1. Week 11 Lecture
Sound and Music

2. The Role of Sound in Film
Sound is one of the most overlooked aspects of film production.
Money and time could be spared if more care were given to it in the production phase
Sound has to be considered in the pre-production / production / post-production phases of a project

3. Pre-production and Production Sound
Before a film begins production, the sound mixer will often go on location scouts to ensure the ability to capture quality audio on set
They identify any sound problems such as acoustics or uncontrollable noise
The Problem with Food Boy
Once on the set, it is the Sound department’s responsibility to capture the best quality dialogue possible
The sound department may capture other unique sounds that are found on sets, but most sound effects will be added during post-production

4. Production Sound Team
Team consists of: Production Sound Mixer, Boom Operator, and Cable Utility
Job is to gather the best quality production audio possible through many sources
Boom: A shotgun mic which is the preferred method for capturing sound, boom operator hovers microphone over the actors to capture their dialogue
Wireless Lavaliers: Wireless microphones are placed on actors bodies. Useful for wider shots and shots when there is a lot of movement from the actors. Does not have as good as quality as boom microphone
Often shooting circumstances make a production incapable of using the dialogue that is recorded on set. In these situations, the sound mixer’s job is to get dialogue that will be used as reference in ADR
Complete ADR: Watch the running scene from Pride and Predjudice
A good example of dialogue: Moving McAllister

5. Post-Production Sound
Post-production sound is the editing and mixing of sounds after the editing is finished and before the film is mastered to the output medium
There are three main areas of focus within post-production sound:
Dialogue and ADR
Sound Effects and Foley
Music
Overview of the Sound Design Process from Australia

6. Dialogue Editing and ADR
The dialogue editor will find, edit, and sweeten the best dialogue taken from set for each scene.
If any of the dialogue tracks are unusable, the dialogue editor will perform ADR (Automated Dialogue Replacement aka “Looping”) to replace the unusable audio
ADR is less desirable to do because it is hard for actors to recreate their performance when they are away from set
Some fantasy films, such as Lord of the Rings, which used extensive special effects contains mostly ADR because of the noisiness of the shooting conditions
Poorly done ADR is noticed easily (example: Low budget Kung Fu movies)

7. Sound Effects Editing and Foley
It is the sound supervisor’s job to determine what sounds will be created by the effects editor and what will be created by the Foley artist
The Sound Effects editor’s job is to create sound effects that can be used in the final sequence. These effects come from a wide variety of sources. Often they are manipulated stock sound effects, or original effects recorded by the effects editor
Foley is the recreation of any manmade or natural sound, such as footsteps, rustling or other special easily made effects such as fire crackling.
Sound Effects from Return of the King

8. Music
A composer is sometimes hired to create original music for a film. They look at a cut of the film and write music to go along with specific moments in the film
Music supervisors works with the composer to create original material with a film, as well as license pre-existing music to be used in a film

9. The Final Mix
Once a film has all of the sound effects, dialogue and music recorded and edited, it is the job of the re-recording mixers (aka dubbing mixers) to take the separate parts and bring it together into the final mix

10. Directions in Sound and Music
Like other aspects of filmmaking, directors can take a more realistic or more formalistic approach to sound in their films
Films with realistic sound embrace louder ambient noises, background noises (such as traffic and airplanes) and have lower quality dialogue
Films that are more formalistic in their approach will recreate all of the sounds. Often manipulating sounds from how they would sound in the real world (example: the sound of someone punching someone in the face varies from real life to the screen)
Overall the goal of sound is to be invisible. If it is good, then people will hardly notice it and will instead be involved in the story.