With this article I really wanted to find out about the nuts and bots of vehicle engine sound design and implementation. So I contacted a few people and got some great responses and a fascinating insight into the process. My thanks to Stephen Baysted, Audio Director and Composer at Slightly Mad Studios, Greg Hill, Sound Designer at Soundwave Concepts, Adam Boyd, Sound Designer … [Read more...]
Film Sound Tips by Glenn Kiser, Director of the Dolby Institute
Indiewire has published a guest post by Dolby Institute's director Glenn Kiser in which he talks to filmmakers about the importance of sound design from the beginning of production. Making a movie is a never-ending series of compromises, and nothing is as good as the original concept you had in mind. But if you're really lucky, there's a moment of alchemy that can happen in … [Read more...]
4th International FilmSoundHamburg Summer Academy
The fourth annual FilmSoundHamburg got under way in Hamburg on Sunday evening - an event that will bring together enthusiasts from the worlds of sound design, film composition and game music for five days of workshops and seminars and masterclasses. Among the highlights will be four separate masterclasses given by Tim Nielsen of Skywalker Sound (Maleficient, Lord of the the … [Read more...]
Designing Silence
"Ideally, for me, the perfect sound film has zero tracks. You try to get the audience to a point, somehow, where they can imagine the sound. They hear the sound in their minds, and it really isn't on the track at all. That's the ideal sound, the one that exists totally in the mind, because it's the most intimate. It deals with each person's experience, and it's obviously of … [Read more...]
Listen Up, Tony (Awards)!: Petitioning for Reinstatement
First, some confessions: I am a sound designer, I have never worked on a Broadway production, and therefore, never expected to win a Tony Award (let alone be a part of a discussion of this nature). I may not be an “insider” of the theatre world, but the decision earlier this month to stop presenting Tony Awards for sound design (of a play and also of a musical) deems a … [Read more...]
On the Tony Awards
Guest Contribution from Randy Thom It was announced that the people who run the Tony Awards have decided to cut two of their awards categories….the two sound design categories. This is a sad piece of news for all of us in sound. It's yet another slap in the face for an important art form that struggles for recognition. The people who run awards shows feel constant … [Read more...]
The Negative Space of Sound
Guest Contribution by Jeff Talman Seong Moy, my drawing professor at City College of New York, had students lightly shade their sketchpads with hand-smeared charcoal to prepare a background for the drawing. This neutral background helped to create an illusory sense of depth in a 2-dimensional medium. The negative space of the drawing was activated by this treatment. Had there … [Read more...]