Y2 SOUND FOR SCREEN – Harry Charlton’s Sound notes

Director Denis Villeneuve describes Dune as a psychedelic journey, he talks about grounding the film with ‘familiar’ visuals that link with our relationship with nature, and expressing the psychedelic aspect through sound. The approach they took with the sound was that of a documentary, Denis wanted it to sound as though there was a ‘guy with a boom’ on the planet Aracus.

The Worm

Denis integrated postproduction very early into the creative process, he brought the sound team to Budapest where they were shooting the film, this way they were able to feed their ideas together. Villeneuve recalls working on lower budget films and having to rush the sound at the end of production, but now with a bigger budget he is able to make sure the sound has deep enough roots (as he puts it) to stand the test of time. He values having space to experiment, explore and make mistakes. When supervising sound editor and sound designer Theo Green first received the script for the film, he decided to check himself into a hotel in Death Valley where there was a nearby sand dune called Mesquite sand. He did this to get a good idea of the atmosphere of the film, to know what it sounds like to stand in silence and to know what it sounds like to walk up a dune. Green was motivated a lot by some recordings done by their re-recording mixer Doug Hemphill, they were recordings of sand dunes moving, they sing/groan. Green recognised that in order to make that sound the dunes must be resonant like a musical instrument, so Theo planted microphones in the sand to see how human interaction, walking jumping etc, resonated with the sand. This was also useful in the conception of the sound of the worm, Green realised that in order for the worm to swim through the sand as it does visually, the worm would have to vibrate to liquify the sand, this defined the sound of the worm.

Denis described the sound of the worm or ‘worm sign’ as an insect fluttering its wind, something small that doesn’t let on the full scope of the beast. It should be something so contrasted to the worm that only a native would recognise, a visitor would think it was an insect or a bird, its ‘fluttering sand’. Denis emphasised awe as the quality they wanted to portray to the audience, he didn’t want the audience to fear it but see it as a God on the planet. The worm has a strange intelligence and should convey a huge presence, meeting the worm is a spiritual experience.

An aspect of the sound design that informed the visual is something that the designers named ‘The Gunk Gunk’, a series of thumps that can be heard coming from deep within the creature. They defined this as a means of communication, this is why the worm responds to the thumping machines places in the sand by people. After hearing this, Denis Villeneuve decided to take this information to the VFX team, and asked them to animate movement in the epiglottis.

Villeneuve describes the desert environment as introspective experientially, due to the weight of the heat, open plains and silence. This, he says, brings the sound closer to you. Often the loudest sounds in the environment will be your own body, your breath and heartbeat.

The Voice

There is a very important concept in Dune called ‘the voice’. Denis emphasised a theme of channelling ancestry throughout the film, the sound department had to express this concept/theme through ‘the voice’. The idea was that Paul could channel a feminine ancestral power, and so the voice would be a deep female voice, this could be simultaneously or separate from his own voice. The sound department casted lots of gritty female voices, they layered these voices under Timothee Chalemete’s voice. They wanted the projection of the voice to be powerful, for the resonance to be amplified especially in the bass, to the point where the room rattles. They also took an opportunity to use synchronisation as an expression of aptitude, as the protagonist learns to use the voice it is out of synch with him, it comes a few seconds after the words are spoken, whereas the reverend mother’s voice is completely in sync, percussive and immediate. To emphasise the lower frequencies of the voice Theo Green used a technique he learned from Lee Scratch Perry, a pioneer in dub reggae. The technique was to record the audio, and play it back through a very large speaker in a resonant room and record the result, sometimes you can hear a little bit of the room shaking. This, Green says, gives the voice a very tactile sense to the spiritual experience. Giving a tactile sense to the spiritual experience became this sound’s main utilisation, the voice could speak subtext, text and tell a story even when it wasn’t being deployed as ‘the voice’, it became its own entity. Through experimentation the sound department had unlocked a new story telling device for Dennis.

Technology

Denis wanted the technology of this world to be grounded, as real as possible, so it didn’t become a distraction from the story. He wanted the audience to embrace the technology spontaneously. An example was the ‘Ornithopter’, it was based on insects, he wanted the vehicle to function like an insect and look like a military vehicle. The sound, Denis said, should be close to the spirit of a helicopter, in the same family but not the same. The sound team used recordings of beetles and other insects to create a helicopter sound with a natural quality.

