"It's only real if you believe it's real. Life, love, happiness. You have to believe..." - Week Seven

I know this blog is a little late... However, I think that could be a good thing. After last weeks lecture on audio and all that jazz I decided to go out and see Passchendaele. I must say, after having a lecture on audio and how it is made and put into movies, what's real and what isn't, I definitely looked at the movie completely differently. I especially looked at it differently during the opening scene. Every little sound I detatched from the actual video, and I visualized the layers. What was added in afterwards, what (like some of the dialogue) was probably kept from the original shooting. Also, I must say that I have great respect for people (like your husband, Lori) for doing sound in a movie like that. Or in any movie, really. I mean, it's gotta be hard work.

While I watched Passchendaele I listened closely to every layer of sound. The background noise, the guns/bombs/explosions/etc, the galloping of hooves and the moving of the soldiers packs while they ran, even the voices. That's a lot of layers, and a lot of sound to put into a movie. Which lead me to thinking about where I want to go in my career after RTA. Sound effect making... Sounds pretty amazing to me. Really, it's a fascinating process and I'm intrigued by it all. I never knew all the noises you could make with vegetables and I never really thought about how sound effects in movies were made. Last lecture definitely made me look at movies differently.

But, it's not the first time a lecture has done that to me in the past two months.

The radio is just a time log in my head now. I'm constantly aware of format, target audience, music, commercials, CanCon, etc.

Station IDs, PSAs and Commercials are just layers, seperate audio tracks made into one, in my head now.

I went back to my old high school for a concert just last week and while they had audio issues I was tempted to go up in the booth and help them. I actually KNEW what they had to do to fix the problems. Last year I didn't even know there was a difference between a condenser mircophone and a dynamic mircophone.

Video Killed the Radio Star came on the radio while I was in the car with my friends and I immediately blurted out "Did you know that this was the first song ever to be played on MTV when it first started up?".

I never knew Farnsworth created the television. Or that there was a difference between private and public broadcasting. Nor did I know that the Beatles made multitrack recording popular.

Look what has happened to me!

I'm knowledgable in things that I've wanted to be knowledgable in for a long time.

And hey, I'm so not complaining. I still love my program, and everything I've been learning.

Anyway, that's my blog post for week seven. I'm gonna get back on track with these blogs. I know I get behind a bit, but at least they're getting done.

Shelly