I'm in my sound studio taking a break from editing to do this Sound Spheres exercise.
I Think -- I'm imagining my upcoming trip, so can hear the sound of the plane I'm taking, the people and dogs I'll be visiting.
I Am -- I'm chewing gum. I swallow Red Bull (energy drink) and feel my heart speed up.
I Touch -- I touch the pen to the paper.
I See -- Computer monitors showing a film scene running, but there is no sound.
I Know -- I hear somebody rolling a cart in the hallway, but don't know what's on it. I hear a dog barking outside. This kind of triggers the I Think about my trip.
I Don't Know -- Nothing in that sphere, except details of what's on the cart.
NOTE: The imagination of the future can refer to a previous experience or scene in a film, perhaps with a desire to return. It can also trigger or foreshadow the actual event, which may or may not come to pass as imagined. This creates story tension between expectation and outcome. A transition from I Think to I See spheres can be done in the film cut as a pre-lap, collapsing the time frame from future to now.
The observation that the monitors are showing a film scene with no sound brings up the issue of suspension of sound where it might usually occur. In the case of this exercise, the I See sphere is referred to where the sound would be expected, but is not happening. It may be conveying simple absence, or perhaps a real defect in the proper functioning, generating the question in the audience, "Is there something wrong?" The story context should tell us if that is important or not.
Example 5 -- Living room
I'm watching TV in my living room and hear a knock on my door, go to open, but there is nobody there.
I Think -- After this experience, I wonder if I was just thinking that I heard the knock. It worried me a bit about who was out there, or if I was having a kind of auditory hallucination.
I Am -- I'm filing my nails.
I Touch -- I walk on the hardwood floor and turn the doorknob.
I See -- I see the sounds coming from the TV.
I Know -- I hear a knock on the door.