Mark Mangini states that we can be more successful in our sound design when we start with natural recordings. He thinks that the reason for this could possibly be that we have a psychoacoustic response telling us that the sound is real, the time arrival to the ear and the acoustic environment in which a sound lives might be a subconscious identifier for reality. Whether this theory is correct or not, I think he is right. The brain responds to natural sounds differently to synthesised sounds, I’ve created synthesisers out of vocal recordings and they are very un-natural as an acoustic sound, but retain an organic natural quality. These natural sound ‘ingredients’ are all in service to quickly and effectively suspend the audiences disbelief. We can present sounds that are decontextualised from what it really is, present them in a new context and your brain doesn’t have to understand what the original sound was it just recognises that its real.

1st December 20211st December 2021

SPECIALISATION PROJECT

Mixing

As the deadline for the hand in of this project is approaching I have decided to focus on mixing from now on. I am missing certain elements in the sound design, namely the dragging of the coffin, the donkey footsteps and the sound of the character rubbing the bloody fur of the donkey as it dies.

Firstly I created a bus channel for atmosphere reverb, I then applied a convolution reverb to this channel with a ‘soccer field’ preset as I thought this was most appropriate for the mountainside. I then adjusted the levels to make it sound realistic, I also made the output of this channel 5.1 and placed the sounds slightly towards the rear, this was to give the atmosphere a sense of space.

The first time I mixed the foley, I mixed it way too loud. I think I was just trying to make sure it was in sync with the picture, but the result was that it sounded like the footsteps were right next to the camera. I fixed the levels and identified different locations so I could make bus channels with correct reverb, I then sent the foley tracks through the right channels.

I had fun mixing 01:01:51:16 to 01:02:16:05 as it allowed the most room for creativity. The scene follows our main character directly after his donkey, which he had been using to transport the coffin, dies leaving him to carry it himself. I feel as though the imagery of him dragging the coffin behind him and particularly carrying it on his back, is reminiscent of the myth of Sisyphus. An endless tremendously difficult task that has no value to anyone other than to him, the character remains focused against barrages from the outside world as he slowly slips into exhaustion. I wanted to reflect this in the sound, in particular I wanted to highlight the breath as a means to cope, similar to how people focus on breath in meditation. I did this by sending all environmental tracks (the footsteps, the coffin creaking, the wind and the atmos) to an aux channel, here I could manipulate all of them as one. I used reverb as a means to express exhaustion, giving the effect of hallucination and disassociation from reality. I automated this to start as a realistic reverb for the space, and gradually increased the wet output to more of an abstract effect. The second and most important thing I did was apply a compressor to the aux track and side chain it with the breath track as the input. I also automated the mix of the compression from 0 to 100%, this gave the effect of the environment gradually becoming more blurred, and this blurred soundscape would dip in volume when the breath comes in, mirroring the idea of focus. I think this worked well but I did have a couple of problems, I found that the environmental sound was too loud and compressed at the start (where its supposed to be realistic, I fixed this through volume automation and the automation of the mix helped. The main problem I encountered was that breath was quite a weak input, the finished effect didn’t have the contrast I was hoping for. If I were to try this again I would research side chaining a bit to see if there was a solution to this, or I would possibly just automate the volume myself.

I think that overall this project has been a successful investigation into sound design, I have worked with lots of elements of sound for film. I worked through problems and found methods to achieve synchresis, experimenting with reverb to place sounds in a space. If I were to redo the process I would prepare the session slightly differently, I think I would section out the session into locations as well as different elements. I would also create separate bus channels for the reverb at the start of the process.

29th November 202129th November 2021

SPECIALISATION PROJECT

Foley

I tried to make some progress recording the breaths for the main character in my room, however it did not work too well. There was a slight reverb and as my room is situated on the ground floor of a house at the front, I had a lot of unwanted noise from the road outside.

I rented out the composition and foley studio to record the rest of the foley, however I was limited by a 3 hour time slot, I didn’t manage to record everything I needed. I used a highly directional shotgun microphone because although the foley studio was acoustically treated, there was still some bleed from people using the synthesisers next door. I started by recording the footsteps, this process took about 2 hours. I filled one of the trap doors with gravel and rocks, I also used some audio tape for the sound of vegetation. With this set up I was able to achieve a number of different textures, mountainside with dry grass (using the tape), gravel hillsides (using the larger rocks) and hard mud (by scraping the larger rocks out of the way and using the smaller ones against the concrete) . I found the process quite challenging at first, I often fell out of the rhythm of the steps, or starting at the wrong point. Eventually me and Raul (in the control room) figured out a method, we would watch the shot and say the rhythm of the steps, we would also figure out when the first step is and which leg it was. I could then record the track in fewer takes. I got the hang of making different surfaces pretty quickly, but I found making footsteps for different people more challenging. I recorded all of the male footsteps with my own shoes while I was wearing them, but later the time came to record the female footsteps. The method I came up with was using my hands holding some smaller shoes, I found it difficult to simulate realistic footsteps this way but after a while I sort of got the hang of it, I also ended up pitching the footsteps up in post. Due to the time restraints I didn’t manage to record footsteps for the donkey, I would have done this with some hoof sized pieces of wood or rocks, depends on what sounded better.

