Tag: ballet

Goodbye.

I’ve named this Goodbye as I felt that it was rather apt from what I’ve said in my research . After consulting Robert with the first draft, I removed the ballet music as he said it was rather manipulative which I agreed as it did sound a bit too depressing.

Instead, I did add more different sounds to try and convey this nostalgic yet melancholy mood. The ballet teachers voice, flames cackling and the nature soundscape still remains. The ballet teacher’s voice is reminiscence of my childhood as I’ve concluded that my ballet teachers had a very soothing and calm tone similar to the voice in the video which brought back many memories. Along with the sounds of nature, they represented my time as a child that I wanted the audience to relieve.

I’ve added the sounds of little kids laughing happily as the joy and innocence I experienced during childhood and as the paper mache tutu burns to almost darkness, sounds of crows and owls can be heard to symbolise death and it gets louder and louder until it overshadows the children’s laughter completely. 

The whole video and sounds allude to death of the past with the burning imagery and the sounds of crows and owls which in some cultures represents death. This is a continuation of my first project but this represents a means of everything comes to end. Stop lingering on the past and that part of me is gone forever.

Assignment 2 – Goodbye draft

Since this project was focused on sounds, I wanted to include sounds that I heard when I was still doing ballet as kid. That means the sounds internally in the room when I was dancing and the surroundings trees swaying to the wind and birds chirping outside. They were both very different sounds as previously, Fort Canning Arts Centre was not air-conditioned so there were fans installed and the french doors were open for the wind to enter. I chose these sounds because they were reminiscent of my childhood and it brought a sort of nostalgia when I went back there for my first project. 

I added sounds of the leaves rustling, cicadas, ballet music and a ballet teacher saying the steps and ballet music which I had found online. I wanted to convey the sounds I heard when I was young when I was having ballet lessons so as to bring you back into the past. 

To complement my sounds, I decided to add a film to go along. I was thinking of what to film while doing paper mache for my 3D project. And since I was playing around with crepe paper which itself was fragile and burns easily, I decided to use that as my medium. Moreover, the fragility of the paper reminded me of how the past makes one vulnerable and has a deep impact on our lives. So I made a paper leotard and tutu using crepe paper. I chose a black background to go with it as I felt that the flame would be more contrasting if I used a white background and the soot from the flame would not transfer onto the background. 

As you can see I did experience some difficulties in burning the paper mache as it did not burn up the way I wanted it too. It did not continue burning so I had to make a new one and dipped it in wax.

I wanted the message to contrast whereby even though I am reliving the past, the past is still gone forever. Thus, the burning imagery which I felt apt as it symbolised burning away the past.