diegetic sound production

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Diegetic/non diegetic sound

Diegesis is a Greek word for "recounted story" – The film's diegesis is the total world of the story

action

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How it’s made

• Foley artist– "During the filming of a movie, the location

sound recordist tries to capture only the dialogue and they leave all of other sounds to the post- production crew," says C5, Inc. Foley Artist Marko Costanzo. "What the sound editors cannot produce digitally falls to us."

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FoleyDefinition: Sound effects recorded in synchronization to edited

picture in post-production. Named after Jack Foley, who was the head of the sound effects department at Universal Studios for many years. Contrary to popular myth, he did not invent the process

As you will see in the next examples, it’s ironic that the definition of foley sound is to create something authentic, yet their methods of creation have little to do with reality.

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Castle Thunder• One of the first example of foley sound

comes from the movie “Frankenstein”

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• This sound has gone on to be featured in countless films and TV shows since, becoming the definitive movie thunderclap. Until around the late '80s, whenever you heard a thunderclap in a movie, it was probably Castle Thunder.

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• it has also been heard in triumphant, uplifting moments - such as when it zapped the time traveling DeLorean with 1.21 jigowatts of energy so that Marty McFly could travel "Back to the Future."

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• It may be impossible to keep track of the many films this distinctive thunderclap has been heard in. The list would include "Citizen Kane," "Cleopatra," "The Hindenberg," "Ghostbusters," "Murder by Death," "Twilight Zone - The Movie," "Clue," "Big Trouble in Little China," "Trading Places," "The Monster Squad," "Death Becomes Her," and (of course) "Young Frankenstein" - just to name a few. It can also be found in several Disney films, such as "Bambi," "Sleeping Beauty" and "The Great Mouse Detective."

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• Sounds, like camera angles and lighting, take on their own meanings, and can become clichés.

• But just like all clichés, their original meaning has arisen from the fact that they work.

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Telephone ring• Another of the most often heard sound effects - especially in TV

shows produced at Universal Studios during the '70s and '80s - is the sound of a telephone ringing.

• Sound Designer Ben Burtt, in an interview with Bantha Tracks Newsletter in August of 1982, called Universal's telephone one of his least favorite sound effects. "No matter where the scene is, an office, an outside payphone, or deep in a cave - all Universal telephones will ring with the same 'tittle-little-little-ling.' I don't like it because it's so artificial."

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Other sound clichéshttp://www.filmsound.org/cliche/

• Dogs always know who's bad, and bark at them.

• In a horror film when there is a full moon there is either an owl or a wolf howling in the distance

• Car tires "always" screech on dirt roads.

• Every button you press on a computer makes some kind of beep

• When a light bulb gets broken, there's always a kind of electric sound

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Star Wars

• Would this movie be what it was were it not for the many iconic sounds that it’s sound designer, Ben Burtt, created?

• His responsibility on Star Wars was to create specifically unusual sounds - weapons, vehicles, character and key backgrounds.

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• "In my first discussion with George Lucas about the film, he - and I concurred with him - that he wanted an 'organic', as opposed to the electronic and artificial soundtrack. Since we were going to design a visual world that had rust and dents and dirt, we wanted a sound which had Squeaks and motors that may not be the smooth-sounding or quite. Therefore we wanted to draw upon raw material from the real world: real motors, real squeaky door, real insects; this sort of thing. The basic thing in all films is to create something that sounds believable to everyone, because it's composed of familiar things that you can not quite recognize immediately"

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TIE fighter

• The screech of a TIE Fighter is a drastically altered elephant bellow.

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R2-D2 • 50 % of the droid´s voice is generated

electronically; the rest is a combination and blending of water pipes, whistles, and vocalizations by Burtt.

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Chewbacca

• Wookie sounds are constructed out of pieces of walruses and other animal sounds.

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Laser blasts

• The sound of a hammer on an antenna tower support wire

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Ewokese language

• A language created by altering and layering Tibetan, Mongolian, and Nepali languages

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Lightsaber

• Burtt blended the sounds of his TV set and an old 35 mm projector to create the hum of a light saber

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Effective use of sound

• Some of the most effective sounds in film are used for everyday events. This is the true artistry of the sound designer; to create an effect that is “hyper real” that is, more real than what we would actually hear.

• Like the other production elements, when sound is used to manipulate the audience without them even knowing it, true immersion in the narrative can be the result.

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Breaking Bones• Supplies: Very fresh carrots and celery (they have to be

very firm for this to sound right).• Technique: Break the carrots and celery in half in front of

the microphone. Usually, you have to break the carrots separate from the celery and then combine the sounds on tape later. The combo makes a nice snapping-crack sound (the carrots and initial celery snap) and then a slight peeling-breaking away sound (the strands of celery tearing away) that finishes it off and adds to the "realism.”

• Notes: This trick can be used for a variety of sound effects, from toes being run over by a car, bones being crunched or broken, or even knuckle cracking.

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Kissing (the Deep Passionate Kind)

• Supplies: Glass of water, your lips, and your forearm.

• Technique: Take a sip of water and wet your lips. Then, make out with the underside of your forearm, the part with very little hair--letting your mouth make sloppy kissing sounds.

• Notes: And you thought movie stars actually kissed well. They just look good; it's up to us sound designers to really kiss well!

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Slap or Punch

• Supplies: Piece of raw steak.

• Technique: To emulate a person getting slapped in the face, hold a somewhat thick (about 1") piece of raw steak with one hand and hit it with an open palm in the center of the meat. To simulate a person being punched (on a part of the body without clothing, such as a face, neck, naked arm, or naked chest) use the same basic method, but choose a thicker slice of steak depending on the part of body you are simulating being hit and punch the meat with a closed fist action.

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A few other foley tricks• The sound of a smoldering cigarette is made by

pressing a thumb into plain dirt?

• The sound of footsteps crunching on snow is actually achieved by Kosher Sea Salt covered in cornstarch?

• Next time you watch a film, see if you can work out how the sounds were made……

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Soundtrack music….

In this Quentin Tarantino interview, he discusses how the opening of a film is the “mood time” of the narrative. What does he mean?

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Visceral, emotional…..

• Tarantino goes on to state that the combination of music an vision is “about as cinematic a thing as you can do”

• Are there any other examples you can think of where such an effect between song and film has been created?

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12 Monkeys and Vertigo

• Try and list all the moments you can remember in the two films we have studied where sound has played an important part. These could be:– Diegetic sound effects that heighten the

narrative action– Non-diegetic sound motifs that emphasise

narrative importance

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Further reading

• http://filmsound.org/film-sound-history/– Some great articles on the history of sound design