Subject: Re: Sound Design
From: Martin Gotfrit (gotfrit@sfu.ca)
Date: Fri Jan 04 2002 - 13:12:25 EST
Good sound design often eschews an accurate reproduction of the
object's "real" sound in order to evoke an emotional response, add
depth to the story, reveal the point of view of the scene, presage a
future event, draw the viewer's attention to an area of the screen,
counterpoint the predominant tone of a scene, etc. Almost everything
which appears as synch sound in a feature film has been replaced by
foley artists, actors and sound designers. This is partly due to the
nature of shooting and partly due to the need to imbue the sound with
emotion, drama, psychological import, etc. An excellent example of
sound design completely replacing music is "Dog Day Afternoon" (early
70's, starring a very young Al Pacino). Aside from a pop song during
the opening credits (source revealed as a car radio in the first
scene) the movie has no score, yet in key scenes, sound (from both
on-screen and off-screen sources) is orchestrated in a very musical
way.
Another excellent example of sound design is Coppola's pre-Godfather
"The Conversation". The work is by the dean of sound designers;
Walter Murch. The story is about a professional eavesdropper who is
hired to surreptitiously record a conversation. I mention this film
partly because of the wonderful opportunities the subject affords
Murch and also because it is (I believe) the first time credit is
given for sound design in a film. Previously, this work was credited
as Supervising Sound Editor.
martin.
>In my naivety I always thought sound was
>simply there to accurately reflect the actions on the screen. I am
>well aware that the music can do far, far more, but the sound? If the
>sound suites the actions or objects that create them and they are well
>recorded, mixed, balanced, etc. what more can you ask for? Please
>relieve me of my ignorance.
-- ___________________________________________________________________ Martin Gotfrit, Director, School for the Contemporary Arts S i m o n F r a s e r U n i v e r s i t y 6 0 4 2 9 1 3 7 6 6 f a x 2 9 1 5 9 0 7 w w w . s f u . c a / s c a
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