Final Project

Solitude from Priscilla Kwong on Vimeo.

MOMI

We went to visit the MOMI, Museum of Moving Images, last week on Wednesday. Beyond seeing the vague ads in the subway, I had no expectations on what the museum would feature.

The tour and the museum itself was much more interactive with the context of its exhibits than I’ve experienced in other museum visits. It held more formal aspects of film and media such as the history of film cameras, costume design drawings, the zoetrope, and set design models but also modern aspects like the Star Wars collection section or the Why are cats so popular? corner. It was fascinating in how the start of the tour went from a wide open space to a narrower area. We went from a replica of 2001 Space Odyssey to the skinny passages of Tut’s Fever Movie Palace.

The demonstration that left the biggest impression on me was the Audio Dialogue Replacement booth. I never consciously considered using audio not only to replace what wasn’t recorded well but to achieve a comedic feeling with it. We did a brief three line sequence from “Some like It Hot”. It was hilarious when we had a male voice speaking Marilyn Monroe’s lines. The way she delivers them is funny but having a mix of male and female voices, some of them deadpan, was amusing and created a parody like tone. After writing and watching so many emotionally impactful films, I forgot how to convey happier feelings so this was a great experience. 

The Third Work Symposium

I was able to catch the ends of the “Enunciative Acts: On the Materiality of the Voice” and all of “Strangers on a Journey: Mimetic Sound, Synchresis and the Attraction of Foley” and the “Live Foley Performance”.  Each panel expanded on or criticized how fiction and non-fiction media represent audio-visual relationships.

Panelists Irina Leimbacher and Pooja Rangan elaborated on the subversive status accorded to the voice. In editing interviews, typical practices attend to voice to lead attention on it by taking out the “uhs” and “ums”. It disinvests the power of voice, ventriloquizes the voice and body. It creates a disjunction of individual and personal experience. Rangan highlighted the voice and body are to be taken into equal consideration, but we should also acknowledge the voice is embodied to begin with.  

In the panel of Foley & Synchresis, Jackie Goss stated when sound and image have the same connotation, it becomes a less complex experience for the audience. She had shown a section of “Hello Photo” in which footsteps were the same Foley sound for every person. Humans can perceive the slightest noises. It was noticeable the current person’s footsteps sounded exactly the same as the person three seconds ago. She proposed, with the Robert Bresson definition, image and sound should not support one another. Goss featured “I Begin to Know You” and specified the exaggerated Foley, the never fully fused image and sound, and the continuous switch of Foley and music. She concluded Foley that uses space for confusion between image and sound has the most profound effect.  

Kelly Kirshtner performed a live Foley soundtrack to a short video loop from Jeanne Dielman’s “23 quai du Commerce, 1080 Bruxelles”. The character enters the dining room, sets the table, and leaves. She continuously added additional sounds on each pass of the loop while Daniel Robert Kelly’s interactive program would decay older tracks, dismantling the soundtrack as new sounds were recorded. The sounds she produced disassociated from the image. She exaggerated sounds, used the closing click of a box or the sounds of swirling water to suggest the character doing something off-screen, and placed the ‘clink’ of glass milliseconds after the image sets two glasses down. It reinforced the original narrative and invented an alternative narrative simultaneously. 

Relationship Between Shots

The editing in the bar fight in Kingsman: The Secret Service (2015) plays a significant role to the pace and tone of the sequence. It starts with an establishing shot of the location, Black Prince bar, and cuts to a group of men opening the front door. The continuity isn’t disrupted as the character points to somewhere, which we find in the next shot to be Eggsy and Harry. It switches to a group shot that establishes the location, the group approaching the table, and the two men sitting. From there, the quick POV cuts are alternated by dialogue, reaction close up shots, and over the shoulder shots.

All of these shots are carried by the soundtrack of the ominous violin and cello. The tone of which creates a menacing atmosphere. The comedic aspects are built through the dread on Eggy’s face and the two “dun dun” violin sounds that replaces Eggy’s dialogue. The audience recognizes something is about to occur when the music picks up in pace and there is a shallow close up shot to Harry’s face. There’s a brilliant rack shot, just before the action starts, the group is walking towards Harry, focuses back on his face when he delivers his line, and then focuses back on the group.

Ultimately, the sequence doesn’t lose the audience by consistently editing the shots to work with the music to create a dramatic and comedic undertone while developing an anticipation by having shorter shots, cutting quickly, and faster and decisive musical beats.  

Audio Portrait

Define A Space

Escalator from Priscilla Kwong on Vimeo.

I Hear...

I had been contemplating where I could absorb sounds without losing focus. Maybe a park, with its birds and people and traffic, or maybe a sidewalk on a busy street, or even a subway cart on the way home. But it’s terribly easy to get lost in the cacophony; distinctive conversations as people pass by or when a car beeps louder than the rest.

So on a Tuesday night, I headed over to Grand Central Terminal. Maybe my logic doesn’t make a lot of sense, but at 6PM on a weekday, the hustle and bustle of a city encapsulated in a huge space but still public and centralized in a way a simple NYC sidewalk isn’t. It was there that I wasn’t capable of hearing distinctive conversations. Instead, it was a hum of noise, a merge of dialogue. I could still recognize people talking to one another but the massive crowd and multitude of languages created a united background noise that echoed and lingered. It never ended but dipped high and low in volume.

Along with it was the sounds of walking: shuffling, sliding, and squeaking. The rolling of suitcases, the shutters of cameras, the train announcer alerting passengers with the mic creating a pinch-like undertone. Grand Central Terminal, a train destination and a tourist trap all at once.

It is also a popular place to ask for someone’s hand in marriage. At 6:30PM, a woman and man arrived by the central clock. He was fumbling for a small velvet box and went down on one knee. Suddenly, screams and whistles came from one of the balconies, a small group of people holding “Will you marry me?” signs. Then the flashes and shutter sounds from cameras became louder and a wave of clapping to congratulate the newly engaged couple.

But those sounds slowly died down and the hum of noises carried on.

Artist Statement

I want to create sublime plots, complex situations, and nuanced characters to leave viewers agonizing over and over, to influence and inspire as fiercely as they have inspired me. 

I read voraciously. I consume hundreds and thousands of words every day but I rarely read books. Instead, I read fiction produced by fans. They explore topics, genres, and themes beyond the guidelines of mainstream media, celebrate characters sidelined in canon, and expand the most minuscule of details into the most intricate of plots.

These enthusiasts are passionate about their craft, passionate about their writing. I found myself intrigued. What was so inspiring about these films they would gush over or the latest episode of a television show they had fallen in love with? What was so captivating about these mediums that could motivate people to dedicate hours of their time to write five hundred thousand words?

So I took my first film class. And my second. And then my third. Until I finally took the plunge and switched my major from computer science to film.

I have no concrete path I’ve committed myself to pursue. Screenwriting, sound editing, directing, video editing, and all other fields within film are fascinating to me. I want to dip my toes, fingers, and fries into the front and back ends of the film industry. I want to make subtly detailed films that evoke lasting impressions but also incorporate minorities: dynamic and interesting female characters, unconventional portrayals of relationships, and the more eccentric aspects of human nature.