Sound for Moving Pictures

The Four Sound Areas

Neil Hillman

• Publisher: Focal Press
• Year: 2021
• Print ISBN: 9780367517793
• eBook ISBN: 9781000376296
• Edition: 1
• Topic: Media & Performing Arts
• Subtopic: Music

Sound for Moving Pictures presents a new and original sound design theory called the Four Sound Areas framework, offering a conceptual template for constructing, deconstructing and communicating all types of motion picture soundtracks; and a way for academics and practitioners to better understand and utilize the deeper, emotive capabilities available to all filmmakers through the thoughtful use of sound design.

The Four Sound Areas framework presents a novel approach to sound design that enables the reader to more fully appreciate audience emotions and audience engagement, and provides a flexible, practical model that will allow professionals to more easily create and communicate soundtracks with greater emotional significance and meaning.

Of obvious benefit to sound specialists, as well as motion picture professionals such as film producers, directors and picture editors, Sound for Moving Pictures also provides valuable insight for others interested in the subject; such as those involved with teaching soundtrack analysis, or those researching the wider topics of film studies and screen writing.

Supplementary materials can be found on the companion website: www.soundformovingpictures.com

1 Introduction

1.1 Introduction

This book is presented as a comprehensive body of work for those engaged in moving picture production; particularly professionals whose practice incorporates an involvement with sound, and the topic of sound design; either in a creative sense, or as a method of critical analysis of the soundtrack for wider film studies purposes.

But it is also arranged in such a way as to aid academics and students interested in the topic of moving picture soundtracks, either as a reference work for sound design research purposes, or as a teaching aid. The book may be used as a standalone work, or ideally, in conjunction with the media that is available on the companion website found at www.soundformovingpictures.com.

The book provides a three-tier consideration of sound design in contemporary moving picture production and post-production, using an original, practical and theoretical methodology called the Four Sound Areas framework.

Firstly, the Four Sound Areas framework is shown as a way for steering and intensifying the intended emotional experiences of listening-viewers, by describing a method with which a Sound Designer¹ might consider constructing a soundtrack; and a Re-recording Mixer² might subsequently build on this desired emotional impact, by emphasizing specific elements of the soundtrack during the final mixing stage.

Secondly, the Four Sound Areas framework is described as a means of deconstructing the soundtrack, to allow the academic, student and critic to carry out a more detailed analysis; the purpose of which being to arrive at a clearer understanding of artistic audio motives, and the narrative significance of sound, in any moving picture production.

Finally, the Four Sound Areas framework is presented as a tool for creative professionals to communicate emotional intent for a soundtrack; to more easily enable, e.g. a film Director to express their desired emotional intent to a Sound Designer, a Re-recording Mixer or a picture editor.

Central to this whole process is my proposal that all moving picture soundtracks, such as those for filmed entertainment or broadcast television, are created from an audio ‘compound’ made up of four distinct elements, termed the Narrative, Abstract, Temporal and Spatial sound areas; and that these areas form a useful framework for both the creation and the consideration of emotional sound design.

The Narrative sound area is concerned with sound that carries direct communication and meaning. Dialogue and commentary are the most important examples of this area, which also includes symbolic and signalling sounds such as ringtones, sirens and other sounds; and, music with a clearly defined meaning.

The Abstract sound area is concerned with sounds that have a less codified and clear meaning. Atmospheres, backgrounds, room tones, sound effects and music are examples of these.

The Temporal sound area is concerned with the evolution in time of the sound design. Its characteristics are rhythm, pace and punctuation. This area can include music, sound effects and voice.

The Spatial sound area is concerned with the positioning of sounds within a three-dimensional soundfield and the space placed around the presented sound.

I have used the specific term ‘listening-viewer’ throughout this work when referring to the intended audience of a soundtrack, to differentiate from the more general and widespread media use of the terms ‘viewer’ and ‘listener’. The word ‘balancing’ refers to the ‘level balance’, or ‘mix balance’ between the discrete soundtrack elements that constitute the compound of a moving picture soundtrack; the manipulation of which is under the complete control of the Re-recording Mixer. Greater detail regarding the Four Sound Areas is contained in Chapter 4 of this book.

A short animated film, Jack – Safe@Last (2010), a short feature film The Craftsman (2012), a full-length feature film Here and Now (2014) and a recording of a live sports Outside Broadcast event Commonwealth Games Boxing (2014) are used to demonstrate the Four Sound Areas in use in my own commercial work, and excerpts of these may be found on the book’s companion website, www.soundformovingpictures.com.

