Weird Sound People

Although I am interested in pursuing a career in music and media, one aspect of film I will never forget learning is sound. Especially when it comes to foley, I really feel like I can connect with creating sounds that aren't coming from the physical object itself, but ones to enhance the sound itself. This video is about a foley artist working for SkyWalker sound and his experience in working in a giant foley pit. From ET, to Interstellar this guy is truly a magician when it comes to sounds. Also another cool fun fact, did you know that there are more astronauts in the world than there are foley artists.....

ENJOY

Impressive Sound Design

Electronically produced music is a dime a dozen these days. As much as I hate to admit it, there are formulas to it and they exploited far too often. There are even a variety of producers who pay others to produce music for them so they can claim it as there own. Then there are the exceptions, the truly creative individuals in the mix. The ones who take sound design to the next level, go out of their way to create new and interesting sounds, as well as how to envision certain tracks. Those the types of producers and artists are the ones who get a second looks, and will always be the ones I support and who's music I share. This time around that comes in the form of the Luca Lush remix to Rihanna's hit 'Work.' Just do yourself a favor and listen to this hit again, reimagined.

https://soundcloud.com/lucalush/wrkwrkwrk

Dual Granular Synthesizer... CRAZY sound

As I'm sure you all know by this point, I am a sound guy. Designing sounds, arranging them, making an instrument with them, all of it. Sound is, to me, a technically limitless medium; if you can capture it you can play with it. Thats where the Collidoscope comes in. This machine is easily one of the coolest tools for manipulating audio that I have ever laid eyes on.

The Collidoscope is a prototype synthesiser designed by researchers Ben Bengler & Fiore Martin.
Based on a granular synthesiszer engine the instrument can be played by two performers at the same time (as they stand opposite one another on the sides of the unit) using the 2 built-in sets of keyboard, gooseneck microphone, color display and controllers.

The Collidoscope samples from the microphones (or line inputs) and displays in real time a waveform of the sample and allows it to be played back instantly. The main sliding knob positioned below the waveform allows for the visual selection of a portion of the sample to be played by moving it horizontally, and for the modification of the size of the portion being looped by rotating the knob. There are also two backlit octave selection buttons and a sturdy metal button next to the microphone base to start sampling.

This is easily one of the largest steps toward closing the gap between the performer and the sampling process, something almost every audio engineer encounters.

Binaural Audio

Sound is extremely interesting when you sit down and think about it. From the volatility of its nature to the seemingly endless uses and applications for it, sound is all around us on a day to day basis. However, very little thought goes into how that sound is received in various situations. Since the inception of speakers and headphones, sound has been received more or less as it was given, head on. That was until the inception of Binaural Audio; audio recorded on microphones designed to mimic human ears. I could attempt to explain this more in detail, but I figured the guys who are pioneering this technology, 3Dio, could do a better job...

Binaural recording is the process of capturing audio using two microphones that are shaped like human ears. When audio is recorded using a conventional microphone, sound is typically captured without any physical obstructions blocking incoming audio waves, other than the body of the microphone itself. Binaural microphones capture audio the same way your real ears hear sounds.  The ears (pinnae) dramatically alter the incoming sound waves, but our brains understand these alterations as directional cues.  In addition, the time delay between the ears gives us proper left/right directional cues.  When you listen to binaural recordings using headphones, the result is natural "human" three-dimensional sound that gives the listener the sensation of being in the space where the audio was recorded.

Relitivity Post Complaints

We have officially begun post production on Relativity, and I can say that I'm so excited to get back into this project. Although I've taken a few weeks off to work on other projects it's time to get back into this one. 

And of course something is going wrong.

I've made several films at Ithaca College, and I haven't had one go to post without hitting one glitch or another. This time it's sound (again, for that matter) which is... Terrible. Our recordist recorded everything below -30db, and even boosting it isn't going to save this sound. I've begun syncing and working with the sound during this edit, and there is nothing worse than cutting with poor sound. I just thank my lucky stars that I have a solid post sound artist, because this project is going to be a lot of work. 

I suppose it wouldn't be a film without some sort of issue.

