Original Idea - Script Writing ( PRE FMP)

Script Writing 

Location - Plymouth City Centre

Characters - Girl 1 Boy 1 

Extras could be added and there is the chance that there will be extras. If it is filmed within the town areas then I don’t think there will be the need for extras because it will be relatively busy there and therefore they are just walking past. If there is any problem with these extras then there will be extras/actors put in.  

(Girl) feels as though she is being followed, she turns around every couple of seconds to find that nobody is there. She walks faster through the centre to try and get away from (Boy) however she can feel him getting closer even as she feels further away she can still feel his presence. 

Scene 1 - Day 1 

MEGAN 

Walking the normal route home from college, that she walks everyday however today she notices something different, today she can feel someone following her. 

{she turns around}

{nothing there so she carries on walking} 

{The footsteps are getting closer and closer}

Whispered

{Stop It}

From here she runs and runs until she has made her way home.

She believes that it is all in her head that it is her head that is making it up. 

She’s scared she can’t tell anyone because they will thinking its all in her head… truth be told she thinks it all in her head again. 

{MUSIC THROUGHOUT}

BOY (EX-BOYFRIEND)

He sees her everyday, she walks this same route home. In all honesty he has seen her everyday for the past year but before this never gone near her. In truth he would never go near her or hurt her… he loves her.

She hurt him a year ago and now all he wants is revenge, he wants revenge because she hurt him more than she will ever know. 

Beforehand he doesn't actually do anything he just stars at her, looking at her from afar. 

{He’s walking about 20 steps behind her, this is because he knows that she is behind him}

{FOOTSTEPS}

He knows that she can hear his footsteps because she keeps turning round, every time she turns around he can tell that what he is doing isn't right however once she turns around he just disappears moving away to the side. 

He needs to slow down his pace in order of not being noticed. 

He knows about her history he knows everything about that she’s been through therefore he knows that she can’t say anything without being sent away… he has her right where he wants her. 

Scene 2 - Day 2

(3 Months Since Day 1)

Three months ago for the first time she had been followed on the way home. She had thought about it every time she had walked the route since, yet nothing had happened. 

The problem is that this is the only route home she can’t go anything route because there isn't one. She too scared, scared that this is all in her head. She can’t tell her parents she told them that this had been happening before and the truth was it hadn't it was all in her head. She couldn't tell them that this was happening again, she would be sent back to the ward where she had spent the best part of last year to. 

MEGAN

She started the route home again, ever since she had last been stalked she had to compose herself before she walked the route because she had to make sure he head was in the right place.

She turned a noise the sound of glass smashing behind her. 

{noooooooooooooo, this can’t be happening}

{strained voice} 

 Her pace fastened quicker than she had every walked before but she knew she had to get away as quickly as possible. 

{FOOTSTEPS}

{Again she glanced around but this time instead of seeing nothing all she could see was a shadow}

This shadow was approaching her, this must mean that he is nearer than she thought, that 

wasn't a good thing. 

Although maybe it was… now it was a shadow this mean’t that this wasn't all her head. A sense of what one would describe as relieved came over her. 

A shadow wasn't enough for her she needed to see some part of him, if she told someone she had seen a shadow then they still wouldn't take her seriously. 

{She walked faster again and ran, this way getting away from the shadow and its existence}

The shadow was over taking her, she dare look back in fear of what she would see.

AHHHHHHHHHHHHHHHHHHHHHHHHHHHHHHHHHHHHHHHH

{VOICE SCREAMING} 

She called hoping that somebody would notice her, although there was people walking across the street, nobody so came anywhere near her. 

This was her fault hadn't she said anything previous then of course people would come over to her but nope. 

Heads were being lifted to see where the noise had come from but that was that, she was known for being the girl that. Had called out before and everyone had been there to help however this time they knew her past they knew where she had been. 

It’s different, different this time I swear…. please help me! 

{whispered voice}

{She composed herself before carrying on walking her route however this time she just walked a steady past}

She turned around one more time but this time there was no shadow there, this was because there  was no shadow no nothing… what. 

BOY (EX-BOYFRIEND)

It had been three months since I followed her home that night. nothing had happened since then because I made sure that I stayed away, I made sure that I wasn't near her. I had this plan that would spread out the whole year and today was part 2 of it. 

Like usual Megan was walking the same route home however this time she seemed a lot more composed than the first night that I saw her.

I walked closer to her than I did last time, so close that she could see my shadow, we both knew that even if she did anything right now nobody would notice. 

A glass then smashed, if I’m honest I had no clue where it had come from… even I didn't want to look. 

I could here her whisper {noooooooooo} that was how close I was to her instead of being a quiet whisper it was almost as though her voice was strained. 

Suddenly, she moved away sprinting but she knew I was still behind her all this time because my shadow was over taking her it was getting bigger and bigger. 

Megan screamed and I wanted to put my hand over her mouth although I couldn't do that because then I would expose myself to everyone. 

Had this been an empty street than maybe, but not here not where there was a lot of people around. 

I did the only thing that I could think of doing and that was running, I had no run I had no other choice luckily nobody seemed that interested. 

Just as I took off running I could here Megan in the background sinking to the floor and whispering It’s different, different this time I swear…. please help me! 

As much as I wanted to go back and see her I couldn't, I wanted to her but I just couldn't. 

Scene 3 - Day 3 

{6 Months Since Day 1}

{3 Months Since Day 2}

Six Months Ago Megan got followed home for the first time. This had seemed like so long ago. This was the day that she believed that she was seeing things again that her paranoia was so strong that this was all in her head all over again. However three months ago Megan knew what she had seen she had seen the shadow of someone and that the time she screamed he went away. 

It had been exactly three months since then and six months since the first incident… she was preparing herself for the worse because she knew that something was going to happen tonight. 

MEGAN

All day this was all she could think about because she knew that tonight was the night. She had to believe again that this wasn't in her head, this time she got a little bit closer to home than the other two times and part of her thought that maybe it wasn't going to happen tonight however she was very wrong. 

{BANG}

That was the only noise that she heard and it made her jump. 

This time she saw the shadow again however alongside that she also saw a pair of shoes she couldn't bear to look up anymore in fear of seeing something in which she didn't want to see. 

She could feel a breath over her shoulder 

{She stopped in her tracks and in that moment all she wanted was for all of this to go away} 

That is what half of the problem was because she knew that no matter what it wouldn't go away. 

{‘Stop, stop it…. you need to stop it. I’ll do anything really anything but please stop, I can’t do this… why are you doing this to me?’}

{‘I know you’re there I can feel your presence I can feel you there above me, just leave me alone.’}

{KNIVES GOING INTO WHAT SOUNDS LIKE A HEAD}

sound that I need to come up with - what sounds? what am I using for these sounds? Where are these sounds coming from? What is the atmosphere for these sounds? 

{oh no}

Megan runs and runs faster than she has ever ran before….

For her the sound was all too real it was as though someone had been stabbed but what? who was it? 

{Sighs a breath of relief}

Megan knew that it could be her, that this stalker is all too real and that it could of been him doing it to her, she doesn't even know if it was him doing the stabbing she just couldn't look. 

The idea that she could be the next victim… no she couldn't deal with that. 

