Category Archives: Sound for Screen

Reflection of outcome

I recorded a lot of my recorded sound material throughout my job and used part of it in the sound library because some of the noises were tough to Foley, thanks to the Foley artists that developed the sound library. We couldn’t have done the sound work as smoothly as we did without them doing the work of one person sowing and the other reaping.

Before one minute and forty seconds, my favourite sounds in the film were the sound of my rubbing and the creaking of the bed. I recorded the series of sounds as the main character is struggling to move his body in bed in my bedroom. I executed the same movements as the video, which was entertaining. The creaking of the iron structure was responsible for the other crunching sounds heard. I captured the sound of the clip when the main character pulled the I.V. needle out, even though I initially assumed the two noises would be completely different. However, when I added the track, I discovered that the two sounds were remarkably similar. All in all I think Foley left more to my imagination.

After finishing the entire sound, I detected sounds that I had missed, such as the actor pulling the IV tube when he stumbles into the toilet at 1:26, which I hadn’t observed before or after the recording. I didn’t record the scraping sound at 2:34 when the match is extinguished because I thought it would convey the protagonist’s haste to the audience. And if I had more time, I would have probably completed the entire 8-minute part I had chosen. Because the sound shift would have been significant after the segment I finished, which was made mainly of outdoor footage. I will also continue to refine this video and use this video piece as part of my portfolio for my postgraduate application.

Feelings and perceptions of Foley

The Foley artist, in my opinion, has numerous identities. I experienced a different identity during this Foley production: the actor. The Foley artist is the performer in the background, as opposed to an actor who may perform in front of an audience. When I attempted to mimic the sound of walking in the first half of the tape, I attentively followed the performer’s gait and attempted to assume the role of Foley, but it didn’t turn out well because I overlooked the floor’s material. After observing the main character moving across tiles, carpet, broken glass, and wooden planks, I decided to use the studio’s four anodyne flooring. The transitions were interesting and it took me ten attempts to achieve a satisfactory result.

Second, I became aware that, in addition to doing voices, I also needed to read screenplays and have strong creative and analytical faculties in order to be a successful Foley artist. My mind had to predict the sounds that would correspond before Foley, so creativity was crucial. Normally, in order to improve my sense of perception, I would keep a sound diary where I would capture sounds from my daily life. The urge to think deeply is another factor. I frequently explore because I feel that one material may be utilised as numerous sound mediums and can be used in a number of settings, which is interesting because there are many scenes that I can’t duplicate.

Thirdly, I value cooperation because a Foley artist needs a market. I’m experimenting, therefore I need suggestions from the viewers. Because my spouse was continually assisting me with the details, I, for instance, captured the sound of the metal hitting and falling six times during the scene where the protagonist falls off the bed.

The Foley process was a lot of fun and I was constantly getting a feel for the sound. It was all very interesting and Foley is an essential and very important element of film and television.

Analysis of the role of music on screens

When I initially watched the film, the seamless transitions and the very moving soundtrack captivated me. It definitely has a James Bond theme song-like quality to it, powerful and inspiring celebration, meaning, and storytelling in me. I believe it might have been taken from archival music.

I discover a frequency or rhythm by combining sound and visual. In this clip, I’ve come to understand how sound and image work together to make a narrative. I see jewellery, ships, guns, and other things. These pictures brought to mind luxury and wealth, politics and power, and bloodshed.

It’s interesting how the pictures change whenever the sound rhythmically ascends and descends. The opening music is tense and is followed by a repeating tune with an increasing tempo as the sound and images approach a climax where they appear to be outlining a story’s plot. Ten transitions in all, each with a strong background sound, are followed by an explosion of pictures as the sound fades out. My favourite part is the conclusion, when the enormous crystal lamp tumbles to the ground, explodes, or splashes, symbolising the end of the economy and the beginning of violence and conflict. This section finishes abruptly, as though everything had come to an end. The crimson colour and the explosive coda, which both represent violence and war, at this point bring the sights and the sound back to reality, so it doesn’t appear abrupt.

The interaction between the photos and the title track makes for a flawless presentation of the composition. Such a symbolic strategy induces an everlasting state of reverie in the viewer. The sound design is more artistic than the previously examined sound components, and it is a work of art in and of itself because it may conjure up deeper meanings and be heard in a variety of ways. I now have a better idea of what sound designers do thanks to this video. It is a sound designer’s responsibility to develop, be inventive, and be creative in addition to recording. The only way to create a piece that is both audio-visual and has a larger range of expression is in this way.

