Sound Design
Movies:
Foley:
Foley is defined as the reproduction of everyday sound effects that are added to various forms of media such as film, TV and video in post production to enhance realism and audio quality. The best foley design is usually unnoticed by the audience, but prominent enough so the scene does not feel uncomfortably quiet and unnatural. Foley artists are required as frequently, the props and sets of a film do not react the same way acoustically as their real life counterparts.
The following video shows how foley is created to accompany film and television.
Film Scores:
A score is defined as being an original piece of music specifically written to accompany a film, TV show or other piece of media. A score is included in the greater collective of a “film soundtrack”, which includes pre-existing music, dialogue and sound effects. Also included in a movie soundtrack is a timed, orchestral or instrumental pieces called “cues”, which are timed to enhance specific emotional or dramatic moments in a film to add more emotional impact to a film. Scores are written by composers under the guidance of the films’ director or producers, and often performed by an orchestra or other ensemble of musicians. Some famous composers consist of John Williams, Hans Zimmer, Danny Elfman and Alexandre Desplat.
The following video helps explain how to effectively score a scene from a film.
Animations:
Sound design in animation and cartoon is used to enhance the accompanying visuals on the screen, usually following the film technique of “mickey mousing”. Mickey mousing is the concept of “parallel scoring”, where sound runs off a “hit point” system, where it follows very specific moments and events in the animation or cartoon.
The following video explains the technique of ‘mickey mousing’ and gives examples as to where it has been used.
Dubbing and Voice Overs:
A voice-over is a post-production technique where a voice is placed over the top of a film or video, either to further the narrative, or to express a form of information to the audience commonly in a documentary or news report. The voice-over is commonly read from a script and may be performed in post by a specialist voice talent.
Dubbing, also known as re-recording, is the process of replacing dialogue as an oppose to adding new vocals, much like voice-overs. Commonly, the process of dubbing is used to replace dialogue that may be unsatisfactory due to bad delivery from the performers or a mistake among the live audio recording.
The following video is a tutorial on how to effectively record voice overs.
Radio and Podcasts:
Jingles:
A jingle is a short, preferably catchy, tune used for commercial and advertising use. The jingle usually contains multiple hooks or short riffs mostly accompanied by an advertising slogan manufactured to attract an audience so said podcast or radio show. Jingles are known as a form of sound branding, used to give an acoustic identity to a show or product.
The following video is a tutorial on how to effectively create radio jingles using Adobe Audition.
Video Games:
Game Soundtracks:
Sound design is used in the video game industry to add accompanying music to cinematics and game-play to enhance the overall experience and tone of the video game, similar to film scoring.
Early video game music was comprised of simple melodies using early sound synthesizer technology which has became synonymous with the concept of “video game scoring”, however, with advances in technology, video game music has now grown to include the same orchestral complexity associated with television and film soundtracks.
The following video is a tutorial on how to effectively create music to accompany a video game.
Theatre:
Theatre Composition:
In the theatre industry, sound design is used to create complex and flexible pieces of media to enhance and add impact to the accompanying on-stage performance. Recorded audio sound effects are used to explore themes and the emotions of the play or production, and usually the director works with the sound designer so they fully understand their vision of the production.
The following video presents how sound is designed for theatre.
Examples
I will take two examples of media and analyse what sound creation is involved.
In the Toy Story trailer there is underscore used and lots of voice overs. There is an example of foley when the biscuit breaks. There are lots of special effects and sound synthesis when the camper van is driving along. There are also environment sounds.
In this TV advert there is a lot of sound creation going on. There is ambience, foley for the cups being put on the side and sound synthesis going on as they speed up. They have used music and voice overs to try to sell the product.
In this TV car ad this video shows you how they have used a DAW to create many layers of sound
The following is my attempt at doing sound creation for a scene from the film “Drive” (2011):
Drive Chase Scene Sound Design 2
Here is my piece. As you can see there is a combination of sounds that I have used.
Car skids
Acceleration sounds for the car engine
This is the underscore that i used. I think it adds a nice effect
I also used a highway ambience sound which just adds to the experience a little.
There was no option for a voice over as there is no dialogue in the clip I chose.
I used a sampler to help my accuracy to get the audio in the correct place and at the right pitch.
I used some synth synthesis to modify my sounds.
I took some of the strength off to change it slightly.
Here is the foley. I recorded a banging sound to add to the drama of the car driving away at the beginning of the clip.
Unit 4 Review: Sound Creation
In this project I was tasked to create sound to accompany a piece of media, whether that would be a television advert, film clip or a video game promotional video. This process is known as ‘sound design’.
To meet this brief, I decided to base my sound creation piece on a one-minute clip from the film “Drive” (2011). This was achieved by extracting the imbedded audio file from the clip, and using downloaded and created sound effects in their place. Seven of the tracks used in this piece are audio tracks found on YouTube and ZapSplat, with a total of one MIDI track and one further audio track to act as the underscore of the clip.
What went well
To enhance the use of the sound effects for the clip, I decided to fade each audio file in an out to create a more realistic and natural sound.
To give my highway ambience track a more spacious and open sound I used the reverb audio effect.
I also placed one of my sound effects into a sampler as I required it to be more accurate and in time to the visuals shown in the clip.
Overall, I think the piece is good. Obviously if i had more time i could refine it. I think the sound design techniques were successful.