BOY (EX-BOYFRIEND)

This wasn't right, all he wanted to do was love her yet he seemed to be getting further away from her. Part three was about to happen and he didn't know how he felt about it. Part of him didn't want this to happen that he wanted to leave her alone after last time however he knew that she was expecting something. Instead of being in the same place that they were the last couple of times he got her to walk home a bit further he didn't want to stop her in the same place, he knew the area was busy and he knew that there was a rather large chance that somebody would notice them looking suspicious… he didn't want to cause any problem. 

I heard the noise and I know Megan did to, it was the sound of a bang, nobody actually knew where it come from… but I could tell Megan heard it as well. I think we must have been the only two that had heard it because nobody reacted… nobody else moved an inch. 

I started to believe that it was in both of our heads and that we connected on such a high level that we would be the only ones to hear this noise. This made me certain for my love for Megan for how raw and real it was. In all honesty I had never seen Megan jump so much before she was honesty scared… perhaps more scared that the first time I followed her that time. 

I wanted to make sure that she felt protected so I walked over closer to her, my shadow was incredibly overpowering and the only other thing that she could see was my shoes. In that moment I begged that she wouldn't move or look up. As much as I loved her and needed the world to know I also didn't want her to know in this moment… the only thing I knew was that she needed to be protected and that was all that mattered. 

As much as I tried not to breath anywhere near her, I knew that she had felt my breath on her shoulder, I could hear her breathe in heavily and that was the only single I needed to tell that she knew I was there. 

The next thing I heard was her voice… I don’t understand why was she scared I would never harm her. Why didn't she understand this… to me this was so important because I needed her to feel safe and yet even while I was around she didn't {’Stop, stop it…. you need to stop it. I’ll do anything really anything but please stop, I can’t do this… why are you doing this to me?’}

{‘I know you’re there I can feel your presence I can feel you there above me, just leave me alone.’}

The next sound we heard was the sound of someone being stabbed… I found this kind of weird because I felt really light headed after this because I realised I had been the one who was stabbed. 

I doubt Megan wouldn't have know that I was the one who was stabbed because she moved away quickly… far too quickly for me to even react… was this the end of us? 

Scene 4 - Day 4 

(9 Months Since Day 1)

(6 Months Since Day 2)

(3 Months Since Day 3) 

It has been three months since he has been stabbed. Six months since Day 2. Nine months since Day 1. Nine months ago today was the day Megan became aware that something strange was happening. For the first three months she believed that it was all in her head… that this whole time she was going back to the state that she had fought so hard to get away from. Six months ago she learnt that wasn't the case that there was something definitely following her. Three months ago she learnt on that night that somebody had been stabbed… yet no idea who. 

To her this entire situation was still so messed up, she couldn't tell anyone they would all think that it was still all in her head. This was the problem because it wasn't in her head it had never been in her head, she lied… everything she done was a lie and now it had come back to haunt her. 

MEGAN

She knew what was going to happen today… today she was going to walk how and that her stalker was going to follow her home again.

It was 6pm, the exact same time that it had been on all of the other occasions. 

Like the other three times she walked home, took a steady pace praying that it was the stalker that had been stabbed. 

She heard footsteps approaching her… however it was weird because these footsteps were getting louder way more quickly that she remembered. 

The last couple of times they hadn't been that loud that she could recall. 

She kept walking but then suddenly she fell… 

{‘Stop, whatever you are doing you need to stop now?’}

The shadow again was over the top over her and standing high above her… she could see the face. 

(Audience doesn't see the face)

Megan is shocked.

{’n-o-o-o-o-o-o-o, is this why you’re doing it because you wan’t revenge. I know what you want… you want me to admit that I was wrong’}

There was the sound of stabbing

This time it was a lot louder than it was the previous time and this scared her more than anything

{‘Okay… I’ll admit it… i’ll admit it. I lied, I lied and I’m so sorry I shouldn't have lied. You have what you want now please leave me alone’}

{Laughs}

Walks away

BOY (EX-BOYFRIEND)

This was the final part of my plan. A plan that was all finally coming together. This would be the last part of it and then everything would go back to being normal again. I would stalk her again, I would get the truth. 

At 6pm the exact same time that it had been for the past 9 months. I followed her home I got quicker a lot faster than I had normally, this was because I knew what I was going to do. 

I tripped her, well technically I didn't she fell over something on the floor which I put there in order for her to fall over it. 

I could here how desperate her voice was, she was scared 

{‘Stop, whatever you are doing you need to stop now?’}

Stop whatever I was doing? I was’t doing anything this was all Megan’s fault she was the one that caused all of this, all of this hell was all of her fault. 

My shadow was so much bigger than her, it made her feel infer, which was what my purpose was to make sure she knew that she was small, that she felt small and that she felt as though she wasn't anything special. 

Megan looked up I knew she had seen my face… I tried so hard to cover it but I knew that she had seen me, especially if what she said next was anything to go by. 

{’n-o-o-o-o-o-o-o, is this why you’re doing it because you wan’t revenge. I know what you want… you want me to admit that I was wrong’}

The sound of stabbing behind us again, I knew this got her scared, now scared than ever before… and that is what made her break. 

{‘Okay… I’ll admit it… i’ll admit it. I lied, I lied and I’m so sorry I shouldn't have lied. You have what you want now please leave me alone’}

I got it, I got her to tell the truth… finally. 

I laughed because I knew that she had finally cracked after all the hell she put me through. 

The only I could do was laugh. 

I turned around and walked away from her… she finally felt as I felt for the past year. 

I walked past her and out of her life forever. 

END

Original Synopsis ( PRE FMP)

Synopsis 

A year ago Megan hurt him. Megan lied about everything and one of the little things that she lied about was the fact that her boyfriend attacked and tried to kill her. 

That wasn’t the truth though it was nowhere near the truth. She just no longer wanted to be with him. One year ago from the starting date she was placed in a mental health ward because she had lied about being beaten up and nearly killed. They felt as though she had been beaten up so badly that they felt as though she needed to be seperated from the outside world in order for her to get over her ordeal. 

Since then her boyfriend had been placed into a jail. He had been sentenced to 9 months. She believed that it was the justice he deserved while her boyfriend didn’t. What Megan wasn’t aware of was that for the past three months her boyfriend had been out and watching every move of hers. She was unaware that when she left college at 6pm that he would be watching and following her route home. 

Megan feels as though she is being followed therefore on the first time that this happens she turns around every couple of seconds to find nobody there. While she attempts to walk faster to get away from him, he must be closer to her that she first originally anticipated this is because she can feel his presence getting closer. Once it gets too close for her she runs until she is home. Megan feels as though this is all in her head and that this is happening because she spent months in a mental ward. She is too scared to tell anyone because they will think that it is all in her head. 

The ex boyfriend has a plan to go after her every three months. This is because he feels as though she won’t expect it if it happens over the course of nine months instead of it being within a week. 

The second time it happens it has been three months since the first time it had happened. Megan was scared about walking the route home, well she had been scared about walking home for the past three months. Although since then she hasn’t told anyone she just keeps it to herself all in her head. 

