Courtesy: NY Times
The New York Times does an amazing job using still photographs, natural sound, and a group of ironworkers to give an inside look at the rebuilding of 1 World Trade Center.
The slide show starts off a bit jumbled. You first hear a hammer clanking and a man sort of sing “Connect that iron in the air” and I wasn’t too sure where the video would go from that point. Pamela Chen, the woman responsible for the interviews and sound design, then does a good job reeling the viewer in by having a man simply say, “Ironworkers.” That man’s voice is quickly followed by a few other men saying something along the lines of, their changing the skyline. Chen does a good job mashing together similar responses from multiple voices, this shows many of the ironworkers think the same way.
In the background between the questions (which are not actually heard by the viewer) being answered, Chen adds natural sounds such as hammers, saws, metal clanging together, groans, grunts, sighs, laughter, and random side comments to make the viewer feel like he or she is actually there with the ironworkers. The sounds made by tools, metal, etc. were effective because it gives the viewer a sense of what these ironworkers hear on a day to day basis, while they watch pictures of them working appear and disappear on their screens.
The sounds the men made while they weren’t answering questions was even more effective. Sounds such as laughter, sighs, the random side comments regarding their work and jokes such as “I smell like a hockey bag right now,” give the viewer a better sense of who these guys are. They add character to these men that we only see in pictures. While the pictures appear we as viewers can try to match the voices and personalities with the black and white photos. The grunts, groans, and comments like “Ughhh why is it so hot,” give the viewers a sense of just how hard their work is. Looking at the pictures you can’t tell how heavy something is, so hearing one of the men groan/grunt, we can imagine that they are probably lifting something heavy or doing something that requires a great amount of strength.
At times I found myself wanted the slideshow to be a video so I could see who was saying what, however doing the slideshow was much more artistic and complex.
The black and white pictures fit perfectly with the job that was being described and the sounds that were heard. Had the pictures been in normal color, there would have been vibrant colors and large patches of bright blue skies and that may have taken away from the rugged, manly vibes that were portrayed through the sounds and the characters involved.
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