Week Long Project – USITT Teaching Archive

Creating Rich Story Supporting Ambiances

June 30, 2015May 23, 2019 Christopher Plummer

Students will be given prompts describing a background environment and at least 3 foreground sounds. They will then be tasked with creating the environment and foreground sounds using three different techniques: 1) All field-recording based; 2) All synthesized; 3) All “Foley” (in-studio effects recording)-based. Students will explore different techniques for establishing a scene and telling narrative stories through sound by being tasked with generating three distinct versions that all represent their prompt.

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Sound Effect Scavenger Hunt

June 8, 2015June 8, 2015 Christopher Plummer

Students must find a specific list of three sound effects using found objects to create those sounds.

Mastering Tools: Sculpture

June 8, 2015June 8, 2015 Christopher Plummer

Students create a 1:00 to 1:30 minute sound composition using only the synthesizer Sculpture. This forces them to develop at least some expertise with a synthesizer and the assignment is designed to require them to delve fairly deeply into its operation. The assignment is also designed to require them to create movement using non-tonal, or at least non-note methods.

Creating Ghosts

June 8, 2015June 8, 2015 Christopher Plummer

Students create soundscapes for three different ghosts. These soundscapes should be haunting in specific ways that relate to the cultural and personal history of the Ghost. Each of the three Ghosts must be distinctive and each haunting soundscape needs to draw us through a moment, they should not be static atmospheres but should tell a story.

Interactive Children’s Book

June 8, 2015February 10, 2019 Christopher Plummer

Create a sound design for a children’s book. The design involves not only the audio content but also the playback and control system that allows the reader to trigger the sounds in a simple, asynchronous way.

The One-Minute Sound Story

June 8, 2015June 8, 2015 Christopher Plummer

Students create a one-minute long sound track that tells any story that they choose using only non-verbal sounds. The sound stories are then played for the class and everyone except the person who created the story tries to determine what happened. Following this discussion the story’s creator describes their intention for the action of the story. The class then discusses which aspects of the story communicated well and how to improve those that did not.