Many times sound effects in film are created by Foley Artists who use different objects and animals to create sounds that the camera can not capture.
Some examples of this include the dinosaurs in Jurassic Park, the sound of flipping pages and even the sound of walking in snow.
Here are 2 examples of how they got the dinosaurs roars:
Velociraptors – Tutorise
Tyrannosaurus rex – The key element of the T. rex roar is not a full-grown elephant but a baby elephant.
A needle drop reffers to when a popular song is played during a scene.
Eg. Thor Ragnarock, Baby Driver or Guardians of the Galaxy
Diegetic:
Dialogue, The Breaking News report, Door opening/Door Locking
Non-Diegetic:
Sound Track, Sound Effects of camera movement
My favourite film soundtrack is from the movie Interstellar.
The soundtrack in this film is by Hans Zimmer. Hans Zimmer in my opinion is the most talented composer. He uses techniques such as ‘The Shepherd Tone’ in order to connect the action happening on screen with the audience. It also evokes sub meanings and create realities which wouldn’t have been created without his music.
Hans Zimmer also puts so much thought and effort into all of his songs and makes sure that they truly connect with the scene that they are over. This is especially shown in the scene where the characters land on the Water Planet. While this scene is being shown the music created by Hans Zimmer begins to play over the action and in the soundtrack there is a ticking sound that plays. This was meant to signify that with every prominent ticking sound a day on earth has past showing the space and time continuum. Without the music we as an audience would have no idea about this.
These are just some of the reasons why the Interstellar soundtrack is my favourite.
The Shepherd Tone: It’s an auditory illusion where two sine waves with different frequencies are played in the same ear simultaneously and creates a pulsing or beating sensation as if they’re coming from within your head.
Diegetic: Sound that the characters can hear eg. Dialogue
Non-diegetic: Sound that the characters can not hear but the audience can eg. Narration and Music Soundtrack
Synchronous: Sound that is matched by action eg. Playing a piano
Asynchronous: Hearing something we cannot see on screen
Needle Drop: A “needle drop” is slang used in the film industry to describe when a pre-existing song is used in a movie.
Leitmotif: A recurring musical theme that is associated with a character, location or situation.
Score: A film score is original music written specifically to accompany a film
Underscore: An underscore is a soft soundtrack theme that accompanies the action in a performance. It is usually designed so that spectators are only indirectly aware of its presence. It may help to set or indicate the mood of a scene.
Sound Perspective: Sound perspective refers to the apparent distance of a sound source, evidenced by its volume, timbre, and pitch. This type of editing is most common in how the audience hears film characters’ speech.
Ambient Sound: Is background sound eg. Crickets at nigh
Sound Editor: This is when sound is filmed either on set or in a Foley room. This is created in production.
Sound Mixer: This is when sound in the film is enhanced and edited in a way to dramatize a scene. This is created in post production in an editing software.
I thoroughly enjoyed working with my new classmates on my first film of the year. The shots turned out quite well and clearly, and I am happy with the editing I did. However, I am disappointed with continuity problems such as lighting and costume. It was bound to happen as we were filming on different days, but I tried to keep continuity by bringing the same sweater to school whenever I knew we were planning on filming.
In the future, the biggest thing I hope to improve is planning and making a clear and concise shot list and prop list to keep everything nice and organised.
Rating – 10/10
Memorable scene – I think that the most memorable scene was the last one. The build up of tension in the music, cinematography and editing was immaculate.
Match on Action:
Definition – Cuts from one shot to another view that matches the first shot’s action. A common example is walking through a door or punching someone.
Example – https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=Mv93covb53w
Friends: Chandler and Monica walking through the door. Cuts from the outside of the apartment to the inside through the use of a Match on Action
Graphic Match:
Definition – A cut from one shot to another where the composition of the two shots are matched by a similar action or subject.
Example – https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=avjdKTqiVvQ
2001: A Space Odyssey: A bone is thrown up in the air and as it falls a graphic match is used cutting to a similar shaped spaceship.
Eyeline Match:
Definition – Informs the viewer to what the character sees. Cuts from the actors eyes to what they are seeing.
Example – https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=LNGYsmTPWug
Baby Driver: Baby and his group are in the middle of a bank robbery. He stays in the car looking at his surroundings. As his eyes are shown it cuts to what he is looking at to give context to the viewers.