Sound can add emotions to artwork - CreativeMindClass Blog
Phil Brookes is a music creator and sound designer hailing from Wales. He has worked alongside TedEd, Greenpeace, Tate, Medium, Passion, Strangebeast as well as other. The music and sound design have also played at festivals such as Cannes, BFI London, GLAS, and Giffoni with multi-award-winning films.
In the video below the interviewer will discuss how Phil was inspired to become a musician and check out the valuable tips on how to start in the world of sounds. In addition, take a look at the musical details of a great Socks project he worked on along with Eva Munnich.
Phil Brookes' background
I'm a musician and sound designer who hails from Wales located in UK.
From the time I remember, I have always been awed by the sounds of music, sound, and voices. I remember falling asleep before the washer as young children, and being captivated by its droning (appropriate, considering the project I'll be talking about!) was my first memory of sound.
I began to mimic funny accents and voices.
My father was an obsessive hi-fi enthusiast and would use recording equipment to make noises that he would sing, adding effects such as reverb and delay to his voice just for fun. I would mimic him and others like Jim Carrey and Robin Williams with a little dictaphone and duplicate all of the humorous voice and accents they could come up with.
Prince
My older brother played guitar, and it was his love for music and specifically the multi-instrumentalist Prince that really rubbed off on me. When my brother moved out and left his guitar at home, and when I was an adult, I used it to teach myself enough to start writing and recording music. Inspiring myself to produce sounds I had seen on records or TV and then creating my own music in the material already available.
This passion to utilize the resources available to create or recreate sound remains what drives me to continue to push myself to the limit today. I am awestruck by the challenges of learning as I create and my favorite method of writing is in the moment. Improvising, experimenting, jamming.
I learned to play piano as well as synth to make the music for 'But Milk is important'.
My obsession took me to The University of South Wales in Cardiff which is where I first met the amazing animator Eirik Gronmo Bjornsen. He came back to Norway and created a short film together with Anna Mantzaris called 'But Milk is Important'.
I taught myself piano and synth to make the music for it as well, and in the time since I started I've been working on the film I've assumed sound design roles as well, and I haven't stopped creating.
The X-Files Project, aka the "Socks Project"
Recently, I collaborated alongside the incredible visual artist, Eva Munnich for the very third of the three Lemonade Insurance projects I've created the music and sound for.
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The Lemonade videos are hilarious 15-30 second animations which can be looped. Eva's project had a strong sci-fi/extraterrestrial theme to it, and so she had some great ideas about music and sound.
9 times out 10 I will create the sound first as the ambience I create can be a source of inspiration to create music.
We've also talked to Eva about her process for designing animation and visuals to be used in The X-Files project. Listen to the full interview with Eva Munnich.
Vocally, Eva liked the voices I'd performed in a previous TedEd animation I made with Lisa Vertudaches.
In that animation, I had pitched up my vocals significantly. The animator thought that this could fit for the particular sock and requested that I say "yay" in this voice. When I recorded this "yay" I left the record in motion, and added "seeya" prior to when that sock entered into the UFO.
Eva liked it, so it was kept in. The other voices were created improvised in the same way I observed them.
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If the washer were to speak and a voice, the machine would sound low.
In order to contrast the loud voice of the sock, I toned down my voice to the washing machine; as it's a huge object which is quite large, I thought if it were to have a voice, it would be able to convey some depth. I mixed these with the foley and mixed the sounds ready for the music to be put on.
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I loved the X-Files songs as a child.
Musically, Eva thought it would be interesting to create an idea that was inspired by the theme from The X-Files, which I enjoyed immensely since I loved the music when I was a child!
Much like the vast majority of work I've done I'm working with an animatic (almost as a moving storyboard) that animators give me so that I can gain a sense of the timing, etc.
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I enjoy sci-fi films and game soundtracks.
I am a fan diverse kinds of music. that includes sci-fi movies as well as game soundtracks. So as well as being influenced by the X Files theme, I had an idea of what instruments might work well within this genre.
I mostly used synthesizers, drones, and basses to build the basis of my music. The drones were layered to capture the perfect atmosphere, and also representing the light beam from the ufo to abduct our tiny sock.
I made an incredibly powerful drum by mixing two kick drum samples with a delay and reverb. I also added a delaying synth that pans from left to right in order to make the music appear more immersive. The last synth I used using was the 6-note pattern that is repeated through.
Whistling can be a wonderful human aspect to include in the music.
The time was right to draw cues from the X-Files and include a delayed piano pattern and a whistle. I love to whistle and think it to be a fantastic factor to include in an arrangement. I had originally recorded basses guitar parts However, I found that they did not fit with the synthesized tone I was trying to achieve.
Piano pattern
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The whistle
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Creating an atmosphere in fifteen seconds isn't easy.
It was a pleasure working with Eva, and this short-form approach is really thrilling and enjoyable to design within. Although it's quick however, it's an enormous amount of work and poses its own set of problems.
Creating and establishing an atmosphere within 15 seconds using the sounds can be quite difficult and musically fitting in a melody that doesn't sound like it was recorded in a hurry is quite an accomplishment also.
This is a challenge I enjoy, though, and since Eva's animation, I have worked on two more really exciting Lemonade projects! The process videos of them on my website and on Instagram.
How to begin adding sound to visuals
If you're interested in using sound in an image, there are now more innovative options to accomplish this than ever before, and there's the best time to start doing it now than today.
- If you're a person with an urge to be creative, then follow it to whatever direction it takes you. One of the best ways to begin creating is to make stuff you love and show the people what you have created.
- Send messages to budding filmmakers who are in the same boat as you,they have always been looking for help with sound, and you might forge a working partnership.
- It is necessary to begin with a place. I was making ambient music prior to the time I considered the possibility to pursue a career in film and thankfully there was an animation department at my school, however prior to that, I had made and created enough sound and music to make it logical for me to take the path that presented the opportunity.
- Meet others in the field; that's how collaboration is about. If you are fortunate enough to live in an area that has festival nights, film nights and other activities, you should visit them to meet people.
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