Guest Contriubtion by Randy Thom Acoustic Authenticity Versus Entertainment Value When designing a set for a film, the art director tries to use what is good about the real world place where the scene will be shot, but also tries to avoid being straight jacketed by what is there. The cinematographer usually has a similar approach in deciding what to shoot and how to shoot … [Read more...]
Expectations of Noise
(This one fell through the cracks for our noise feature last month, we bring it to you now...better late than never. ;) SF) I’ve spent most of my engineering career (the last 13 years or so) doing my best to eradicate noise from my work. Working to tape as a music engineer I became well acquainted with noise gates and expanders (equipment I haven’t made any serious use of in … [Read more...]
Time
Guest Contribution by Randy Thom I'm on a plane from San Francisco to New York, May 3, and I see that the Designing Sound theme for May is time. Two notions relating to time and sound design come to mind. One is that fiddling with time in storytelling is always a playground for sound. Jumps to the past or the future in a movie swing the door wide open to using sound in … [Read more...]
The Sound of Music, or the Music of Sound?
By: Karen Collins *note: some excerpts from this section are taken from my book, Playing with Sound (MIT Press, 2013). Music and sound design are often treated as separate disciplines. We describe ourselves as composers or sound designers, get hired to do one or the other (usually) and awards are given to these jobs as separate categories. It’s rare that sound design gets … [Read more...]
Analog Worldization
Guest contribution by Cormac Donnelly I am, at heart, a techno-nostalgiast and I’ve worked with tape machines of one kind or other for most of my career. When I sold my 2” multi-track, in 2010, I resolved almost immediately to get myself another tape machine (albeit something a little smaller than the 250kg Otari I had just parted with). A few weeks later, I found myself … [Read more...]
Ideas in Sound Design: Deprivation and Barriers – Part 2
Cross-posting from my personal blog. This article is the follow up to Part 1 of Ideas in Sound Design: Deprivation and Barriers. I've gathered a selection of media to discuss the ideas presented in the original article. I will focus on three films and one video game trailer: Saving Private Ryan, The Diving Bell and the Butterfly, Fight Club and Mass Effect 3's Take Earth … [Read more...]
Ideas in Sound Design: Deprivation and Barriers – Part 1
Cross-posting from personal blog. I've had two ideas take obsessive root in my brain recently. They're not new concepts, nor are they new to me. My first introduction to them was 8 years ago now, but I find myself pondering them with the regularity that my dog wants food. [Now? Now?! ...........Nooooow?] They're worth talking about in a public space, because I hope they'll … [Read more...]