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Algorave Documentary about the live coding community.
Crossing the Bridge Istanbulâs eclectic music scene is showcased in Fatih Akinâs filmic tribute. This cinematic portrayal embodies the unifying potential of artistic expression, bridging cultural and socio-political differences through its dynamic and engaging narrative.
KöprĂŒaltı SokaÄı: Kemancı (Murat Toy, 2006 1986 yılında eski Galata KöprĂŒsĂŒânĂŒn altında birahane olarak hizmet vermeye baĆlayan, ardından TĂŒrk Rock Tarihiânde bir efsaneye dönĂŒĆen Kemancı Rock Barâın öykĂŒsĂŒ. Yazar, çizer ve mĂŒzisyenlerin aÄzından Kemancıânın 20 yıllık serĂŒveni anlatılıyor.
What is Photoplayer?, The Vaudeville Photoplayer, Photoplayer Unusual Instrument Used In Silent Films,
The Magic of Making Sound (Foley Recording) In Hollywood, everything is magic and make-believe, even sounds. When you watch a film that immerses you completely in its world, youâre probably hearing the work of sound artists. If the work is done right, you wonât be able to tell that the ânaturalâ sounds on screen are manufactured with studio props. Thatâs the challenge for Warner Bros. Foley artists Alyson Moore, Chris Moriana and mixer Mary Jo Lang. Theirs is a practice in recreation, one creative element at a time.
Weâve Found The Magic Frequency
If you want to find the secrets of the Universe, think in terms of energy, frequency and vibration. â Nikola Tesla
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M (Fritz Lang, 1931) Most historians have recalled the first years of sound in cinema as slow. Many of the first films didnât know how to use this new tool and filled the screen with endless dialogue. Many films started to look like recorded plays, and much of the language started to take a step back. Sound had many critics in its first steps, including the famous resistance of Charlie Chaplin to use it in âModern Timesâ (1936). That is the reason why âMâ can be seen as a film of the future. Jacques Rivette said about âViaggio in Italiaâ (Roberto Rosselini, 1954): âWhen Viaggio in Italia came out, the rest of the films aged 10 years,â and the same could be applied to âMâ. But what it makes âMâ a lesson about sound design? The great discovery made by Lang was silence. The thing the first sound films failed to see was that with sound silence came as well, and it is inside that game where sound can be a masterful tool. The unsettling whistling of the killer in the film works because it enters in an almost empty background. You can hear Peter Lorreâs whistling, his steps, and the mumblings of the kids in total silence. With that game set, every time we hear the song we know danger is near.
Citizen Kane (1941) Orson Welles brought to Hollywood some of the innovation of his radio plays. Giving each space itâs own sound, reverberation, sense of depth and point of view. He was energizing the image with sound to tell a story.
The Birds (1963) Hitchcock incorporated sound into the concept of the script, using it to control the audienceâs experience. With âThe Birds,â Hitch didnât use one of his big, psychological Bernard Herrmann scores, but he worked with Herrmann on the sound of the birds to create a rhythmic, eerie diagetic soundscape.
Spartacus (1960) In a big battle scene the soldiersâ armour sounded like tin pots. Jack Foley saved an expensive reshoot showing he could recreate the proper sound with his keys and add the sound later in post-production. Since the terms âFoley Effects, Foley Artist, Foley Soundâ were not in the literature and sound, Jack Foleyâs name was left uncredited. Such a shame!
Funny Girl (1968) Barbra Streisand convinced director William Wyler to let her sing songs live while filming, rather than lip sync to a pre-recorded track.
One of the very first attempts to make lip synchingâŠ
Fiddler on the Roof (1971) While Fiddler on the Roof is far older than many of the movies on this list, it is still a phenomenal example of cutting-edge sound design for the time. Using the highest quality recording devices available, Fiddler on the Roof expertly captures every lilt of the violin and builds a stunning soundscape over this film shot largely on silent soundstages.
The Godfather (1972) As Michael (Pacino) braces himself for the murder that will end his dream of breaking from the family business, sound designer Walter Murch put unmotivated, screeching elevated subway train noises on the soundtrack, which speak to Michaelâs mental state: Itâs the sound of âhis neurons clashing against each other.â Murch had been doing work like this on small, oddball films like âTHX 1138,â but with this scene he realized it was also possible to do on Hollywood studio films.
