Investigating Audio Production

Sound...

It's everywhere. Humans begin to develop their sense's while in their mothers womb, one of the first sense to develop is the ability to hear.

When we are in our mothers womb, we are constantly learning. Hearing and reacting to many different sounds for example; a baby can hear its mothers bodily sounds such as heart beats, a baby can hear music, loud noises and can even recognise certain voices.

In the past,

Sound was regularly overlooked and under-appreciated compared to the visual sense as more and more innovative movies and pictures were getting released. When people used to review or analyse movies, they tend to focus on the visual aspect other the sonic aspect.

Cameras were getting better and better, filmography and cinematography mesmerized audiences but actually sound contributes to about 50% of the effectiveness' of a scene. 

Lets get more in depth...

DIEGETIC- 

Diegetic is sound that is perceived as being made by either a person or object on-screen and within the movies universe. 

So any dialogue or sounds made by characters in a movie is classed as DIEGETIC.

Whereas...

NON-DIEGETIC

Is sound that takes place "outside" the scene and has been added on top, so if a scene was to have music in the background to enhance an emotion, this would be an example of utilizing NON-DIEGETIC sounds.

The video below is a great example of how movies make use of diegetic and nondiegetic sounds, the movie shown is "Baby Driver", The Edgar Wright classic is known for the usage of sound and great sound design.

EXTERNAL DIEGETIC

This is sound that is in the scene that all characters can hear for example; someone shouting or an explosion.

INTERNAL DIEGETIC

Sound that can only be heard by a single character for example; a character listening to music with headphones, or a character narrator within the story.

There are 2 different states that audio could be in while on screen.

STATIONARY AUDIO

Stationary audio could be dialogue from a character or a sound from an object but for it to be stationary the "thing" projecting the sound has to be at a stand-still and not moving within the frame.

MOVING AUDIO

Pretty self explanatory, moving audio is used when the "thing" making the sound is moving, so this could be a car going past, bullets in a battle or it could be dialogue if the characters are moving around the scene. 

The importance of "Panning" Audio

"Panning refers to the stationary position of a sound either to the left or right of the screen. Panning helps create an immersive and wide sound field, It helps position objects and/or people on screen. If an actor is on the left of the screen when they are talking, their audio must be coming from the same place otherwise it can confuse the audience." - Paul Boddy 

The scene above from the movie American Psycho (2000) is a great example of the blending between both audio types, when the characters are talking we can tell the audio is moving as we hear the range change as Patrick walks around the apartment, and when he plays the music from his stereo it becomes static audio as the music blaring out of his speakers fills both sides of the screen and overtakes the dialogue.

This scene also utilizes Counterpoint music (learn more down the page in the "music" section) by blaring out happy and up beat music while showing a sinister event take place on screen as Patrick kills Paul Allen.

AMBIENT SOUND

Ambient or background sound are all the elements that take place "behind" the main actions for example dialogue.

It can also be used as a "Tie-together" to help fill in the audio gaps and provides even more depth to a scene.

SOUND BRIDGES

A sound bridge is a transitional device used to connect one scene to another through sound. at its most basic a sound bridge leads an audience in or out of a scene.

Did you spot the sound bridge in this scene? The alarm clock that fades in in time with the club music is a great example of the way sound can link scenes together.

USAGE OF DIALOGUE

There are 5 different types of dialogue

SINGLE VOICE

MULTIPLE VOICE (Conversation)

CROWD

VO (Voiceover)

ADR (Automated dialogue replacement), Why would dialogue need to be replaced you ask? Well... ADR could be used to remove unwanted sounds such as wind, equipment noises etc. They could be used to change original lines of dialogue to create a clearer narrative and can improve understandability.

The scene above from the movie "A few good men" is an excellent example of how dialogue between 2 characters without any non-diegetic sounds can be so much more impactful and suspenseful within the scene.  

The Process of ADR.

The sound recordist starts by recording the audio, the ADR editor then reviews the audio and decides what needs to be re-recorded, and then finally the actor re-records the chosen lines in a studio.

FOLEY SOUND DESIGN

Foley sound is a popular sound effect technique which consists of using everyday objects to create sounds to be used in film or television. 

