Sound for Picture

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Using Reverb for films and games

Two good articles from Designing Sound:
Creative Uses of Reverb

Reverb: The Science And The State-of-the-Art

Dolby Atmos

Not resting on its laurels since implementing Dolby 7.1, Dolby Atmos further enhances surround sound for cinema. The new standard provides for more control of the sound by using overhead speakers, and individually addressed surround speakers (sides and rear).
Find more details here, and Shaun Farley gives his first impressions here.

Technical Standards and Documentation Guide for the Delivery of Television Commercials (NZ)

The new standard was released in Aug. 2012 and can be downloaded here.

Lord of The Rings DVDs            (Appendices)

                                                                        Duration                     Topic

PART 2  - The Fellowship of the Rings           

 
The Soundscapes of Middle Earth                        12:39                        Sound FX / Audio post


Music for Middle Earth                                         12:30                        Filmscore / Soundtrack           

 

 

PART 4  - The Two Towers

 
The Soundscapes of Middle Earth                        21:28                        Sound FX / Audio post

 
Music for Middle Earth                                        25:21                        Filmscore / Soundtrack


Sound Demo: Helms Deep                                    1:07                        Audio post

            (interactive)

 

PART 6  - The Return of the King


The Soundscapes of Middle Earth                        22:12                        Sound FX / Audio post

 
Music for Middle Earth                                        22:02                        Filmscore / Soundtrack


The end of all things                                           20:37                        Audio post

Film scoring

History


1. Silent Movies (eg Charlie Chaplin). 

Piano or organ accompaniment


2. First “talkie” The Jazz Singer (1927). Songs and some fragments of speech.


3. 1930’s format established  - Musical Overture (main themes) played with the opening titles and closing titles


4. 1940s Dramatic, lush, romantic sounds. Close paralleling of the action (sometimes sounding cartoonish).

eg – Max Steiner composer:      Casablanca (1942)

Gone with the wind 



5. The war years – patriotic films with stirring themes

Eg The Dambusters (Eric Coates)


6. Musicals

Rogers and Hammerstein, Walt Disney

 
7. Thrillers

Tension building, false alarms

Eg screeching strings in Psyco, dizzying arpeggios in Vertigo (Bernard Hermann)

 
8. Epic Dramatisations

Sweeping orchestral themes give the big sound required

Eg Ben Hur (Miklos Rozla), Lawrence of Arabia (Maurice Jarre)

The Western: The Magnificent 7 (Elmer Bernstein), The Good the Bad & the Ugly (Ennio Morricone)

 
9. Hit Songs

Eg High Noon (1952) “Do not forsake me, o my darling”, Bond movies, The Titanic (James Horner)

 
10. Songs instead of underscoring

Eg Pulp Fiction, Trainspotting, 

Mixed with score: Back to the Future (Alan Silvestri), Dune (Toto’s music + David Lynch’s score)

 
11. Dark Atmosphere

Used in Sci-Fi, and fantasy

Eg Blade Runner (Vangelis), Batman (Danny Elfman)


12. Themes that leave the movie

Become pop culture icons eg Jaws (dark foreboding), Chariots of Fire (triumph), Rocky (sport), Bond theme (exotic locations)


13. Return of the Epic theme

Eg Star Wars (John Williams), LOTR (Howard Shore)

 
14. Electronic Instruments

1945 Hitchcock’s Spellbound (Miklos Rozla) used a Theremin

1951 The Thing (Dimitri Tiomkin) used a Theremin

1951 The Day the Earth Stood Still (Bernard Hermann) used Theremins

1956 Forbidden Planet (Louis and Bebe Barron) – entirely electronic score

1963 The Birds (Bernard Hermann) used a Trautonium

1970s A Clockwork Orange (Wendy Carlos)

Terminator (Brad Fiedel) – metallic music for he android

The Titanic, The Matrix – blend of real and synthesised instruments

 

 

 

Functions:

 

1. Provide necessary music (source music; the actors are aware of it ie it is in the plot). An extreme example is Close Encounters of the Third Kind, where the music is the crux of the film.


2. Defining the ethnicity, location, or period of the film

Eg Braveheart (bagpipes)

 
3. Parallel the action of the film (underscoring)

Can be done cue by cue (eg the atonal score of Planet of the Apes by Jerry Goldsmith), or by giving the main character a theme throughout a scene (eg LOTR)

 
4. Commenting on the film and adding to the scenes

Eg Legends of the Fall (James Horner). Opening scene (landscape= beauty because of the sweet melody on the strings, otherwise it could represent loneliness)

 
5. Character development – eg Star Wars – Luke Skywalker’s adolescence is scored with vigorous orchestrations (strings giving a sense of hope and innocence). By the film’s end Luke is a hero and his theme is orchestrated with trumpets as a march.

 
6. Providing emotional focus 

To engage the viewer by generating an emotional response.

Orchestration is important:       Strings= romance, tragedy

Brass= power, sorrow (esp. solo)

Percussion=suspense


7. The “Soundtrack”

Producers have caught on to the idea of a song (or album) of music that will be financially viable outside of the film.

The Graduate (1968) contained a string of pop tunes.

 
 

Practicalities:

Concentrate on the central character(s)

Use music to ‘glue’ scenes together

Use appropriate instrumentation (less is often more)

Use music to project underlying emotions

Consider going against what’s on screen (eg happy music in a horror movie)

 
Capture the essence of the movie. Be careful not to get ahead of the story. (Carole Bayer Sager)

 
Ask Questions

Do Research

 


Clichés

 
Closing title music same as the opening titles

An uplifting tune for the good guys and a dark theme for the baddies

Use a vocal chorus to suggest mysterious forces

It’s easy to sound foreign ( digeridoos=Aust, cymbals=Oriental, Trumpet=Mexico, Whistle=Ireland

Love themes are played on strings

Jazz tunes are played on the Saxophone

Use weird electronic sounds for Sci-fi

Portray large objects (or beings) with loud deep long notes, small objects with quiet high short notes.

If it’s a War movie use a March

 

 

 

Websites

www.mfiles.co.uk

http://www.filmtvsound.com

http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=PQBRSwZiYS4    (Star Wars theme on a banjo!)

Maestros of Suspense: Music in the Films of Alfred Hitchcock 



Articles

Designing a Movie for Sound –Randy Thom

The Soundtrack: a basic introduction – Dr Fred Ginsburg

The Functions of Film Music – Yair Oppenheim

The last Twenty years: The Film Music (Re)Evolution – Alan Vallely

 

Books

Idiots Guide to Songwriting (Chap. 15). Movie Scoring and Songwriting

Sounds and Scores-Henry Mancini

Scoring for Films-Earle Hagan

Complete Guide for Film Scoring – Richard Davis