20080823

SAT

SOUND

I’m totally fucked up right now. I actually woke up at 6:30 a.m. this morning.

Normally, I go to bed between six to eleven a.m.—so this was a total role reversal. I’m tired; so I may not be as coherent….

I did sound today for D.’s documentary. We’re following a group of activists for the democratic convention coming up this week.

Today we interviewed a woman named Medea, who is the founder of a group called CODE PINK.

A few days ago, I wrote about how every time I judge people—I end up in their shoes (entry: HIGH).

I know nothing about activism and have always avoided involvement with it.

Medea is a pretty cool lady.

It turns out that her worldviews aren’t really that different than my own; except she chooses to express them through “Activism” (I place that in quotes because that can be defined in many ways).

She’s actually very sweet natured; which was not the impression I got when people were telling me we were going to talk to a very hard-core political activist.

Later, we joined her at a hippy cafe in Denver called, THE MERCURY.

It was quite a scene, and I wished I had my own camera to shoot some these images.

Outside was your typical Winnebago hippie van—that someone spent the whole day spray-painting: cute imagery of mountains, streams and so forth…

People came from all over the United States (or World really)—who are all part of CODE PINK. We followed her around and taped her interactions and conversations.

My favorite scene was when she met with a woman named Ann Wright—a much older woman (like Grandmother age) who used to be in the military (during the Vietnam war).

They unloaded a bunch of hand painted pink bikes from the back of a 14 ft cube U-Haul—and these two older chicks are riding around the parking lot! It was really funny—especially when another Denver Lesbian all coated in pink gear and pink roller blades and a pink Japanese paper umbrella started trailing them.

Although my job was to do sound—I’m kind of a hardcore documentarian and noticed that no one was really “pulling” any content that was so virile, so ALIVE in the moment and in these women…

So, risking overstepping my boundaries, I asked Medea, “So, why don’t you interview Ann Wright for us?”

She was more than happy to, and we got some great stuff out that discussion between them.

I really love how Medea really enjoys being on camera.

The moment of my dreams came when I saw a bunch of cops peddling up in a circle to talk to one of the organizers.

I got so excited. I was like, “Medea! Go talk to the cops please!”

So here was a very unique situation—I wanted to her engage with the cops.

It was actually really funny, because she and this woman Ann started peddling up to them in on their pink bikes. They decided to sing a protesting tune while approaching them.

They engaged in a very polite conversation and it was actually very surreal and bizarre really.

I told D. a week ago that I’m bailing out of the actual shoots that involves protesting—because I have no curiosity about being arrested or getting caught in a riot.

He was cool with that…but he’s screwed for a good sound person (and made that pretty clear today).

I told him, “That guilt trip thing doesn’t work with me.” We laughed and he gave me a hug.

We’re supposed to be following an Iraq war vet named Garrett, who is protesting against the War in Iraq; not because he doesn’t believe in the war, but because he believes in America (in what Democracy is “supposed” to mean).

He has been all over the news and stuff; but I don’t know anything about these people—which makes it kind of fun.

He had grown his hair super punky spiky shaggy long and tomorrow as part of some anti-war demonstration; he’s making a political statement by letting civilians shave off his head.

I forget what the statement is “about.”

I was asked to be there in the morning to do sound because there was no one to fill in for me.

Which means I have to go to sleep at weird NORMAL human hours again.

Afterward the head-shaving thing, I’m allowed to go home—since I refuse to participate in the actual march.

Anyway, it’s quite bizarre entering into this activist scene; even if from a peripheral point of view.

I do like the content we’re getting; I mean, it’s real professional documentary filmmaking with substantial leads and is slotted for broadcast.

I had told D. that I would love to get the Cops’ side of the story too; but I don’t know if he would consider that. I think it would make the film a lot more interesting.

That’s why I got so excited when I saw the cops on bicycles mingling with the CODE PINK people. It was such a funny image: their black bikes, and the pink bikes together.

Medea pointed to a small spray can attached to a cop’s arm and asked, “What’s that?”

He said, “Oh it’s—something or other spray” (of some deadly variety) and Ann Wright goes, “What does it say? RED BULL?”

He goes, “I wish it WERE RED BULL, I’d like to have some right now.”

In any case, it was pretty ballsy of me to force everyone to run up to film the cops. Normally, people are afraid to stick cameras in cop’s faces…but somehow it seemed very natural to me.

I think I have this ability to “become invisible”—and I noticed that by turning off my vibrations, people don’t react negatively to camera equipment.

I don’t know how I ended up doing Sound. I wasn’t really planning to work again—at least, if I were, I thought I’d get back into cooking.

But things turned out very naturally for me… (esp. this strange spontaneous opportunity to work with D.).

I don’t consider myself a technical person in the least. I do things based on experience and common sense.

The whole sound recording thing manifested very strangely.

Basically, I was helping Joseph on some of his documentary school projects for fun; because I like making films. His documentary teacher noticed my sound work and asked me to come work for him; which came as a surprise really…

That was very special to me; because I have a certain relationship to Sound that people rarely notice. So I realized that when someone actually notices it, they must have the same sensibility, therefore are probably good to work with.

I basically capture sound the way I capture images.

I see sound in “images” or as entities in themselves. Sounds have their own “shapes” and bodies—even if you can’t visualize them.

They aren’t meant for visualization. They are meant for realization. They are very concrete; often more powerful than an image.

I don’t view Sound as a secondary component that “supports” the visual aspect. For this reason, I despise most music used in films (of all kinds, docs and features); people use music in a very disrespectful way in films—as crutches to move and manipulate moods—and that is wrong.

