Sound For Film

Foley Session

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Last Saturday I had an intensive foley session in the studio, where we manage to record the essential foley material under three hours. We where two sound engineers in the control desk and one foley artist in the foley room. It was my first time in the studio as well as for the foley artist so our approach was very intuitive instead of methodical. The recording went through all of the film, recording steps, clothes, breathing and some special effects like the movement of cutlery and plates. We managed to be very efficient in our work, I think this was due our great communication throughout the session, we regularly spoke on the talkback and everyone shared ideas equally.

For the session we used a stereo pair of Neumann KM 184, positioned in the lateral sides of the foley room, and a Neumann U87 in the centre. It was crucial to use condenser microphone to get a very clean signal, specially for the high end of the sounds. The film is going to be mixed down to stereo because it is intended for streaming platforms, so low end was not really needed.

In the picture above you can see the right position KM 184, the centre U87 and the foley artist dealing with some props in the middle (guy with grey shirt). In several occasions we made use of the foley pits that the studio has to record footsteps and other sounds, for example in the picture we can see a box over the foley pit that created a specific sound when moved around.

For recording the steps taken on an electric staircase, we used a small steel lather with metal steps and some old prop shoes. This gave us a very realistic result that was what we where searching for. Also in the picture above you can see the left KM 184 that could not be seen in the first picture. I don’t know yet if I’m going to mix some of the foley stereo but it is nice to just have the recordings for just in case, those recordings could even used to create special effects in scenes where the main character is walking through specific environments.

Finally we recorded everything into a single session. In the picture above you can see that we projected our film in the tv of the studio, this made the recording process much more comfortable since I had only worked on a laptop before.

The next step in the production is to correctly organise all the sounds recorded in the sessions in clearly named tracks, so it’s easier to work with. Then I will have to edit each audio clip to be correctly synced with the film, this might take a while because we recorded a lot of sounds and after that the diegetic sound section of the film will be completed.

Sound For Film

Plan for Foley Session

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To get ready for my booking in the foley room and sound studio, I decided to rewatch the film with the reference sound recorded in the camera (which was used in the filming). When watching it I notice with more attention the subtle details of the foley sounds (steps, the rumble of clothes, etc.) and then plotted them in a timeline corresponding the sequence of each sound. I did this with the purpose of having a check list of all the sound I needed when recording in the studio, to be more prepared for recording. I also added some tiny notes to not forget while recording, for example the material of the clothes in a specific scene or if it was raining in a scene (the footstep would sound a bit wet).

I then showed the check list to the director of the film and he approved it, he also suggested me to focus in specific sounds in different scenes to contribute to the aesthetic of the film. I noted down his suggestions and was ready to record.

Sound Studies and Aural Cultures

Plan for Audio Essay

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Introduction: Explain relationship of sound with calmness, introduce ideas and references to artists that have worked with this theme (Deep Listening, Ambient Music and Sound Walks). Then set contextual approach- DIY, Anti-materialization of the practice and unconscious tendencies. This segment will be mirror by an ambient music texture that I will compose.

Present stages: every space where my interviews will take place will be presented by a calm field recording of the place. This is important to create a better description to the listener.

Interviews will focus in these questions but each subject of the interview will have a unique set of questions, to get a wider perspective of fields. Questions will include: Have you ever notice sound in this space? does the sound of this space makes you calm? Is this calming activity a common practice in you’re life? Do you think about sound often? Why do you practice this activity?

Three interviews will take place:

1st Random sound walker of a park.

2nd Meditation Guru (active listener).

3rd Sound performer.

Conclusion: Analyze the relationship of each interview subject to their surroundings and background. Pinpoint of the natural relationship of the practice, how sound affects the unconscious. Explore importance of the practice and which are the limits.

Structure:

Introduction (ambient music)

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Interview 1- random listener(Set field recording first)

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Interview 2-Meditation Guru (field recording comes after interview)

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Interview 3- Performer (Performance field recording)

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Conclusion

Sound Studies and Aural Cultures

Andrew Pierre Hart

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Hart’s work focus in the intersection or mix between sound arts and visual arts such as paint. Painting and fine arts are the backbone of Hart’s creative processes but because of its early influences with music and sound, he is aware of the concrete sound that surround his works and finds a way to experiment with it.

