Lesson overview:
In today’s session we looked at the course content of Sound for Screen unit guide. We had a couple of administration tasks to do then we talked about the type of audio visual language that’s used in the audio for sound industry. We also examined some historical examples of sound for screen and how early pioneers helped shape cinemas relationship with sound and its connection to sound art.
Historical pioneers for cinema
Walter Murch (1943)
Walter Murch (1943) is an American film editor and sound designer. Some of his works include sound design for Apocalypse Now and The Godfather trilogy. Murch believed in what he called the three rules of sound. These include Emotion, Story and Rhythm. we would typically call this a synopsis. Meaning the outline of the plot for a play, film or book. His approach encourages us to ask not just what sound is, but why it’s there and what emotional or narrative role it serves.
Dziga Vertov (1896-1954)
Vertov (1954) became famous because he pioneered sound montage, he created meaning by cutting clips together. He became famous for his movie Man With A Movie Camera (1934), he created a movie depicting a day in the life of a modern soviet city in the nineteen hundreds, his use of quick cuts and stop motion was revolutionary for its time and changed the way films where made. Vertov’s work showed that sound and image could be assembled like building blocks to create new layers of meaning.
Sound Design
What is a sound track?
A sound track incorporates music and pretty much everything else that doesn’t include sound design. It forms the emotional bedrock of the viewing experience.
what is sound design?
Sound design looks more at creating a sound environment for the film or media that could be made from collecting sounds or creating them using synths and so on.
Paul Davis on Sound Design
Paul Davis is a sound designer that worked on You Where Never Really Here which is a thriller and crime film about a troubled mercenary. He believes that a good film director understands that sound design is a powerful storytelling tool. Sound works on a different level and works a different area to the brain which is perhaps more primitive which is why good sound design is so effective for horror movies. It can also be used subtly in other genres, helping shape an emotional tone without the viewer even noticing.
The elements that make up a soundtrack
- Non/sync and sync sounds- Non sync refers to the sound on screen that is not synchronised to the visual on screen, and sync is sound effects that are synched with the visual on screen
- Diegetic/Non diegetic sounds- Diegetic is a sound that doesn’t exist in the world or on screen that the characters can hear, Non diegetic is what the actors cant hear like voice overs or musical elements
- ADR- Audio Dialogue Replacement is the use of all post production audio change to voices
- Dialogue
- Atmospheres – Things like traffic noises or sound FX that you go out and capture
- Foley – Synched sound performed for screen
- Sound Design – Tracks or Non synced sound
Practical
At the end if the lesson we went out with Zoom field recorders and took some audio samples form the environment around us to try and isolate and map the sounds we hear. This exercise I felt was really useful to separate and contextualise there noises that you usually hear around you to put them into a separate box from what you relate it to. I took out some paper and we draw a audio mind box to visualise what we where hearing and it was a little bit difficult at the start to try and draw and code what I was hearing but I understand there is some use to map and layer what we are hearing.
Watching
Disappearing Sounds
Cities and Memories
Stuart Fowkes
He is trying to save the worlds sounds that are disappearing and looks for the defining sounds of a certain place that we may never hear again. It’s an important piece of work as sound isn’t always factored in when we think about a loss or change. Some sounds are already disappearing or gone completely and I think its good to try and store some distinctive sounds in a ever changing world. This project really shows how fragile and fleeting sonic landscapes can be.
Reflection
Listing to the examples seen in the lecture today I noticed a difference. Instead of treating sound as something that just “happens” around me, I found myself tuning in with intention, almost like I was peeling back sonic layers I hadn’t noticed in the past. The field recording exercise made the world feel both familiar and strange. A simple breeze, footsteps and distant traffic are things I would normally ignore suddenly felt meaningful and cinematic.
I noticed how much of our emotional world is shaped by sound without us realising. The lessons about Murch, Vertov and sound design made me see sound as an invisible thread that ties them together. It can guide thew audience, unsettle them and or comfort them.
What struck me most is the idea that almost every sound has a place and a story if its own. Today made me more aware of how important it is to listen, not just hear. I think moving forward in this course, I want to pay more attention to those quiet details that usually go unnoticed.