On the second time it happens she makes sure to compose herself just as she had been doing for the previous three months. Megan hears the noise and makes sure to compose herself just as she had been doing for the last three months. Megan hears the noise of glass smashing behind her, once she hears this walks away as quickly as possible. Once she feels as though she is far enough away, she feels as though the shadow is approaching her. The shadow takes over her and she screams. As she screams she hopes that somebody will notice her, however they look up but then carry on walking. This is her fault because she knows that she shouldn’t have lied. The ex boyfriend runs off so that Megan doesn’t see who it is following her. 

The third time that it happens it’s six months since the first time Megan got followed home. To her it seems so long ago. This was the day that she believed that she was seeing things and her paranoia was strong. It had also been three months since Megan knew what she had seen. She had seen the shadow of someone. 

This time the first things that she hears is a bang. The bang makes Megan jump. On the first time that she sees the shadow she also sees a pair of shoes however she can’t bring herself to look up. Although she hears a breath on her shoulder she stops in her tracks and she shouts at the stalker to stop what he is doing. The next thing she hears is the sound of stabbing; she isn’t sure what or who all she knows is that it’s stabbing. Once Megan hears this she runs off. Megan is aware of the face that it could have been her being stabbed and that her stalker isn’t going to back off anytime soon. 

The final time it happens it’s nine months since day one, six months since day two and three months since day three. She still hadn’t told anyone about it, purely because they would think that she was lying about it. This is because she had lied about everything in the past and now it has come back to haunt her. 

Megan knew that something was going to happen again today. At 6pm the same time as the three other occasions. Like the other three times she walked home with a steady pace. While she is walking she hears footsteps approaching her again. This time the footsteps are getting louder far more quickly that she remembered. 

She kept walking until she manages to fall over the ground. She shouts at her stalker to stop whatever it is that he is doing. The shadow suddenly appears over the top of her. Megan is the only one that sees the face and is shocked to see who it is. Megan then asks her stalker what it is that he wants. Although she is aware of what he wants. He makes Megan admit what she said and did was wrong. For the last time there is the sound of stabbing. This time it is a little bit louder. Megan then admits that she lied and confesses that she should never have lied. 

The stalker then laughs and walks off in the opposite direction, now happy that he has the truth. 

• Moral of the story is lying. 
• Take on the boy who cried wolf. 
• foley sounds will be created
• girl is followed home
• thinks its all in her head
• walks the route home that she has taken for the past 2 years (when it starts)
• sound is very important because it changes it from a thriller to a horror
• has a history of lying about this sort of thing 
• film is spread out over 4 nights - although the 4 nights are spread out over a year - 4 changing moments
• shadow and feet are the most important - need to make sure that she feels intimidated by him
• never see the face of the stalker

Research - Sound Designers (PRE FMP)

William Murch

William Murch love for film sound started when he studied at USC film school. While he started experimenting with film sound from a young age this then led him to growing an interest in film-making. Therefore he combined the two at university. While the majority of people he knew didn't have much interest in just sound because it was seen as 'boring' and not very exciting. This led William to enjoy it more than ever. While studying at the University of Southern California he met the writer-director-producer George Lucas. Murch and Lucas both worked alongside each other a lot in Murch' early career and they are both a figure in each others work.

Lucas won a scholarship to observe Francis Lord Coppola making the out of character Finian's Roberts for Warner Bros in 1968. In Coppola next movie The Rain People 1969, Lucas took the role of production assistant. This is where William Murch got his first sound credit. In his work Murch has always acknowledges the correlation between what is seen and what is heard he states that ''The depth of the relationship between the two elements became more and more obvious.' This was due his early understanding in how important sound was to film.Alongside that Murch also wasn't a fan of soundtrack for his work this is because he believed that sound has a great power but it is a conditional power. It places the image in a physical and emotional context, helping us to decide how to take the image and how it integrates itself into everything else. Silence is able to be a useful however it isn't used that often. An example of Murch using it was at the end of Godfather II (1974); the scene is where Michael Corleone is setting by the lake. Murch dropped the soundtrack down to the atmos and then shut it down completely, which transmitted the interior emotions being felt by the character.

Lucas and Murch were employed again for Gimme Shelter (1970) which was a concert film of the Rolling Stones Altamont gig. In this one William Murch worked as a cameraman. Murch worked with Lucas on his prize winning short film THX 1132. He designed the sound for this as well as receiving a co-written credit after this the two went on to make American Graffin. After American Graffiti, Murch worked a lot more with Coppola. He became involved in The Conversation (1974) which too many is regarded as highly as the sound designers The plot revolves around a surveillance export who is using sophisticated microphones, may or may not have recorded two people discussing a murder plot. He was nominated for an Academy Award for Best Sound.

The next film he worked on was also a Francis Coppola film which happened to be Apocalypse Now,. He was nominated for an Oscar for his film editing and won the Award for Best Sound. Murch says that it was the first multitrack film he had worked on and it was new territory because it was a multichannel soundtrack with low frequency enhancement. Murch questioned Coppola by asking himself if he had to do this however when he looked back at it with big panavision visuals he realised that the sound-track we did was the thing to do.

Alongside Frank Coppola another collaborative director that William Murch worked alongside was Anthony Mingella whose film 'The English Patient' won William Murch his second Best Sound Award and his first Best Film Editing statuette. In his most recent piece of work he indirectly worked with Orson Welles in restoring Touch of Evil (1958) however this film like many of Welles' suffered from studio interference and it got to the point where Orson was banned from the movie. In Touch of Evil Murch combined sound a vision and he noticed that he got a phone call out of the blue from the producer telling him that Welles had written during before he was fired and that these notes were half about the sound and he wanted to do the other half about the pictures. Therefore the man they needed for William Murch.

The one thing that Orson Welles was known for was his precision however Murch didn't realise was precisely how much. Every film is t have a document of what they want however a lot of them don't have the ability, time nor the articulation to do it. Although Orson had all three of these. Which although harder it did mean that allow a certain degree of interpretation, therefore being like collaborating with Welles. In Touch of Evil Murch had a avid nonlinear editing workstation where Murch had to clean up pictures and remixed the audio as an 8 digital soundtrack. Film had moved on from the old mag recorder methods however it was all new for Murch he remastered the soundtracks of The Godfather trilogy using the 8 track digital soundtrack. The English Patient was the first film that he used it all the way through from beginning to end as it was electronically and won an Oscar.

Murch used a mixture of old and new technologies with using the sonic solutions system for The English Patient. This is due to computers bringing more functionality. The Sonic system allows a network function which enables people working on the different elements such as footsteps and voice to access the edit decision list and see what is being done. This way it is a lot easier because they can play the two together and see how it will work. The use of this has also meant that it isn't interfering i=with anybody else.

While known as a very successful sound editor. William Murch was incredibly diverse within the terms of the people he worked with and the different roles he has taken. Although he dip his foot into directing which failed miserably. Although in his audio work he has shown how how it can be used to enhance and drive along a film and that technology is just a means towards creativity.

Ben Burtt

Ben Burtt works as a sound editor. The films that he has worked on include WALL-E, Star Wars, E.T and Indiana Jones. While working in the industry as a sound editor he got asked by Gary Kurtz and George Lucas to create the sounds for Star Wars. His work has help influence a new generation of sound editors and designers.