The Conversation (Francis Ford Coppola, 1974) Walter Murchâs work on Francis Ford Coppolaâs The Conversation offers a masterclass in audio storytelling. The plot revolves around a surveillance expert and a particular conversation heâs trying to interpret, immediately integrating the importance of audio into the storyâs larger narrative. The way audio clues are laid out for both the protagonist and the audience during the course of the film highlights the ability for these audio clips to be a central narrative device. âThe Conversationâ can be probably named as the film with the biggest auto-reflection on sound use. Gene Hackman plays a paranoid spy recording a couple, and in the sound room he finds out that the couple will be murdered. Aside from the thriller elements, the film works as a big metaphor on sound and private/public spaces. Hackman records the couple in their intimacy walking around a park, and at the same time is totally frightened by the idea of someone interrupting his intimacy. As we can see in his work on sound editing, we start to think about this work applied in the film we are seeing. Immediately we think that the audience is indeed spying on Hackman. âThe Conversationâ reveals sound devices and strips technical aspects of cinema like in âBlow Outâ, but without directly talking about film. However, the work is the same, using manipulation, control and spying. This film is one of Coppolaâs best.
Nashville (1975) Production sound mixer Jim Webb and director Robert Altman in the 1970s pioneered multi-track sound recording, putting mics on virtually every actor in frame.
The first multi-track sound recordingâŠ
A Star Is Born (1976) A decade after music LPs had adopted stereo, Barbra Streisand used her power in the film world to insist her film be mixed and presented in stereo sound, playing the key role in moving theaters out of the mono world.
The use of stereo sound in cinemaâŠ
Star Wars (1977) Sound Designer Ben Burtt spent a year collecting sound and experimenting trying to figure out how to bring Chewbacca, R2-D2, lightsabers, and a sense of grand space warfare to life in a way that made George Lucasâ special effects sci-fi fantasy seem real.
Eraserhead (1977) David Lynch and sound designer Alan Splet used abstract sound not motivated by what is seen on screen to create a powerful soundscape.
âThe Black Stallion (1979) Like Wall-E, The Black Stallion decides to forego dialogue almost completely to tell the story of a shipwrecked boy and the huge black horse that saves his life and becomes his companion. Instead, director Carroll Ballard relies on a highly detailed sound environment and swelling soundtrack to set the stage for an incredible story of survival and friendship between a boy and his horse.
Apocalypse Now (1979)Walter Murchâs work on Coppolaâs âApocalypse Nowâ changed how sound was edited and mixed for film forever. Right from the opening sequence, Murch built a soundscape that forced the audience to experience the film through Captain Willardâs warped and war-weary point-of-view. By the mid-â70s, theaters had only just started to transition from mono to stereo sound, but Coppola wanted his Vietnam War film to push both theaters and Hollywood at large towards a six-speaker surround system. No one had ever mixed film sound to travel around a movie theater. Not only did Murch pioneer the process, which still to this day is the foundation of most sound mixes, he artistically did it better than anyone has done it since.
One of the very first surround sound system setupâŠ
Luxo Jr (1986) One of the enormous and rarely discussed keys to Pixarâs success has been the pioneering work of Gary Rydstrom. Similar to what his mentor Burtt did in âStar Wars,â Rydstrom had to create sounds that brought to life these new digital creations. Sound effects that embodied the objects themselves, that gave them identifable weight and texture, but also anthropomorphizes them. Itâs work that started with Pixarâs first short, âLuxo Jr,â with the sounds Rydstrom created for the springing lampâs movement and ability to communicate. Itâs remarkable to see how much of the sound mastery of âWall-Eâ was presented two decades earlier in this lamp.
Jurassic Park (1993) Spielberg said the first time he heard Gary Rydstromâs T-Rex roar it literally knocked him out of his chair. Itâs a sound so overpowering and fierce, and yet real. In imagining what dinosaurs really sounded like, Rydstrom also created effects that gave the poineering action VFX-driven film its needed heft.
King Kong (1993) Murray Spivack pioneered sound design by creating his own effects for the movie. Spivack went to the zoo to record animals, which he then slowed down to get the roar of Kong.
