Assignment 1 (Sound)

Compressing and Summarizing sound:

In film, audio is often compressed and edited for a specific purpose. This technique is used in probably every single trailer or teaser for a new movie that is going to be released. To illustrate this for you, here is the trailer for 'Star Wars: The Last Jedi' where towards the ending you hear Rey stating that she needs someone to show her her place in all of the chaos and you see Kylo Ren offering his hand hinting that she is going to take it and join the sith.

However, in the actual film, it is really Kylo Ren that is offering Rey to join him telling her to let everything die and go with him. The sound is compressed in the trailer to cause the audience to doubt Rey's true goals and leads to the anticipation of what she's going to do as they mute out the "join me" audio and cover it with the sound of tension-building music. Here is proof of the real clip which is edited for the purpose of the trailer:

Eliminating material:

In most pieces of film, a director/ producer can decide if certain pieces of audio are flawed, repetitive, superfluous, uninteresting or irrelevant. If found to be one of these things, they will be edited out post-production either completely or will be re-recorded by the actors until they feel it fits perfectly. This has to be done precisely, if it is not the entire movie can be ruined and the audience will lose interest in the story line itself. Here is a video explaining why the audio tracks from 'American Hustle' were not perfected enough for the movie to be entirely successful and flawless.

To summarize this video, it basically states that the editing team did not focus hard enough on all scenes to notice small audio errors that can affect how the audience receives the film. Some things caused by the incomplete editing were vocal distortion, gain hiss, incorrect microphone placement and overlapping dialogue. All of these things can confuse the audience by preventing them from clearly hearing all of the words said by a character, causing them to focus on that and lose focus on the progression of the story line as a conversation between two characters can determine the shape of an entire plot, therefore if some of that conversation is presented wrong then the entire film is affected.

Recorded speech/ inappropriate language:

The directors, producers and writers must all make sure that the speech/dialogue in a film is completely legal, otherwise it will not be successful at all as it will not be allowed to be viewed publicly. This could be if profanity is used in a film that is meant for the age rating of PG or U (for all ages) in regular dialogue or music tracks, an example of this would be if a film with a U certificate wished to use a song like 'I Like It' by Cardi B, they would need to bleep out many of the lyrics as they are very explicit, here's an example of this song after it has been edited to not include any of the explicit language:

Another factor of the legal side to things, there is a law in this country that dialogue must be at a certain volume for audiences to here. However, some exceptions can be made for the purpose of the film - 'A Quiet Place' is sci-fi film based upon a family who are living during a global apocalypse after an attack from some beings who rely on sound for their attacks, therefore there is little to know speech and dialogue. Here is the trailer which will give you the full idea of how minimal the sound is:

Changing the order of sound:

In film, sound can be used to change a chronological order of things for the purpose of the piece of film. In the Netflix original 'Bird Box', the film was edited to start with the voice of the main character years after the apocalypse had happened, despite the fact that we follow her journey from the beginning of the chaos. The editing team manipulated the sound of this film to clearly highlight the fact that we were going to switch between flashbacks and flash forwards throughout the entire film. This technique also intrigues the audience from the very beginning to the mystery of what is going on in the world and opens their minds to what could be causing the events in the flash forwards. The voice overs from Sandra Bullock's character create the continuity leading onto the intense events of the ending of the film. Here is the opening sequence to 'Bird Box' which will illustrate exactly what the producers wanted to do with it. 

Creating impact:

In all movies and television series, you will find that sound effects and music are used to add impact to what is said or done on screen. One of the most common examples i have found personally is in television shows when there is an emotional moment between a couple of characters and mood-setting music is added in the background to create the perfect atmosphere. Here is an example of where this happens in season 3 of MTV's 'Teen Wolf':

The audio track in the background is placed there to create the romantic and magical atmosphere of the moment on screen. This is known as non-diegetic sound as it does not have a source from the world of where it's happening, and to broaden your understanding of this I should point out that diegtic is sound that comes from the world on screen, for example: speech or background noise like car sounds.

Unit 24 - Sound Editing

Mood and Atmosphere:

In film, mood and atmosphere are supported greatly using the sound that is added post-production to match the theme and genre. The horror genre is a good example of this as right from the outset, they tend to include gloomy, mysterious music or omens such as the sound of crows or thunder and lightening. These omens are typically associated with horror therefore are recognizable by audiences. Here is a clip from episode 1 of 'American Horror Story' in which Tate is having a therapy session and begins recalling his dark thoughts and feelings - the music molds an idea of what it feels like to be in his mind tying in with his monologue.

