A classic instance of sound innovation is Bunuel’s L’Age d”Or. When everyone else was falling all over themselves to do lip sync, he stages a key dialog as mental telepathy.
> On Jun 15, 2015, at 1:28 PM, Dave Tetzlaff <[email protected]> wrote: > > For Hollywood film, 'Die Hard' ia masterpiece of sound production. The SFX > carry a huge amount of information, tone and style, and (naturally) they're > all post-production, including lots of Foley. I heard the lead Foley artist > give a talk on it as part of an audio-art series many moons ago, and the > level of detail was absolutely fascinating. Of course, all the footfalls are > walked on a Foley stage, and the Foley artists not only walk "in character" > (how would Hnas walk? how would Mclane?) but select shoes that SOUND like > what they imagine the character would wear. Typical of all 'realist' > filmmaking, the actual thing does not function to represent itself through > the process of mediation — in this case genuine expensive shoes (of the sort > Hans would wear, e.g.) don't SOUND expensive, but the artist (a woman) had a > pair of old thrift-store-bought shoes that had evoked luxury sonically. The > Foley artists have huge kits of 'junk' purchased at thrift stores and auction > for their unique sounds — more shoes than Imelda Marcos, each pair have a > different sonic character. One of her prized possessions was a massive old > padlock that, when dropped, sounds like what we expect a dropped gun to sound > like - and when scraped over various other mundane things makes > metal-on-metal sounds that work for all kinds of specialized effects — all > based on the Foley artist knowing how to use them just so. For example, when > the thieves lock-down Nakatomi Plaza, there are sounds of various metal gates > coming down, door locking shut, etc. — all shot MOS, with the audio added in > post from stuff out of her Foley kit. > > An older classic film with a heavy reliance on audio for storytelling, > including defining off-screen space, is 'M' where the plot revolves around a > blind man as the only witness to a murder, but who can identify him by ear. > As it was made very early in the sound era, Lang and his collaborators were > very conscious of using sound as a creative tool, and innovated a lot of > devices that became common after that. > > 'The Conversation' having already been mentioned, I'll note the audio work on > 'Apocalypse Now' and 'Rumble Fish' is also brilliant. > > '2001' for the parts WITHOUT the score - especially the scene with Dr. Floyd > on the shuttle with a very telling conversation just barely audible in the > background. > > 'Touch of Evil'... Welles' b/g in radio drama also figures in 'Citizen Kane' > of course. > > 'The Birds': absent any non-diegetic sound, but with an electronic SFX track > on which bernard Hermann served as a consultant. > > Spaghetti westerns, Hong Kong martial arts movies, and other commercial films > make explicitly for international audiences do interesting things with > dubbing, score and not-very-realistic diagetic SFX and soundscapes... > > The classic exemplar of non-diegetic sound (narration and music) revealed as > framing the meaning of images is in Marker's 'Letter From Siberia'. > > Direct cinema documentary typically uses 'tricky' audio editing (J and L > cuts) to create the illusion of temporal continuity in sequences where the > shots weren't actually contiguous in time (being single camera shoots...) > 'Primary' has lots of examples if you study the sound track, and think about > how the changes in visual perspective DON't correspond to changes in audio > perspective at so many points. It was made pre-crystal-sync, using a > cable-sync hook-up that didn't work a lot of the time, so there was even more > diddling in post to get the 'fly-on-the-wall' illusion. > > For experimental films, the first thing that comes to mind is 'The End', by > Maclaine with it's long stretches of narration over black (punctuated by a > few poetic SFX) and it's use of vocal performance and music throughout. > 'Christmas on Earth' has no fixed sound-track, but rather instructions on how > the projectionist might come up with something to play over the PA that > provides the proper "psychic tumult'. 'Meshes of the Afternoon' has an iconic > music-as-SFX score that wasn't created until 16 years after the film was shot > (how different might it have come across merely silent, or with a variety of > other sound accompaniments during those 16 years??) Audio manipulations are > central to Hollis Frampton's 'Critical Mass' and '(nostalgia)' (the later > including Frampton's choice to have his narration read by the apparently > under-rehearsed and disinterested Michael Snow -- which is especially weird > in the segment where Frampton talks about his relationship with Snow...) > > > _______________________________________________ > FrameWorks mailing list > [email protected] > https://mailman-mail5.webfaction.com/listinfo/frameworks _______________________________________________ FrameWorks mailing list [email protected] https://mailman-mail5.webfaction.com/listinfo/frameworks