Saving Private Ryan (1998) The D-Day battle scene was done without a John Williams score, as sound was used to tell the story and show that the action continued outside the frame. Doom Day Landing Scene
Ordinary People (1980) A film that uses silence to show the disconnect between people, sound editors Kay Rose and Victoria Rose Sampson fixed horrible production sound in the key psychologist scenes (recorded in an aluminum warehouse) and created the intimate silence director Robert Redford needed.
The use of silenceâŠ
A League of Their Own (1992) In âMaking Waves,â Bobbi Banksâ work on the âno crying in baseball sceneâ is used as an example of great ADR (Automated Dialogue Replacement), as she recreated the whole scene in post to give it the needed cadence and tone.
ADR (Automated Dialogue Replacement): Automated dialogue replacement refers to the process of re-recording audio in a more controlled and quieter setting. Usually captured in a postproduction studio, ADR is a way to improve audio quality or reflect changes in dialogue and performance. The early days of audio replacement ADRâalso known as âloopingââinvolved looping a length of film over and over to allow the actor to perfectly match and sync their performance from set. Today, the actual âloopingâ happens on a computer, which is where the âautomatedâ part of ADR comes in. But itâs still up to the actor to deliver their performance. If nearby noise interrupts or drowns out your filmed dialogue, itâll have to be recaptured in the ADR process.
Peter Jacksonâs âThe Lord of the Ringsâ trilogy involved heavy ADR, largely because filming took place next to an airport. âA lot of the time we would stop and wait until the plane flew over that particular studio. But âThe Lord of the Ringsâ was such a big production that, often, time was money and it became a money equation,â
The Matrix (1999) For a film about a digital reality, sound designer Dane Davis attempted to make the first soundscape entirely in a digital post-production sound work station. Cutting and creating sounds in an digital environment wasnât just a technical experiment, it was key to how Davis made the filmâs virtual world of ones and zeros come to life. Transitions between dimensions sounded jagged, almost computer generated, rather than the dreamy flashbacks or cosmic crossovers we were used to in movies.
The sound design process was handled completely in a digital post-production stage.
Argo (2012) Sound designer Erik Aadahl recreates the powerful scene of revolutionary protests with 100 Farsi-speaking sound extras.
Plot: Acting under the cover of a Hollywood producer scouting a location for a science fiction film, a CIA agent launches a dangerous operation to rescue six Americans in Tehran during the U.S. hostage crisis in Iran in 1979. Protests Scene
Brokeback Mountain (2005) Next time you watch âBrokeback Mountainâ pay attention to how director Ang Lee and supervising sound editor Eugene Gearty tell the story with their use of wind. Each piece of wind sound speaks to the shifting emotional states of isolated characters who bury their emotions deep inside.
The use of nature sounds to tell emotional aspects of communication.
Selma (2014) One of the challenges in historical films is making events from the past feel immediate and relatable. The visceral, real sound of people running for their lives on the bridge in âSelmaâ is a textbook example of how sound can help accomplish this. The movement, the emotions, the violence rushes through the frame, sound grabbing the audienceâs attention in a way that feels nothing like the distant past.
Lost in Translation (2003) Sofia Coppolaâs film is a great example of how layers of well-chosen ambient sounds can create an atmosphere that brings the story world to life.
Top Gun (1986) Supervising sound editor Cece Hall adds the sound of animal roars to the sound of real jet engines to create dynamic scenes of the air force.
The use of animal sounds mimicking mechanical sounds happened before in Star Wars Xwing spaceship soundsâŠ
Roma (2018) Alfonso CuarĂłnâs use of layers and sound movement, through a Dolby Atmos mix, is the latest breakthrough in sound design.
Gravity (2013) Gravity redefined the traditional approach to sound in space. Knowing that sound doesnât travel in a vacuum, the audio team, led by Glenn Freemantle, was challenged with the task of creating aural effects that matched the eye-popping nature of the filmâs visuals. So, the team chose to convey sound through the charactersâ suits, using vibrations. This inventive solution created an intimate, terrifying, and yet strangely silent world, proving that sometimes, the absence of sound can be as powerful as its presence.
