Week 4 - Foley Studio
Sound and Narrative
This reading also reinforces the importance of sound in a film; I learnt how sound can narrate the story without the use of visual media. For instance, there are many sounds that are associated with specific locations. When you think of a theme park, you can imagine the sounds of roller coaster rides, people screaming and laughing etc. Just through the use of sound your, your audience can picture what would be on the screen accompanying the score. This is supported by Lee Gooding in Sound and Narrative when he says "The natural soundscape can create not only a wide range of emotional spaces, it can also link with our human environments through analogy or simply because of our tendency to seek meaning in all stimuli".
Unfortunately I was not able to attend this weeks workshop however I completed the task but slightly differently. I watched multiple movie scenes without sound and brain stormed the things that stood out to me the most.
Things to focus on when creating a foley soundscape
I think these are the most important things to consider when creating a foley soundscape because although the actual sound that you hear is important, you need to know what side of the screen it is coming from. This is because if you can see that something is happening in front of you on the screen but the sound comes from behind you it will not have the same affect. You need to know what location you are in, how much space is in there, will there be an echo? is it enclosed?
Brain storming ideas is good because not only are you writing down things that you believe are important, they stem off onto even more ideas. The smaller the details, the more believable the soundscape. Without ambient sound, the scene would not look right and more importantly it wouldn't FEEL right.
I picked the following film scenes to research and begin thinking about what sounds might bring the scenes to life.
The Hunger Games (Lawrence, Ross, 2012) - Let the games begin
The Revenant (Inarritu, 2015) - First fight scene
Twilight (Hardwicke, 2008) - Baseball scene
Unlike the other two The Hunger Games looks like a sunny day with a blue sky, the grass is very green; however, what is about to happen is very bleak. I can imagine that the ambient sound is a mixture of birds chirping, perhaps trees rustling in a slight breeze. However once the games begin, you'll be able to hear a lot of screaming, groaning, stabbing and fighting. As there is a lot of people fighting at the same time, I believe that the sounds will be coming from all around us. The scene is very gruesome and gory so there would be a lot of squelching and slicing sounds. There is also a lot of fast running so the footsteps would be quite enhanced, in my opinion.
In the Twilight scene it is quite the opposite of The Hunger Games. It looks very blue, grey and bleak but what is happening on the screen is upbeat and fun. In baseball, there is a lot of running involved and as it is taking place in a forest, you would be able to hear the crunching of the leaves when running. Of course they are vampires, and in this case they have the ability to run extremely fast which would need to be enhanced in terms of sound. You will also be able to hear cheering, the sound of the bat hitting the ball and throwing / catching. Obviously, the forest is a very open space, there would not be an echo but shorter lasting sounds instead.
Similarly to the other two films, The Revenant is in an open space so there would not be an echo, however it is a massive fight scene which is even more gruesome than The Hunger Games. You can also see that the people involved in the fight are big, grown men so you can imagine deep voices that are shouting, grunting and moaning. As well as this, there are gun shots and many other weapons such as knives and swords. There are hundreds of people running and killing each other, so you would be able to hear the sounds of them running. The location is also in the forest but near a river so you will be able to hear them splashing in the water, running on solid ground and struggling in the mud. There is probably some wildlife in the forest so you may also hear birds etc.
I thought this task was really successful in terms of preparing me for my final soundscape, because I realised how much I have to bare in mind when studying a movie scene.
Things to focus on when creating a foley soundscape
I think these are the most important things to consider when creating a foley soundscape because although the actual sound that you hear is important, you need to know what side of the screen it is coming from. This is because if you can see that something is happening in front of you on the screen but the sound comes from behind you it will not have the same affect. You need to know what location you are in, how much space is in there, will there be an echo? is it enclosed?
Brain storming ideas is good because not only are you writing down things that you believe are important, they stem off onto even more ideas. The smaller the details, the more believable the soundscape. Without ambient sound, the scene would not look right and more importantly it wouldn't FEEL right.
I picked the following film scenes to research and begin thinking about what sounds might bring the scenes to life.
The Hunger Games (Lawrence, Ross, 2012) - Let the games begin
Unlike the other two The Hunger Games looks like a sunny day with a blue sky, the grass is very green; however, what is about to happen is very bleak. I can imagine that the ambient sound is a mixture of birds chirping, perhaps trees rustling in a slight breeze. However once the games begin, you'll be able to hear a lot of screaming, groaning, stabbing and fighting. As there is a lot of people fighting at the same time, I believe that the sounds will be coming from all around us. The scene is very gruesome and gory so there would be a lot of squelching and slicing sounds. There is also a lot of fast running so the footsteps would be quite enhanced, in my opinion.
In the Twilight scene it is quite the opposite of The Hunger Games. It looks very blue, grey and bleak but what is happening on the screen is upbeat and fun. In baseball, there is a lot of running involved and as it is taking place in a forest, you would be able to hear the crunching of the leaves when running. Of course they are vampires, and in this case they have the ability to run extremely fast which would need to be enhanced in terms of sound. You will also be able to hear cheering, the sound of the bat hitting the ball and throwing / catching. Obviously, the forest is a very open space, there would not be an echo but shorter lasting sounds instead.
Similarly to the other two films, The Revenant is in an open space so there would not be an echo, however it is a massive fight scene which is even more gruesome than The Hunger Games. You can also see that the people involved in the fight are big, grown men so you can imagine deep voices that are shouting, grunting and moaning. As well as this, there are gun shots and many other weapons such as knives and swords. There are hundreds of people running and killing each other, so you would be able to hear the sounds of them running. The location is also in the forest but near a river so you will be able to hear them splashing in the water, running on solid ground and struggling in the mud. There is probably some wildlife in the forest so you may also hear birds etc.
I thought this task was really successful in terms of preparing me for my final soundscape, because I realised how much I have to bare in mind when studying a movie scene.
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