The Pentatonix and Todrick Halls' "Wizard of Ahhhs"

The Pentatonix are an amazing a cappella group that became famous by winning the third season of The Sing-Off. They combined in 2013 with Todrick Hall, a semi-finalist on American Idol and a YouTube star to create a music video based off the classic movie, The Wizard of Oz. In a sensational way they managed to use modern songs to tell a six minute version of this movie. They of course included the films most renowned song, Somewhere Over the Rainbow, at the end of the video. The lighting was a mixture of flat and natural elements that brought out different feelings throughout the length of the video. For example, it was very bright during the Munchkin City sequence since it was supposed to be happier, and used a lot of darker and green lighting when they met the Wizard of Oz since it was supposed to appear more sinister. One thing that definitely stood out was the coloring. In the beginning, the colors were very desaturated and a sepia tone to go along with the theme of being on a farm during that specific time period. It very closely followed the coloring of the original movie. When it transforms from the drab farm to the land of Oz, the colors become very bright and saturated and make it seem more mystical and dreamlike. The editing of this video consisted of a lot of dissolves into the dreamlike state and cuts when the actions were supposed to be portrayed as more chaotic. They used a lot of closeups of the different characters which really enhanced their presence. Obviously, the main part of this video is sound, and a lot of it is diegetic. It is seen on screen because everything that you hear is coming out of the mouths of the singers and beat boxer. The sound that is created is the motivator for all of the actions on screen and the music describes what they are doing in a creative and different way.

Foley Can Make or Break Your Film

So I was on one of my favorite websites, Devour.com and stumbled upon a video called "bad foley." Now, coming from an audio minor and a person that simply appreciates the art of sound in general it was almost disturbing to see how bad sound in film can really be. Even though this video was made as a joke, it can really make you appreciate how much time foley and mixing go into the process of film making. Especially with scenes that do not require that much natural sound, its the art of creating the deceives the audience to make them believe it is real. I encourage everyone to take a look at this video, it will make you laugh, or if your a sound guy, possibly cry.

  http://devour.com/video/star-wars-bad-foley-edition/

Throwing Sound

The concept of throwing sound is a very interesting one. Placing a sound in a specific place is very difficult due to the eternal movement of sound waves. There is product out now that can throw sounds wherever you want them. Granted the speaker is the size of an old flip phone so theres not much output volume but nonetheless it is very cool.

Basically there is a small parabolic speaker that has a coned shape in order to "shoot" sound wherever you want. The effect is that you can point the speaker at someone and only they can hear it, like a whisper in their ear; when you move it away from the person it sounds like the sound is bouncing off the wall behind them. Difficult to explain in words but very easy if its actually been done to you. I found out about this product from a guest speaker in one of my classes who used chirping crickets to demonstrate the soundlazer to my astonishment. I had never heard such precise placement of sound I almost cried. In the entertainment industry, parabolic speakers are becoming increasingly popular in mixing sound for movies due to the precise location of the sound. Many new speaker systems are incorporating these speakers so engineers can adjust not only the direction of the sound but the HEIGHT of the sound. So say you're watching a movie and spaceship moves from the bottom of the frame to the top, you would hear the sound "underneath" you. Once the spaceship moves to the top half of the screen it would sound like it is "above" you. This was used in Gravity with amazing results and will soon become the new normal for mixing action movies. 

Requiem For a Dream

One director that uses sound as a key tool to telling his story is director Darren Aronofsky. He is known for using a dark tone to fill the nature of his stories. He has directed award winning films such as The Wrestler, and Black Swan, but my favorite of his is Requiem For a Dream. It redefined what a "drug movie" could be, illustrating a brutal addiction especially through the works of his chilling soundtrack and other sounds. I remember the first time I watched this horrifying film was in the 8th grade. My uncle told me it was a great film and had an incredible soundtrack so I was interested. And although I was terrified for 101 minutes, I couldn't stop thinking about how incredible the film was. Sound design is perhaps the most overlooked art in cinema, and for good reason: truly perfect sound serves only to enhance immersion in the film. Its not supposed to draw attention. But once you start paying attention, Requim's scenes are filled with subtle, striking enhancements. From the hallucinated growl of a characters fridge to the grating teeth-grinding of an addict on uppers. For a low budget film, Darren Aronofsky turned this film into something unforgettable.

