[georgia]

Introduction to film sound OUTLINE AND NOTES FOR LECTURE


Film is by nature a visual experience
Even so you cannot afford to underestimate the importance of film sound.
A Meaningful sound track is often as complicated as the image on the screen.

The Sound Mix
Sound Mix is comprised of three areas
• the human voice
• sound effects
• music

These three area (STEMS) must be mixed and balanced so as to produce the necessary emphases which in turn create desired effects and emotions.

Film sound is comprised of conventions and innovations.

We expect an acceleration of music during car chases and creaky doors in horror films. Effects of sound are often subtle and noted only by subconscious. foster an awareness of film sound as well as picture in creating the entire story

The Acoustic World
 sound film reveals our acoustic environment
 the speech of things
 whisperings of nature
 muttering of the sea to the din of a city
 roar of machinery to gentle patter of rain on a windowpane
 The meaning of a floorboard creaking in a deserted room
 a bullet whistling past our ear
 the explosion or the car crash that overwhelms our ears
 the deathwatch beetle ticking in old furniture
 the forest spring tinkling over the stones

IMHO
Sound in film allows the story to have a voice!

Sound & Silence
Preparing for sound design in a film can teach us to analyze day to day noise with our ear and read the sound of life's symphony.
Our ears hear the different voices, and sounds in the general din of day to day and distinguish teach person or thing as a unique character
The director can lead up with both eye and ear to where he/she want us to be both physically and emotionally in a scene or the entire film
The noise of a machine has a different coloring for us if we see the whirling machinery at the same time. The sound of a wave is different if we see its movement.
Just as the shade and value of a color changes according to what other colors are next to it in the film picture, the timbre of a sound changes in accordance with the gesture of the visible source of the sound seen together with the sound itself
 sound film offers acoustic and optical impressions that are equivalently linked together into a single picture.

IMHO
Picture & Sound are EQUAL partners that must work together to create a story.

In a close-up in which the surroundings are not visible, a sound that seeps into the shot sometimes impresses us as mysterious, simply because we cannot see its source.
It produces the tension arising from curiosity and expectation. Sometimes the audience does not know what the sound is they hear, but the character in the film can hear it, turn his face toward the sound, and see its source before the audience does. This handling of picture and sound provides rich opportunities for effects of tension and surprise.

IMHO
Silence is a very important tool, often overlooked.

Silence, too, is an acoustic effect,
but only where sounds can be heard.
silence is one of the most specific dramatic effects of the sound film.
No other art can reproduce silence, not paintings or sculpture or written word.
Even on the stage silence appears only rarely as a dramatic effect and then only for short moments.


Radio plays cannot make us feel the depths of silence at all, because when no sounds come from our radio, the whole performance has ceased, as we cannot see any silent continuation of the action. The sole material of the radio play being sound, the result of the cessation of sound is not silence but just nothing.

Things that we see as being different from each other, appear even more different when they emit sounds.
There are thousands of different sounds and voices, but the substance of silence appears one and the same for all.
That is at first hearing. Sound differentiates visible things, silence brings them closer to each other and makes them less dissimilar.

Examples of Silence

We see our protagonist in a room in an apartment during the middle of the day in NYC, we hear the morning breeze blow the sound of a bird chirp over to us from the neighboring street, from the top of a high building we hear the a construction worker on a ledge, we can hear the wail of a police siren a mile away.
In this scene, you are hearing, silence. The silence in this case being the complete lack of sounds in the apartment or on the street right next to our protagonist.. the din of the city vanishes, and we focus on the silence…the lack of expected sound.

Examples of Silence
• a fierce battle occurring and then, silence, decimated by a huge explosion. That silent moment offers us the introspective and personal moment of our solder just before the impact.
the silence when we hear the distant sound or the slightest rustle near us.
Silence is the buzzing of a fly on the windowpane that fills the whole room with sound
The ticking of a clock that smashes time into fragments with sledgehammer blows.
Silence is greatest when we hear very distant sounds in a very large space, but not the sounds closest to us.
We accept seen space as real only when it contains sounds as well, for these give it the dimension of depth.
In a film, silence can be extremely vivid and varied,
A silent glance can speak volumes; its soundlessness, surrounded by life’s noise, makes it even more expressive
A single silent figure may explain the reason for the silence, make us feel its weight, its menace, its tension.

Pre Production

The Sound Crew

Supervising Sound Editor
Sometimes the Sound Designer
The manager , the sound boss
If the Sup Sound Editor is Not the Sound designer then generally we separate
• Project and personnel management: Sup Sound Editor
• Artist decisions: Sound Designer

Script Review and Story Board Review

Script review with DP, Director
• What shots, locations, number of characters
• sound problems, planned resolution,
• sound requirements for vision of director

Story board review
• Framing Issues
• Type of mics to “get the shot”
• Sound or MOS

IMHO
The Picture Forms the Sound

IMHO
It is crucial for the Director, the DP and the Sound Designer to be in perfect sync.