Ben Burtt has had a long association with George Lucas and Steven Spielburg and won the Special Achievement Award from Academy of Motion Picture Art and Science for his sound effects on Star Wars and Raiders of the Lost Ark.

Ben Burtt has described himself as a sound designer because in a film there is three roles that the sound team have which are production recordist, sound editor and sound mixer. A production recordist is a person who is recording during the actual filming of the movie, they have a microphone on set and they gather dialogue and some sound effects. While a sound editor is based more in the studio and has a collection of sound and is able to got with a portable tape recorder. While the sound mixer blends together all different sounds that come in to make up the soundtrack such as music, dialogue and sound. While these are usually three separate jobs Ben Burtt did all of these.

Ben Burtt was one of the first person to use the term Sound Designer because usually a sound editor wouldn't know how to mix or vice versa however Burtt was able to do all of these which was an exception to the traditional division of labor.

Through his years working as a sound designer. He was made famous through his creations of the light-saber, Darth Vader's breathing and R2-D2's voice. Also through his career he has built a reputation for 'Wilhelm scream' taken from a character named 'Wilhelm' in the film The Charge at Feather River, the sound can be heard in Star Wars when a storm-trooper falls into a chasm in the Death Star, and in Raiders of the Lost Ark when a Nazi soldier falls from a moving car. 

The sound is a stock sound effect and is often used when someone is shot, falls from a great height or is thrown from an explosion. Other sound designers picked up on this technique and has been known to be used in over 300 films. 

Alongside Walter Murch, Ben Burtt also found himself working with directors who were not just looking for powerful sound effects to attach to what was already in place. They were able to experiment with sound, play around with it all not just the sound effects but the music and dialogue as well. This was able to be done through production and post-production. They worked with it so that they found out that picture shaped the sound as well as sound shaping the picture and they were changing the way directors were looking at sound in film. 

A lot of directors believe that 'great sound' is loud noises and not recordings of gunshots and explosions as well as a alien creative vocalization don not constitute for great sound design. Also a well orchestrated and recorded piece of musical score isn't worth it if it hasn't been integrated into the film as a whole. 

Ben Burtt' work has shown that by using gunshots and explosion it can sound so much better than any 'loud noises' can which is what a lot of sound editors have taken taken from him and integrated into their own work over the years. 

http://filmsound.org/articles/designing_for_sound.htm

Skip Lievsay

Skip Lievsay used his experience in theatrical set design and construction to get a job on a low budget film. Alongside to retyping the script, hiring and casting and finding locations he also was the apprentice picture and sound editor on the film. He had been working on short films for 'Saturday Night Live' and whilst doing this he was getting offers as a sound editor and developed long term relationships with Joel and Ethan Coen, Martin Scorsese ('The Color of Money,' 'The Last Temptation of Christ,''GoddFellas,' 'Age of Innocence' and 'Casino') and Spike Lee ('Do The Right Thing,' 'Jungle Fever,' 'Mo’Better Blues' and 'Crooklyn').

He edited sound on the Coen brothers first film, 'Blood Simple,' and either mixing, editing or supervising the sound on all of their other films. 

The filmmakers hat he has worked with include John Sayles, Ralph Bakshi, Jonathon Demme, John Waters, Diane Keaton, Bob Balaban and Nancy Savoca.

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Sound Design - The Expressive Power of Music, Voice and Sound Effects in Cinema. 

Elements 

• The first script reading.
• What to listen for - objects, actions, environments, emotions and transitions. 
• Grouping the voices.
• Drawing visual maps.
• Meeting with the director.
• Sound Map - Draft 1.
• Consulting before and during shoot.
• Accompanying the picture edit.
• Analysing the final picture edit.
• Sound Map - Draft 2.
• Defining voice sources and modifications.
• Defining sound effects and ambience sounds.
• Co-Ordinating with the music score. 
• Experimentation and open options. 
• Exhibition consideration.
• Sound Map - Draft 3. 
• Pre-Mix decisions. 
• Final mix and print master. 

First Script Reading 

• The first script reading will be the first listening for the soundtrack. 
• Always read the script first regardless of whether it has been shot. 
• Your impressions of what will transmit through the sound and may be able to draw more from inner ear if the input is from the page rather than the filmed image. 
• Go through it beginning to end without any interruptions and pace it as close to the final film as possible (minute per page) 
• It will give an accurate feeling for the storytelling. 
• Only one chance at being at first time reader. 
• Looking at individual elements - pulling apart and putting back together while searching for creative solutions. 
• Have a pencil - use as a conductor baton - marking the script as going through it. 

What To Listen For 

• Sounds linked to people/objects/actions on screen that are explicitly described.
• Environments that can be fleshed out with sonic ambiance. 
• Key words in both scene description and dialogue that give clues to the emotion of the scene. 
• Moments of physical/dramatic transition. 

Grouping Voices

• Type/action/object/emotion. 
• Biopolar and Tripolar relationships 

Left - Center - Right - Linear relationships where 'left' and 'right' are two extremists (bipolarities) - the middle one is neutral, combination, half way element. 

3 Way Pie Division - Triangular relationship in which the three elements are equally weighed and each shares boundaries and relationships with the other two. 

Drawing Visual Maps

• Significant plot points. 
• Moments of Transitions. 
• Heightened conflict. 

If certain repeated elements or scene that are important to the story, give them graph symbol where they appear along the chronological line. 

To the sound designer it is the basic dramatic elements which are put into opposition - can visualise an emotional scoring of the entire film. In visual maps you will be able to see one theme emerging and multiple themes bounce off one another. 

Each theme expands in the treatment of voice, sound effects, ambience and music. 

Sound Maps - Draft 1 

Sounds Maps is the rough sketch of what the editor and director will eventually use based on a time frame of dramatic sequences with sonic elements that may enhance the storytelling aspects of the film. In which the script is separated into sequences. 

A sound map has two axes; vertical for the time and horizontal for the sound. Time axis should be separated into sequences with certain binding dramatic, physical and temporal elements. The headings on horizontal axis are much more subjective - categorising is flexible as one sound may fit into more than one. The choice should be based on what helps you create the overall design and transmit it to the director. 

The first stage is not important to have every single sound written on the map. What is shown is what helps to tell the story, referring to the sonic events. 

Concrete Sounds - Appear to be connected with the image. Considered to belong to the diegesis and to the reality of the film/environment of the characters. 

eg. Audience - applause & telephone - ring. 

Musical Sounds - Concrete Sounds can also become musical sounds if they become dissociated from the diegesis and turn into a kind of sensorial or emotional element which is independent from the characters' space-time reality within the story.

It happens when we hear ticking and then see a clock in the room this is still a concrete sound however if the same sound is unlinked to the image pervades a scene with its emotional effect of urgency or relentlessness as the underlying tone.  It will then fall into the category of musical sounds. 

Ambient sounds can also be musical sounds especially when when they are not creating a reaction in the characters, rather just setting a mood. 

eg. Playground - Laughter. 

Music - Diegetic music - singer or musicians that are on-screen, radio and record player. Alongside that there is suggestions to the music composer of structural ideas such as emotional parameters, orchestration possibilities and development of motifs. 

