Video Game Sound Video

Back Ups

After reading an interview with Chris Lord-Alge (seasoned music engineer) from Mix magazine, I thought about back ups and archiving.  Lord-Alge mentions his preference of using tape for archiving, “When I put that track sheet in the box with the tape and a year-and-a-half later they need it, I’ve got what they need… With my system, I know that whatever went on that record, I have it and it didn’t change.”  He compared the task by using hard drives, “If that hard drive will not boot up, you are missing your record.”  Always a valid point since hard drives have an unknown life span.  He fails to mention how cheaper and more practical external hard drives have become.  Can’t you just buy more drives?  In the case of archiving, the problem with these big affordable hard drives is the “lubricant in the bearings get sticky (if left unused for a long period of time) and the drive may not spin up when you come to retrieve the data a couple years later.”  (Thornton, soundonsound.com).  Both sides have their positive and negatives.  I mean who has the money for tape????

If interested in this topic, check out Mike Thornton’s article.
http://www.soundonsound.com/sos/jul07/articles/protools_0707.htm

It surprises me how many people I’ve ran into that didn’t back up their important work (some cases they lost precious material that couldn’t be recreated!).  I manually backed up a current sound project onto a different drive after reading both of these articles.  Whether it’s data management, back ups upon back ups, or archiving, professionals must have a method no matter how boring it can be. (film or music) What’s your back up method?

2010 Oscar Nominations Coming Soon!

Oscar season is approaching.  The nominations are close to being revealed.  Last year the sound categories went to The Dark Knight (Best Sound Editing) and Slumdog Millionaire (Best Sound Mix).  Richard King won his second Oscar of the decade in the same category.  After the nominations are announced, I’m planning on blogging on my pics for the best sound awards.  Keep listening

Four – Illinois International Film Festival

Four was screened at the Music Box back in June.  It recently got accepted into the IIFF (Illinois International Film Festival).  It will be screened on October 24th at 9am.  Another chance to get to hear my work in a theater setting.  It will be screened at the Arcada theater in St. Charles.

Festival Schedule

More of my work will be shown on the last day of festival (the 25th).  My previous freelance job was doing production sound for promos for Digital Cinema at DePaul.  We shot 4 different promos.  I’m not sure what the structure is with showing the promos.  I just know they’ll be showing the last day.

Favorite Sound Effects

Favorite Sound Effects (SFX)

In no particular order, here’s my list of favorite sound effects in movies

• Aliens (Dir. James Cameron) – Guns

A lot of times library gun sfx are reused over and over again.  Custom sfx were made for this film. The pulse rifle, smart gun, grenade launcher, hand gun, and flame thrower all had their unique powerful, futuristic touch.

• Jurassic Park (Dir. Steven Spielberg) – Raptor vocals

What do dinosaurs sound like?  This movie is a staple and model of what they should sound like.  My personal favorite is the Velociraptor (SHOUT OUT to the philosoraptor crew).  Not the biggest dinosaurs but the detail and variety of vocalizations that were created for the raptors made them menacing.  My favorite vocalization was from the shot below in the kitchen scene.

• Ghostbusters (Dir. Ivan Reitman) – Proton Packs

This was definitely a childhood favorite.  I remember vocalizing the sounds of the stream with my toy proton pack.  Sophiscated work for a comedy.  It’s one of the best for a reason.

• Barton Fink (Dir. Joel Coen) – Doors

Yes, you read correctly.  I’ll consider this one my pretentious pick.  I had never heard such creativity in a door sfx.  Most movie doors squeak and just sound too boring.  These doors have character that compliment the location of the musty-air hotel.

• Robocop (Dir. Paul Verhoeven) – Footsteps

Another pretentious pick I suppose.  I never thought footsteps could reveal that much emotion/insight (or lack of) in a robot.  Did you?  Various kinds of footsteps are used for robocop to convey his transformation from robot back to his human conscience.  Also ED209 footsteps, very clunky and busy.  Sonically telling you that the model has manufacture flaws.  Here’s the classic scene where the robots battle it out.  I love the sounds of ED 209 at 1:49.  Also note that robocop footsteps are not as synthy and clean as when Robocop is first shown at the police station.

• Indiana Jones: Raiders of the Lost Ark (Dir. Steven Spielberg) – Punches

All right, back to childhood favorites.  Yay!  This goes for all the Indy movies, not just Raiders.  Same with guns, most punch sound effects can sound soooooo cheap and comical when they aren’t not supposed to be.  Ben Burtt of course is THE MAN.  The indy punch has great bite and yet doesn’t stand out.

• Terminator 2 (Dir. James Cameron) – Guns

Another kid favorite here.  My notable favorite gun sound is the grenade launcher (shown below). Especially the reloading of the launcher.  For some reason I find joy in hearing it, am I terrible person for saying that?

