Sound Design for Movies - Literature review Example

Music Technology- Sound Design for Movies Table of Contents Introduction 3 Sound Design 3 Technology and Sound Design in Movies 7 References 12 Introduction This paper proposes to undertake a review o the literature on creative sound design en route to proposing a study to determine the ways that Internet and technology in general has come to impact the craft, and what further advances in technology may mean for the practice of creative sound design, with focus on creative sound design for the film industry (Thom 1999; Thom n.d.; Katz 1997; Jarrett n.d.; Buskin n.d.). Sound Design The academic literature defines sound design in general, as they pertain to television and film, in both technical and creative fashions, referring to sound design as primarily integrating elements of both, in order to come out with something that, for film for instance, is something of an integrative element to the whole experience of watching a movie. Sound design has to do with pulling together the different elements of a movie, for instance, and the term itself is an offshoot of work that was done by Walter Murch, who revolutionized the field starting from his work with Francis Ford Copolla in the 1970s, and in particular the work Apocalyse Now. The movies are said to be the wellspring of the discipline, and as Copolla and Murch actually made use of sound, sound design was about undertaking total responsibility for the entire track of audio for a film- dialogue, the sound effects employed, and the recording and repeat recording of the movies ultimate track. Fast forward to the present, and creative sound design has come to be differentiated from a host of associated film sound disciplines, including sound editing, which is differentiated from sound design precisely by the element of creativity that has come to be associated with those who primarily create and adapt sound to movies. That creativity and the history of creative sound design itself suggests that the development of technology related to sound design are often intertwined, with the creative sound designer expected to be steeped in knowledge of current and emerging technologies on sound (Dakic n.d., pp. 1-5). Elsewhere we find in the literature that sound design is also much more than the adaptation of sound to existing movies and films that have already been done and finished, as sound design, when done in such classics as the film above and in Star Wars, is also about how sound can fundamentally alter and impact on the making of the movies themselves, in the way the movies are actually filmed and conceptualized. This view of sound design, and the merit of such a view, is said to be borne out by the way films that have been done in this fashion have come to revolutionize the way films are made, for the spectacular and beautiful results of work that view sound design as an integral and creative part of the making of movies (Thom 1999; Thom n.d.; Katz 1997; Jarrett n.d.; Buskin n.d.). The short of it is that in movies that incorporate sound in the very conception stage of the movies development and making, rather than considered as being an add-on to the movie experience, the true nature of creative sound design is said to shine through, and the examples of the work of Copolla, Murch and Ben Burtt, the latter in such groundbreaking movies as Star Wars, are testaments to the power of creative sound design done in this fashion, in collaboration with the directors of those films, who understood the power of sound in movies when they are considered in this vital fashion (Thom 1999). Others have come to term this way of conceiving sound design, as being an integral aspect of the creation of the script for instance, and of the conception of the very making of the movie, as “designing a movie for sound” (Jordan 2007; Thom 1999). Such work as Forrest Gump, as an example, benefit from such a view of sound design, according to Thom, who was able to push the idea of sound in some parts of the movie being able to help tell the story, in part because the creative sound designer was able to work with the movie director from the earliest parts of the movie making process (Thom n.d.). Elsewhere in the literature we get the notion of sound effects and sound design, as by necessity a creative and experimental discipline, but not one that does not benefit from the wealth of experience of those who have come before, and have come to instruct, by example, on essential principles of sound design that work, and that create impact. This is true, for instance, as the nature of the visual experience changes and keeps on pressing the cutting edge of what is possible visually. The sound that accompanies such visual experimentation has to be keep in step too, in ways that bolster the reality of the visual images, and in equally creative manner. Implicit in the above discussion is the notion that sound itself is as integral to the experience of the movie watcher as much as the visuals themselves. This is the essence of the statement attributed to Murch, of sound effects, appreciated with the hearing function, as being a backdoor, where the visuals, through the seeing function, is the frontdoor to the movie watching experience (Kelleghan 1996). The experience and exceptional success of Murch, to write further, is a an excellent testimony to what is possible when such close collaboration is present. That Murch was excellent in the production and post-production aspects of both the film and the sound of the film, and that he worked in tight collaboration with directors such as Coppola and George Lucas, meant that