A Quiet Place (2018) Another example of a film that shows the influence the absence of sound can have is A Quiet Place, featured here. The strategic lack of sound is, really, the heart of of the movie, a horror film where the slightest noise attracts the human-slaying monsters roaming around outside. With a minimalistic approach, the sound design significantly heightens tension and fear, transforming silence into a menacing character itself. This is an excellent demonstration of how less can be more in sound design, and a testament to the power of sound in driving narrative and emotion.
Blade Runner (1982) and Blade Runner 2049 (2017) A double bill of both Blade Runner films offers a course in how sound can be used to construct a believable and engrossing universe. Vangelisâ synthesizer-driven score in the original movie creates an eerie, futuristic atmosphere thatâs integral to the filmâs dystopian appeal. The sequel echoes and elaborates on these audio themes with Benjamin Wallfisch and Hans Zimmerâs electronic-based score, immersing viewers in a desolate yet familiar soundscape.
The Lord of the Rings Trilogy (2001-2003) The Lord of the Rings trilogy demonstrates the grandeur that sound can add to an epic fairytale. Howard Shoreâs sweeping score is as integral to Middle-earth as its stunning visuals; similar to Burttâs influence on the Star Wars franchise. From the quiet, calming rustling of leaves in the Shire to the horrifying screeches of the Nazgul, and the stomps of the trollâs feet, the detailed and diverse sound design by Ethan Van der Ryn and Mike Hopkins brings the fantasy world to life. We can only imagine how much fun this project was for the audio engineersâafter all, how do you begin to fathom what a Nazgul would sound like anyway?
Dreamgirls (2006) Dreamgirls won an Oscar for Sound Mixing back in 2006, and for good reason. The film follows a fictional storyline that closely echoes the history of Motown through the 1960s and 1970s, which means itâs brimming with memorable music performances. In a movie where the vocal and musical performances are equally important as the dialogue, the mixing had to be fine-tuned to bring out the best from both sides of the narrative, the actual Motown singing and the storyline. Encapsulating the essence of an era where melodies spoke volumes, the mixing in Dreamgirls a shining example of how the art of sound can truly elevate a narrative.
No Country for Old Men (Coen Brothers, 2007) No Country For Old Men sparsely uses music, and instead relies heavily on sound design to build tension, specifically the use of diegetic soundâsound (in an television show, movie, etc.) that occurs within the context of the story and is able to be heard by the characters. Itâs sounds like the hiss of Anton Chigurhâs captive bolt pistol that show the effect Sound Editor Skip Lievasay wanted to achieve in this thriller. The absence of non-diegetic sound, or sound that serves only the audience and not the characters in the story, can offer a powerful narrative purpose.
Dunkirk (2017) Christopher Nolanâs war epic Dunkirk uses sound to a nerve-wracking effect. From the ticking clock that underscores the entire score to the deafening roars of planes and explosions, the soundscape created by Richard King and Alex Gibson is relentless, anxiety-inducing, and incredibly effective at placing the audience right in the middle of the chaos.
Baby Driver (2017) Baby Driver stands out because it lets the music shine. The orchestration of music and movement in this movie had to be perfectâthe story is about a badass getaway-car driver, after allâand the designers nail it. Between the song choices that really pump up the vibe of the movie and the high-octane chase scenes and action-packed visuals, thereâs a dance happening between the movieâs two elements, always adding to the energy-packed feeling of the film.
Gladiator (2000) In Gladiator, a visceral version of Roman history is portrayed on-camera, and the movieâs sound designers had a monumental task during its creation. The roar of the spectators echoing through the enormity of the Colosseum. The screams of a fighter on his final breath. The clashing of swords, axes, and shields. The sound design in Gladiator is instrumental in transporting its audience deep into the fierce realities of the Roman Colosseum. The audio landscape provides a visceral depth to this epic tale, anchoring viewers firmly within its action-filled universe.
The Bourne Ultimatum (2007) The Bourne Ultimatum, another Oscar-winning movie in the Sound Mixing category, expertly wields its sound design as a tool of immersion into the action-packed world of Jason Bourne. The mixing here allows the audience to really feel each punch and hear every tire screech, and while you might not notice that upon the first time watching the movie, youâll certainly hear the difference it makes when you watch it next. The audio elevates the filmâs relentless pace, but also tunes viewers into its nuances, like the clanking of a keychain or footsteps from down the hall. Overall, it provides an exciting sonic journey alongside one of the worldâs finest fictional spies.