Recording a scene where the character falls to the ground from their knees.

Next came the sound of the coffin.

This sound came out surprisingly well. I used an old wooden violin case and wrapped it in rope. I then recorded a track of me keeping the case still under my arm while pulling and creating tension on the rope, this was for the sound of the coffin on the donkey’s back. After this I recorded the scene where the character carries the coffin on his back, to do this I increased the tension of the rope in sync with the steps of the character. I did encounter a couple of problems with this as the violin case had some cracks in it, and occasionally when I pulled the rope, pieces of wood would build up tension and release resulting in a plucking sound, this didn’t really fit the picture. I solved this by cutting around it and removing the plucks in post.

All in all the session was very successful, and I learned a lot of things. I really enjoyed the process as I found myself working around problems in creative ways, it’s very strange working in a way that only vales the outcome, in foley it doesn’t really matter what you do to achieve a sound, as long as the sound works.

27th November 202127th November 2021

SPECIALISATION PROJECT

I have been working on the sound of the dogs, and a couple of problems arose that I didn’t foresee. Firstly, making the barks impactful enough, I have been pulling sounds from a library and the recordings just aren’t punchy enough, they sound dry and a bit weak. To remedy this I have layered some growling that increases in volume, in effect amping up to the bark. I also used a couple of plugins on the bark, firstly I shifted the pitch down an octave to give the impression of a larger more intimidating dog, I then used an EQ to boost some of the higher frequencies to emphasise the texture of the bark. Next I used a compressor quite aggressively to give the bark a better punch, after this I used a Bit crusher to add a slight crunch to the sound. Lastly I added a convolution reverb set to a mountain top preset and adjusted the levels. I think this method has worked well, the result was a more interesting rich effect, I think the layers support and emphasise the singular bark.

The second problem I had to work around was making the FX match the location of the source to the camera. Specifically this was for the sound of the dogs running, they run away from the camera very quickly. I achieved this by automating the volume making the sound quieter as they got further away. I also applied the space designer reverb to the track, I then automated the wet output to get higher as they got further away.

I applied a reflective reverb to the sound of the vultures to achieve the effect of the character walking through a stone alleyway, I think this was very effective and places the audience in the same location as the character. I also used Ozone Imager to reduce the stereo spread of the sound, I did this to make it more directional as there is only a narrow opening for the sound to come through above the subject.

22nd November 202122nd November 2021

SPECIALISATION PROJECT

Music

My original plan for the music was to keep it very subtle, ideally always coming second to the sound design. This is due to the context of the project, I have taken the visual from a music video so I wanted to avoid making music a main focus of the piece, otherwise it wouldn’t be very transformative. During the writing process I do think I got a little carried away and made it more prominent than I first intended, however I believe it still works as a supportive element rather than a focus. I think I have created a score that fits well with the visual, it doesn’t pull focus from the story, i think it just emphasises certain visual shots and brings a bit more emotionality to the film.

The process of making was very much through experimentation. I began with a prophet V synthesiser alternating between two chords, I then created some low drones using a bowed kalimba drum I had in Omnisphere, using a mod wheel I made it slightly move in and out of tune at points to make it sound more natural. After this I created two harmonising melodies using cello plug ins. Ideally I would like to have recorded this with a real cello, but I don’t have access to one, instead I tried to mimic the hand movements with the mod wheel. It doesn’t sound as good as I would like it but I think its the best I’m going to get it with my means. Lastly I used a granular violin to create a screaming synth that had a bird like quality grounding it the context of the scene, I believe this sound is one of the most effective at conveying/suiting the visual environment (open plains on a mountain).

I think that this experimentation has resulted in an effective score so far, it holds the emotional value I wanted it to (a sense of despair with occasional nostalgia). The pallet also suits the environment, a mix of classical instrumentation with distorted otherworldly sounds, I’m hoping this reflects the split of reality and delusion in the visual storytelling.

I plan to extend the music further later in the piece, and I specifically want to create a motif for the Juliana character, something comforting to cut through the sadness and despair of the overall theme. I think I will do this through implementing the human voice in the mix, perhaps comforting harmonies that pair nicely with some of the more un-natural sounds. If possible I would like to create some chords using the un-natural sounds that feel uncomfortable or incomplete, and then using the human voice, complete the chords to make them feel resolved or comforting. This would, in a musical context, convey the same relationships as told in ‘Birthday Letters’, Hughes being surrounded by vitriolic attack and criticism, but at the core his late wife bringing a sense of comfort, an untouchable memory impervious to outside influence.

