Sound Design Day 1 + Battle of Algiers

Today we started looking at Sound design and what we'll be doing over the next few weeks. We started off by talking about the importance of sound in films and the different layers that soundtracks are comprised of such as the atmospheric layer and foley and spot sounds. We are working towards creating either a soundtrack for an existing film scene, a photo or a sound journey. We are also not to use any non-diagetic sound.

We were shown this video about foley sound as well.
https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=GrbgY6ajTgo

One of the activities we started off with was to go off and record 'atmospheric' sounds. I decided to record inside the lift and then various points around the O2 and outside of the building although I did find a lot of the sounds I recorded sounded quite similar. I have attached below the sound file I took from the lift.

We then went off to record some spot sounds and consider if they could be used to represent different sounds on screen. For example I recorded a sound of me tapping on one of the bannisters and thought  that it could be used as the sound of glasses at a dining table.
Lift sound
Bannister sound
We've been asked to watch some tutorials about how to use Adobe audition on Adobe TV and take a look at some of the recommended reading provided on the course handbook.

In the afternoon we then watched the film 'Battle of Algiers'. This is a French/Algerian film directed by Gillo Pontecorvo which followed the true story of the Algerian National Liberation Front and it's terror strategies to revolt against the French colonial rule of the time. The film came out in 1966 and won the Golden Lion prize at the Venice Film Festival. We had just spent the date talking about foley and sound design so a lot of us were consciously listening out for the soundtrack. The sounds of weapons and explosions were heavily featured throughout the film along with the sounds of shoes running. There were also different themes for different characters which varied during the movie depending on the atmosphere of the scenes. I was interested to learn that only one of the actors in the film was a professional actor who had acted in previous films.(John Martin who played Colonel Matheiu).

We were also asked to reflect on the relevance of this story today. Whilst watching the film I was comparing the resistance efforts of the National liberation front, presented in the film, to the independence efforts in India. Which is the only other independence story I am really familiar with as I am Indian. I found that a lot of my peers were struggling engage with the narrative and were having trouble understanding why the Algerian natives couldn't just accept French colonial rule instead of just resorting to terrorism. In my experience this often a very common attitude amongst people who aren't very well versed with elements of colonial history. I would feel uncomfortable comparing the terrorists presented in this film with the acts of terrorism we have been experiencing recently here in the UK.After reading up some more about the Battle of Algiers I learnt that a lot of native Algerians were segregated to a Muslim quarter and live like second class citizens in order to accommodate the Europeans,furhtermore the military had been known to use acts of torture as well (which were depicted in the film). Whilst I would never agree with or try to justify terrorism of murder it is easier to understand the frustration and desperation that caused the FLN (national liberation front) to resort to violence as means of helping their country regain it's status as an independent country.