The Hurt Locker (2008) The Hurt Locker, a war thriller that follows a bomb-diffusion team through war-torn Afghanistan, is infused with boiling-point tension and incredible use of sound design. The experts behind the mixing board on this movie use sound to help characterize the sceneryâmilitary-style sounds play during scenes at the U.S. Army Base in contrast to notably âthird worldâ sounds that play during scenes shot out in the city of Baghdad; when itâs time for one character to diffuse a bomb, the clicking and ticking sound as if they are happening right in your ear, bringing the audience one-step closer to the characterâs experience. All in all, the sounds of The Hurt Locker are a pivotal aspect to the film and cannot go under-appreciated.
Mad Max: Fury Road, George Miller, 2015 In Mad Max you can hear how sound editors, Mark Mangini and David White added so much richness and texture to the post apocalyptic world of Mad Max: Fury Road, for a well-deserved win. If the characters werenât terrifying enough, their choices to add sound to nearly every action, added more layers of chaos and fear. Marked as one of the greatest âcar chasesâ of all time, itâs hard to imagine that being true without the soundscape of Mangini and White.
Hacksaw Ridge (2016) Any war movie requires a particular attention to sound. Hacksaw Ridge, the story of the battle of Okinawa, displays one of the bloodiest battles in World War II with a remarkable commitment to auditory detail. Every single audio clip in this movie was meticulously crafted or replaced, a tactic that allows the sound designers to fine-tune the audienceâs experience of the war drama. From the resounding explosions of the battle scenes to the hushed whispers of prayer, the completely customized sound design augments the gritty realism of this heavy-hitting real story.
Arrival, Denis Villeneuve, 2016 Sylvain Bellemare wins the Sound Editing Oscar for much more than alien noises. The sound team hiked up a mountain in New Zealand for three days just to record native New Zealand birds. These sounds, tweaked at different pitches, gave us some of the best alien voices weâve ever heard. Make sure to watch the full video.
Whiplash (2014) Whiplash is a testament to the power of jazz. As is expected, the film needed to make its audio more than a mere backdropârather, the score and sound design of this film are truly its heartbeat. The film opens with the sound of a drum roll, getting faster and faster, and it just builds in tone (and tempo) from there. Intense dialogue instills an aggressive tone to the film, which is matched beat-for-beat by the movieâs complex musical score. If youâre looking for a musically inspired movie thatâll leave your jaw on the floor, look no further.
Spencer (2021) Spencer comes with a surprise twist: The composer of the movieâs score is Johnny Greenwood, better known as the guitar player in the band Radiohead. Over the course of his career, heâs made a quiet name for himself as a movie score composer and, here, blends jazz and classic, Baroque styles to create an ominous overtone to the film. Greenwood uses sound design to portray the protagonistâs internal struggle, employing subtlety to powerful effect. The echo of the empty palace, the rustle of turning pages, all contribute to a sense of isolation and unrest. Here, the audio is more than an accompanimentâitâs a nuanced character in the story.
Inception (2010) What do dreams sound like? Thatâs the question that Christopher Nolan and his sound design team set out to answer, and quite successfully. Inception is filled with sounds that are both real and surreal and help immerse the viewer in the bizarre dreamscape that its characters must escape from.
Wall-E (2008) How do you tell a story when your main characters canât speak? In the case of Wall-E, quite masterfully. Every beep, squeak, and creak in Wall-E helps paint an emotional picture of a lonely little robot searching for some beauty in a world gone wrong, proving that when you have great sound, you donât always need words.
Braveheart (1995) Braveheart beautifully captures not only the serene landscape of the Scottish highlands, but the brutality of an oppressive regime and the war waged to be free from it. From the beautiful echoes of bagpipes to the rallying war cries of a scrappy army, Braveheart rings in your ears long after the final shot fades.
