Sound Design

MA-Thesis / Master von Bastian Müller

Abstract:

In this master thesis the author explores the development of sound design from beginning of sound film until now. The paper explains the vocabulary of sound techniques, standards and devices. It describes sound design in Hollywood films by outstanding examples from prominent sound designers. The thesis links the achievement of the sound designers to the state of the art. The study depicts the interaction between technical possibilities and high demands of audiences. It gives insight into film sound history, explains the production process of film sound in detail and defines the work of a sound designer. Furthermore it contributes to the ongoing academic discussion of film sound, which was coined by researchers such as Chion, Flueckiger, Sonnenschein and Whittington. The author thoroughly analyzes key scenes by successful sound designers and illustrates with the use of examples such as King Kong (1933), Once Upon a Time in the West (1969), Terminator 2 (1991), Saving Private Ryan (1998), and King Kong (2005) amongst many others, the technical and aesthetical progress of sound design and its influence on contemporary Hollywood films.

Table of Contents:

Sound Design for Film:

The Three Pillars of a Soundtrack:

Today nearly every movie consists of three main attributes in the sound domain; Music, Dialogue and Sound Effects. Not all of them have always accompanied movies. In the time from the late 19th to the early 20th century movies did not have a synchronized soundtrack but were usually accompanied by a live orchestra or a piano player. A typical example for this is the slapstick movies by Charlie Chaplin. Already in 1888, Thomas Edison had the vision „to synchronize the camera and the phonograph so as to record sounds when the pictures were made, and reproduce the two in harmony”. But it was not before 1928 when The Jazz Singer (USA 1927, Alan Crosland) introduced the era of the ‘talkies’, the first movies with dialogue. Later in the same year Steamboat Willie (USA 1928, Walt Disney) premiered, a Disney movie with the first soundtrack that was completely added in post production which is discussed later in chapter 4.3 Post Production.

Numerous technical inventions (radio, tape recorder, TV) and social developments (pop culture, Rock’n’Roll,) as well as ongoing criticism towards the ‘talking pictures’ dominated the 20th century. Nowadays we expect every movie to have all of the three elements. There are plenty of people involved in the making of a soundtrack during all processes of production. To which extend filmmakers make use of sound designers, orchestras, sound editors and Foley artists and so on, is not only a question of money but also a question of the director’s and producer’s opinion towards the importance of sound.

Today there are many ways to create music, sounds and dialogue and vast options of technical equipment. The ‘digitization’ has had an enormous impact on the workflow and technical sound and picture quality has increased throughout the 20th and 21st century. In the next section an overview of the three pillars of a soundtrack is given. Further on, the job of the ‘Sound Designer’ is defined as well as other areas of sound design or acoustic design, which exist today. There are also some references to some of the important sound designers who are experts in their field and contributed to the way we perceive movies, games and other media today.

Music:

Music is the oldest form of sound which was established by having a live orchestra playing along the projection of a film. The so called silent films weren’t silent at all. When we see typical slapstick movies by Charlie Chaplin today, we forget that these presentations were usually accompanied by a piano player, a band or a small orchestra playing sounds that mostly doubled the action on screen.

Later when films had soundtracks, it was exactly this redundancy, which was criticized. When King Kong pulled up the rope, the orchestra played a glissando with the pitch going up and vice versa if it was going down. This observation was also called ‘mickeymousing’ as it reminds of the way sounds are applied to cartoons. Flueckiger says this was controversial discussed by film critics because „therefore emerging redundancy, which the authors of the ‘manifest’ criticized explicit, worked against the risk of possible misunderstanding, which after the understanding of the ‘Hollywood classic’, had to be avoided” (2002: 136).

In Michel Chion’s Audio-Vision he confirms with:

„This is why they came up with the term counterpoint to designate their notion of the sound film’s ideal state as a cinema free of redundancy where sound and image would constitute two parallel and loosely connected tracks, neither dependent on the other” (1994: 36).

Since the thirties music is usually created in post production, meaning after all images are captured. In chapter 4, the different steps of film production with special attention to sound, are described. Sometimes a composer is assigned to create a complete new set of musical pieces or songs (this usually implies somebody is singing) for a movie. In some cases bands are asked to write songs referring to the topic and the mood of the movie. After composing the music, a sound technician is responsible to record the orchestra usually guided by a conductor. This music is also called (film) score or score music. Later the music is edited and synchronized to the picture.