he was able to argue, through his works, for the excellence of incorporating sound as an integral aspect of the movie creation process itself, rather than as an afterthought (Kenny n.d.). Murch himself, in essence, traces the development of sound and sound effects in movies to a kind of native mode of perception in human beings, that sees sound as an integral process of understanding the world, as an accompaniment to the visual aspect of experience in some cases, and in all cases as something that completes and conveys a more total view of reality (Murch 2000). Murch explores this in his own words, and associates the progress made in making the work of the designer of sound in movies easier on the one hand and lending itself more to creative freedom on the other, with the progress made in technology. The technology is an aide, and makes possible a variety of new and creative ways to blend sound with the moving images, as can be gleaned from the words of Murch. On the other hand, the very act of working with technology and making use of new technologies seems to be also, from the discussions of successful and highly adept sound designer like Murch and the others, to be very much a part of the creative process. The technologies that are in use today, for instance, rooted to the progress made in computing and in the digitization of sound, have their origins in the way the pioneers in sound design made use of simpler recording and microphone technologies to investigate and play with the different functionalities and capabilities that were made possible by those technologies. The use of high technology computing capabilities at present, to source and associate sounds with moving images via a million such permutations of different sounds and moving images employs the same experimental creativity that the pioneers such as Welles and Murch employed when they discovered the simple but profound uses of microphones in motion in order to signify depth and distance in the visual scenes of movies (Murch 2000; Thom 1999). Technology and Sound Design in Movies Murch and others inevitably get to touch on technology when it comes to discussions on the art of sound design for movies, indicating that technology is a central aspect of sound design, as an enabler, and as means to push the boundaries of what is possible. Discussions on the evolution of sound design, for instance, are inextricably linked to the way that evolution has been in lock step with progress in technology, though that link is not linear, nor the actual breakthroughs known before hand. The progress that has been made has been achieved largely by trial and error, and experimentation with the way technologies affect the way sound is captured, or conveyed. The advent of newer technology, meanwhile, promises to further complicate the work of the sound designer, and that complexity has to do with the greater degree of freedom and creativity that technology allows the sound designer to enjoy. Flexibility and creative experimentation are hallmarks of progress in technology. The main thing in the discussions though, is that technology itself, from the invention of sound and the breakthrough incorporation of sound in recorded moving images, has made possible the entire field of sound design as it is presently practiced in the first place. The process has been one of first making breakthroughs in the use of one technology, and then of building on those breakthroughs to improve the craft and to set the stage for further explorations with what is possible with the technologies and the sounds that are created from them. The use of computers, the mixing and matching of images and sounds to a fine level of detail, are as important and as groundbreaking now as microphones and the use of recorded sounds from more primitive technologies back in the 1960s, for example, and earlier (Murch 2000; Thom 1999; Buskin n.d.; Jarrett n.d.; Dakic n.d.). Moreover, an aspect of technology in sound and in movies in general is the way technology presents new problems and challenges for sound designers as well. One case that illustrates this is with regard to progress made in visual technologies, that in the past few years have made it possible for engineers and directors to incorporate cartoon characters in the real world, making it look, in realistic fashion, that cartoon characters that were previously rendered in 2D could actually co-exist with human actors in natural human settings. The challenge for sound design in this context, is to be able to likewise realistically integrate the dialogues and sounds of cartoon characters with the sounds that the natural actors and the natural environment, in ways that are realistic and natural too. Such challenges are partly technological, and requires the use of new technologies in the same vein that the incorporation of the visual images of cartoon characters into natural environments required technological breakthroughs. Those are the lockstep challenges that require the experimentation and creative use of sound design technologies that are referred to in this discussion (Droney 2000). Elsewhere in the literature there are discussions that give us an overall picture of just how that progress in technology has impacted and created breakthroughs in the creative use of sound for movies. That picture portrays a complex discipline where technology has permeated many key areas, and defines how much freedom and complexity has been made possible by basic technological breakthroughs, from recording, all the way to process of synchronization and mixing, to the part of the editing of the final product with the visuals and