Ch. 22 The Sound and Design in Film

Added Value Sound

A sound that enriches the image and adds an expressive or emotional feel to the action from which it emanates.

Off Screen

A source outside the frame.

On Screen

A source within the frame.

Automatic Dialogue Replacement

ADR. The rerecording of sync dialogue in a studio (when the production sound is not usable).

Foley Effects

After Jack Foley. Differ from hard effects in that they are recorded in synchronization with the edited film. Foley session: standing in a room watching a scene in a soundproof room with whatever you need to create the right effects as you watch the film. Foley Artists, Foley Room.

Walla-walla

Ambient sound that involves the general, unintelligible chatter of a group of people.

Source Music

Any music that has a visible source in the scene (ex. a song playing from a jukebox in the corner of a bar, the guitar that a character is playing)

Speech: Off-Screen Dialogue

Dialogue that comes from a person who is assumed to be in the time and space of the film (diegetic sound), but simply is not in the view of the camera.

Speech: Sync Dialogue

Dialogue that is recorded in sync with the picture during the production phase.

Copyright Clearance

Means that you have been given/purchased the rights to use specific music in your film

Musical Score (Background Music)

Nonsync and nondiegetic music that generally accompanies action or dialoge to underscore the events of a scene with a tone, a mood, or musical commentary. Barely notices but deeply felt.

Voice-over Narration

Nonsync sound. Differs from off-screen sound in that it is understood by the audience that the voice cannot be heard by the people in the scene.

Hard Effects

Sound effects that are essentially gathered as a nonsync sound and then inserted into the sound design either as post-synchronous sound (synced up to a corresponding image in the editing) or as an asynchronous sound effect. Ex. shattering glass, dog barks, gunshots, explosions, creaking stairs, doorbells, telephones, exotic birdcalls. Can be from the production wild sound track (pfx) or as a prerecorded sound effect from commercial sound effects library (cds, internet)

Postsynchronous Sound Effects

Sound effects with their synchronous relationship to the picture accomplished in post-production. Include pfx (production sound effects) and prerecorded effects.

In Sync Audio

Sound has frame-accurate, direct correspondence with the image and appears to be generated from what we are watching (ex. a character speaking dialogue, car starting up).

Nonsync Audio

Sound that has no corresponding image and so has no visible source. Can be either speech, sound effects, or music. Asks, "Where is this sound coming from?"

Nondiegetic Sounds

Sounds that don't come from anything in the world of the film. (ex. voice of a narrator, music with no source in the world of the film)

Diegetic Sound

Sounds that seem to come from the world of the movie. (ex. dialogue spoken by a character, music playing on a radio that is visible in the scene, sound of a car crash that our characters respond to, whether it is on screen or not) (heard by the characters in the film)

3 Categories of Sound Design

Speech, Dialogue, Sound Design

Direct Sound

Sync sound that is recorded on location and in sync with the image (ex. car image and sound of car)

Sound Design

The final form of a movie's total aural impression.

Looping

The method of rerecording and syncing up the dialogue. Actor stands in a studio in front of the microphone watching a loop of the scene whose dialogue needs replacing over and over again. Also ADR (Automatic Dialogue Replacement)

Ambient Sound

The overall aural environment in which a scene takes place-the background noises and other acoustic properties. Can be recorded on location or commercial sound effects. Sometimes like silence in a film. Should always be ambient sound (even if no dialogue, music, etc).

Wall-to-wall Music

The phenomenon of the excessive and indiscriminate use of music from the beginning to the end of a film.

Diegesis

The world of the film. Consists of the characters, actions, objects, locations, time, and story.

Prerecorded Sound Effects

library found on CDs or through online sound libraries.

pfx sound

pfx: production sound effects; sound effects recorded on location.

Musical Motifs

Smaller musical phrases which can be easily combined, elongated, and rearranged in the editing process to fit the temporal dimensions of the sequences.

Wild Sound

A better recording in the field.