Harry Charlton’s Sound notes

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.

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.

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.

‘Identifying Atmospheres’

1. Desert
2. NA
3. Desert
4. Desert Night
5. Desert Night
6. Desert Morning
7. Desert Night
8. Desert Night
9. Desert Night
10. Desert Night
11. Desert Night
12. Desert Night
13. Desert Night
14. Stone Corridor Day (No Roof)
15. Stone Corridor Day (No Roof)
16. Desert Day
17. Desert Day
18. Desert Day
19. Desert Day
20. Desert Day
21. Desert Day
22. Desert Day
23. NA (Desert Night If Needed)
24. NA (Desert Night If Needed)
25. Desert Day
26. Desert Day
27. Desert Day
28. Desert Day
29. Desert Day
30. Desert Day
31. Desert Day quiet
32. Desert Day
33. Mountain top day
34. Mountain top day
35. Ruined Building Day
36. Ruined Building Day
37. Ruined Building Day
38. Mountainside Day
39. Mountainside Day
40. Mountainside Day quiet
41. Mountainside Day
42. Mountainside Day
43. Mountainside Day quiet
44. Mountainside Day
45. Mountainside (Sky)
46. NA (Mountainside Day If Needed)
47. Mountainside day quiet
48. Mountainside Day quiet
49. Mountainside Day quiet
50. Mountainside Day quiet
51. Mountainside Day quiet
52. Mountainside Day quiet
53. Mountainside Day quiet
54. Mountainside Day quiet Maybe NA
55. Desert Night quiet
56. Desert Night quiet
57. Desert Night quiet
58. Desert Day
59. Desert Day
60. Desert Day

What I need to find

• Desert Morning
• Desert Day
• Desert Evening
• Desert Night
• Stone Corridor Day
• Mountain Top Day
• Mountainside Day
• Ruined Stone Building Day