Apollo 13 (1995) Similar to Gravity, Apollo 13 seeks to put the audience in the passenger seat of a daring space mission. Unlike Gravity, however, the sound design of Apollo 13 is less minimal but still impactful. It focuses heavily on the music of the era to tell the story of astronauts that are desperate to find a way back home.
300 (2006) What makes the sound design in 300 so impressive is that nearly every sound element of this film had to be artificially created. Filmed almost entirely in a CGI-ready void, 300 does not benefit from natural environmental sounds that can be used in the final mix. Instead, sound designers inserted nearly every element of the final product, from the clanging of shields to the rustling of a breeze.
West Side Story (2021) Like Fiddler on the Roof, West Side Story is a musical that used the leading sound capturing and designing technology of the time to create the crystal-clear soundtrack of this modern Romeo and Juliet masterpiece.
Amadeus (1984) You simply cannot tell the story of one of the greatest composers of all time without a soundscape to match it. And Amadeus pulls out all the stops to have sound design worthy of the master himself, crafting a resonant soundtrack over a beautifully designed natural soundscape of 1800âs Vienna.
Repulsion (Roman Polanski, 1965) Polanskiâs first English language film is a psychological horror starring Catherine Deneuve as a girl frightened by different mysterious elements in her apartment. As the film progresses, these fears become bigger and they take different physical form, but in the first half of the movie Polanski handles these fears by only suggesting them. The first of Deneuveâs fears are just noises outside the apartment. The horror is offscreen and that is how we get to the psychological root of the problem. The repulsion toward sexuality is expressed in a full horror frenzy of images, but sound prepares the ground before this climax.
Blow Out (Brian De Palma, 1981) John Travolta plays a sound effects professional who records accidentally a murder, and no other film had involved the mechanics of sound work in cinema so deeply. The film starts with a cheap fake slasher interrupted by the sound crew because the scream of one of the girls doesnât work. It is a very funny scene and works as a gag in a way, but also shows how artificial the construction of sound in film can be. The scream, the knife, the steps of the characters, every element of this fake film are worked and recorded separately, using direct sound only as a reference. Style and content are impossible to separate in âBlow Outâ, and the interaction between sound and image is analyzed in every aspect, both in the film but also in the perception in real life. Very few films had more attention on sound as a concept.
Come and See (Elem Klimov, 1985) Probably the most interesting and atmospheric scene of this Soviet classic is the moment when Florya (Aleksei Kravchenko) hides behind a cow in the middle of a foggy night. But the key element of the unsettling feeling is given by the sound of those bullets. âCome and Seeâ presents one the most special Foley use on bullets. Instead of the typical shot sound that we are so used to, this are sniper bullets and you can hear how they are cutting through air. The fear is all around the scene, with total silence interrupted by these bullets. This must be the greatest example, but âCome and Seeâ is full of this special way of using silence. The fear is all around, and like these bullets, there are explosions or screams interrupting this big silence.
The Third Generation (Rainer Werner Fassbinder, 1979) Whether we find the sound design experiment of âThe Third Generationâ successful, it is worthy to mention as one of the bravest and weirdest designs ever created. It was the first sound work by Hartmut EichgrĂŒn, who would work later on Wim Wendersâ classic âWings of Desireâ, a film that applies some of the techniques seen in this film. Fassbinder always put a lot of importance on media and the way it constantly surrounds our background sound. The ending of âThe Marriage of Maria Braunâ with loud radio transmissions is one of many examples. This idea was taken to an extreme level in this film. Following a terrorist group inspired by the RAF, every meeting is interrupted by radio or television noises. The interesting thing is that they are on the same level of the conversations, making them difficult to follow. But this doesnât happen in a couple of scenes; more than half of the scenes have this loud annoying background noise. In the film there two kinds of terrorism, the armed one and the informational one, and at the end it is the last one who wins.