It is possible to create synthetic orchestra sounds with sound libraries, samplers and computer technology. This can save a lot of time and money in some circumstances, as it does not require recording a whole orchestra. Often film music composers have a work station at home and manage the whole process on their own from writing over ‘recording’ to mixing. However, due to limitations in the electronic way of reproducing realistic sounding instruments, producers of big budget productions tend to use real orchestras.

Of course not all music in films is created entirely new for the particular film. Many films make use of pre-recorded music (source music) from libraries, which feature a particular sound or they just decide to use famous songs.

„Important here is, if a song becomes famous through the film like in Coolio’s „Gangsta’s Paradise” from the film „Dangerous Minds”, or if a famous song is used like „Pretty Woman” by Roy Orbison from the movie named after the song” (Mikos, 2003: 234).

Already in 1970 Burt Bacharach won two Oscars; one for the best original score for a Motion Picture and one for the song „Raindrops keep falling on my head” featured in Butch Cassidy and the Sundance Kid (USA 1969, George Roy Hill).

The Leitmotif:

The Power of music is unquestionable. There are a lot of great scenes that would be less amusing, less sad or less terrifying. Some scenes might even be misleading without music.

„Music may also be used to identify character, for example, themes associated with particular performers in Once Upon a Time in the West and Dr Zhivago, locations and time” (Nelmes, 1996:111).

What if the shark in Jaws (USA 1975, Steven Spielberg) was not announced with its theme? Then the audience wouldn’t know what is about to come. It makes us think the shark is approaching. It makes us fear with the characters in the movie, even if we don’t see any shark.

A leitmotif does not necessarily only have to consist of musical elements only. In Terminator 2: Judgment Day (USA 1991, James Cameron), sound designer Gary Rydstrom followed another approach. The sounds he used are very rhythmical and consist mostly of elements that are characterized as sounds rather than musical instruments. However, a lot of organic sounds were the original source but they have been altered in order to sound as machine-like elements. Also a lot of metallic sounds from steel mills are implemented into the leitmotif of the Terminator played by Arnold Schwarzenegger to support his appearance. The other, more advanced Terminator, which is made of liquid metal, has a more dynamic leitmotif as he is able to morph into other persons and objects. We also hear the two motifs together when the two Terminators fight against each other.

Musical themes have been used for a long time and researchers name composer Richard Wagner as the establisher of the technique to identify certain characters with a musical theme. Even the German term Leitmotif is used in the English language. Flueckiger defends the use of the leitmotif against Adorno and Eisler who criticized the uses of musical themes as they „always were the rawest tools to clarify the „train of thought” for musically untrained” (in Flueckiger 2007: 184 quoted after Adorno/Eisler 1944: 15). She claims that the leitmotif is a „mechanism for constructing a dynamic symbol in between a work and a structure providing principle at the same time” (2007: 186). The word dynamic is important here because the word leitmotif implies that it is able to change, it can develop.

A musical motive is a part of a musical theme, a bigger construct.

„Wherever the leitmotif sounds, it builds bridges between the present and the past. Although set in time, it develops timeless structure in the mind of the recipient, an axis, on which he can move forward and backward” (2007: 187).

The Leitmotif has a lot of power and is more than a tool to help the audience to understand. I support the statement that the Leitmotif is not unnecessary or just redundant. Nelmes gives another example of how the use of a leitmotif is a great tool to enhance a movie and sometimes is necessary to follow a very complex story.

„In Goodfellas, Scorsese uses en elaborate soundtrack with some forty-two tracks, a mixture of American commercial ballads and rock music, Italian opera and traditional songs. The music is used to contrast the Italian-American from the American-Italian and to identify age distinctions between protagonists. It is also used to delineate the time of the action in a movie telling story with a twenty-five year time span, but using only limited changes in the appearance of the characters” (1996: 111).

In Lord of the Rings: The Fellowship of the Ring (NZ/USA 2001, James Cameron) we have confirmation of the use of leitmotifs in modern films. Not only characters but even creatures like elves, orcs or areas are assigned a leitmotif. The most common leitmotif of Lord of the rings is the musical theme that occurs numerous times throughout the movie to accompany the fellowship of the ring. It is a group of nine, which has been assigned the task to bring back the ring to Mordor and to destroy it.