Senior Digital Media Studies major Ben Wright sat down for an interview regarding his ongoing project, Sound on Film.
“Sound On Film is a unique video performance series with Barefoots Joe that began fall of 2012,” Wright said.
“Joe Dresser, a senior, originally came up with the idea [of us filming artists who come through Barefoots Joe], and I’ve led the technical side of the project to make Sound On Film become a reality.”
“The whole philosophy to Sound On Film is to share music experiences on a platform where anyone can access it and watch it as many times as they want.
“I attempt to make each film feel as if the artist is performing right in front of you, and the camera is where your eyes would naturally go,” he said.
“Sound On Film is not unique or the first of its kind by any means.
“There are literally thousands of other blogs doing similar work. But these live music performance series can all be traced back to Vincent Moon, a French independent filmmaker who, back in 2006, created a live blog music series called “lablogotheque.”
“This blog has inspired thousands of filmmakers to do similar work, and it is also the main inspiration behind my work with Sound On Film.
“You can get a sense of how live, raw, organic, and colored the films are in each video.”
“I certainly don’t do this project alone [with help from Union students like Peyton Penuel, Chris Hare and Brady Heyen], and I have big plans to expand SOF this year to make it even better and bigger than before,” Wright said. “I’m hoping to make this project sustainable, so I can pass the torch when I graduate in May.”
“This specific film with Seryn, “Ivory Black,” had never been released before, so this was like the world premiere of the song,” he said.
“Seryn’s sound is always upbeat and warm, so I wanted the film to visually reflect that.
“We shot it in Luther Hall by some windows so the sun set right as they were performing. The film actually gets brighter and warmer while the song gets more upbeat, which was just sheer luck.”
