Alright, we all know that films are acknowledged for their cinematography, the quality of the video, HD or SD, special effects and whatnot. But, what about the sound? The sound of a film completely affects the mood and the environment created. It is my opinion that the greater public overlooks the sound of a film.
Sound has become an art form in itself. Of course, there is music, which has been around forever.. but since the development of Musique Concrete, we have Sound Art, Soundscapes, Sonic Narratives, and more! There is also “Sound Montage†which was initially used by Walter Murch.
Here is an excerpt of an interview with Walter Murch on sound from Vincent LoBrutto’s book Sound-On-Film:
You often use the film credit “sound montage.†Is this because you use sounds in combination in the same way a picture montage is created?
Yes, it is. In my teenage years, I was very influenced by some records I heard from the Musique Concrete school in Paris. So when I began to think about sound and film, one of the main influences on me was the desire to somehow bring together film and Musique Concrete.â€â€Âthe fun of assembling all these real sounds in an unusual context and yet having a visual reason for doing so. Also, at the start of my career I was working nonunion, and the title “Sound Montage†appeared vague enough not to set off any alarms…
Did being attracted to sound at that point lead you to filmmaking?
Indirectly. I had gotten very deeply into sound in my early teens. At sixteen I wound up thinking I was going to be an oceanographer or an architect. Instead, I wound up going to USC Film School as a graduate student. The first month and a half they had us shooting stills and learning about camera. Then we did something that needed sound, and that’s when those two rivers of my life came together in a rush. Very few people at film school wanted to get into sound because it was just soundâ€â€Âthey didn’t think of it as an essential part of movies…**
** Lo Brutto, Vincent (1994). Sound-On-Film: Interviews with Creators of Film-Sound. Praeger Publishers, Walter Murch. (pg. 84-85). Westport, Connecticut and London.
Check out these websites for more on sound as art:
Website of experimental sound compositions and artists:
http://www.phonography.org/phonographers.htm
Sound Culture:
http://www.soundculture.org/
Good call Elyse. Some of my favorite memories of films are almost entirely due to the sound design: The opening sequences to “There Will Be Blood” and “Apocalypse Now”, and “Saving Private Ryan” (the raindrops-on-a-leaf to machine gun fire) stand out in my mind as proof that sound design isn’t just literally recreating/affirming what’s on screen, but actually telling the story in concert with the visuals.
I think sound design is a crucial part of anything that in some ways affects the final outcome more than something like special effects.
Sound is the link to emotion and it’s a shame it is the ugly sister of video, I’m very big into gaming, and they have progressed the artform significantly dealing with ever moving players and complex systems to determine which samples to introduce etc.
Not only is it a link to emotion, but it helps to enhance the setting of a scene!
Music is more of a link to emotion… a that’s a whole ‘nother blog!