Voice - Sounds that come through the mouth. eg. Uncontrollable - Yawn. 

This can also include dialogue as well if it is special treatment by the actor such as whispering, drunk or a foreign accent. In other cases it can also be something in post-production manipulation. Most important that it is non verbal elements that can contribute to the storytelling and emotional aspects of the soundtrack. 

Consulting during and after the shoot

Costing

• Reducing or removing shoots.
• Selection of location.
• Proper location and materials 
• Record wild shoots on a location shoot. 

Accompanying the picture edit

A scene may play shorter if you decide to overlap the dialogue or diegetic sound effects between two scenes, compacting information - very common technique which may have some special insights on the alchemy of seemingly incongruent sound and image juxtapositions - propel the audience into the next scene. 

Sometimes a sound can hold more power than an image, you might experiment during editing to find that the scene will have more impact or suspense by not revealing the audio source. 

Analysing the final picture edit

• Watch the film in real time as the first exposure to the story or to take advantage of the script.(even if it isn't what ended up being filmed) 
• The first viewing should allow the luxury of being the receptive audience - letting you enjoy, question, laugh, cry and otherwise be totally reactive and involved the characters' drama. 
• Key Words of initial feeling for the scenes, like crystalline, damp or funny, rather than literal sounds which will surely insert later anyway. 
• Two or three elements personalise each environment as these will allow a certain variety within the scene to accent certain moments, create transitions, or contrast different moments during the story in the same setting. 

Sound Map - Draft 2

Its often that tracks have simultaneous heavy doses of attention-getting sound, something is dumped in the final mix. Make the mixers job easier and sound designer cleaner by keeping this in mind when creating a sound map. 

Defining voice sources and modifications 

• Voices need to be understood
• Quality of the voice and accompanying ambience should not be distracting from the intention of the scene. 

Problems that cause these faults

• Recording Volume - Too low/too high. Lack of presence, tape hiss or distortion. 
• Background Sound - Remain imposing. Not able to be cleaned away from the voice
• Performance - Overlapping dialogue. Swallowed words, incorrect pronunciation and emphasis.

Stopping these problems

• On location dubbing/wild track - Record another wild audio take with the actors close to time, emotional state and perspective. 
• Alternative production take - Try one that doesn't have the problems, which can be synchronized with the chosen image take. More commonly used when the line is off screen - may influence the picture edit if early enough in the process. 
• Postproduction dubbing - Looping/ADR. Done in the studio with the original image and sound screen repeatedly so that the actor is able to rehearse the rhythm and intonation. Technical and artistic considerations must be observed.  

Defining sound effects and ambience sources

Sources for creating sound effects

• Production Tracks - Sound must all be separated completely from the dialogue track so that you will be able to create a clean music and effects track for international dubbed versions. Ambience from production tracks is mostly important for creating a seamless sonic landscape. Therefore this helps create the illusion that all the scene are taking place in a continuum. 

• Sound Libraries - Using a digital sampler to store preliminary options and testing the image immediately if using electronically. The best way to use library sounds is in a creative manner.  

Adding two or more sounds together to create a new sound
Changing the duration or pitch.
Looping, inverting, filtering.
Using the sound as a sketch only for creating an original recording.

• Wild Track Recordings - Location or Studio. 

Constance Ambience - Finding a specific environment at a specific time that is generating the desired sonic background for a scene.
Isolated Sound Effects - Working with portable objects and surfaces for generating sounds - should us a soundproof studio to get clean recordings. If needing to budget then using a space that has few background sounds as possible. Invisible sounds could affect the track - Air Conditioners, Bird Twittering etc. 

• Foley - Created to an accompany the noise making movements of actors in real time. Foley artists must have incredible observation powers and rhythm to be able to duplicate an action through sound. The artists are seeking to make something sound as close as possible to the expected natural sound. 

• Samplers and Synthesizers - Sampling is a method of selecting a sound or portion of sound and converting it into digital memory. Synthesized sounds cover a large variety of sound waves that are not originally generated by physical vibration of air molecules but rather begin as sounds with electronic analog or digital sources. Synthesizing today includes sampling as one of its most exciting sources of electronic information to manipulate. It is a useful tool for integrating the area of sound effects, ambience and music. 

Sampling sounds come from;
Production Tracks.
Wild Tracks.
Studio Recordings (including foley)
Libraries.
Well know clips.  

Co-ordinating with the music score

• The music may either counterpoint in frequency, allowing perceptual separation of the elements, or may blend closely in pitch so that a musical instrument can emerge subtly from inside a sound effect or voice. 

• Most film music that is not seen to be played or sung on screen relies on a purely emotional connection to the image, drawing the audience's attention through cultural and psychoacoustic variations with the intent to build to a distinct feeling. 

Experimentation and then options 

• During the mixing sessions, it is wise to try out the sound combinations during the editing phase. 

• If creating a single sound edit, put the essential components together to make sure they will give the desired effect. 

• Tracks will need to be left separated until the pre-mix when some adjustments with attack/delay, filtering and volume are done. 

Exhibition considerations

• Placement other than centre for voice or effects can be used for off-screen sonic events, but interestingly it is not necessary to accompany the visual placement of every event because of a strong relationship that occurs in our minds with the sound-image bond. 

• They way this is used is if someone is walking across the screen, the footsteps can be balanced in the centre and we perceive the sound not only in temporal sync, but also in correct spatial placement, as our brains create the bridge to reestablish a normality to the situation. 

• Rather then overstimulate the auditory nervous system with constant unnecessary movement between speakers, choose moments of heightened emotion or physical charge to make this movement evident and impactful. 

How much focus on sound will depend on; 

• The genre of the film
• The system of delivery 
• The budget

The Sound Map - Draft 3 

The final sound map shows exactly what sounds are on which tracks at exactly what time, and where these sounds will be placed in the theatre sound system. 

Notes should include what type of entrances and exits each sound should have, with a fade in or out, cross fade between two sounds or a straight cut. Marking of these volume changes consists of an upside down (fade in) or upright (fade out) V, placed at the beginning oe end of the sound transition. 

Pre-Mix Decisions 

Isolation - Very dense tracks it may be necessary to pre-mix on more than one level. An effects track might be broken down into types of sounds, 

eg. first joining several wind sounds toegther on one track, the animal sounds on another and finallt the varity of something needed for a lance and sword battle scene. 

Origin and Treatment - Effects, music and dialogue are quite distinct and the techniques of maximizing their impact vary. 

eg. voice pre-mixes generally are at getting the most intelligibility and reality as possible, striving to smooth our any differences in the original recordings because of background noise, microphone placement, perspective and location. 

M&E Track - music and effects so that these must have a separate mix without the dialogue. 

The final mix and print master

The final say will be with the director and hopefully the dialogue throughout the entire process has been such that you can easily reach an agreemement on what should be heard and when. 

During the few moments of diverging opinions, listening for what the directors motivation may be and look for ways to support the different vision. 

Research - Listening Modes (PRE FMP)

There is a difference between hearing and listening. Hearing is about it being passive while listening is active. Hearing is where we are receiving auditory information through our ears whilst listening relies on the capacity to filter, selectively focus, remember and respond to sound. Our ears allows us stereophonic reception, helping us perceive distance, spatial relationships and our place in the world

Three different types of listening modes; Reduced, Causal and Semantic. A forth type of listening is introduced as referential.