A recurring symbol in Hart pieces is the bicycle, the object has a deep significance in Harts upbringing and he often associate new themes to the bicycle. Rhythm is one of the main points of focus regarding the bicycle, he compares it to the rhythmic nature of a vinyl player, another object with great symbolic value for Hart. In a search to further understand objects, Hart translates image to sound and sound back to image, finding correlations between the physical forms of such objects. From this theory of form translation, Hart has further advance his practice to creating interpretations from experiences, more specially social phenomena, searching justice. Referencing the Black Lives Movement manifestations in front of the white house in 2020, Hart closely listened to the ambience created by the mass of people and its rhythm. Then represent such noises in paintings that are build up in abstract shapes and textures, to pay tribute to the nature of sound. His painting don’t fail to express and describe the anger and frustration of the communities affected by racial injustice and discriminations in such manifestations and correctly express the atmosphere of the event.

Hart has a variety of paintings in the sound painting series and has collaborated with sound artist to develop this practice. He has lately explored generative practices, coming up with the idea of improvising improvisation.

The idea of translating forms of art resonated a lot with me, the concept reminds me a lot to the interaction of the physic world with the human mind and body. How we as humans explain natural phenomena through different cognitive modes, for example using analogies as techniques of communication. It speaks of an invisible language that surround every form of expression and that its interactions between these forms have endless capabilities.

Sound Studies and Aural Cultures

A synthesis of health benefits of natural sounds and their distribution in national parks

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The title above is the name of a research article taken place in the US to explore the relationship between health benefits and natural parks, more specific in national parks. This study has a scientific methodology and concludes with actual data calculated by complex data meta-analysis techniques, cross sectioning from data of studies of several parks across the country. This article is quite different to other sound research articles I had read in the past. I had focused more in art orientated research and experimentation, that focus more in empirical knowledge and art aesthetics. In the other hand this article is scientifically based and its analysis is very methodological.

The article evidences that listening to the sound ecology of a national park can bring health benefits. The study demonstrated that when noise pollution levels are low and a wide variety of natural noises dominate an ecology, an individual can reach calming moods by a reflection of the non-threatening environment.

An important objective of the article is to demonstrate the importance of the sound ecology of a place and that it should be taken into consideration in natural conservation projects. The article explains that it is really easy to disrupt the sound ecology of a place and that in some recordings done for the research of the article, they found out that even in natural reserves, traffic noises could contribute with over 80% of the sound ecology. The article also highlights that it is proven that audio pollution can have damaging effect on health.

After reading this and learning the health benefits of a natural sound environment, I decided to focus my field research to natural areas across London. This will increase my chances of finding people that actively practice their own DIY sound practices. I also want to ask to these people if they think that sound can create health benefits, to see if their practices have health as an objective.

https://www.pnas.org/content/118/14/e2013097118

Code, Data and Network Audio

Hydra

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Last Monday in the coding and audio network class we where introduced to Hydra. A free open source visual coding program that can be used both in an internet browser and in software. Hydra has a very simple interface, allowing their users to create graphic visuals with very short lines of code. In my experience I would say Hydra work like a video modular synth because the building blocks and terminology are the same as sound synthesis. It uses oscillators and noise as building blocks, then you can modulate such sources to create any aesthetic desired. The coding language also gives the possibility to create generative processes, where the visuals will change endlessly over time. Java Script can also be used in the program, making it easy to create loops and devises like LFO’s.

Below is a short video of a patch I made. The main elements I experimented with where shapes and pixels, then I modulated the parameters of each elements, creating and interesting generative visual. The video is overdubbed by a generative ambient piece I created a long time ago. Both audio and image fit really well and a lot of synchresis are created, giving the illusion that the music is synced to the visual when its not.

I will continue to experiment with the program and I hope that in the future I will be able to create audio-visual performances with Hydra.

Sound Studies and Aural Cultures

Ocean of Sound – Intro

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I am currently in the process of reading Ocean of Sound by David Toop, a book about the world of ambient sound and its correlation between space and imaginary worlds. In this book Toop explores the origins of ambient sound, focusing in key artistic aesthetics that molded the practice. Interviewing important icons of the canon such as Brian Eno and Apex Twin, Toop redefines ambiguities of the practice with a contemporary view of the arts.

For the moment I have just read a couple of chapters of the book but I have read a couple of things that are relevant to my audio paper concept and that I am planning to take into consideration when developing it. First Toop explains the power of sound to tint a space. He explains this with an analogy of smells and perfumes, to represent the nature of tones and frequencies. Then he touched on some practices of room coloring such as the elevator music company Muzak, referencing to the early commercial usages of the practice (this is also important because my paper will focus in the non-non-comercial). Finally he presented key terms of ambient music, coined by Brian Eno: “Ambient music is intended to induce calm and a space to think” “Ambient music must be able to accommodate many levels of listening attention without forcing one in particular: it must be as ignorable as it is interesting”. Even-though that quote refers to music, it also applies to any form of ambient sound, for example field recording.

