The Advantages of Using Bird Chatter Instead of Musical Soundtracks in Movies

Hollywood producers are always looking to find new, innovative ways to create a hit movie. Some movie producers have gone as far as putting talking dogs into their films to try to make them successful, but many overlook the power of music.

One technique that a lot of Hollywood producers haven't tried yet is to use bird calls as the soundtrack of their movie.

There are many advantages to replacing the soundtrack of your movie with bird calls, but this short essay will detail a few of the most obvious ones:

Financial

According to David Bell, author of "Getting The Best Score For Your Film," a high budget feature film can cost up to $400,000 plus a $200,000 to $400,000 composer fee. That is an awful lot of money to spend on music.

When your movie is about a haunted house for example, it would make a lot of sense to invest money into bone-chilling and spooky music because that can play a big role in giving the audience they haunt they paid for, but for movies where music is less important, it might be smart to consider using bird calls to fill the dead air.

When dealing with a medium-budget film, you could decide to use bird calls instead of music and re-allocate your funds to another part of the production because you don't need to pay a bird for the music they produce.

Legal

Under U.S. law, in order to use a song in a movie you must acquire a Synchronization License from the publisher to use the song in synchronization with the video and a Master Use License from the record label to reproduce the song in your film.

The advantage of using bird chatter in your film instead of music is that you can circumvent the acquisition of these music licenses because birds won't sue you unless a human lawyer is representing them.

The chances of a human lawyer representing a bird in court are extremely low and there have been no known cases in the history of film of somebody being sued for using bird calls instead of music.

Nostalgia

Other than scent, which is known to be the human sense most strongly linked with nostalgia, hearing might be the next. In terms of hearing, here is nothing more nostalgic than hearing a bird you remember from your childhood. That memory can be very therapeutic for people and very enjoyable for others. These emotions can add to the overall enjoyment of a film.


All in all, replacing your soundtrack with bird chatter should not be overlooked by mainstream Hollywood.

Forms, Legal, and Shenanigans

Everyone planning to film on city property, you may want to pay attention. So, we all know that to film on city property, we need to submit a form to the Department of Public Works at least two weeks in advance (see the form on the Field Production research guide on the IC Library site, or go here. But, what about the insurance form (item number 2 on the form)? Well, as IC students filming in the city, we are covered by the college through the Office of Risk Management, but the office need to get a form at least 10 days before the shoot (and I would recommend getting this paperwork in before submitting the form for the Department of Public Works). Click here to get to the page you need for the Risk Management forms.

Also, I realized that I haven't been doing these entries for the past month or so, so I'll try to get one down every day for the next week or two (personal goal).

And what about civil law?

Several recent links and posts have discussed the blur between real and virtual in the realm of criminal acts. The link regarding "Ageplay sim eyes new grid," for example, explains that child porn may be available in SL (if it's not already). Porn is obviously alive and thriving in SL, which is not illegal.. but the idea of sex acts with children is very disturbing, even in a virtual sense. Obviously, no real child is being harmed... in this case... but, where do we draw the line of illegal behavior. It's like the people who have asked... is it infidelity if you have virtual sex outside of marriage? I have heard strong opinions from both sides. Even Dennis' comment about virtual rape raises many questions. We don't know the people involved and what their emotional state is. For some, it is not merely "lighthearted play" and such an act could be very traumatising and could carry into their RL just as some nightmares haunt us.

On a less dramatic note, there have been many issues raised recently about fraud and privacy, especially among social networking sites that have made it into the courts. It would seem inevitable that the same will filter into SL. Even with all sorts of consent forms at sign-in (which maybe that was the small print most us never read in the "terms of agreement") which release not only Linden but the players of any liability, legal questions will emerge and be challenged. As one final example, there are many people now offering "advice" in SL. In RL we have to have licenses to "practice" in certain fields, such as psychology, and usually for good reason. To do so without a license is a felony offense. Who are these people offering such advice in SL and what are their credentials? Or... do avatars even care? Should they care? In RL, Dr. Phil has made kabillions of dollars offering advice... without a license... for years. Is it simply entertainment and we should let it go at that? I guess it's just a case of "buyer beware" at this point.

The Corn Field

I know that the topic of law and order in SL is kind of a taboo but since there is a prison in Second Life with a one way teleport terminal, one should expect ,that there is a legal system that is separated from the legislative and executive systems; And since we know this is not the case I wonder if Linden Lab can maintain a stable social and economical environment that would encourage major "foreign" investments in Second Life.