After telling people about our project, one recurring recommendation we received was to go visit the Museum of Lincolnshire Life as they had a replica trench and a collection of letters written by actual soldiers in the war. We felt this would be an ideal trip for both sound design and to check if the language of the script was correct. So, in what could only be described as school trip nostalgia, we got a minibus up to the museum.
Like typical students, we were quite relieved and excited to learn it was free entry to the museum. After been given a map we headed straight to the military history section of the museum where the letters were neatly displayed in a cabinet for people to read. Upon reading some of them, their was a clear variation between linguistic styles of soldiers. Some went into great detail of particular incidents whereas others were simple “missing you” letters with little elaboration. After doing research into the war, it surprises me that some letters made it home at all. Defence of the Realm act was a strict law put in place to keep morale high back home. Any letters or media produced must report positively about the war effort, otherwise it was censored. This is the same law which causes Adam’s letter to be rejected in the story.
Next to the letters is a door hole which led us into the mockup trench with soldiers in freeze frames and flashing lights to replicate explosions. Visually it was quite impressive however; what was more of a benefit to us was the soundtrack they had playing in the background. Concentrating on it, we could here constant, randomised explosions, gunfire, voices etc all put together to make something rather immersive. For our production we need to try and aim for something similar as most of our story takes place within the trench. While the characters are out in the trench, the sounds will be loud and clear. If they are in a bunker, the sound will be more muffled. This we feel will give the listener a sense of where they are and illustrate the change in location through sound.