To the right is a picture of the late Jack Donovan Foley, the man who first created this technique that would be adopted by many audio editors.

https://blog.storyblocks.com/inspiration/foley-sfx-everyday-household-objects/

For example, people may use fruit and veg to create the sound of bones breaking, use a staple gun to make gun shots, hit a phone book to make punches.

Above, is a website where you can view other peoples Foley sounds and listen to how they where created.

On 22/1/21 I got tasked to make some Foley sounds of my own to put onto my blog!

Now, bear in mind.

1) I am NOT a sound recordist    2) I do NOT own a studio      3) This is for a media project not a movie or professional production! So if the sounds do not sound like what they are titled... Do not come to my house enraged that they aren't good enough. Its just a task.

So the first one I attempted was to re-create the sounds of bones breaking with some objects from my house, I ended up rustling a tobacco pouch and it made sounds similar to breaking bones. 

The second one, I literally found a book and punched it repeatedly to make the "Thud" sounds you would hear in a fight scene.

Okay so this one failed a bit, I tried to make the sound of helicopter propellers but this just resulted in me smacking my head with a rag. 

And finally I tried to make the sound of horse hooves when they run along the floor, It really doesn't sound like horse hooves though.

SOUND SCAPES

Sound scaping is a way that people can tell a story without using any visuals, so a soundscape visualises a story just by using sound.

Using the link above, you can view a soundscape I made myself by using an app called AUDACITY, This app is similar to Adobe Audition however Audition is better as it has more tools to effect the sounds, But I've resulted to using Audacity as I'm working from home.

The soundscape I created is a man transitioning from a busy city into a busy restaurant.

MUSIC

Music can be broken down into the following segments;

TEMPO- Tempo is about the pace of the music and is measured in BPM (Beats per minute). The tempo of soundtrack can be used to enhance a scenes mood or help convey the emotions of a scene. 

RHYTHM- This is the backbone of a musical piece, it may sound like a pulse or heartbeat throughout the piece however it is made intentionally. For example the Jaws theme song is very well known for the scores increasingly uncomfortable rhythm.

DYNAMICS- This refers to "Dynamic range", This is about the levels of intensity a piece of music can create... a good example of this could be a jump scare in a horror flick, The music will go from gentle and quiet to ear piercingly loud and aggressive.

MELODY- Melody refers to the "Hook" or "Tune" of the music, this results in the audience remembering this certain melody when thinking of the certain music or movie, For example the star wars theme song has a very popular melody that is easily recognizable.

TEXTURE- The "Texture" of music refers to the combination of sounds that fit together in a piece of music.

CONTRAPUNTAL/COUNTERPOINT MUSIC- This is where the music in a scene is complete opposite of tone of the visuals. The "Godzilla: King of the monsters trailer" is a perfect example of this, very elegant and slow tempo music whereas on screen we literally see goliath sized monsters.

PLEONASTIC MUSIC- This is opposite of counterpoint music; so the soundtrack relates to the visuals shown on screen and copies the mood and tone. Another great example is the infamous "Shower scene" from 1960's "PSYCHO"

"Outside World Task"- February 3rd 2021

A simple yet quite eye opening task, one of our teachers Sam told us to get a pen and paper, sit outside for roughly 10 mins and too just listen to some of the everyday sounds that are around where we live. I wrote a list and here is how it goes;

Fast ticking clock

Car engines

Birds chirping

footsteps

Wind blowing into the trees

Airplanes overhead

Thudding from next door neighbours

Children playing/laughing together

Construction works (Jackhammer)

My own breathing.

Sound Scape Task 2- "Confrontation"

On Friday the 5th of February 2021, My teacher tasked my class and I to edit together a an already recorded scene and too add some sound affects and elements.

On my sound scape I created, I decided to add a lot of reverb to the characters voices to make it seem they are in a huge empty room, I then put the audio clips of the confrontation in order. 

Using the audio software "Audacity" is a challenging task as I'm very unfamiliar with the software but I still managed to create a soundscape of a heated confrontation!

Click on the link above to hear!

Below is a screen grab from when I was working on the second soundscape task, if you are familiar with any Adobe software you will notice that Audacity is set up much different.

Due to me only using Audacity 2 times, there is a lot of room for improvement by adding more SFX.