1.2 The Sound Designer and the concept of sound design

Gary Rydstrom, a renowned Sound Designer and Re-recording Mixer at Skywalker Sound, considers his role to be:

someone who the Director turns to as being in charge of the soundtrack. (Loewinger, 1998)

With this in mind, in creating, constructing and organizing a soundtrack, it is the job of the Sound Designer and the Re-recording Mixer often – but not always – the same person³ (especially if mixing ‘in-the-box’)⁴ to understand, create and manipulate the inter-relationship of the proposed Four Sound Areas of this study: the Sound Designer presents a selection of sounds considered capable of creating emotional impact and narrative consequence, whilst the Re-recording Mixer determines the relative balance of these sounds (i.e. the emphasis given to each of the Four Sound Areas within the mix at any one time), to elicit, emphasize or steer the emotional response of the listening-viewer at any given time during the programme.

It is also worth defining at the outset, those pockets of ‘ring-fenced’ autonomous creative practice that exist for the Sound Designer and Re-recording Mixer; as well as the similarities and differences in the responsibilities and objectives of these two different roles. The first similarity and overriding purpose of both jobs is to serve the film’s artistic and technical potential; but how they go about achieving this is somewhat different.

The Sound Designer initially identifies the ‘extra’ sounds that are required to augment or even replace the supplied production sound (supplied by the Production Mixer, usually via the picture editing department, which normally consists of only the dialogue recorded on location) and then presents to the Re-recording Mixer, all and every sound element that they have interpreted to be of significance to the plot, the storyline or the emotional intent of a scene. This audio arc encompasses production sound, dialogue editing, ADR recording, sound effects, Foley, atmospheres and music.

Tarkovsky notes:

As soon as the sounds of the visible world, reflected by the screen, are removed from it, or that world is filled, for the sake of the image, with extraneous sounds that don’t exist literally, or if the real sounds are distorted so that they no longer correspond with the image—then the film acquires a resonance. (Tarkovsky, 1987, p.162)

Typically, the Sound Designer’s output comprises dialogue, atmospheres, sound effects, Foley and score; and they may also synthesize and manipulate sounds to create new, unique sound effects. In a word, the Sound Designer is committed to providing aural content. The Sound Designer’s position in the sound team is highly creative and autonomous, but can also carry significant logistical responsibility for managing the audio post-production team, its budget and its processes if the fuller duties of a Supervising Sound Editor are also undertaken.

The Re-recording Mixer must sort through the myriad supplied audio, which by this stage consists of Dialogue and ADR (Automated Dialogue Replacement), Foley, Sound Effects, Atmospheres and Music. They need to understand the intention and motive for each element of the presented soundtrack, determining, enhancing and controlling the tonal quality, sonic fidelity and volume level of the individual audio clips, whilst providing objectivity as to what should be included or discarded to best serve the emotional needs of the movie. This rationalization is an essential, and highly creative process. Tarkovsky comments again:

The sounds of the world reproduced naturalistically in cinema are impossible to imagine: there would be a cacophony. Everything that appeared on the screen would have to be heard on the soundtrack, and the result would amount to sound not being treated at all in the film. If there is no selection, then the film is tantamount to silent since it has no sound expression of its own. (Ibid.)

A Re-recording Mixer is required to work quickly, accurately and to a high standard. In short, the Re-recording Mixer is committed to providing the context for the Sound Designer’s content. A Re-recording Mixer requires a great deal of manual dexterity, as well as craft skills, technical knowledge and emotional sensitivity. The role offers a great deal of creative freedom, but it also carries total responsibility for the nature and quality of the final soundtrack.

With regard to the creative freedom bestowed onto both the Sound Designer and the Re-recording Mixer, Deutsch observes:

in practice it’s common that a considerable amount of sound post-production (effects creation, dialogue replacement, track-laying, processing, pre-mixing, etc.) is done away from the Director’s oversight, and is a reflection of the distinctive craft and creativity of the sound department. (Deutsch, 2018)

The full extent of this creative freedom away from the Director’s eyes (and ears) is worth stating; and is made manifest by the amount of work that has to be carried out to get the sound stems into a ready-to-be-mixed (or pre-mixed) state. Whilst a modern Digital Audio Workstation (DAW) bestows great flexibility for the manipulation of sound clips, there are still routinely up to 14 decisions a sound editor must make for each and every audio clip on the timeline, e.g.:

1. 1. Open head of clip
2. 2. Open tail of clip
3. 3. Shorten head of clip
4. 4. Shorten tail of clip
5. 5. Fade in clip
6. 6. Fade out clip...

Table of contents

• Cover
• Half-Title
• Series
• Title
• Copyright
• Dedication
• Contents
• List of figures
• List of tables
• Foreword
• Preface
• 1 Introduction
• PART 1 Constructing the soundtrack
• PART 2 Deconstructing the soundtrack
• PART 3 Communicating the soundtrack
• Glossary
• References
• Index