• Spaceballs (Dir. Mel Brooks) – Human Radar SFX

Thought I’d switch it up.  Sometimes sound effects in movies/shows call for humans to vocalize the desired sound effect.  Performed by the very talented Michael Winslow (known for his work in Police Academy).  Shows that sfx can be used for comical use.  This scene is extremely hard for me not to laugh at.

To finish off the entry, I’d thought I would post a compliation of The Wilhelm Scream.   The first time I heard was in Spaceballs oddly enough.  I always laugh when I hear it in more and more movies.  I have many more sfx favorites (especially from Star Wars); however, I wanted to keep this post short and sweet.  Plus everybody knows about Star Wars.  Anyways, enjoy this montage of the wilhelm scream.

Four Premiere

Four

Independent Film

The journey came to an end last Wednesday.  Four is an international independent film I did sound for.  It involves four different stories in Paris, Amsterdam, Dublin, and Chicago.  I got hired for the project back in September of 08.

The turnout was amazing.  Everybody loved it and I got numerous compliments on my sound work.  The Music Box is an old, well known theater in Chicago mostly known for showing independent films, older films, and more cult oriented films (for the majority).

The director saying a few words.  I still can’t believe the amount of work and money he has put into his project.

What is next?  We might make some slight changes before we send it off to international festivals.  Hopefully the film can make it into Irish festivals so I have an excuse to travel there again.

www.fourthemotionpicture.com

Film Sound Website

Some interesting reading material on this site regarding sound for film.

www.filmsound.org

I especially enjoy the articles in the question section (http://www.filmsound.org/QA/)

I haven’t update my blog much lately because I’ve been so busy with Four.  I recently completed the final mix and finally have to time work on my site and update this blog.  I’m thinking about doing a post dedicated to dialogue editing.

Four Screening Announced

I’m currently heading (supervising sound editor) the post-production sound team.  We make the finishing touches right before the screening at the Music Box. Juggling this and several other projects has a been a challenge.  I’m looking forward to completing the film.  It’s been my main focus since October of last year.  The amazing journey, starting from the intial trip to Europe, is almost over.

Aguirre: The Wrath Of God – Opening Scene

.:. Dir. Werner Herzog – Opening Sc .:.

This movie is more known more for its’ cinematography and storytelling aspects: not sound.  After re-watching it, I got a better perspective on the soundtrack (I don’t mean just the music).  The opening scene caught my attention sonically.  Particularly the transition from the 1st scene to the next.

The opening scene is slow-paced, filled with beautiful wide shots of the Spanish conquistadors walking through rocky terrain.  There are only two things you hear during this scene: ominous music and a brief exposition voice-over.  The scene is about 5min in length.  A lot of detail was left out in this scene: foley and various background sounds.  Werner’s intention, in my opinion, was to romanticize the opening scenery and then pull a 180 by using sound as a transition into the film’s theme anarchy (and into the next scene).

The music drops out at the transition into the next scene.  You hear an, almost surreal sounding, explosion of a cannon as it collapses into a river.  Almost sounding like a lightning bolt.  This is the point of attack that wakes the audience from their stupor.  I noticed a variety of details (birds, dialogue, hogs, water flowing, and foley) were now present after the cannon explosion.  It went from a gentle dream state to a busy sounding “real life.”

The majority of movies have opening credits sequence (music montage) but do not use it as effectively as Herzog does in this movie.  Most movies it’s just assumed that there will be an unimportant, story wise, opening title sequence (union rules dictate the need for credits to be listed).  This shows that subtle choices in sound can have an effect on the story and audience as well.

The whole movie is on youtube now.  Watch and listen to the opening scene.

http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=Vyx8mVp8p2o

Selective Sound – LOTR: The Two Towers/The Dark Knight

– LOTR: The Two Towers/The Dark Knight –

Selective Editing and Mixing

This is discussed in the extended dvds (LOTR) I believe.  It’s an effective technique that numerous movies use.  The two that come to mind for me is LOTR: The Two Towers and The Dark Knight. Both happen to have won an Oscar for Best Sound Editing.  Both movies have a scene that drops out the majority of the audio for a short moment before a big impact: LOTR right when the orc sacrifices his body to ignite the bomb in the helms deep battle scene and the truck flip over in Dark Knight.

Nowadays with DAWs (digital audio workstations), you have unlimited tracks to work with.  You can add as many layers of sound effects as you want.  Most times its best not overwhelm the audience’s hears.  That’s why I think this technique is effective especially in these movies.  Both movies have numerous long action sequences overpowered with music and layers of sound effects.  The respective sound editors and re-recording mixers knew this.  They decided to drop the majority of audio not only to give our ears a break, but to make the impact (of the explosion or truck falling) that much “bigger.”  Our ears can only handle so much. In the Two Towers, you just hear the foosteps and the growl of the orc before the explosion even though there are tens of thousands of orcs and humans fighting in the environment.

Here are both audio clips:

Dark Knight Clip

LOTR: The Two Towers Clip