Soundscapes "His Definition of a Hustler"

To create this soundscape I worked with Maryosha who basically taught me how to use the software. I have relied upon the information she gave me heavily in subsequent projects and am very grateful that I was allowed to work with such a talented, aspiring filmmaker. For this project we decided the soundscape would have an arc; beginning with the sounds that a hustler would hear in mundane, everyday life and progressing to the sounds that are unique to the dealing game. In this way, we hoped to make our theoretic hustler relatable, and make the opening moments of our sound mix accessible and recognizable.  

Maryosha edited together the opening moments of sound. She used simple sounds, like a coffee pot's hum and the flick of a lighter to convey a domestic feel. She focused on matching similar sounds from different sources and building up a steady hum to contrast with the jarring sounds that are mixed together toward the close of the soundscape. She changed the tones of some of the sounds and layered other sounds over themselves (playing multiple copies of the same sound in unison) to strengthen the audio.

For my portion of the project I focused on combining sounds that created unrest. I wanted to create a claustrophobic feeling so I used a lot of locomotion sounds; a squeaking bike, an idling car, footsteps, and sirens. I wanted to catalyze the change in the tone of the piece using the arrival of unstable sounds. I used multiple sound layers to create a sort of frenzied activity that started with a literal thud. I layered a female scream with breaking glass and slowed the sounds down to tonally distort them. This made the sounds more ominous. The siren sound is repeated and a chaotic build of sounds begins. This chaos carries the listener up until the final moments of our piece. To close out the sound mix, its energy is lowered to make a stolen conversation between two men audible. Their voices are calm and filled with street slang to discuss mundane life. This final sound clip emphasizes the normality of the chaos (which was heard only moments before) that is known so intimately by people who live for the hustle.

In this way, the closing moments of the casual conversation sound byte set up our "Definition of a Hustler"; an ordinary person, living a simple life, that is intercut with moments of destruction and insanity. The difference is, a hustler accepts these moments of chaos to be just as normal and expected as brewing a cup of coffee in the morning.