Week 9

Week 9 was all about sound. Shotgun mics, Booms, plant mics, lav mics and the like, you get the picture. The 4 soundtrack elements were also covered in this non-stop learning fest, which coincidentally is also the topic for our blog task this week. The 4 elements are Music, Narration, Sound FX and Dialogue.

Narration is usually one of two techniques. The first, is Sync to picture where the narrator reads the script as he is watching the film, and the narration is recorded in one take. The other, more prefferesd style is to read the script as isolated takes, which allow the narrator to focus on the enunciation etc.

Music is heavily relied upon in all movies. It is essential for creating mood and tension, emotion and also tell the audience how to react ie, happiness, laughter, sorrow etc. There are two types of music in a movie: "Extraneous", where the music is heard and effects only the audience, an "Practicle", where both the audience and characters in the film can hear the music, and it often sets the mood for the characters.

Music can either be produced from canned sources, or produced by original score. Canned is where the music is accessed via an archive of music, usually catalogued in emotions and feelings etc. And, of course, original score is made from scratch by a composer specifically for the movie. Producers can pay for canned music by - Needle Drop : Buying music on a per-selection per-use basis. Blanket - which permits unlimited usage of an entire library. Sreen Minute - where the producer pays a certain rate based on track time appearance on screen.

Sound FX are sounds, other than dialogue and music, that people and objects make. For eg, natural clothes swooshing, footsteps, doors closing etc. SFX can either be frame acurate or Wild. Frame accurate is when the SFX is in synch with whats happening on screen (HARD), whereas wild is referred to as when frame to frame accuracy is not important, such as wind blowing and ambience (SOFT). Foley work is done by a foley artisist who creates sounds of things that don't exsist, such as 11 ft mosquitos.

Dialogue is in 1 or 2 forms. On screen and off screen. On screen = lip sync, off screen = wild. (ADR - recorded after filming)