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.