Striving to be the best

When I was young my parents introduced me to the world of Disney. I remember the first video I ever watched was Mickey's Steam Boat. In the video Mickey is whistling the most catchy tune that I can still hum to this day. When I got a little older I became fascinated on how the music, and the sound was created. My uncle (who worked as a Production Designer for Disney) saw me watching loops of old Disney clips and later sent me a book titled "Demystifying Disney. This book basically revealed everything behind the scenes in Disney animation. The chapter that fascinated me the most was about this guy Doc Kane who works with Mixing all the sounds for animation. His name is Doc Kane but most just call him Doc. With over 300 projects under his belt and a slew of awards and nominations, including four Academy Award nominations, Doc has one of the longest and most impressive resumes in the sound business. Re-recording for over 35 years, Doc has worked with hundreds of talented actors including Tom Cruise, Ellen DeGeneres, Johnny Depp, Brad Pitt and Robin Williams to name a few. He is also the trusted ADR mixer for dozens of legendary filmmakers such as: Tim Burton, James Cameron, Clint Eastwood and Taylor Hackford. Never one to toot his own horn, Doc is known as one of the best in the industry, his name alone drumming up praise and admiration from his colleagues and clients alike. Doc talked about automated dialogue replacement or ADR which basically means you take what is being said by these actors and transform it into what the character says in the film. Doc talked about when he was younger he used to take a boom mic and a Nagra recording device and record different ambiance's. And this fascinated me that you could literally record anything and through sound make people believe that your actually there. I guess this made me realize how lucky I am to be in a place where I can play around with all different types of audio equipment. And for that I am extremely grateful for what I have, and what I want to be

The Sound of Gravity

The movie Gravity, written and directed by Alfonso Cuaron elevated the standard for how things should sound in outer space entirely. Although their have been so many brilliant films located in space, such as Star Wars, and Alien, Gravity set a more realistic version of space's ambient tone. Because in space sound cannot be transmitted throughout the atmosphere, essentially nothing can be heard. But because of brilliant audio engineers, and Cuaron's artistry the sound comes from the perspective of the actors interaction with elements. If the actor grabs or touches something the vibration will travel into their ears. For people who haven't worked on sound, or know very little about it, this means all of the sounds you hear in the movie DOES NOT come from recordings on set, it is entirely recorded separately.

If you haven't seen the movie, which I recommend you do the film is about shuttle explorer STS-157, on which Dr. Ryan Stone (played by Saundra Bullock) who is on her first mission. She is accompanied by Matt Kowalski (played by George Clooney) who is on his last expedition. During a spacewalk mission control channels the Explorer (the name of the shuttle) that there has been a Russian missile strike and the debris is headed their way. Minutes later a cloud of debris hits the shuttle and detaches Stone leaving her drifting alone throughout space.

What I find so fascinating about the movie, is because it comes from the actors perspective, who is flying around in space, the music and the sound are constantly traveling around you. Cuaron and the engineers composed the sound to surround you and pan into different speakers. What this did was it built up the emotion and fear into being lost in a completely different world, and made you feel like you were there. For sound nerds like me, the plug-in the engineers used to pan the sound and the score is called "Atmos" which is located in Pro- Tool 7. Whats so cool about this plug-in is most of the panning is automatically tuned by the program itself. According to the re-recording mixer Skip Lievsay who worked on No Country for Old Men, Fargo, and No Country For Old Men, most of the scenes were autopanned with Atmos.

The love and the passion that Cuaron puts into the cinematic experience of the movie encourages me  as I enter the beginning stages of my career. It proves that with countless hours of work, very little sleep, and a lot of drive you can create anything. I sincerely hope this movie lives up to its potential at the Oscars. For 90 minutes I was convinced I was lost along side Saundra Bullock traveling with nobody in outer space. And the music and sound had me on the edge of my seat during this terrifying situation.

A MUST SEE: THE ARTIST!

I had the most unexpected surprise today when I got on Netflix and looked under the "Recently Added" tab. I scrolled along trying to find something to watch and I was stopped dead in my tracks when I saw The Artist directed by Michel Hazanavicius sitting there among the other movies that people can stream online. It was one of those moments where everything around the picture of the movie went out of focus and there glowed the one movie I have been dying to see for the last three weeks. So, I cooked myself some dinner, curled up on the couch, and hit play.

This movie was so much better than I had even expected. I thought I was excited after watching the behind the scenes look in class, but after I finished this movie I was grinning from ear to ear and had the sudden urge to get up and dance around my room laughing.

