S.O.S. Research

Amy & I decided to watch films based on cooking & chef's to listen to how they use the sound in the cooking & kitchen scenes. We have done this to gain an understanding on how they capture the sound to see how they can help us with our Sense of Space project.

The Cook The Thief His Wife & Her Lover - Peter Greenaway - 1989
Unfortunately I could not find any video clips or sound extracts of this film showing the use of sound.

During the kitchen & cooking scenes throughout this film there are many ways Peter Greenaway has chosen to use sound that Amy & I found very interesting & definitely works well for our idea on how we imagined to use sound for our project.
There was great amount of emphasis on certain sounds that are happening in the scene but also further away from the camera which allows you to hear them as though you are right next to them. For example:

-          Sharpening of knives

-          Chopping & preparing of food

-          Movement & clattering of cutlery & plates

Also even in the scenes that are not based in the kitchen but in the restaurant where customers are eating there meals, there is the constant sound of cutlery cutting food on plates, chewing of food & slurps of drinking. These sounds are constantly changing levels of volume depending on the focus of the story and main characters in focus as well.

At 32 minutes & 20 seconds in there is a scene in the kitchen where there is the use of a strong echo which makes the sound of beating of food, whisking of sauces & knives being sharpened stand out & more dominant. Also the level of volume is raised when these tasks are the only thing that is in focus of the camera, capturing every minor detail in the sound of these actions.

At 36 minutes in & 9 seconds in attention to the sound again is raised when the Pot Washer is in the scene where you can hear the slightest detail in movement or action. For example:

-          Scraping the leftover food of plates with hands

-          The slightest ripple of water & splashes when plates are placed into the sink

-          Clattering of the plates when they are placed onto the drying racks

Throughout these scenes where there is great emphasis on the sound characters are speaking & the narrative is happening in the film normally as it would be like in real life which Amy & I found very interesting.

Towards the end of film there is a great scene which we believed captured sound greatly. When the main characters are in the kitchen they walked past certain cooking appliances so they were in focus of the camera, which then the volumes was raised. When the characters walked away from the appliances & they were no longer in view there volumes was lowered again so you could no longer see them. For example:

-          The bubbling of boiling water in pots that sit on top of cookers

-          The hissing of steam from hot water when near the sinks & the Pot Washer

After we watched the film Amy & I tried to find out how they could have captured these sounds in this certain way, maybe by placing hidden mics on characters & hid mics behind certain props (also record the sounds out of screen & when editing placing them in sync with the images). As there are no visuals in this project we believe it will be slightly easier to capture the sound as we can place the mics anywhere because we do not need to worry about them being in view of a camera.