Reduced 

• Reduced sound is the object of attention that is the qualities of characteristics of the sound itself.
• Real time awareness of all the sound quality parameters. 
• Observation of sound itself and not its source or meaning - which is a unnatural midset that can disrupt lazy habits and open fruitful exploration to the sound universe. 
• Happens when eyes are closed. 
• Listening to a sound library of effects without needing to know their sources. 
•  - eg. Listening to sound art or acousmatic music. 
•  - eg. Listening to an interesting and unusual sound. 

Causal 

• Listening in order to identify or gather information about a sound cause - called causal listening.
• Listening to a sound to be able to gather information about its cause. 
• If helps assists what type pf space, object or person creating the sound. 
• It can be accompanied by synchronized visual helping identify source. 
• doesn't necessarily coming from that source - it uses its filmic logic to direct the audience belief system.
• All treat sound (not including speech) causal. 
•  - eg. An auto-mechanic locating the source of a malfunction through listening for sound.
•  - eg. Shaking a closed box to know whether it is full or empty and what the contents are.  

Semantic

• Listening to understand and interpret the meaning of an encoded message - language, morse code - involves a learned association of sound patterns and meanings.  
• Relates to the spoken language and other code systems that are able to symbolize ideas, actions and things. 
• Study of linguistics delves deeply into this area and points out that the variation can be great in actual sound (gender, age, accent, grammar) and still has the same meaning. 
• Alongside causal listening it understands so much more about a person that simply linguistic meaning. 
•  - eg. Listening to a language you understand. 
•  - eg. Responding to the affective/emotional context of music with which you are familiar. 

Referential 

• Being aware of or affected by the context of the sound - linking not only to the source but principally to the emotional and dramatic meaning. 
• Instinctual or universal level or all humans.
• Culturally specific to a certain society or period.
• Within the confines of the sound coding of a specific film. 

PRE FMP Project

Ideas for FMP 

Creative Processes I Like 

Creative Processes I'm Good At 

Possibilities 

- Short Story - Stalking storyline 

- Music Video - song? 

- Documentary - Of A Location with voice over. 

What Inspires An Idea? 

How to know its a good idea? 

- Speak to others about idea 

- Come up with ways to produce this story 

- Look up similar ideas - if it a good idea people would have done it previously. 

- Takes risks - it could pay off

How do you go about making it? 

- Break it up into sections, don't do everything at once 

- Make sure it is very thoroughly planned 

- Make sure everything is in place before starting filming 

Critique that inspires my idea 

The short film 'Anna Is Being Stalked' is written by Scott Prendergast he also directed this alongside Gabriel Rhodes. It was shot in March 2001 in Carroll Gardens, Brooklyn NY. The short film is 7 long. The storyline throughout is that Anna is stalked by a pale albino who carries a knife. No matter how creepy he is Anna isn't afraid of him and doesn't take much notice of him. She goes through her daily routine ignoring and not taking any notice of him. To an outsider the guy does look a little bit creepy however while watching you soon realise that it isn't the case and that he is just very confused and lost. The guy is very obviously trapped in a very obsessive and repetitive rut which causes him to stalked her everywhere and do the exact same thing each day. While when watching it people will see how obsessive he is although alongside that others would say that he was not only obsessive but also watching over her. When she drops her groceries she attempts to pick them up however when she can feel her stalkers presence behind her she leaves it as she knows that he is going to pick it up. Anna decides that enough is enough and decided to file a restraining order against him. However even wants she has done that she stills worries about him as he stands outside in the freezing cold watching her. She invites him inside into the warmth where they are sat at the table, Anna tells him that he needs to stop and then he tells her that he is going to kill her...

Anna Is Being Stalked...

The reason why I really like this film is because this is obviously the middle with the beginning and end being left unspoken. The reason for this is because it is very obvious by her actions that this is something that has been going on for a while. This is the same as the ending, this part ends with him telling her he is going to kill her however I don't believe that this is the final ending because I feel like the story carries on. I think that this is important in a relatively short film because it gives the audience something to think about once the film has ended. 

I would like to take the inspiration behind this and take it into my own work I like the idea of the audience being able to decide what happens in the end on their own. I think this is important because different people will end it different ways as it depends on their personalities. 

Another reason for using this as an inspiration is because of the last minute changes that they had to make, due to it not raining and just being freezing cold they had to change the last scene so that the stalker was freezing instead of getting rained on. 

I think that this film is different to any other ones based on stalker because of the humor, the humor used is can be seen as dark humor and sometimes people don't like nor understand it. I like the dark humor because its something a little bit different and unique. Therefore overall I really liked 'Anna Is Being Stalked' due to its uniqueness and story-line.

Research within the next 6 weeks

Sound Design 

The Orphanage (Guillermo Del Toro) 

The Devils Backbone (Guillermo Del Toro) 

Let The Right One In (Swedish) 

The Eye - South Korean (Anything by Danny and Oxide Pang)

http://filmsound.org/articles/designing_for_sound.htm

Sound In Pre-Production 

Once seeing a script there is the temptation to just jump straight in when it comes to the sound. This is because there is the option just use the sounds that the script mention although it is a lot more than that, this is because this way it isn't telling the story. The sounds that are used are based on the use of time - is there a ticking time bomb? The space means that the sound echoes and has more of an effect on the audience. Alongside that there is also the point of view alot of great sounds come from pov sequences - this is usually what they are thinking/feeling. This is important because through this sounds you can get a feel for the character a bit more. This is much more likely to be used that the sounds that are mentioned throughout. 

The photography, blocking of actors, production design, art direction, editing and dialogue is set up so that the audience is experimenting the action more or less through the point of view of one or more of the characters in the sequence. 

Sound in Production 

There is not a lot of sound going on in production this is due to the fact that there is no awareness for sound. This is because every aspects on sounds screws need to taken over by the camera crew. The locations that are used to filming by directors and editiors are not suitable for sound and they don't constalt the sound editors. The problems with the locations that directors use is that they have the noises of the lights buzzing and the trucks being parked and moved too close.

Another factor is that very few dirrectors and editors know nothing about sound editing. Alongside knowing nothing about it there is also no time to be done in productions. Directors and actors are usually on a very tight schedule and therefore no time for any sound production.

Sound makes a huge contribution is because the sounds will strongly influence the way a scene is set up. This could happen when someone is playing with something on the table this means that you will be able to hear the sound before you can see what he is actually doing. This is therefore 'starving the eye' which will inevitably bring the ear and therefore the imagination more into play.

Sound in Post-Production 

In Post Production a composer and supervising sound editor are in charge of all of the sounds. The editors and irectors give them between four and five weeks to poduce between seventy and ninety minutes of great movies. The supervising sound editor is given between 10 and 15 weeks to smooth out production dialog - spot, record and edit. (This involves putting the sound effects into a sequence that were never designed to use them.

