Filmsound.org: Learning Space Dedicated to the Art of Film Sound Design

2007 ◽  
Vol 44 (12) ◽  
pp. 44-6752-44-6752
Keyword(s):  
Sound Design ◽  
Learning Space ◽  
Film Sound

Film Sound Design

2015 ◽  
Author(s):  
Laura Anderson
Keyword(s):  
Film Music ◽  
The United States ◽  
Sound Design ◽  
Early 21St Century ◽  
Sound Effects ◽  
Holistic Understanding ◽  
History Of ◽  
Definition Of ◽  
Classical Hollywood ◽  
Film Sound

Sound design is a relatively recent term, first used to credit Walter Murch’s work on Francis Ford Coppola’s Apocalypse Now (1979). Murch has frequently drawn an analogy between how he perceived his role as decorating the three-dimensional film theater with sound and the work of an interior designer who decorates an architectural space (LoBrutto 1994, p. 92, cited under Key Practitioners: Compilations). Sound design is also a topic of increasing interest within film music scholarship, particularly its history and how it might be analyzed. The history of sound design is inextricably bound up with the history of technology, notably the emergence of Dolby in the 1970s. In his Oxford Bibliographies article “Music and Cinema, Classical Hollywood,” David Neumeyer noted in the introduction that the end of the Classical Hollywood era could be situated c. 1972 when the “contemporary era of sound design began in earnest,” and this particular period is indeed crucial. Yet, this is not to suggest that the history of film sound design is brief; in fact, it has a long history of antecedents that have shaped the role of the sound designer into a somewhat fluid concept. As of the early 21st century, no consensus has been reached on the definition of “sound design” in current research; however, the distinction between sound design as the work of one individual as opposed to a mode of practice is apparent. Furthermore, “sound designer” also has a professional meaning; in the United States the labor union defines the sound designer as a person who designs the sound effects. Some scholars expound this relatively narrow definition of sound design as akin to sound effects editing in the post-production process, whereas others see it as a broad undertaking, concerned with every aspect of the sonic environment. Murch encourages a broader definition of the sound designer as “someone who plans, creates the sound effects and mixes the final soundtrack, and thereby takes responsibility for the sound of a film the way a director of photography takes responsibility for the image” (Murch 1995, p. 246, cited under Key Practitioners: Articles). Sound design can encapsulate all components of film sound, including music, dialogue, sound effects, and voiceovers. This holistic understanding of the term is reflected in a significant interdisciplinary edition that takes the concept of the integrated soundtrack as a central theme (Greene and Kulezic-Wilson 2016, cited under Analyzing Film Sound Design). Sound design can involve conceptualization and practical efforts as well as cooperation with the director, producer, composer, editors, and other creative personnel. Sound designer Randy Thom has highlighted the importance of developing opportunities for the creative use of sound when making a film and has appealed for filmmakers to design their films for sound (Thom 1999, cited under Key Practitioners: Articles). The combination of creativity, technical expertise, and the ability to conceptualize innovative interactions between sound and image inherent in the concept is reflected in the very title of “sound designer,” a label that is not officially recognized by the Academy of Motion Picture Arts and Sciences awards. With the growing popularity of the term among some industry professionals, it is becoming common for sound artists to claim the credit “sound designer” in addition to those for recognized roles such as “sound editor” or “re-recording engineer” (Whittington 2007, p. 26, cited under Histories and Definitions of Sound Design). Within film music studies, the concept of sound design is increasingly used as a filter for analysis of a film’s soundscape, and thus publications now address how to analyze more complex film soundtracks. The focus of this article is divided into three broad strands: textbooks that give practical and technical direction for film sound design or aspects of it, literature on the history of sound design and the purview of the sound designer, and publications about and interviews with key practitioners.

scholarly journals The Emotional Impact of Sound: A Short Theory of Film Sound Design

10.29007/jk8h ◽  
2019 ◽  
Author(s):  
Thomas Görne
Keyword(s):  
Human Perception ◽  
Effective Medium ◽  
Management Theory ◽  
Visual Design ◽  
Emotional Impact ◽  
Special Focus ◽  
Sound Design ◽  
Mood Management ◽  
Film Sound

Following Zillmann’s Mood Management Theory, a main reason why people are watch- ing films is the drive to modify and regulate one’s mood by means of media entertainment [1]. And film is in this sense an effective medium: Narration, acting, visual design and sound design altogether contribute to its emotional impact. Accordingly, a main objective of film sound design is the communication and triggering of emotion or mood.The paper investigates film sound design from the viewpoints of human perception, psychology and communication science. A special focus is set on the semantics of sound, communicated by means of crossmodal metaphors and symbols, on attention guiding and inattentional deafness, on the diegesis and on image / sound relationships.