Sound in La La Land

The function of music, and indeed the entire soundscape, in the film is obvious as it is a song and dance film.

The significance of sound effects in La La Land. The first occurs when Mia meets the actress in a café to purchase coffee. She is transfixed as she watches the attractive idol walk out of the café when a quick beep pulls her out of her reverie: she has an audition. A simple analogy that exactly describes Mia’s situation: a young lady with big goals who works part-time in a café to make ends meet and auditions for jobs in her spare time.

The second time is when Mia and Seb are standing in front of a bench after a tap dance, and just before the moment of kissing, Mia’s phone rings with Greg, the boy she has been dating for some time; this abrupt interruption is used at least two times in the film, and is a setting often used in popular romance films, perhaps most famously in the 1934 Frank Capra won the Oscar for Best Picture in 1934 for “It Happened One Night”.

Aside from this minor sound effect, the film’s theme song is more than just a theme song. The restaurant encounter scene, which appears three times at the beginning and end of the film, and the moving melody, arranged by Justin Hurwitz, is as enlightening as it is in the film, making Mia or Seb realise what they really want every time it appears.

Sound design in Dune

The 2022 Academy Award-winning film for Best Sound is Dune directed by Denis Villeneuve, Dune presents a mysterious and touching hero’s journey. A gifted young man, Paul Etradi, is guided by fate to a thrilling adventure on the most dangerous planet in the universe to defend his family and his people. At the same time, various forces join the battle for a precious resource on this planet that can unlock the greatest human potential. In the end, only those who can overcome their fears will survive. As with director Denis Villeneuve’s previous film Blade Runner 2049, Villeneuve weaves sound design and music into a fluid sonic experience that feels cohesive and unique.

I watched several interviews with Dune’s numerous sound designers, and Mark Mangini and Theo Green show how the sounds in the dunes propel the plot along, the ambiance of the place, and the sound of the sandworm. Mangini claims that when they were designing the sandworm sound, director Dennis proposed that it be the driest sound on the globe. They originally attempted employing genuine animals from Earth, beginning with the roars of lions, tigers, and elephants, but they all sounded sloppy and nasty. The sound of a sandworm, according to the filmmaker, has to be the driest sound that sprang to mind. They ended up employing a dry brush and some dry twig noises as one of the sandworm sounds sources. This intrigued me since it was difficult for me to envision an object with such a loud sound being made from these components. It also demonstrates the importance of constantly experimenting with sound design.

Another sound design in the film clip that really struck me was the spice in the sand, a valuable hallucinogenic substance, which Mangini sprinkles with crispy rice crackers and stomps on with her work boots. The sand then makes a subtle crunching sound. And in another Dune example of sand sounds, Mangini buries a microphone in the sand. It’s an underwater microphone, a hydrophone. In the Dune film, the characters use a device called a “pounding machine” to rhythmically tap the sand and summon giant sand worms. To obtain this sound, Mangini and Green bury their hydrophone microphone at various depths in the sandy sea of Death Valley and then use a mallet to tap the sand above the microphone.

An analysis of the role of sound effects in film

The first role of sound effects is to connect the shots. Sound effects are divided into in-screen and out-of-screen sounds, and in some cases the out-of-screen sounds can lead the protagonist to the next clip, as when we hear the sound of a zombie but there is no zombie in the scene, but when we hear the sound of a zombie we associate it with the scene that follows.

The second function is to impart a sense of reality to the image. For example, if we put a sports car ad without sound next to one with sound, we would have a significantly different sensation about the ad. The use of sound enhances the authenticity of the sports automobile and allows the spectator to better visualise the image.

The third role is to render the atmosphere of the picture, such as in the film Midnight Bell, where a simple ringing of the phone gives people a sense of tension and terror, which can intensify the terrible environment. Sound effects are very significant in horror films, and I believe that sound effects in horror films are more prominent in their purpose of presenting the picture’s atmosphere.

Although many characters are portrayed by their morphological and vocal traits, I believe the fourth duty is to portray the character. However, I believe that sound effects can also be employed, for example, different personalities in the same action, completion of the same action when the sound size, rhythm, and speed are not the same. For example, the same simple action of banging on the door, one person knocking on the door makes a light sound, slow rhythm, and one person emits a loud, fast rhythm, and you can tell he has been knocking really hard. We may determine part of their personality simply by the sounds they make, which is a portrayal of the character. If there were no sound effects, the picture would still be a bit thin and not fleshed out enough for the characters to be portrayed.

