings of ‘Saving Private Ryan‘, ‘Capt. John Miller’ (Tom Hanks) is overcome with shell-shock. Although this seems a straight forward interpretation of the physiological, distancing of the sound and screaming of the shells also signifies Miller’s confusion, panic and mental paralysis, which suggests the psychological.

Join El Club Cinema Commercial from Kasia Sobocinska on Vimeo.

Here it is up on Vimeo and in HD Join El Club Cinema Commercial / Skillset director: Victor Naveira writer : Joseph Kendle director of photography: Luis Posada camera operator: Kasia Sobocinska producer: Stephen Roberts production designer: James Morrall key art director: Jessica Hand editor : Adrian Thompson sound designers: Palani Bala, Chris Box

If you trace the history of these 6 seconds of drums, from the late Gregory C Coleman, you will also trace an entire history of sampled music.  Moving through genres such as Hip Hop, Breakbeat, Jungle, Hardcore, Drum & Bass, even Britpop, & Metal as well as Commercials. Originally from the B side of The Winstons 1969 single ‘Color Him Father’, ‘Amen Brother’s 6 second drum solo has immersed itself into popular culture.

Through the use of samplers through hip hop producers in the 1980s and 90s and similarly electronic musicians like Mantronix, the ‘Amen Break’ quickly became synonymous with electronic music.  It’s common use again and again within genres meant that it has been taken away from its original context and been re-appropriated into a new culture. Like the standards of Jazz and Rock ‘n’ Roll and folk cultures throughout history, the ‘Amen Break’ has become a central part of Hip Hop and Electronic music.  Each DJ, Producer, Musician that uses the ‘Amen Break’ is not just using 6 seconds of a record, they are using a central component of a culture and adding their personal stamp, constantly adding new meaning.

This constant evolving and developing of the Amen Break is often a slow evolution, however every now and again a huge leap in its use can be seen, through both technological and economic means. After the emergence of breakbeat, electronic musicians began to use new and more sophisticated samplers that allowed samples to be not only looped, but chopped, reordered, reversed and lots more.  This gave way to Jungle and eventually ‘Drum and Bass’. More recently, as electronic and sampled music have become a major part in mainstream music, and as clear systems developed for the use of samples, the corporate and commercial world has swallowed the ‘Amen Break’ into its industries.

As mainstream media eventually absorbs youth culture, the Amen Break can now be heard in commercials, corporate videos and TV shows.  In fact the coups de gras can be found in Matt Groening’s ‘Futurama’ where the ‘Amen Break’ is used alongside its brother (another giant of sampling cultre) the ‘Apache Break’ (from Mike Viner’s Incredible Bongo Band cover of the Shadows song Apache). Nate Harrison’s audio installation ‘Can I Get an Amen’, provides an interesting and in-depth profile and history of the Amen Break.  In this piece Harrison questions why the ‘Amen Break’ has become a ‘key aural ingredient in contemporary cultural expression’ and the relationship between an emerging art form and copyright law.

Working with Nate Harrisons voice (among others), I have put together a mix together which attempts to visualize or auralize his ideas.  This cut and paste documix you will hopefully enjoy and will take you through a history and also a development sampling culture itself as well as the amen break.  This was originally available through Blue Slims Radio but is now also available through the CardBoardBoss  podcast and hopefully Squidge.

Amen Documix - Boco Further more if you are interested in finding out more about the amen break (if you start you will never finish)

here are a few links for you to peruse.

A long but very short list of tracks using the Amen Break

40 variations of the ‘Amen Break’

Skillset funded ‘Join El Club’ is  like ‘Fight Club’ except with a certain food product.

Sound design by Chris Box and Palani Bala with music fromthe Paraiso Samba Band…