Week 1
- Home
- Blog
I am beginning a short series of blogs about audio. The idea is to write about the power of audio in general and the context it has the potential to bring anywhere from movies, to ads or music and ambient environment. Some topics I will write about include, how audio made this movie or film project so much better, or worse.
How the audio has been used in different ads and promotional projects such as tunes we have always remembered like the McDonald’s “I’m lovin’ it” tune. Different audio techniques in video games like how the creators of Dead Space used a train station sound to make the creepiest sound effect I’ve probably ever heard.
ADR aka Automated dialogue replacement will be discussed on this blog series too, which is the idea of how a sound was made or in some cases how it was recreated and the technical aspects about it too as well as me sharing my knowledge on tips, tricks on different programs and software I use. There will be good examples of ADR like how a conversation sounds like it was recorded in the moment when in reality it was recorded entirely in “post”, meaning after the movie was filmed, sound was recreated and added in.
“Half of the storytelling ability is sound.”
Joe Herrington, Principal Media Designer for Disney parks in the Imagineering department
In this first blog, I’ll begin with a bit more context. Why would I write 500 words a week about audio for 12 weeks? In short, the first reason is I want to learn more about audio production and sound design because I love it so much. So I feel like the more I write about audio in its variety, the more I will learn about it. The second reason is, a couple of semesters ago I took an Audio Production class which made me fall in love with audio.
Briefly, an experience where I fell in love with audio.
My Audio Production class was not anything spectacular to be honest, so given that, I was not expecting to gain from it as much as I did. The topics discussed in class were alright, the teacher was fine, my peers I didn’t speak to them much, but what made the difference was simply: an assignment about the art of foley.
What is foley? Well a foley artist in my own words I describe it as, a creative individual who replicates sound in post using the most simple to the most intricate trinkets to recreate any sound.
I will further illustrate this for you. Picture in your mind you are watching your favorite fight scene in a movie. Those punches, slaps, kicks that you are hearing, chances are that all of those noises were made in post.
Now picture this, a garage with many instruments, tools, water even. Like a garage sale, all sorts of gadgets everywhere. Those sounds you were hearing a second ago in your head of punching, slapping and kicking, were likely from that wooden bat and leather couch over there. What am I saying? Well, the foley artist found a way to recreate a loud punch to the gut sound by hitting a bat to that leather couch. Any bone-breaking moments in that scene, the foley artist found that breaking vegetables has the perfect crunch noise to it.
They recorded it with a microphone, performed the task to make the noise several times – in this case, breaking a cucumber in half. Those files were moved to a program to amplify certain parts of the recording, perhaps distorted the pitch a little bit to match the audio sequence, and done! A nose-breaking was a cucumber all along and you likely never would have guessed until now.
Why would you stay tuned for a blog on audio...
My goal is to learn more about audio as a result of this blog writing. Audio has transformed my life! So I want my readers to be forever changed by the power of audio as I have been. I want you to watch a fight scene and think of the different vegetables that were harmed in the making of those punches because I just think it’s so cool.
In the end I hope this blog awakens something in you so you can come to the same realization if you somehow haven’t already, that everything is enhanced with audio.
Vivian is 23 years old, currently studying Digital Content Creation. She specializes in Digital Design & enjoys all forms of art.
She dedicates her time to creating her own forms of art and collaborating with other artists and individuals to execute art projects.