New Wine in New Skins

2010 ◽  
pp. 384-415 ◽  
Author(s):  
Daniel Hug
Keyword(s):  
Computer Game ◽  
Sound Design ◽  
Design Practice ◽  
Hollywood Film ◽  
Creative Practice ◽  
New Directions ◽  
Technological Constraints ◽  
Interactive Medium ◽  
Film Sound

With the disappearance of technological constraints and their often predetermining impact upon design, computer game sound has the opportunity to develop into many innovative and unique aesthetic directions. This article reflects upon related discourse and design practice, which seems strongly influenced by mainstream Hollywood film and by a striving for naturalism and the simulation of “reality.” It is proposed that this constitutes an unnecessary limitation to the development and maturation of game sound. Interestingly, a closer understanding of aesthetic innovations of film sound, in particular in relation to what can be termed “liberation of the soundtrack,” can indicate thus far unexploited potential for game sound. Combined with recent innovations in creative practice and technology, they serve as inspiration to propose new directions for game sound design, taking into account the inherent qualities of the interactive medium and the technological and aesthetic possibilities associated with it.

Soundscapes of Istanbul in Turkish Film Soundtracks

2013 ◽  
Author(s):  
Meri Kytö
Keyword(s):  
Middle Class ◽  
Historical Context ◽  
Sound Design ◽  
Cultural Meanings ◽  
Turkish Cinema ◽  
Traditional Approaches ◽  
Film Sound

This article appears in theOxford Handbook of New Audiovisual Aestheticsedited by John Richardson, Claudia Gorbman, and Carol Vernallis. This chapter examines the changing relationships of sounds, places, and their cultural meanings in Turkish films located in Istanbul. Starting with a brief review of the historical context of Turkish film sound and sonic representations of Istanbul, the chapter then analyzes two recent films set in middle-class apartment homes,11’e 10 kalaandUzak, which represent the auteur vein of new Turkish cinema. Both feature subtle and delicate sound design and evidence a form of heightened realism that contrasts with traditional approaches, shifting the focus of Istanbul’s soundscapes from public to private. Although the locations and characters of both these films are remarkably similar, their soundtracks differ in rendering the experience of urbanity and strategies of acoustic privacy by the transcoding of soundmarks and the use of transphonia in scenes.

scholarly journals Managing Stages of Film Sound Production

2021 ◽  
Vol 4 (2) ◽  
pp. 244-251
Author(s):  
Lev Riazantsev ◽  
Yevheniia Yevdokymenko
Keyword(s):  
Sound Production ◽  
Information Sources ◽  
Practical Knowledge ◽  
Rational Approach ◽  
Sound Design ◽  
Sound Film ◽  
First Sound ◽  
First Time ◽  
Film Sound

The purpose of this article is to analyse the main stages of sound production in film. The study aims to establish the main principles of film sound design, prove the importance of a rational approach to each stage in the context of their impact on the results of the study, and determine the role of sound in film dramaturgy. The research methodology is based on theoretical methods, namely an analysis of information sources, comparison of Ukrainian and foreign approaches to filmmaking, generalisation and systematisation of practical knowledge and experience of sound production in film from the first sound film to the present day. Scientific novelty. The management structure of sound production’s modern stages and their impact on creative and technical components of film soundtracks is analysed in detail for the first time. Conclusions. The article analyses the stages of sound production in film and establishes the main principles of sound design by studying Ukrainian and foreign approaches to creating sound in the film. The author summarises the rational approach to each stage in the context of their impact on the results of the study and examines the role of sound in film dramaturgy.

Sonic Space and Echoes of the Flesh

2020 ◽  
Vol 14 (2) ◽  
pp. 119-139
Author(s):  
ALISON WALKER
Keyword(s):  
Film Theory ◽  
Sound Design ◽  
Embodied Experience ◽  
Audience Engagement ◽  
Alfonso Cuaron ◽  
Cinematic Experience ◽  
Film Sound

This essay argues that the cinematic experience for audiences be reconsidered as a cinesomatic experience. Theorists such as Vivian Sobchack (1992; 2000; 2005) and Jennifer Barker (2009) have done much to conceptualise and theorise a sensory, embodied experience of cinema. These scholars, mainly drawing from either a Merleau-Pontian phenomenology or a Spinozist/Deleuzian theory of affect, have led the wave of new writings probing the ways in which audience engagement with film is corporeal. Their work explores cinema in terms of visual and haptic engagements, congruous with a broader move in scholarship towards the sensorial. However, despite the growth of embodied film theory in recent years, there is an even greater need to take the sensorial model of cinema spectatorship to film sound. This essay addresses cinema sound in specifically corporeal terms, demonstrating how audience experiences of film sound can be reconsidered as cinesomatic. By drawing a textual and phenomenological reading of the sound design in Gravity (Alfonso Cuarón, 2013), this essay aims to reveal new insights into the materially rich experience of a film’s soundtrack and demonstrate how a multiplicity of ‘narratives’ converge during and beyond the cinema encounter.

Smart Learning space als Instrument der Personalentwicklung: Wie digitalisiert man ein Krankenhaus? Chancen und Risiken für die Personalentwicklung

2018 ◽  
Vol 23 (07/08) ◽  
pp. 100-101
Author(s):  
Gregor Hohenberg
Keyword(s):  
Digitale Transformation ◽  
Learning Space ◽  
Smart Learning

Das Thema ist in aller Munde. Politiker, Ingenieure, Ärzte – alle sprechen über die Digitalisierung und über deren Folgen. Auch wenn es nach wie vor keine feste Definition gibt, was die digitale Transformation ist: Aufhalten lässt sich die Entwicklung nicht.

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