SOUND

1
Chapter 4

• SOUND

2
The Audio crew

• Most films have 3 audio people and sometimes a
  sound designer. I highly recommend this interview
  with Ben Burtt -Sound Designer of Star
  Warshttp//www.filmsound.org/starwars/burtt-inter
  view.htm
• 1- production recordist The person who records on
  location and gathers dialogue and some sound EFX
• 2- sound editor The studio person with a
  collection of sound who may go out with a
  portable tape recorder or something similar.
  Returns to edit and fit it all together

3
Audio Crew

• 3 sound mixer This person blends all of the
  different sounds that come in to make up the
  soundtrack - dialogue, music, and sound effects.

4
Film Sound Early Recent

• Since the first films there has been some sound
  -- either music or even sound EFX provided by the
  theater.
• Half coconut shells rapped against a hard surface
  for horses hooves (or) sand paper rubbed
  together to sound like a running river
• So silent films were not really silent after all

5
Film Sound Early Recent

• 1920s some sound films were shown used the
  Vitaphone- a large phonograph disc synchronized
  with the projector
• 1927 Warner Bros Jazz Singer, silent film with
  sync music and some adlibbed dialogue
• 1928 Lights of New York, first all-dialogue
  picture
• Problem with Vitaphone - discs wore out after 20
  plays and synchronization issues.
• also 28 2 sound-on-film systems introduced

6
Film Sound Early Recent

• sound-on-film projector displays image and
  simultaneously converts optical info in the
  soundtrack into electrical information. That info
  is amplified and sent to theater speakers.
• 1940s 50s Orson Welles was creative in audio
  for radio and innovative in film with audio for
  Citizen Kane

7
Todays Sound

• Some experimenters with sound today are Lucas,
  Altman, and long time Coppolla collaborator
  Walter MurchSound Department - filmography
  ?(2000s) (1990s) (1980s) (1970s) (1960s)
  (1890s)1.Cold Mountain (2003) (sound re-recording
  mixer)2.K-19 The Widowmaker (2002) (sound
  re-recording mixer) ?... aka K19 The Widowmaker
  (USA poster title) ?... aka K-19 Terreur sous
  la mer (Canada French title) ?3.The Talented Mr.
  Ripley (1999) (sound re-recording mixer) ?... aka
  The Mysterious Yearning Secretive Sad Lonely
  Troubled Confused Loving Musical Gifted
  Intelligent Beautiful Tender Sensitive Haunted
  Passionate Talented Mr. Ripley (USA complete
  title) 4.The English Patient (1996) (sound
  re-recording mixer)5.First Knight (1995) (sound
  re-recording mixer) 6.Crumb (1994) (sound
  re-recording mixer) 7.Romeo Is Bleeding (1993)
  (sound re-recordist)8.The Godfather Part III
  (1990) (sound re-recording mixer) ?... aka Mario
  Puzo's The Godfather Part III (USA complete
  title)9.Ghost (1990) (sound re-recording mixer)
  ?10.Dragonslayer (1981) (sound re-recording
  mixer) ?11.Apocalypse Now (1979) (sound designer)
  (sound montage) (sound re-recording mixer) ?...
  aka Apocalypse Now Redux (International English
  title longer version)12.The Godfather Part II
  (1974) (sound montage) (sound re-recordist) ?...
  aka Mario Puzo's The Godfather Part II (USA
  complete title)13.The Conversation (1974) (sound
  editor) (sound montage) (sound re-recordist)14.Ame
  rican Graffiti (1973) (sound montage) (sound
  re-recordist)15.THX 1138 (1971) (sound
  montage)16.Gimme Shelter (1970) (sound)17.The
  Great Walled City of Xan (1970) (sound) ?18.The
  Rain People (1969) (sound montage) ?

8
Todays Sound

• Most theaters have THX sound - Created by Dr
  James Andy Moorer at LucasFilms DroidWorks
  research laboratories. He used a vast, one-off
  computer called the Audio Signal Processor (ASP),
  which he used as a digital synth.Source
  Endgadget.com
• Today there is also Digital Theater Sound (DTS)
  and Sony Dynamic Digital Sound (SDDS) to provide
  the most faithful, creative, dynamic, varied and
  more expressive than ever.

9
Components of the Soundtrack and Their Uses

• Dialogue is usually dominant and intellectual,
  music is usually supportive and emotional, sound
  EFX are usually information. Their uses however,
  are not inflexible. Sometimes dialogue is
  nonintellectual and aesthetic, sometimes music is
  symbolic, and on occasion sound EFX may serve any
  of those functions. Any of these elements may be
  dominant or recessive according to the sharpness
  or softness of the sound and the relationship of
  the sound to the image (Murch, Sound Designer
  page 298.

10
Possible Soundtrack componentsTABLE 4.1 Page 163
11
Spoken Words

• Most sound films since 1930 include dialogue,
  monologues, or narration.
• Overlapping dialogue can create or reinforce a
  sense of nervousness, stress and isolation.
• Spoken words, such as those by Darth Vader, may
  be distorted for EFX.
• Dialogue is invaluable for revealing a
  characters ideas, goals and dreams, though often
  it does so more concisely, obliquely, and
  revealingly than conversation in life does.
• Although spoken words can be extremely
  expressive, many films rely heavily on visuals
  and use only limited spoken words.

12
Sound EFX

• Sound EFX consist of sounds that objects make,
  sounds that people make other than spoken words,
  and ambient sound.
• Some of the many possible uses of sound EFX are
  to help create a sense of location, intensify a
  mood, enhance a humorous situation, or conceal an
  action.
• Sound EFX specialists have many options in
  manipulation sounds, such as playing them
  backward, playing them faster or slower than they
  were recorded, constructing them, and blending
  them in different proportions.

13
Music

• Film music may serve countless functions, such as
  to mirror a films central conflict, direct
  viewers attention, establish place and time,
  suggest what a character feels or an animal is
  like, and cover weak acting.
• Film music may reference earlier film music.
  Sometimes the same music is used other times an
  approximation is composed and used.
• In large-budget movies, sometimes the film music
  is selected with an eye to future recorded music
  sales.

14
Silence

• Possible uses of silence in films include during
  dreams, to suggest dying or death, or to
  interrupt the regular rhythm of lifes sounds.

15
Transitions

• There are many possible ways to use sound between
  shots, such as to have the sound of the first
  shot end as the shot does.
• Sound transitions between shots are used to
  reinforce continuity or contribute to
  discontinuity.

16
General Uses of Sound in Narrative Films

• Sound in narrative films may come from on-screen
  or off-screen and may derive from a source in the
  story or outside the story.

17
Scene from Night of the Hunter

• Scene From "Night of the Hunter"

18
Major Terms about Film Sound

• Ambient sound
• Asynchronous sound
• Bridge
• Foley Artist
• Narration
• Offscreen
• Sound dissolve
• Sound effect
• THX sound
• Vitaphone