Recording footsteps and clothing friction

I approached the Foley studio to record the footsteps because I believe it’s crucial for a film to have footsteps and clothes rubbing against the body.

It was difficult for me because I could see the character in the picture moving quickly and slowly, barefoot, across the hospital floor. I had to make a few attempts to follow the image at first, which gave me a sense of how challenging being a Foley artist is.

I also considered how the seemingly insignificant but essential sounds would need to be added in post-production if the filmmaker was unable to capture any of the intricate noises upfronts during the simultaneous recording. The criteria of the sound effects artist are not only conceptual simulations, as is frequently believed, nor are they a single duty of action concentration. The areas of expertise include movement simulation techniques, deft recording equipment use, unique electro-acoustic equipment use techniques, etc. It is effective at producing sounds that are both realistic and fantastical, as well as sounds that humans cannot perceive. Based on various subject matters, it can produce an unfathomable world of music.
  

Film clip analysis

The video clip I choose is from the American TV series The Walking Dead.

Most of the parts in this clip are quiet atmosphere, so the details of the sound are very important, such as, sound of clothing friction, electric noise.

I can divide this clip into three parts, the first being the sound produced by the protagonist waking up from his bed, the second being the sound of the protagonist in the corridor aisle, and the third being the sound of the protagonist running into the stairway in a panic after seeing the body. Watching the whole clip, I think the most difficult sounds to make are the sound of the zombie banging on the door and the sound of the protagonist pushing over the apparatus in the hospital room. These two sounds contain more elements within them, so I think this was more difficult.

We Need to Talk About Kevin

This is a very heavy film, the story of a mother who is overcome with love for her strange son, but as he grows older, his words and actions become more and more dangerous, until he starts to commit crimes.

There is a scene in the film where Eva is walking in the street pulling a pram and to her left is the noise of a drilling machine and to her right is the sound of little Kevin crying. The combination of the two makes Eva very annoyed and this combination of sound and image was very immersive for me. The sound in the first half of the film uses a lot of noise elements, the endless crying of the baby and some city noises, which can reflect the endless irritation that the birth of this baby brings to Eva.

I also heard Chinese instrumental music in the film, which appeared when Eva was teaching Little Kevin to pass the ball and Little Kevin deliberately failed to do so. This instrument, which I assume is the Pipa, plays a piece called Shi mian mai fu, which is a Chinese idiom meaning that there are enemies on all sides and there is a sense of tension. This musical archive I thought was very well used, as was the nerve-wracking sound of the strings, and Eva’s unease and uncontrollable feelings towards her son.

Sound analysis of film clips

This clip is made of the music of the electric guitar, and the background music has the sound of the bottom drum and bass. At 41 seconds, the string music suddenly began to play with the action of the actor. During this period, accompanied by the sound of earthquake shaking, these are the sound of bass rumbling. After that, a lot of sounds of broken wood, collapsed furniture and broken glass were added to the background sound. This string music is very powerful. When the picture is switched to the picture outside the dream, the loudness of the string music is not as loud as the picture in the dream. When Leonardo was pushed into the water, the string disappeared, but it with the swing of the bass and some delay. In the following picture, the water breaks through the window and enters the room. It feels like a sound effect is used here. Then Leonardo’s slow motion in the bathtub, the bass swing faster, and finally disappeared.

At the beginning, thunder and bass are accompanied by the picture. Later, when the heroine enters this place, the sound of chain collision, the sound much like broken glass and the sound of synthesizer accompany this picture. At 36 seconds, the drum sound similar to adding reverberation gradually increased as the camera slowly approached the heroine, and finally ended with a harsh sound similar to opening an iron door. Delay and reverberation are added when the heroine is shouting others name. With some synthetic sound when Kincaid sucked away from the room, similar to the harsh whistle. Then after they met, before joy appeared, some harsh sounds and chain collision sounds were added, which made it more terrible. When they opened the pipe, they added drums and some terrible synthesizer sounds. When the dog jumps out of the pipe, there is a rising sound effect and the sound of the dog growling. When they were awakened, it was also accompanied by the sound of synthesizer, and finally added a very strange piano sound. The final picture is the woman driving the car, and then there is similar country music in the car.