Sound design lecture
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Transcript of Sound design lecture
MUSICOLOGY 3TOPIC 1: FILM MUSIC
SOUND DESIGN AS COMPOSITION
SOUND DESIGN IN FILM
Film Date Director Sound / Music
Saboteur 1942 Alfred Hitchcock Frank Skinner
Forbidden Planet 1956 Fred Wilcox Louis Barron
THX 1138 1970 George Lucas Walter Murch
Alien 1979 Ridley Scott Jerry Goldsmith
Aliens 1986 James Cameron James Horner
Ian Underwood
Robert Garret
The Sacrifice 1986 Andrei Tarkovsky
Three Colours 1993-4 Krzysztof Kieslowski Zbigniev Preisner
NATURAL SOUND
• Sound on-set
• Foley sound
SOUND V MUSIC
• Normally sound is ‘reality’ and music is something
different
ALIEN (1979)
MUSIC: JERRY GOLDSMITH
ALIENS (1986)
MUSIC JAMES HORNER
SOUND (AUDIO + SYNTHESIS) IAN UNDERWOOD
(MOTHERS OF INVENTION)
ALIEN……SOUNDS: CHAINS, WATER
ALIENS…SOUNDS: WIND – OR NOT?
ALIEN…FINAL SCENE
FORBIDDEN PLANET1956
• Director Fred Wilcox
• Music/sound Louis Barron
FORBIDDEN PLANET…MACHINE
FORBIDDEN PLANET…TITLES
THX 1138 (1970)
• Director: George Lucas
• Sound: Walter Murch
THX 1138…MACHINES, SYNTHS OR ORCHESTRA?
THX 1138…COMPUTERS: SOUND OR MELODY?
THX 1138…INTERVIEWS: WALTER MURCH & GEORGE LUCAS
SOME FUNCTIONS OF SOUND DESIGN
• to be the imaginary sounds of non-existent
objects
• to alienate
• to create a world
• to blur the boundaries between ‘real sound’
and ‘music’…
…i.e. between the ‘natural’ and the ‘artificial’
KRZYSZTOF KIESLOWSKIZBIGNIEW PREISNER
1993-94
Three Colours Blue …liberté (freedom)
Three Colours White …egalité (equality)
Three Colours Red …fraternité (brotherhood)
…the colours of the revolutionary French tricolor
THREE COLOURS: BLUE…SOUNDS: CAR ENGINE, WHEELS
THREE COLOURS: RED…TITLES CUE
THREE COLOURS: RED…CATWALK CUE
ORCHESTRATION / PROCESSING AFFECTS PERSPECTIVE OF
MUSIC:
THREE COLOURS: RED
• catwalk: diegetic …orchestra
• car: non-diegetic …harp
• wet street: non-diegetic …distorted, inflected; distanced
• car radio: diegetic …static
• hits dog: non-diegetic …fragmented + string pedal
THREE COLOURS: RED…CATWALK CUE
SPECTRUM: FROM ‘MUSIC’ TO ‘SOUND’…
• Music …melody, harmony, rhythm etc
• Scoring …instrumental sound
• Production …dealing with sound in
mixing
• Sound Design …pure sound
THREE COLOURS: BLUE…ORCHESTRATION CUE
• Sound design can be used to situate the viewer in relation to
action, objects or environment…
• …a similar role to ‘presence’ or ‘perspective’ with music
soundtracks e.g. in The Sopranos
SABOTEUR
1942
• Director Alfred Hitchcock
• Composer Frank Skinner
SABOTEUR…CUE WITH SCORE
SABOTEUR…USE OF SILENCE
ANDREI TARKOVSKY
THE SACRIFICE
1986
THE SACRIFICE
• Alex and his family are on a remote Baltic island
• Over the horizon, nuclear war is destroying the world
• Alex makes a pact with God
• Suddenly it’s as if the war has never happened
• So Alex has to burn his house and all his possessions
THE SACRIFICE
• Natural sounds (thunder, planes, fire, breaking
glass)
• Distant raucous shouting / singing
• Bach: ‘Erbarme dich’ from St Matthew Passion
THE SACRIFICE…CUE 1: STRONG USE OF NATURAL SOUND
THE SACRIFICE…CUE 2: USE OF ‘STRANGE’ SOUNDS
THE SACRIFICE: ENDING
• We see the house collapsing in flames
• The camera pans to a different part of the island
• The child is watering a tree he and Alex has planted
• He doesn’t understand what has happened
• We are left with images of the tree, the boy and the
maid (who represents something unearthly)
• Bach’s music releases emotion built up during the film
THE SACRIFICE…CUE 3 (FINAL CREDITS): SOUND TO MUSIC