Another example of where music ties in to create the mood and atmosphere reinforcing the genre is in Marvel's 'Avengers: Assemble'. In the film, there is an iconic moment when all 6 of the original avengers regroup and there is a panning shot of them all preparing to fight being more empowered by the sound track behind it.

    

Audio Fade:

Audio fades are used very commonly but are very subtle therefore are hardly ever noticed by an audience even though the effects of them are extraordinary. Personally, I feel that audio fades work most successfully during romantic scenes as they reinforce the emotion felt by the characters bringing it to the audience watching. In 'The Vampire Diaries', there is an iconic moment in season 6 where Stefan and Caroline confide in each other and share an intense moment in which they share their first kiss. The song 'Yours' by Ella Henderson slowly begins to fade in as their conversation progresses, creating a rather magical feel to the scene and hints that something is going to happen. You can watch the scene here:

                          

     

Dialogue and voice over:

Even though dialogue is just a character or narrator speaking it should still be acknowledged as a sound effect. Dialogue is a key part to a story as it can shape the narrative and make the audience feel a certain atmosphere and mood all dependent on their choice of words. An recent example of where this works exceptionally is in Netflix's new original series: 'You'. This series is about a stalker (Joe) who forms a liking towards a girl named Beck in who he obsesses over while recalling his thoughts and feelings throughout. This thought-tracking element to the show enhances how creepy the producers want Joe to appear 

    

Ambient Sound:

Ambient sound, put simply, is the background noise you hear in mostly all movies and television shows. For example, if there was a scene set in the middle of a New York street, you would hear the typical city sounds such as car engines, cars beeping, the noises of busy crowds etc. This is used in all kinds of genres yet you are most likely to find examples in dramas as they tend to take place in specific settings like cities or towns, therefore it will be easy to pick out ambient sound in these kinds of shots. There is an example of this in season 5 of 'Once Upon A Time' during the 'Emma Finds Her Armor' scene where we focus on a flashback and you can hear the city sounds of Boston which is ambient sound (also referred to as diegetic sound.

  

Sound bridges:

Sound bridges are pieces of audio which are used to move from one scene to the next so the sound of the scene coming next begins before there is a visual transition between the two. In thrillers, this is commonly used to introduce the villain or a danger coming the characters way. An example of this is in Warner Bros.' 'The Dark Knight' in which the joker is introduced to the group of characters on screen through his iconic laugh despite him not being on screen yet. Even thought the audience cannot see him, they already know who it is which foreshadows an idea of what's going to happen.

In non-fiction, sound bridges are still used. In documentaries for example, you may hear an ambient sound of a location such as a coastline before the scenery is established visually. Examples of this can be seen on most episodes of 'Blue Planet'.

Foley Sounds:

Foley sounds are sounds which are created during the production of a piece of film. For example if the films requires the noise of someone drawing a sword, the Foley sound produces will record this sound multiple times using various objects until they feel it fits perfectly. These are mostly always used on fiction and never really in non-fiction unless it was incredibly necessary. Here is a video explaining how the sound effects for 'Wall-E' are created:

Synchronous and Asynchronous:

This type of sound is used in animation for example when a voice over needs to be matched with the animated characters of screen. These audio clips will be recorded before or during the animation process and will be placed onto the film post-production when the film is being edited. The editor will have to be extra careful when placing these audio tracks in as they will have to match the mouth movements exactly as they're said. It is a hard, time-consuming process but the end products are remarkable.

This kind of audio is not only used in animation however. Sometime during live performances, singers may feel they cannot sing to the best of their ability fr whatever reason and may have to lip-sync with the music playing so that it is convincing to the audience. This is an incredibly controversial topic though therefore i will not expand more into this use.

Sound Motif:

Sound motif is a certain sound or tune which follows a certain character or event. An example of this is in 'Harry Potter'. In all of these films, whenever Hogwarts School of Witchcraft and Wizardry is displayed on screen, you will the iconic movie theme which is so easily recognizable by all of the franchises fans.

ADR Sound:

ADR sound is the type of sound which is re-recorded post-production if the any of the team members working on it feel that it could be better and will continue to record this until they feel it is perfect.