Why the composer are doing the first part of sound editing. Editors and Directors try to improve what they have and making adjustments consisting of merely a few frames which then results in the music, sound effects and dialog editing having to spend a high percentage of time having to fix all the holes caused by new picture changes


Automated dialogue replacement is the secondary role of sound as there is no effort put into it. The performances from actors always lack the 'life' of original piece because it is seen as just more hassle for the actors and directors. They’re more-or-less in sync, and they’re intelligible with the original piece. It would be easier to record ADR on location however ADR is treated as basically a technical operation which needs to be done as quickly and cheaply as possible. 

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Sound is a very vital role because when a scene is really clicking the visual and aural elements are working together so well that it is nearly impossible to disguise them. 

A film story is about creating connections between characters, place, objects, experiences and ideas. In a good film a set of themes emerge which embody a clearly identifiable line or arc which the story is. When writing for movie elements there is one element that comes before all the others which is 'cinematic' this is because a film should be as cinematic as possible because its coming from the establishing point of view. An audience will experience action through its identification with characters.

The writing lays the ground work for everything else as it sets up point of view before the action, cameras, microphones, editors. Each of these enhance of pov element.

Picture and Sound as Collaborations 

Sound and picture have to work together in order for it to be a successful production. The idea that one is more important is ridiculous because neither would work without the other. In a successful production both of these are combined together. While sound effects make a scene scary and interesting there is still the needed help from visual in order to make the scene successful. An example of these two working together is when there is a strange sounding machine running off camera during a scene in order to add tension and atmosphere.

There will be a brief shot of some machine which could be making the sound this will help establish where the sound is coming from and therefore over this shot sound editors can feature sound therefore it will then be in the audiences mind that this is where this distinguish sound is coming from. This will then click into the audiences head that every time they hear the noise throughout the production they will know where its coming from.

There is a contrast between a sound heard at a distance and that same sound that is up close is powerful. This works even though directions never based decisions about where to shoot a scene on the need for sound and to make a story contribution.

Art Direction and Sound As Collaborations 

When writing a character there is always a background there will be a design of what he does and where he lives. The way he lives will tell the audience big amounts about who the character is and how he is feeling. When taking sound into account it is done through visual design which then gives the audience the potential to hear through their ears.

An example of this is a wealthy person as there will be money lying around therefore a few close up shots of money and the sounds is created through it. The audience will then make the connection of what the noise has come from. The actor will be able to use the place in order to reveal more about the character that they are playing. They will need to hear the sounds that place it in order to know it and the actor will have to repeat it there. Alongside this it is also the same when the actor is silent as the audience will need to hear the way the place is without him.

Starving the eye and the usefulness of ambiguity

Viewers and listeners are pulled into a story mainly because they are led to believe that there are interesting questions to be answered. As a sound editior it is there job to hang interesting little question marks in the air surrounding each scene. The reasson for that is because sound may be the most powerful tool in terms of its ability to seduce.

As an audience we interpret sound with our emotions not our intellect.

There are ways that starve the eye so therefore it invites the eyes in.

• Using short and long lenses - Looking through very long and very short lenses means that we don't ordinary see them. The lack of depth of field and other characteristics of that kind of lens puts us into a very subjective space. That means that we can easily justify hearing sounds which may have very little to do with what we see in the frame and more to do with how the person is looking through the frame feels. The way in which directors use a shot will determine whether our inference is made obvious to the audience or kept subliminal. 

• Dutch Angles and Moving Cameras - with moving cameras the shots can range from the floor to ceiling level and the camera will either be track, hand held and panning. The effect that is used to be put the audience in unfamiliar space. The shot become part of the scene and element of unfamiliar space suddenly swings the door wide open to sound. 

• darkness around the edge of the frame - In classic films the frame is carefully composed with areas of darkness. However in this sort of case ears are the guardians of sleep . They tell us what we need to know about the darkness and will gladly support some clues about what;s going on. 

• Extreme Close Ups and Long Shots

Close Ups - hands/clothing. Close ups make the audience feel as though they are experiencing things through the point of view of either the person being photographed or the person whose view of them we are showing.  

Long Shots - These are great for sound because they provide an opportunity to hear the fullness or emptiness of a vast landscape. 

Caroll Ballads films The Black Stallion and Never Cry Wolf use wide shots and extreme close ups wonderfully with sound.

• Slow Motion - some of slow motion is barely noticeable but it always seems to put us into a dream space and tell us that something odd and not very wholesome is happening. 

• Black and White Images - Black and White images have several artisic advantages over colour. A reason for this is because black and white images are less busy than colour and therefore lend themselves more to presenting a coherent feeling. Black and white is clearly understood to be someones point of view not an objective presentation of events. 

Black and White have the potential to convey a maximum of feeling without the clutter of colour. When the audience is put into a visual 'space' - encouraged to 'feel' than 'think' what comes into our ears can inform those feelings and magnify them.

Sounds Effects role:

• Suggest a mood.
• Set a pace.
• Indicate a location.
• Clarify the plot.
• Define a character. 
• Connect otherwise unconnected ideas, characters, places, images or moments. 
• Heighten realism/diminish it. 
• Heighten ambiguity/diminish it.
• Draw attention/away from it. 
• Indicate changes in time.  
• Smooth abrupt changes between shots or scenes.
• Emphasise a transition for dramatic effect. 
• Describe an acoustic space. 
• Startle or soothe action. 

Reasons for sound effects in horror films

• Atmosphere 

Music allows to director to create an unforgettable atmosphere and therefore it helps but up a good overall feeling for the audience. The feeling can be related to the specific moment as a key part of the movie.

• Highlight

It will highlight specific parts in the movie. These little fragments will make a scene stand out.

• Power 

Directors are able to highlight how powerful the movie is. One of the key elements in film is how power is used through music. 

• Moments 

Moments describe the intensity of the action. Alongside that they are able to describe the pain of a character, the fear they are portraying and the different action throughout. 

• Breathtaking 

Looking for certain things in the movie that make it stand out and make it breathtaking. The instruments that are commonly used to create a 'horror' atmosphere are piano and violin. This dynamic highlights breathtaking moments. 

• Emotions  

Music controls our emotions when watching a film and how we experience the movie. Our fear in a horror movie is the combination of the visual and sound. This is because they work together in order to drag the audience in. 

• Tone 

The tone of the music means that we can sense the atmosphere even when we can't see anything. The music allows us to understand the film better this is due to 'starving the eye' and releasing the ears. 

• Experience 

The experience is more deeply enjoyable as its equally as important as the visual shots. In a horror movie the point is to not get the same atmosphere, power or emotion. The experience will be different every time. This is due to it being the important aspect of the movie. 

Jack Soloman

Jack Soloman was an American sound engineer and he won an Academy Award for Sound Recording. Between the years of 1953 and 1991 he worked on over 90 films. Jack Soloman worked for directors such as Charlie Chaplin, Raoul Walsh, John Ford, Robert Aldrich and Arthur Penn. He started as an electrician who met Benny Winkler when playing ball and he took him under his wing. Jack Soloman got his big break when Bob Aldrich the company clerk at RKO (Radio-Keith-Orpheum) Pictures. First of all Bob became a first assistant and then an assistant to Lewis Milestone (A Russian-born American motion picture director.) Bob told Jack that they were going to do a picture with Terese Wright and Joe Cotten and that Jack was going to mix it. Jack did it once speaking to Benny Winkler who told him it was time that he moved up.

