exercise: create a new soundtrack

OK,  I've changed my mind. It kind of felt bad not doing the exercise, and I really believe sound is half of the image (as mentioned in the course notes) so better practicing a bit... let's try and do the exercise. I have assumed the course notes make reference to the exercise in project 3, the feel of a frame, where we filmed the subjective point of view relapse of an alcoholic at home.
Here is the video, and below the list of sounds in it.

Note that describing sounds, not being an english native speaker, is not my thing. In the notes we are given some clues, like use a flavour, a smell, a colour, an emotion, physical texture...

• the coffee machine: Mechanical, loud, vibrant, sour, dark, frightening.
• the blinds opening: crispy, brisk, sharp.
• the sound of the book pages and the book on the table: soft, melancholic, earthy.
• opening the bottle: musical,  salty.
• pouring the wine: joyous, musical, soft, light. 

Create a new soundtrack

Re-recording the sounds and editing them in the video editor. We need to create a new soundtrack for our video. The next things have been changed:

• I have integrated the coffee machine audio between the two different shots, now the audio track is continuous
• The blinds noise is recorded new, the previous audio discarded. Before we could hear other noises from the camera or the opening rod, i.e. the audio quality was bad.
• In the TV shoot, I have introduced the sound earlier, when we are in the previous scene. I think this is cool, not any other particular reason. It helps to introduce a scene that is different from the previous, and quite different. 
• I have joined the audios of the TV scenes, extending the audio from one scene into the next one and mixing them at the same level, so it seems more continuous, without obvious breaks.
• I have eliminated sharp ends, i.e. when you stop listening to the TV, now it fades away instead of ending abruptly.
• I have re-recorded the noise of the book. before you could hear noises from the camera, and the quality was not good, as the sound was almost imperceptible. 
• I have re-recorded the sound of the steps. Again, the quality of the sound was poor, with some undesired noises. 
• I have deleted, whenever possible, the noises from the camera and my breath. I have recorded "silence" in the room and filled the gaps with it. 

The results are below:

exercise: listening

Find the most silent place you can. Listen. What can you hear?

At home, in the open kitchen - living room, and alone at home. I can hear some mysterious sound from outside, it's always there, and I'm never sure where it comes from, it might be some water pumps from the bay, or some kind of equipment in the office block in front of my flat, but it's continuous, and sometimes it stops, leaving a - sometimes awkward, sometimes peaceful  emptiness. I can also hear the noise coming from the fridge, not the one when it's noisy, but the one that is there when it's quiet. Finally I can also hear the noises that my electric heating does when it's kicking off, like somebody knocking at low pace. 

Then I try to listen the same "silence" through the earphones connected to my camera. None of them, except probably the knocks from the heating, can be heard, as the main noise is created by the microphone itself. 

Can you identify the sound of silence itself?

As a building services engineer, I have studied sound as a physical phenomenon, and the different levels and measurement of sound. I know that silence can be different in different places, I know that in a classroom, in total silence, you might have 60dBA, and to design a hotel room you should select equipment not noisier than 30dBA at night (how, if 60dBA was already silent!? ah, cause silence is subjective to the environment). 

I also know that the purest silence we can create is in an anechoic chamber, and the sensations in it can be really uncomfortable, up to the point that you can't stand in it very long. 

I also know that if you create a very low noise design in an office, the people will complain, because privacy is compromised. Then you have to create some background noise (still people will only hear silence, though) to negate speech sound in adjacent areas. 

To conclude, silence is a weird thing. 

Then the notes ask to analyse the objects that were subject to make sound in the sequence we did for project 2. As I can't find any "sequence" requested in project 2, I leave this exercise... too confusing. Let's move on.