IMHO
Sound, when done correctly, must match the picture. There is a broad expanse of “match” but the picture must provide the platform for the sound and the sound must be appropriate for the picture, if these 2 items do not match then overall message will be lost.


Shooting format
Type of project
• film, video, camera type, dolly shots, cranes, helicopter
Frame rate & format
• ( 24, 25, 29.97 ) 24p HD SD 16mm 35 mm
Final output
• Film, DVD, broadcast, video, internet
Sound Package Selection
• Single or Dual System
• Type of Recorder
• Number of channels
• Type and Quantity of Mics
• Production Sound Crew size

Budgeting & Scheduling for Sound
Selected system cost
Crew size and cost ( including hidden costs )
• Food
• Transportation
• Insurance for equipment
• Tapes
• backups
Shooting Schedules
• Time allocated per day
• Plan for sound tests and setups
• Plan for sound setup and picture setup
• Wild tracks, Room tone

Selecting your system

To Sync or Not to Sync or be sunk…
If you sync you save time later
If you don’t you save some time now

Single or Dual system Sound Recording

Single System
Dual System

IMHO
Pay close attention to sound, just like you do to the lighting, and framing. Use a dual system when and where ever possible. Utilize a LAV mic ( wireless ) for each main character in a scene and use at least 1 stick with a shotgun mic….

Single system
Direct to camera

Dual systems
Cassette
DAT
Time code DAT
Nagra
Digital disk based recorders
DA88, DA98, ADAT


Note: Record sound on a second media with TC (DAT, Nagra, DEVA, PD-6 etc). To keep TC on audio identical to TC on video you have to drive the video camera with TC and Tri-level sync. None of the Beta style Camcorders have continuous TC. There are unpredictable TC jumps when turning power off. These cameras need TC and Genlock (=Tri level sync) from one source or there is serious risk of “green flashes”. There are 2 external portable generators on the market that do this in 2003. They do away with all remote sync + TC wires. The 2nd audio track on the camera is saved for audio.


cassette recorder
Normally, one of the stereo channels is reserved for recording the 60hz. sync signal from either the camera (if it is set up for cable sync) from a crystal sync generator.
This leaves the other stereo channel for the microphone signal. If the cassette recorder has been so modified, it can also be used to resolve the field audiotapes to either magnetic film or videocassette. Otherwise, a sound lab can be used to accomplish these transfers.

DAT recorder for production audio
DAT recorder can be used as long as the field audio cassettes are resolved correctly
DAT recorder is very similar to a videocassette recorder in the way that it scans the tape during record and playback.
A servo system is required to keep the spinning head and linear tape transport locked together. DAT recorders must have their own internal crystal oscillator in order for this servo system to operate.
Portable DAT recorders like the Sony TC-D7, D8, D10ProII, the new PCM-M1 and the Tascam DA-P1, however, do not allow for any resolving other than their innate ability to play back in real time against their own internal clock.
They cannot be slaved to some other external master source such as a videocassette recorder, for instance (see "...recording sound for...video").
If the DAT recorder will be used only for transferring the field audio cassettes to magnetic film and if the mag film recorder is also referenced to crystal, there is usually no problem.
However, if you are having your film transferred to video on a scanner, the film will be transferred at 23.976fps (not 24fps).
Your DAT source material will now be running faster than your picture track! After just a couple of minutes the sync drift will be quite noticeable to the average viewer.

Time code DAT, TC recorders
• The more sophisticated DAT recorders do accept external sync references.
• These models are commonly used by sound labs for resolving DAT cassettes to magnetic film or videocassette.
• If you will be editing your film project on a non-linear system, you can also convert the data rate of the audio files after you import them into the computer.
• retard the speed of the audio "wave" files downward by the necessary 1/10 of 1 percent (-.1%).
• programs and utilities are available for the Mac/Avid system and most optical houses can do this for you.

Slate
• What is "slating" Slating is the process of providing positive identification marks for the start of a lip-sync take on both the picture film and the sound track tape. These markings are very important in the editing stage to greatly simplify the process of locating the exact sync position between picture and sound. There are various methods for creating these markings although the original "clapboard" technique is the simplest and is still quite common.
• Electronic slating devices are now often used especially in documentary film production where the clapboard would prove impractical. These include everything from the low-cost blinking LED versions to devices with digital readouts for take numbers to the more complex and more costly time code systems.

Smart Slate
o Derives time code from the audio recording system and feeds it to the TC reader on the slate… This gives a sound editor the ability to match audio with picture via time code data for dailies and editing.
o Slating on the set
 CLEAN
 NEAT
 READABLE
 IN FRAME
 IN FOCUS
 HOLD For 5 seconds
 Call out shot and take
 SLAP the damn thing hard and fast
 If you miss – TAIL SLATE ( upside down )
• A good slate person can even write the tail slate while the shot is in progress on the slate upside down so when the flipped slate is presented for the tail slate the writing is right side up.

IMHO
I highly recommend the use of a smart slate. And a smarter Slate person, who has the neatest handwriting on the set. You need to be completely Anal about documentation throughout the shoot and Slating is part of it!