Jack Soloman made note that different directors made sound important. Jack Webb who Jack Soloman worked with on the 'Dragnet' series noted that he made sound very important more important than photography and therefore nobody on the set could make a sound as it was deadly quiet. Another director who was the same was George Stevens who covered the set in red lights so everyone would just have to walk around on tiptoes. 

Musical numbers in Funny Girl were pretty much all prerecorded having spent $200,000 on it. However Barbra Streisand would say that she wanted to she wanted to sing live. So therefore they had to work with it and however even though the music director said it wouldn't work however it was tried and worked. This proved that things were changing and sound engineers were able to get the control they needed. 

Arthur Piantadosi 

Arthur Piantadosi was an American sound engineer. He won an Academy Award for Best Sound. He began his career in motion picture in the late thirties at Warner Brothers. Through his career he worked as a music mixer for Warner Brothers, Republic, 20th Century- Fox, Universal and Columbia which spans five decades. He mixed scores for a lot of classic American musicals as well as underscores for non-musicals of every genre.

Arthur Piantadosi although as a mixer he also saw himself as a storyteller. This is because when he handled music he thought of it through themes instead of when one person stopped talking and when another started. Therefore that wasn't just turning up the music if the music doesn't tell him to turn it up. Arthur felt the music so much so that his body language showed as though it was through the picture instead it was all because of the music.

William Murch

William Murch love for film sound started when he studied at USC film school. While he started experimenting with film sound from a young age this then led him to growing an interest in film-making. Therefore he combined the two at university. While the majority of people he knew didn't have much interest in just sound because it was seen as 'boring' and not very exciting. This led William to enjoy it more than ever. While studying at the University of Southern California he met the writer-director-producer George Lucas. Murch and Lucas both worked alongside each other a lot in Murch' early career and they are both a figure in each others work.

Lucas won a scholarship to observe Francis Lord Coppola making the out of character Finian's Roberts for Warner Bros in 1968. IN Coppola next movie The Rain People 1969, Lucas took the role of production assisiote. This is where William Murch got his first sound credit. In his work Murch has always aknowledges the correlation between what is seen and what is heard he states that ''The depth of the relationship between the two elements became more and more obvious.' This was due his early understanding in how important sound was to film.Alongside that Murch also wasn't a fan of soundtrack for his work this is because he blieved that sound has a great power but it is a conditional power. It places the image in a physical and emotional context, helping us to decide how to take the image and how it intergreates itself into everything else. Silence is able to be a useful however it isn't used that often. An example of Murch using it was at the end of Godfather II (1974); the scene is where Michael Corleone is setting by the lake. Murch dropped the soundtrack don to the atmos and then shut it down completely, which transmitted the interior emotions being felt by the character.

Lucas and Murch were employed again for Gimme Shelter (1970) which was a concert film of the Rolling Stones Altamont gig. In this one William Murch worked as a cameraman. Murch worked with Lucas on his prize winning short film THX 1132. He designed the sound for this as well as recieving a co-written credit after this the two went on to make American Graffin. After American Graffiti, Murch worked a lot more with Coppola. He became involved in The Conversation (1974) which too many is regarded as highly as the sound designers The plot revolves around a surveillance export who is using sophisicated microphones, may or may not have recored two poeple discussing a muder plot. He was nomiated for an Academy Award for Best Sound.

The next film he worked on was also a Francis Coppola film which happened to be Apocalypse Now,. He was nominated for an Oscar for his film editing and won the Award for Best Sound. Murch says that it was the first multitrack film he had worked on and it was new territory because it was a multichannel soundtrack with low frequency enhancement. Murch questioned Coppola by asking himself if he had to do this however when he looked back at it with big panavision visuals he realised that the sound-track we did was the thing to do.

Alongside Frank Coppola another collaborative director that William Murch worked alongside was Anthony Mingella whose film 'The English Patient' won William Murch his second Best Sound Award and his first Best Film Editing statuette. In his most recent piece of work he indirectly worked with Orson Welles in restoring Touch of Evil (1958) however this film like many of Welles' suffered from studio interference and it got to the point where Orson was banned from the movie. In Touch of Evil Murch combined sound a vision and he noticed that he got a phone call out of the blue from the producer telling him that Welles had written during before he was fired and that these notes were half about the sound and he wanted to do the other half about the pictures. Therefore the man they needed for William Murch.

The one thing that Orson Welles was known for was his precision however Murch didn't realise was precisely how much. Every film is t have a document of what they want however a lot of them don't have the ability, time nor the articulation to do it. Although Orson had all three of these. Which although harder it did mean that allow a certain degree of interpretation, therefore being like collaborating with Welles. In Touch of Evil Murch had a avid nonlinear editing workstation where Murch had to clean up pictures and remixed the audio as an 8 digital soundtrack. Film had moved on from the old mag recorder methods however it was all new for Murch he remastered the soundtracks of The Godfather trigoly using the 8 track digital soundtrack. The English Patient was the first film that he used it all the way through from beginning to end as it was electronically and won an Oscar.

Murch used a mixture of old and new technologies with using the sonic solutions system for The English Patient. This is due to computers bringing more functionality. The Sonic system allows a network function which enables people working on the different elements such as footsteps and voice to access the edit decision list and see what is being done. This way it is a lot easier because they can play the two together and see how it will work. The use of this has also meant that it isn't interfering i=with anybody else.

While known as a very successful sound editor. William Murch was incredibly diverse within the terms of the people he worked with and the different roles he has taken. Although he dip his foot into directing which failed miserably. Although in his audio work he has shown how how it can be used to enhance and drive along a film and that technology is just a means towards creativity.

Foley Techniques 

Foley are the sound effects that are created in post production to enhance the quality of the audio. There is a number of sounds that the foley artists can be recreating. The idea behind foley is that it goes unnoticed and the audience isn't able to recognise it and therefore it creates a sense within the scene. In horror films the sounds that they using create are footsteps, screaming, creaking doors and stabbing.

The way that foley is created is by sound recording artists mimicking the sounds in the recording studio. There are three ways that the majority of sound artists use they are; foot, cloth and props. When they are recreating sound with their feet they will be copying the actor running up the stairs and therefore there will be two foley artists stamping their feet while watching the action in the recording studio to make sure that they are exactly on time with the footage. A lot of foley studios will have all different types of shoes and flooring therefore making it a lot easier for foley artists to recreate different sounds. Using a cloth for foley is usually when it is the more quieter and subtle sounds such as rubbing two pieces of materials together for when the actor crosses his legs. Props is used for when such as when a door bell is being rung or the creaking of a door. although sometimes this is also done through the sound editors using stock sound effects. In horror films there will be a lot of the sound of echoey walls and staircases this is done using a reverb where it creates more of an open space sound.

Within doing it for a horror film the sounds will either come from feet or from props this is because the sounds are usually quite strong and sharp due to the genre of it therefore it is important to stick to this when it comes to they Foley sounds.

Creating my Foley 

Melon
Cabbage
Celery

Sound Pre Final Major Project from Naomi Doddridge on Vimeo.