the sound aspects combined (Dakic 5-6). Murch on the other hand traces the history of progress in sound design making use of technological breakthroughs and the advances and insights into the use of such technologies as the milestones of such a history, emphasizing just how important the interplay of technology and creativity is in the discipline. Murch talks about, for instance, the optical sound track technology breakthrough, 35-mm, made in 1929, as instrumental in surfacing a key creative aspect of sound as a feminine aspect, and also instrumental in introducing a new degree of freedom for sound design that was constrained by, and improves on, older technology. This is a prototype of how technology functions. It introduces a new aspect of the creative and artistic aspect of sound, while at the same time introducing a new degree of freedom for creative spirits to harness for their artistic and technical ends. The use of microphones in motion; the use of digital technology to digitize sounds and to mix and match them with images; the use of complex technologies to further process sounds from nature and create sounds for diverse purposes in movies- all of these follow the same pattern of technological breakthroughs and creative experimentation together making new things possible in the realms of sound design and cinema work in general (Murch 2000; Kenny n.d.; Dakic n.d.; Thom 1999; Thom n.d.; Kelleghan 1996). It is noteworthy that this discussion on the intertwining of technology and creativity in sound design is a common thread in all learned and experienced discussion on the subject matter. It is in this light too, that the pronouncements and insights by Murch and others with regard to the foundational technologies that define quantum leaps in sound design are to be understood. Murchs pronouncements with regard to the way sound digitization undergirds the progress made in sound design over the past three decades, are to be understood in this light of viewing technology and advancements in technology as being a central component of good sound design (Murch 2000; Thom 1999; Buskin n.d.; Jarrett n.d.; Droney 2000). The key in sound design and the use of technology is that the sound designers creativity has as much to do with the successful use of the technologies as much as the technologies themselves, and in the end the creativity of the sound designer differentiates good work from mediocre work. The technology is the enabler, but as in all aspects of sound design and movie work the sound designers creativity is the key ingredient. On the other hand, a good technological foundation and a command of the use of technology in sound design likewise seems to differentiate those who are successful in the field, such as Murch and Thom, from the rest of the pack. This is also what differentiates the sound designer from the other professionals that work with the sound aspect of films. The emphasis on creativity means that the skills of the sound designer go beyond mere technological mastery, and extends to the actual creative use of the technologies to create compelling, realistic, and beautiful sound and sound effects for films. Murch is able to talk, for instance, about the technological aspects of film sound design with great authority, not only because of the breadth of that technological mastery, but also because of the great body of work that attests to Murchs creativity. The technical mastery is an important aspect of that creativity, but it does not work the other way around, meaning that technical mastery alone does not equate to creative mastery. That caveat said, technological mastery seems to be key to successful sound design for movies. This ties in with assertions made here from the literature, with regard to the centrality of the sound design in good movies. That centrality plays out in both the creative and the technological aspects of good sound design (Murch 2000; Thom 1999; Buskin n.d.; Jarrett n.d.; Droney 2000) References Buskin, R. n.d., Postproduction: Making Contact. FilmSound.org, Retrieved 17 May 2012 from http://www.filmsound.org/studiosound/pp_contact.html Dakic, V. n.d., Sound Design for Film and Television, Grin/Verlag Fur Akademische Texte, Retrieved 17 May 2012 from http://esdi.pbworks.com/f/Sound%20Design%20for%20Film%20and%20Television.pdf Jarrett, M. n.d., Sound Doctrine: An Interview with Walter Murch, Penn State University, Retrieved 17 May 2012 from http://www2.yk.psu.edu/~jmj3/murchfq.htm Jordan, R. 2007, Sound in the Cinema and Beyond, Offscreen 11 (8-9), Retrieved 17 May 2012 from http://www.offscreen.com/index.php/pages/index/975 Katz, J. 1997, Walter Murch in Conversation with Joy Katz, Parnassus Poetry Review: The Movie Issue Vol 22, Retrieved 17 May 2012 from http://www.filmsound.org/murch/parnassus/ Kelleghan, F., 1996, Sound Effects in Science Fiction and Horror Films, International Conference on the Fantastic in the Arts, Retrieved 17 May 2012 from http://www.filmsound.org/articles/horrorsound/horrorsound.htm Kenny, T. n.d., Walter Murch: The Search for Order in Sound & Picture- Interview, FilmSound.org, Retrieved 17 May 2012 from http://www.filmsound.org/murch/waltermurch.htm Murch, W. 2000, Stretching Sound to Help the Mind See, The New York Times, Retrieved 17 May 2012 from http://www.filmsound.org/murch/stretching.htm Thom, R. 1999, Designing a Movie for Sound, FilmSound.org, Retrieved 17 May 2012 from http://www.filmsound.org/articles/designing_for_sound.htm Thom, R. n.d., Mixing a Box of Chocolates: A Few Notes on “Forrest Gump”, FilmSound.org, Retrieved 17 May 2012 from http://www.filmsound.org/randythom/forrest.htm Read More