Sound & Lynne Sachs

In doing the sound exercise last week, I learned a lot about how certain sounds can compliment each other and the different moods that you can create based on what you select. For our project, Melody-Fayth and I wanted to create a soundscape that was warm and nostalgic. We selected sounds that reminded us of childhood, references to old films, and had a rhythm to them. It was hard not to make music or a narrative through our soundscape and I questioned whether or not we were staying true to the experimental spirit. We kept close to abstraction, feeling each sound in the sound bank before selecting one to fit into a specific section of the track. I ultimately learned how to be precise and careful. It was a surreal experience overall for me as I'm not an audio person and describing what I wanted everything to sound like felt awkward.

As for Lynne Sachs, can I first start out by saying that it is pretty awesome that she collaborated with Chris Marker? Moving on, Sachs is an interesting figure especially how she manages to pull her own life experiences as influence in her own work. Reading about her accounts of Chinatown inspired me to reflect on my own work and process. Do I include my own memories and little things that interest me in my work? I've looked at certain events and objects in order to find inspiration before. Sachs also had a bit of intertextuality as an influence - she mentions Truffaut as part of her title influence and pays homage to him.

Speaking of homage, I watched the Sachs short film Atalanta: 32 Years Later, which was Sachs' tribute to girl on girl romance, according to the description for the video. I liked the found footage element of the film and found it to be trippy. It was very abstract, although there was a loose narrative, and I liked how intimate it felt. I'm a huge fan on work that feels like home video or an intimate look into another's life or feeling. I try to model my own work in that style, channeling as many inner feelings as I can. I like the intertextuality of it all and how delicate the film feels. It's almost like falling asleep and dreaming of a fantasy, but one too good to be true and far away in another dimension.

Comments

  1. Ryan LoudermilkSeptember 20, 2017 at 2:14 PM

    "Home video" type films such as the ones you discuss are my favorite, as well. There's something so deeply personal about them, like you're being let in on a secret. This is why Jonas Mekas is one of my favorite experimental filmmakers, but I don't have to tell you that, femalejonasmekas! I love your description of the feeling you experienced watching Atalanta: 32 Years Later. I felt very similarly but would not have been able to put it into such beautiful words. You describe feelings as well as Sachs does!

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