Week4 - Audio Arts - Format Exercise
The short excerpt of a film that I have selected for this exercise comes from The Manchurian Candidate, which rates highly on the conspiracy scale. The excerpt is about a minute and a half long and I viewed it on a home theatre system, with 5.1 setup. To set the scene, Captain Marco (Denzel Washington) is watching the TV news, which has a story relating to himself. This triggers dreams of what "really occurred" in Kuwait (Gulf War).
5.1
The haunting strings ligtly build up in the surround speakers. The TV voice merges into the sounds of Kuwait (helicopters, people doing the mind control operations, guns loading, and the soldiers). The use of the surround speakers is important as voices and sounds whir around your head. This spatial disorientation is very effective. There are a lot of different noises, including some low frequency pounding. The 5.1 setup captures the sound in the way intended in terms of dynamics and frequency response.
Powerbook with Headphones
I played the excerpt on my PB's DVD player and found the sound to be fairly impressive. However, the number of noises that was going on tended to clutter the stereo mix coming to my headphones. The full power of the background musical noises (strings and low frequency pounding) is partially lost. The subwoofer on the 5.1 system is never dominant, but is very effective.
Other Formats
I am going to attempt to consider other possible formats for viewing this scene, starting with the iPod (and other portable music/video players). It is a fairly easy task to convert the scene to and mp4 format to be compatible with an iPod. I would have done this except that my iPod can not play videos. The visual/audio would be fairly similar to what is experienced on the laptop, but being a compressed format would result in the dynamic range being diminished (although this depends on how compressed the file ends up). The listening environment could be anywhere, but will be through headphones or white earbuds. I think that it would be much harder to experience the same level of spatial awareness that can be heard on the 5.1 and even the laptop DVD player. The mobile phone would be a difficult medium for experiencing this scene. There are too many different noises and the sound would be cluttered and confusing. I have no experience with 16mm tape, but the required spatial elements would be almost impossible.
Conclusion
I think that all possible formats would be able to effectively convey what is going on, given that the scene contrasts strongly with what preceeded and followed it. The spatial element of the scene is almost as important as the visual. Therefore, a 5.1 setup is almost a pre-requisite for viewing any modern film.
That scene was scary and disturbing.
5.1
The haunting strings ligtly build up in the surround speakers. The TV voice merges into the sounds of Kuwait (helicopters, people doing the mind control operations, guns loading, and the soldiers). The use of the surround speakers is important as voices and sounds whir around your head. This spatial disorientation is very effective. There are a lot of different noises, including some low frequency pounding. The 5.1 setup captures the sound in the way intended in terms of dynamics and frequency response.
Powerbook with Headphones
I played the excerpt on my PB's DVD player and found the sound to be fairly impressive. However, the number of noises that was going on tended to clutter the stereo mix coming to my headphones. The full power of the background musical noises (strings and low frequency pounding) is partially lost. The subwoofer on the 5.1 system is never dominant, but is very effective.
Other Formats
I am going to attempt to consider other possible formats for viewing this scene, starting with the iPod (and other portable music/video players). It is a fairly easy task to convert the scene to and mp4 format to be compatible with an iPod. I would have done this except that my iPod can not play videos. The visual/audio would be fairly similar to what is experienced on the laptop, but being a compressed format would result in the dynamic range being diminished (although this depends on how compressed the file ends up). The listening environment could be anywhere, but will be through headphones or white earbuds. I think that it would be much harder to experience the same level of spatial awareness that can be heard on the 5.1 and even the laptop DVD player. The mobile phone would be a difficult medium for experiencing this scene. There are too many different noises and the sound would be cluttered and confusing. I have no experience with 16mm tape, but the required spatial elements would be almost impossible.
Conclusion
I think that all possible formats would be able to effectively convey what is going on, given that the scene contrasts strongly with what preceeded and followed it. The spatial element of the scene is almost as important as the visual. Therefore, a 5.1 setup is almost a pre-requisite for viewing any modern film.
That scene was scary and disturbing.
posted by Adrian @ 10:32 am
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