Only God Forgives (Nicolas Winding Refn, 2013) The previous film by Winding Refn, âDriveâ, quickly became a modern classic because of its hyper-stylized use of sound and vision. One of the main aspects that elevated the fame of the film was Cliff Martinezâs ambient soundtrack, and the use of Italo-disco songs by different artists. But the special thing about this score wasnât only its quality, but the way it worked with the film. Many of the filmâs main scenes are constructed around the soundtrack; the music is used as a way of not only dramatizing a scene, but also directing the pace and style of the editing. This same element, again with Cliff Martinez as the main musician, is used and improved in âOnly God Forgivesâ. The slow movements of the characters are accompanied by this dark ambience, while the exploding violence is covered by a techno ambient beat. But it is not only the score that is one of the remarkable points of its sound design, as the film presents some of the most detailed Foley use. In the middle of this sacred silence, every step sounds loud enough to disturb the minds of the audience, and creates the hypnotic rhythm of the film.
Berberian Sound Studio (Peter Strickland, 2012) Since Felliniâs â8Âœâ, cinema found different ways to reveal its mechanism. But sound and its construction is still kept a secret reserved for certain professionals, and that is the main reason why âBerberian Sound Studioâ feels so fresh. The film settles in a sound studio in Italy for Giallo films. The Foley recording sessions show how a watermelon works as a bloody stabbing, or how somebody drowning can be replaced with lettuces in water. The film remarks on the artificial quality of sound on film. We never see the scenes that the characters are working for, but even if we are seeing the watermelons, it still sounds like a gore fest. All these noises, especially in horror films, are inside our heads and they sound totally real in their fake way. The film evolves into a Lynchean nightmare scored by Broadcast, and it shows how unsettling and important the sound is for real terror.
CachĂ© (Michael Haneke, 2005) Haneke, like Fassbinder, has a special interest in our social relationship with media. âCachĂ©â is defined commonly as a thriller, but some of the scenes play totally as a horror film. Haneke plays with the background sounds in different ways. For example, in exterior shots everything sounds curiously low, especially in the quite static shots of the house. In interiors, this low volume plays on a bigger level, making every step or movement the only sound we can hear. The terrible suicide scene is almost hard to watch, and it is in part because of how empty the background sound is and how all we can hear is a knife cutting the neck.
Barton Fink (Coen Brothers, 1991) Heavily influenced by Polanskiâs apartment trilogy, the Coen Brothers took the idea of placing psychological sounds offscreen even further than in âRepulsionâ. In the film, John Turturro plays a playwright moving to Hollywood to write films. In the middle of this cynical world, his apartment turns into a hell where his neighborâs sounds make the task of writing an impossible one. The sound design work of the film was obsessive, with composer Carter Burwell and sound designer Skip Lievsay experimenting with different ideas and methods for each scene. One of them consisted of pairing film sound and music in different frequencies. If the exterior sounds were low vibrations and voices, then Burwell would add a high-pitched violin. If he used a counter bass, then Lievsay would make the wall sound sharp and annoying. The Coen Brothersâ screenplay allows these experiments, of course. The whole film is placed inside Bartonâs head, and everything we hear is kind of real, but also distorted by his paranoia and fears.
MASH (Robert Altman, 1970) Most of the directors and films on this list are recognized because of their conceptual ideas and for their way to work sound in the post-production phase. The case of Robert Altman is special for quite the opposite: Altman was the master of using and recording direct sound. Altman developed different techniques to record sounds and dialogues at the same time, and different ways to hide microphones from the camera. In his large cast ensembles, you can hear everybody talk if they are inside the frame, sometimes overlapping between them and turning an effort to understand certain conversations. This realistic approach to sound turns into a very strange experience for the spectator who is not used to hearing different voices at the same time onscreen. âMashâ is just one example of this technique, but it also features different jokes related to sound.
Blue Velvet (David Lynch, 1986) Like Robert Altman, David Lynch is a filmmaker who always gave special attention to sound design, and almost any of his films could make the list. Maybe his greatest work on sound was pairing with Alan Splet. The opening scene of âBlue Velvetâ is a perfect example of the use of Foleys and sound distortion as an artistic expression. The film opens with the ballad âBlue Velvetâ and images of a perfect and clean neighborhood, until one of the neighbors suffer a stroke. The camera goes down into the grass in the garden and starts to dig deeper and deeper. The scene is disturbing by itself, but is only complete in combination with the distorted sound of grass and the disgusting effect of different insectsâ sounds. The background sound plays a major role as well. In Lynchâs films, itâs difficult to find a street that sounds like a normal street. Instead of that we have a constant low noise meant to keep us disturbed. This sound is everywhere in âBlue Velvetâ.
