Author: Anson Williams

Guest Lecture – Lucy Mitchell

Anson Williams / / Guest Lectures

Lucy talked about her experience working in film and TV as a sound editor and mixer. She covered topics about how to run a voice over session and how to and how to layout sessions to make it easier for whoever will be taking on the project after you’ve finished your work on it. Something that she mentioned that I found particularly interesting was how she made the move from one job to the next. She said that she made sure people knew she was capable at mixing by asking to help out on premixes and then gradually working from there to get jobs as a mixer.

She had some many useful bits and bobs to say that it would make an extremely long post so I’m just going to bullet point some of my favourite tips she mentioned.

  • Use slow motion to help sync footsteps
  • Remove middle sections of effects like rain and applause that naturally fade rather that fading the effect out.
  • Use 3-4 different atmospheres for outdoor scenes to add variation
  • Sort tracks into groups of 8 so it’s easier for anyone opening the project using hardware as most come in groups of 8 faders.
  • Always be willing to learn
  • Learn to say no to people (This is something I particularly need to do)
  • Don’t be offended  if your sounds aren’t used, they’re all subjective.

 

Tutorial 6: 17/11/17

Anson Williams / / Tutorials

In this session we talked about what I had been doing with my production group on set and where I’m at with my pieces. From location recording I collected recordings of all the clocks in the house to use in my score. For my other two pieces I have demos of what I am working on but no pieces to really show yet as they’re still far from done they’re just rough works. I’ve also been given a list of requirements off Stonethrow Films. As there isn’t as much music being made as I initially thought David has given me another short film to compose some music for. It’s a short film called Fare Thee Well, it has all the sound except for music so I just need to compose some pieces for it.

Research 4

Anson Williams / / Research

After visiting the location we’re using for filming we found that the house has a lot of clocks, 2 in almost every room, a grandfather clock and wall clock. We’ve discussed including them in the score for the film and also the droning to include a shepard tone. Only the other day I’d watched a video on how Shepard tones are used in Hans Zimmers scores but it also mentioned a lot ticking clocks were also used so myself and the group are going to watch some films included in the video to get a better idea of what they want for the score. I’ve started making my own with pianos, strings, synths so far but I’m looking to experiment more with sampled sounds.

Research 3

Anson Williams / / Research

I’ve been reading Unheard Melodies by Claudia Gorbman, in particular chapter 4 Classical Hollywood Practice: The Model of Max Steiner. The most useful section I found was a detailed list of how music ‘should’ be used within film and has given me a good way to analyse sound tracks.

Classical Film Music: Principles of Composition, Mixing, and Editing

Invisibility: the technical apparatus of nondiegetic music must not be visible.

“Inudibility”: Music is not meant to be heard consciously. As such it should be subordinate itself to dialogue, to visuals – i.e., to the primary vehicles of the narrative.

Signifier of emotion: Soundtrack may set specific moods and emphasize particular emotions suggested in the narrative (cf. #IV), but first and foremost, it is a signifier of emotion itself.

Narrative cueing:

Referential/narrative: music gives referential and narrative cues, e.g., indicating a point of view, supplying formal demarcations, and establishing setting and character.

Connotative: music “interprets” and “illustrates” narrative events.

Continuity: music provides formal and rhythmic continuity – between shots, in transitions between scenes, by fillings “gaps.”

Unity: via repetition and variation of musical material and instrumentation, music aids in the construction of formal and narrative unity.

A given film score may violate any of the principles above, providing the violation is at the service of the other principles.

From reading this I’ve found that a lot of the film sound tracks I’ve really enjoyed such as Punch Drunk Love and The Eternal Sunshine of The Spotless Mind both by Jon Brion and soundtracks of David Fincher films follow some of the rules but generally break them. I’m going to watch them again and make notes of how where and why music is used in these films and write up what I find on here.

Luke Pickering

Anson Williams / / Guest Lectures

This weeks talk was with Luke Pickering an assistant engineer at The Church Studios, London. A lot of what he said was about being in the right place at the right time but you have to put yourself in that situation for that to happen and not just hope to get lucky. He applied for work experience placements through a company called Miloco, they work with studios around the world to fill job positions and provide work experience. Luke said was to stop thinking of any audio industry as anything other than a service industry. Almost always a job in audio will be working for a client and catering to their needs and making sure they’re happy. They are trusting you with their money and so they expect a certain level of professional service. Luke said to always keep busy, whether that’s just cleaning up or making someone a cup of tea when they need it make sure you’re always doing something to help as employers will notice your attention to detail and how well you work with other people. Finally Luke really pushed that if you’re given am opportunity do everything you can to make it happen. Whether that means sleeping on someones floor or making a sacrifice in your personal life because you don’t know if you’ll ever be given another opportunity as good as the one that you’re given.