Pro Sound Effects | PSE Blog

By David Sonnenschein, author Sound Design: The Expressive Power of Music, Voice and Sound Effects in Cinema.

Key 3:  Description of the environment gives clues for the sounds

Information about the environment first appears in the scene headings, which are as succinct as possible to help the production manager do the breakdown and which denote three items:  EXTERIOR or INTERIOR, LOCATION (with perhaps HISTORICAL PERIOD) and TIME OF DAY.  Then there usually is a modest amount of detail given in the first paragraph of scene description, appearing something like this:

EXT. CORNFIELD - NIGHT

The rows of corn stalks bathe motionlessly in the moonlight.  In the
middle of the field, a single stalk begins to shake, slowly at first,
then possessed with a nervous energy that spreads contagiously to its
neighbors.

Part of your job will be to create the reality of these explicit locations and times, but for now you should look for the subtext that these environments may lend to the development of the story and characters.  The above scene could belong to a terror or comedy film, and may mix the genres to have an even greater impact at the moment of tension and turning point in the narrative.   Let’s assume this is  a pure terror film, introducing since the beginning of the script (with an appropriate title) a supernatural, malevolent force.

The words “Night”, “motionlessly” and “moonlight” tell us this would be a quiet place, but what might be the type of silence that would contrast well with the first break of that silence by the rustling of the cornstalk?   To best hear the cornstalk’s shaking, which will be a random mixture of fairly high frequencies, the contrasting background “silence” could be a single frog croaking in a lower register with a defined periodicity. Attention will be heightened when the sounds of “silence” non-competitively fill in the tonal and rhythmic spectrums, with our brains more readily registering the aural contrast.

The distance or intimacy of the sounds can transmit a dramatic intent by telling us where we are and what might be a threatening noise to be noticed.  We can decrease the frog’s immediacy by filtering out the higher frequencies in its croak and giving a tiny reverb to lend a sense of calmness, distance and surrounding space.  By accenting the high frequencies of the cornstalk shaking we create a greater presence.  If we choose to make the environment subjectively and claustrophobically collapse, the frog croak can gain on the high frequencies, while multiplying the croaks to have frogs surround us from all sides.  Or we can do the opposite with the cornstalks as their movement spreads menacingly, by adding reverb and increasing the volume to the point of filling up the whole environment, and our subjective head space as well.

Stay tuned for Key 4 next month, and visit www.SoundDesignForPros.com to sign up for info on sound design webinars with David Sonnenschein.

The Audio Branding Congress was held in NYC on November 17. Organized by New York City’s Expansion Team, Pro Sound Effects was a proud sponsor of this inspiring event.

The morning was filled with the experts of the audio branding field, aka sonic branding, leading discussions and seminars ranging from Paul Kalbfeisch’s  sonic branding story about Blackberry and U2, to the audio branding elements of the marketing campaign for Verizon’s DROID mobile phone, developed by Machine Head’s Stephen Dewey.  Other notable speakers included Nokia’s Tapio Hakanen and Martyn Ware of Sonic ID.

The afternoon was chock full of impressive sound branding case studies from companies around the world.  The audience chose the winning case study by placing a marble inside a pail, and the consensus was that it was an incredibly difficult decision!  The eventual winner, Wilbert Hirsch, took SONOPEDIA 2.0 across the Atlantic back to Germany.

Hey there turkey lovers (and you too, untimely vegetarians)!  We here at PSE would love to wish you all a happy and healthy Thanksgiving holiday, and in doing so, share with you some of our very favorite turkey sound effects!

Here is a choice gobble, plucked (pun intended) from the Foundation Sound Effects Library.

Gobble Gobble! by Pro Sound Effects

Also check out is this succulent collection of turkeymandering shenanigans that we released on iTunes last year: Turkeys and Other Thanksgiving Sounds.

Need turkeys or other animal sound effects?  Contact us for a custom pull!

Enjoy the holiday!

By David Sonnenschein, author Sound Design: The Expressive Power of Music, Voice and Sound Effects in Cinema. 

Key 2:  Look for objects and actions as explicit sounds

Scriptwriting convention pays a certain homage to the power of audio by requesting that each sound be capitalized in the body of the scene description:

The oncoming truck’s HORN BLASTS as the out-of-control car swerves violently, its wheels SCREECHING.

It makes for a bit more exciting reading and a good writer can create a visual rhythm on the page that can aid in establishing rhythm on the screen, but the major purpose is to help the production manager identify, schedule and budget the production of these sounds.   In fact, after the sound designer has completed the script analysis and created the sound map, the production manager will have a much more accurate document for basing his budgeting.

The sound designer’s development of the audio track is more extensive and subtle than the screenwriter’s, and for good reason.  The page simply should not and cannot hold the depth of information that will be on the audio track, as similarly a script should not detail camera angles nor all production design elements.

But within every character, object and action on screen there can be generated a potential sound that may give further dramatic impact to the scene and story, and this sonic coloring is the challenge for you to reveal.

The little boy tiptoes along the spiky tops of the rotten picket fence, trying in vain to ignore the menacing bulldog chained just below him.  As the mad dog lunges against its restraints, the boy’s hands spastically flap to maintain balance, his sneaker losing grip.

So here we see two characters, a protagonist and antagonist, the boy and the dog.  What kind of sounds would each be eliciting in this circumstance?  The boy would try to be as silent and invisible as possible, but he can’t avoid breathing, which might very well be irregular, forced and audible due to his stress in holding everything else so controllably, especially when he slips.  It seems that the dog would be growling at the very least, perhaps in a crescendo toward an aggressive bark.

The objects include a chain, which holds double intent in the scene.  The wild clinking forms part of the aural attack against the boy, but as it clangs taut it serves as the only thing protecting him.  (Notice how this audio analysis could contribute to the storyboarding and blocking of the action if done before the shoot.)  The contact of the boy’s shoes with the untrustworthy fence could surely generate nerve-racking, splintering creaks, and the slip itself may be accentuated with the weakness of a slippery rubber sole.

Both characters and objects are linked to the action verbs, which create an emotional context to the scene.  Find motion, directionality and moments of impact.  Sound qualities that might accent each of the verbs in the above scene could be: “tiptoes” — dainty tap-tap-tapping, “lunges” — attacking, explosive, growing closer, “spastically flap” — arrhythmic whooshing.

Stay tuned for Key 3 next month, and visit www.SoundDesignForPros.com to sign up for info on sound design webinars with David Sonnenschein.

Public demonstration (peaceful and otherwise) have long been a part of human society. In the face of oppression, unjustice, or tyranny, humankind has, since the dawn of modern civilization, found ways to unite under a common principle in order to push back against those who have meant us injury – both physical and emotional.

So what, then, is the sound of protest? We went down the block to Occupy Wall Street with our cell phone recorders to find out.  We give you: Occupy Wall Street Sound Effects!

The Sounds of Occupy Wall Street by Pro Sound Effects

And now for some tasty archival nuggets! Here are a few sounds from Belfast, Ireland riots, plus a 1986 industrial dispute protest, all pulled from the BBC Historical Sound Effects Library.

The Sounds of Protests Past, from the BBC Historical Sound Effects Library by Pro Sound Effects

For more juicy protest sound effects, or for more on BBC Sound Effects, also see our recent post, Behind the NEW BBC Sound Effects Library (27,010 sounds beyond the BBC 1-60).