Where to start in describing this experience? I suppose with the history that it encompassed and depicted in such a creative way. The transition from the silent films to the "talkies" was one of those topics that my amazing U.S. history teacher gave a lecture on in high school. A subject that is not usually in the curriculum for history classes in high school, I was completely fascinated by it. Two of my peers and I were able to put together a little report for one of the class projects. I thought it was interesting how many of the silent film actors were not used in the "talkies"because, just like George, they were symbolic of the "old" and they wanted the "new." Beyond that though, some were not used because of their voices in general. For the "new" style of film, they weren't only looking for people who were attractive, but also for those people who sounded good as well. The Artist did such a wonderful job of depicting this era of change.

I saw several Charlie Chaplin films (including City Lights) when I went to France with a friend about two years ago. While we were staying with her grandparents in Antibes, her grandfather would put in the movie and we would all sit and watch. He said (thanks to my friend's translation), "These kinds of films are the best to watch because it doesn't matter what language you speak, everyone understands." How true were his words! It is the wonderful part about these kinds of films. Half the time, I didn't need the dialogue that flashed on the screen in order to understand what was happening. It reminded me of reading a book (which I do a lot of), except for the fact that you don't have the trouble of imagining the setting and the characters looks. I could almost hear the dialogue in my own mind and the story unfolded.

The characters were so memorable as well. They were the kind of characters that you wanted to meet and hang out with. The personality of George Valentin was great when it was  all charm in the beginning, but I think it was towards the end, when the audience saw him at his weakest point, that he became such a rounded out character. Jean Dujardin, the actor who played George Valentin, not only looked the part, he completely embodied the part. He was like a symbol for all those actors who were considered the "old." His energy and emotion given through his eyes, right down to the smallest of gestures, were so great that it made me feel like I could see straight to the soul of the character.

I have decided that if I could be anyone, I would love to be Peppy Miller. She was so bold and confident, but best of all, she had such a kind heart. She was the kind of woman I hope I can someday become. I loved her personality that was so innocent and yet, she didn't let anyone mess with her. Of course, Bèrènice Bejo was just fabulous playing the part. All of the actors were phenomenal, including John Goodman and James Cromwell.

The filming itself was amazing as well. A story told mostly through images and a wonderfully arranged and performed film score. The use of the camera was astonishing. I love how the newspaper was used for "dialogue" in the beginning when it said "Who's that Girl?" It was great how the movie never got boring because the next shot was always so unexpected. Shots that showed what was happening in the reflection of mirrors or glass tables, or the use of shadows, or the transition of time with a montage of magazine and newspaper headlines; it always kept you engaged and entertained.

Even the use of sound was so creative! I loved the dream sequence were he started hearing the things he touched and the phone rang. What a great way to show how he was really feeling about the "talkies!" Even at the end when you can hear them all speak, it was such a treat; a wonderful ending that depicted the acceptance that George felt for the "talkies" by the end of the film.






My favorite line in the whole film though was when George says to Peppy, "If you want to be an actress, you need to have something the others don't." As one of those dreamers myself, this line truly resonated with me.






It is so hard to summarize this movie in only a few words. From wonderful music to the awesome tap numbers at the end of the film (I was a dancer for nine years), I travelled through time to another beautiful era that took my breath away.  I would definitely recommend this movie to everyone. It is such a great film that leaves you with a smile on your face and a catchy tune in your head.

~Amber Capogrossi

Final Project

I think everyone is going to enjoy completing their final project mainly because of the freedom involved with it. We can choose our own topic (more or less) and there is a lot of independence from pre prod to post prod. One thing that will be good for everyone is having set position so that everyone knows their responsibilities and what each of us need to do. People can help out with other departments but for the most part, camera will stick to camera, sound will stick to sound, and so on and so forth. That lets everyone focus more on their part of the project as opposed to wearing multiple hats and trying to help write while you make a shot list or plan out locations, etc. That may make it stressful for a person to coordinate a lot, but it will definitely make the project better in the end.

We all came here to learn how to make films and doing a final project like this, culminates everything we have learned thus far. We can all learn from each other as well. Of course there will always be more experienced people and less experienced people on set. But that works in everyones favor to teach and learn and help each other out to make something we can all be proud of at the end of the semester.