My sister came home to visit Denver a few months ago and was wondering why I was yelling profanities while watching a documentary on TV. I told her, “The Editing is sooooo bad! They keep repeating the sound of this god damn church bell–the same tune over and over every time they want to create the same mood! It’s driving me CRRAAAAZY!”

Sound is like little flowers—and you have to watch them grow; you have to be sensitive to them.

When placed along with images—they shouldn’t be whored like a prostitute giving the picture a blowjob.

Sound is often used and treated very unfairly in film; they often lack respect and dignity.

People just aren’t “developed” sensually enough to Sound—to really appreciate its art form.

They think it’s something you switch on if you want to jack off a mood: whether it’s scary, sad, happy, exciting, threatening or serious. It’s so stupid and infantile. It’s just used to booze people up—to stupefy them to not think.

The power of Sound is so much greater; and so few people know how to use it.

The industry has no regard for Art in general. So this is a moot point.

I know that D. likes all those “sloppy” noises of the mouth, from the tongue hitting the teeth, to slurping swashing saliva in the mouth—and I can’t always get that close.

But what I can get are the nuisances of directing the mic at an angle where the sound travels a certain way to your ear that feels very “close”; not “close” in terms of proximity, but close in terms of “relationship.”

It’s a subconscious effect—which I can’t really explain.

Joseph and I work magically together as a documentary team. I don’t know why, but we’re like dancers and we move very well together; very instinctively; it’s like this strange dance.

It’s like he can tell when my body is “hinting” of where he should be (or is going to be) with the camera…

I don’t think many filmmakers have that body-intuition. But we get really good stuff as result of this.

Because I’m a filmmaker, I record sound the way I shoot scenes.

I’m never really looking at one thing at a time…I’m always observing other things although the lens may be directed at one subject.

This allows me to always know where I need to be; so if a scene appear to happen “spontaneously” on camera—it’s because I was watching it unfold OFF CAMERA; and was able to turn to it.

So when I record sound, I mic the same way. I aim towards the subject, but I’m looking all around me. I hear things coming into the shot…and I am there to introduce it before the camera is even aware of it.

When I shoot docs, it’s the opposite—because I’m always looking around, I am on a scene before the sound person is aware of it.

So my goal is always to predict and anticipate a scene…and that’s why things appear to happen spontaneously.

In our reality, nothing happens spontaneously; life is very mundane, sometimes meaningless. Nothing appears to be happening.

If you glue your eyes and ears on one subject; you aren’t aware of all the other interconnecting events that are a part of it…so you don’t capture it. This is as true with Life as it is with documentary filmmaking.

I look for those moments where Life “edits” itself naturally.

In any case, I’ve gotten a lot better with doing sound and am developing a “recordist” body.

It’s almost like picking up new yoga postures…I have to make myself so tall with my body sometimes…and so small at other times; totally relaxed and “light by just balancing a bit of weight with just my fingertips, and at other times, grounding myself; gripping and being very firm and steady….

Although I try to refrain from “tech talk”: I’m beginning to love the ROLLS sound mixer.

I’ve developed a secret infatuation with this machine.

I don’t know why. It’s just a black box with a bunch of holes and numbers. But it’s so much better than the SHURE devices.

The ROLLS is built so smart: with the sound recordist’s body in mind.

It may not be what tech-heads consider “pro gear.” But I’m not a pro—I’m more into common sense and using human skills to achieve good work.

There’s a lot of shit out there shot on expensive equipment and two thousand dollar mics; they may sound “pro”—but the content might not mean anything. Whether you edit on a 80 thousand dollar editing system or a 2 thousand dollar one—the end result is not in how good or “pro” your gear is.

The ROLLS is a human device—and I love that.

Anything that doesn’t require a manual to figure out—accomplishes a lot in design.

They must have built it based on the old film NAGRA system; because they put the pouch (where you stick amenities in) right where you need “padding” the most—so that your body doesn’t accidentally move dials.

The low-cuts and phan’ buttons are placed in amazing positions beneath the device (rather than on top, so that you can just grope for the buttons from the underside—and press it—rather than cramping your hands to tweak it from the top).

The power switch is also located at the underside—which makes perfect sense to me; in terms of body alignment and intuitive placement. It is also a compression button—rather than a “left right” switch, which can be so confusing (dyslexic).

The fact that the meter lights come on automatically once power is turned on— is so useful. Instead of giving you the option of turning the light on separately, this takes ANY mystery of power being off or on/ therefore minimizes battery drainage.

When the power is on, the meters are allows illuminated; on some other brands, lights turn off as an option (which just creates more switches and confusion).

All the switches at the furthest end away from your body—so that your eye can check levels without losing eye contact with your surroundings (AND to avoid accidentally moving dials with your clothing or body).

Even all the dials set themselves in little grooves and the shapes of the buttons makes it hard to accidentally move—unless you intentionally tweak it. That’s why all the important buttons are on the top. You don’t get NASA phobic by seeing thousands of controls.

They are so smart to put the power button underneath because although it’s the first button you look for—it’s not important (you don’t adjust it all day: you turn it on/off). All the stuff that is prone to constant tweaking—are on top.

So smart how it has two sets of battery panels—so that if you drain one set—you flip a switch to kick into the other side (without stopping to change batteries).

Everything is black and all the letters and number are large, plain, bold and White. You look at it once and can “scan” all your settings because it’s laid out so simply and clearly.

Someone who designed this had the Sound Recordist’s (HUMAN) in mind; who spends most their time in the Dark (literally and figuratively)!

The controls are so simple, and lain out like a Kitchen really…like a French Kitchen—linear brigade style: cold to hot—no room for miscommunication and crossed signals or confusion!

Analog is totally the way to go. Analog is simple and ingenious.