As my audio paper is focusing in the element of calmness, I will maintain in my mind the idea outlined by Eno in the paragraph above. When interviewing the individuals in consideration I will ask them about their relationship with ambience, and I’ll see if their response connects somehow to the ideology of Eno.

Sound For Film

Blue Velvet

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Recently I saw David Lynch’s Blue Velvet in the BFI, it was very interesting to see such a surreal film in such a calm environment as a cinema theatre. Hearing the reactions from the crowd helped convey the different emotions and ideas that the screen projected. It amplified the weird nature of Blue Velvet and it was satisfying to encounter the surreal with the company of a full theatre. I am a great fan of the sound design in David Lynch films, the great use of drones draws your attention in, creating a float like sensation, fluttering between consciousness states.

Sound is smartly used to set spaces and boundaries between scenes, associating each space with a motif and feeling. With the use of sound Lynch gives characters to spaces, helping with the narrative of the film with deep symbolism. Those such techniques peer discretely in the human psyche, manipulating the subconscious, engraving the film’s message and themes in the mind of the audience. A great example of this is a scene in the later half of the movie where Jeffrey the protagonist enters to Dorothy’s apartment and discovers the source of the missing ear. In the scene the song ‘Love Letters’ plays in the back, creating a weird juxtaposition between the happy music and the horrific images. Then Jeffrey quickly escapes the room towards the hall and the sound changes drastically, adapting to the scenario and space of the hall. The great contrast between the ambiences of both rooms draws the audience into different worlds, it gives the illusion that each different schenography is independent from the rest.

For doing the sound design of my project I will create a similar effect such as the ones in Blue Velvet, using slight changes of sound to determine spaces in different scenes. My approach is to make such changes as imperceptable as possible, such as the sound hits purely in the subconscious. I will use this techniques to convey the theme of the battle between the real and the illusion.

Sound For Film

A Feminist Approach to Sound in We Need To Talk ABout Kevin

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Perspective or point of view is one of the most important elements in the narration of a film. It works as a foundation where the branches of the story can grow. The arguments and themes of a narrative are always tilted to the subject with the point of view. A Feminist Approach To Sound in We Need To Talk About Kevin – Is an article posted in Screen Queens that discusses how the film was created through a feminist voice and point of view, and how this is evidenced by the sound design of the film.

The article argues that the sound design of the film breaks with the patriarchal linearity of the narrative, making it have a female perspective (The author references Helen Cixous’s, L’ecriture Fémenine). The sound design does this by creating juxtaposed connotations to symbols, for example she uses the sound of a water sprinkler, that normally symbolizes the environment of an ideal suburban house, and changes its meaning to become a motif of the tragedy that is about to come and so destroying the heteropatriartical dream. Also the article explains how the sound of the film is usually contrasting with the image, it is mostly non-diegetic and it mirrors the emotions the main character is experiencing.

Sound design can be used as a great technique in narrative and to characterize a point of view. We Have To Talk About Kevin is a great example of how sound can represent an ideology and character.

https://screen-queens.com/2016/11/17/a-feminist-approach-to-sound-in-we-need-to-talk-about-kevin/

Sound Studies and Aural Cultures

In Search of Peace

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In Search of Peace – is my working title for the sound studies and aural cultures assessment, that will take place in the form of an audio paper. My paper will investigate the relationship between sound and calmness, in the context of a modern cosmopolitan society. I will focus in the DIY sound practices instead of the collectives or industries.

Abstract: Due to the increase of stress and chaos inside big cities, the individual is constantly searching for sources of calmness and peace. Sound has always played an important role on the ecology of a place and it’s a key element in determining what moods can a place cause. Different sound practices have been created with the purpose of using sound as a relaxing medium. Artists such as Pauline Oliveros and Brian Eno have explored such mediums in their works, it can be seen across Eno’s ambient music and Oliveros Deep Listening texts. I’m interested in the non artistic and non commercial sound practices that seek the state of calmness. Practices that common people create unconsciously and unintentionally, that are independent from any canon or medium. These practices can include walks in the park or group meditations, anything that is independently created. I will interview these sound practitioners, discovering their approach to sound and their methodology behind their practices.

My objective is to create an ethnographic paper, where I don’t discuss any argument and don’t come up with any conclusions, but instead present my findings and observations as close as possible to the nature of the phenomena.