22nd November 202122nd November 2021

SPECIALISATION PROJECT

Atmospheres

Ive almost finished editing my atmospheres for the project. The process has been slightly different form how I expected it to be, I assumed that one of the main functions of atmospheres was to differentiate between cuts in time or changes of environment, although this can be true its used much less than I thought it would be. I originally edited the atmospheres differently for each cut, varying volume or pitch to show a change in time or location. The result of this was a very ‘jumpy’ mix, the film lacked any sort of grounding, especially as I hadn’t recorded any foley or breath for the protagonist. The whole process of making 60 different atmospheres was very tedious, I also tried to pair each atmosphere with a wind track and made a point of differing any wind tracks that were next to each other.

I later reworked these atmospheres, making the contrasts in volume less pronounced and extending audio files over multiple shots in the same scene. I also extended the wind tracks over a lot of shots and multiple scenes. I think that this has brought a better sense of continuity throughout the piece. I realise now that atmosphere is more of a subtle bed to lay other elements on. It has the very important function of setting\grounding an environment, but if they are too pronounced you will throw the listener around too much, and it will be difficult for the audience to follow the subject of the film.

Another thing I have learned through experimenting with atmospheres is that I could sometimes get away with not having any. Im not sure if this is good practice but there are times where the FX are so pronounced they inform the audience of the environment, so much so where the atmosphere is not needed. A specific example would scene 13, where the subject walks through a narrow stone hallway with no roof, while birds fly overhead. I was unable to find a good atmosphere track for this so I left it for later. Since this I have added the sound of the birds, to which I applied a reverb mimicking the stone walls, and later I will be adding footsteps and breath with this same reverb. I believe that in this stone corridor environment, the reverb would be so prominent, an atmosphere track is probably not needed.

16th November 202116th November 2021

16/11/21

Some Sound Analysis and Tutorial

This American Life ‘Hearing Maps’ – Listening to the background noise of your environment, the speaker listened to his heater in his office and started harmonising with it by humming. He also noticed his computer was humming, brought a tuner into the office and tried to figure out the notes. It turned out to be a major third, traditionally perceived as a happy interval. The Telephone added a higher note, making it an augmented fourth. He researched this interval and identified it as the devils interval deemed so by the catholic church.

Takeaway- Pay attention to room tones, it will help with atmos beds. Pitch bend your atmos, and use major intervals for happy scenes, and minor intervals for sad scenes etc. Through this technique you can subtly influence your audience through atmosphere and room tone.

Parasite- There is use of room tone and atmosphere to differentiate the families in Parasite. The rich family are associated with nature sounds and quiet calming room tones, the poor family are associated with an urban noisy, oppressive environment. The door is an important motif, the foley is very loud and grand, like a castle gate, it’s the heavy barrier between the poor and the rich, emphasising the privacy of the rich. They also used reverb to emphasise the luxuries of wealth, the poor house has a claustrophobic reverb, whereas the rich house has a vast (marble wall type) reverb.

Elephant man- His breathing takes prominence in the mix, even close up shots that isolate another character while they speak. This brings the protagonist and the audiences experience closer together, it also emphasises the claustrophobic and uncomfortable nature of the characters condition. Breath is very important in sound design, it helps connect the audience and character. The elephant man also uses a train station’s atmosphere to reflect the protagonists sense of panic as children start to harass him, remember to use setting as a reflection of character psychology.

Force Majeur- Character analysis, the visuals were telling us they are a happy family, but the sound was ominous and unsettling with awkward silences, this is dramatic irony. They are on Holliday to enjoy themselves, but for most of the time there was no peace in terms of sound, there were a lot of industrial sounds. The atmos added a lot of pressure to the restaurant scene, raising the tension until the turning point of act 1, the avalanche. The only non diegetic music in the film is summer by Vivaldi, adding to the sense of irony as it’s a negative take on an otherwise ‘happy’ time. The family isn’t working, and the sound makes this very clear, its uncomfortable all the way through even though, visually, there is no reason why the audience would feel this way.

Tutorial- I need to keep in mind that I am telling a story, the audience need to be able to identify the perspective, and remain connected to the character comfortably. This can be done through use of breath and foley, to tether the audiences focus and create a constant throughout the cutting back and forth from different times and environments. I also need to soften the atmospheres, the visual jumps around a lot, cutting from one environment to another. This coupled with my contrasting atmospheres results in feeling of being chucked around, it’s hard for the audience to be grounded in the story when this is the case.

2nd November 20212nd November 2021