Sound Design

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Sound Design

• SPH 106Introduction to Broadcasting Film

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• In 1927, the first sound motion picture
  arrivedThe Jazz Singer

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• In the 1930s and 1940s, sound was a one-channel
  experience played through a monaural speaker in a
  theater.
• In the 1950s, Hollywood tried to compete with TV
  by offering better sound, such as multi-channel
  stereo.

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• In 1976, Dolby stereo debuted, which allowed film
  to carry two optical tracks encoded with
  four-channel sound (front left, center, front
  right and one channel of surround).
• Today Dolby Digital offers 6 channels of sound in
  theaters and on DVDs.

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Types of sound

• Dialogue
• Speech
• Voice-over Narration (Ex. Apocalypse Now)
• ADR (automated dialogue replacement) 30 of a
  films dialogue is added after filming. Most done
  on a production track at time of filming.

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• Effects
• Ambient sound (sounds expected from the
  environment)
• Foley techniques (effects added by sound artists
  watching film)

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• Music
• Spotting (the composer and director deciding
  which scenes need music)
• Purposes of film music
• Adding emotional meaning
• Background filler
• Creating continuity between scenes and character

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• Leitmotif (music that is assigned to a character
  to evoke meaning for the viewer.
• Emphasizing climaxes (music can build toward a
  conclusion in a scene)

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• Sound bridge (the way music or dialogue carries
  over into a new scene even though the shot has
  changed.) Several examples of this found in The
  Graduate
• Sound perspective
• Direct sound (sound from an immediate source
  onscreen)
• Reflected sound (Sound portrayed the way surfaces
  shape it)
• Room tone (The ambient sound of the room itself).
• Offscreen sound (noises made by things that cant
  be seen in the shot).

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• Sound montagelayers of sound to suggest onscreen
  meaning. (Ex. Willard lying in his Saigon hotel
  room hearing not only the sounds of the street
  but the sounds of his battles.)