Tetsuo: The Iron Man (Shinâya Tsukamoto, 1989) A businessman accidentally kills The Metal Fetishist, who gets his revenge by slowly turning the man into a grotesque hybrid of flesh and rusty metal. The sound design of the movie reflects the fantastic world of the movie via experimental sound design techniques utilizing metal scraps, electric motors and anthropocentric ingredients.
Das Boot (Wolfgang Petersen, 1981) War films are often recognized for their work on Foley design. Bullets, explosions and bombings are recorded under different ingenious techniques, because it is obviously cheaper and faster to record these elements with different tools inside a studio. The case of âDas Bootâ required even more inventiveness considering all the sounds are underwater. The mix in the film and frequency editing plays a major role in creating a submarine feeling. How would a crew experience weapons and war horror inside a submarine? All of this work is imagined in Petersenâs film with an impressive result.
A Man Escaped (Robert Bresson, 1956) Robert Bresson may be one of the directors who theorized more about cinema and its techniques. One of his main subjects was sound as an expressive tool. He saw sounds as a parallel image, so when the sound was too powerful to replace the image, the attention then must be centered on that sound. He believed that you can âneutralizeâ the image for those cases, making a descriptive frame with not a lot of interesting information. This can force the audience to pay attention to the sound and create a stronger image in their head.
Rumble Fish (Francis Ford Coppola, 1983) There is always an important difference between sound design and a good use of soundtrack. A film with a straight and boring sound strategy could use a beautiful score, or vice versa. âRumble Fishâ is another great sound experiment by Coppola where this difference is harder to tell. Coppola wanted time and clocks to be key concepts for the film, so his plan was to produce an experimental score to achieve this. For his clock-rhythm experience, he decided to ask a professional drummer with no experience in film, Stewart Copeland from The Police. Coppola and Copeland were willing to explore outside their fields, mixing sound design and musical composition as one. Clocks, pool balls and steps are used as music and are directly mixed with Copelandâs composition. Copeland himself recorded some of the street sounds used in âRumble Fishâ and mixed them together with his musical compositions. The film didnât receive the success that Coppola expected, but in the last several years won a new status in great part because of this conception of sound.
Stalker (Andrei Tarkovsky, 1979) Tarkovsky stated that in a perfect sound design, we mustnât be able to recognize the difference between music and noises. âStalkerâ was his most extreme case for this theory, making his composer create most of the sounds for the film, including some of the film noises performed on a synthesizer. He also wanted to mix Western and Eastern music for the score. Performing Western tunes on Oriental instruments and vice versa, Tarkovsky had the idea that both worlds could coexist, but might not be able to understand each other. One of the iconic scenes with these ideas is the very first scene of the film where we see a couple in a room. In the directorâs frozen shot style, we hear a lot of industrial noises without a clear precedence. The next scene shows a character in the middle of an industrial landscape and we hear the same sound, but with a more coherent image. All this playing creates an uncertain psychological atmosphere for the audience, and these kinds of experiments are all around in âStalkerâ.
Tabu (Miguel Gomes, 2012) In the last few years, there has been a new interest from different directors to recreate or to take heavy influence from silent cinema. Some films like âThe Artistâ (Michel Hazanavicius, 2011) try to imitate silent cinema codes, while others like Miguel Gomesâ âTabuâ try to establish a fluid dialogue between those codes and our modern codes. The pluri-narrative of the film, the way the characters move, and the cinematography reflect this dialectic struggle. But, like in most Gomesâ films, the sound is maybe the wildest and most experimental element. As we saw in âBlow Outâ or âBerberian Sound Studioâ, most of the sound in film is duplicated, created or dramatized at the sound studio. But what can happen when the reference is silent cinema? Gomes plays with this challenge through the entire film. We see a fountain with water, but we donât hear the water move; instead we can hear trees on the back of the screen. To hear the forest heavily inside a room and having a quiet one in a forest scene, all of these mixing devices are made to give a hint of the fiction of film sound.
MAKING WAVES (2019) The new documentary âMaking Wavesâ explores the art of movie sound design. Here are 23 classic films, which were discussed in the documentary, that pushed the boundaries of movie sound.