Outcome 2 - directed study

Unfortunately I am ill this week, so please try your best to follow these instructions, ask a neighbour if you have any difficulties and what they are unable to help with I will sort out for you next week.


Last week we looked at sound design maps - please look at the previous blog post to re-familiarize yourself with them.


We are now ready to begin the outcome 2 project. This is where I will give you a video and you have to first draw up a sound design map to indicate what sound and music you would add to this media.

• Step 1. Go to youtube.com and search for a video called 'Invention of Love (2010) - Animated Short Film' (or follow this link http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=PTdzCAGH3lU)
• Step 2. Download this video in the .mp4 format using one of the following sites (but remember if the site produces a pop-up box asking you to grant permission to allow access to your computer you must click allow):
• www.KeepVid.com
• http://tubget.com/ 
• http://www.tubegrip.com/
• Step 3. Create a sound design map for the first 3 minutes of this film.
• Step 4. If you have time you could import this video into Cubase and start working on your sound design.

Again apologies for not being in class to support you all today. See you next week.

Lesson 10 - Sound Design maps

We'll start this week by watching a film before the sound designer and audio post production team have come in and polished it up. You should get the idea that the film watching experience is very different and you may be surprised how raw it feels without the finished sound and music in place.

As a class we will discuss what the meaning of the story at certain points throughout the film and then we will consider what we can do as sound designers to reinforce the story.

We will look for instances when we can apply our sound design techniques to the film, using sound to:


♦ set the mood 

♦ establish environment

♦ support narrative

♦ establish character

♦ convey emotions 

♦ create or support transition

This now takes us onto sound design maps. Your task is to choose a short film on youtube, watch it with the sound muted and note down where sound is needed and what sounds or music you would use. Your map may end up looking a little like this...

• 1 min 25 seconds, support transition, sound of a car speeding past the camera merges into the sound of an alarm in the next scene.
• 1 min 30 seconds, establish environment, buzzing of power station add life to scene as well as hinting at danger
• Keep adding points as above until film is complete!

Lesson 9

This week we are finishing writing our outcome 1 reports

Lesson 8 - Outcome 1

Here is what you have to do to achieve outcome 1:

Describe the way that sound and music are used to support different mediums.   You must produce written and/or oral evidence which shows that you can identify when sound and music are being used to:

♦ set the mood 

♦ establish environment

♦ support narrative

♦ establish character

♦ convey emotions 

♦ create or support transition

This assessment is open book. In your report you should discuss the

possible reasons for the choice of sounds and music used and refer to at least three of the criteria above. You should also comment on whether they think the sounds and music used are successful.

The following terms must be used correctly in the description:

♦ terms applied to set the mood, establish environment: empathetic sound, sound perspective and room tone

♦ terms applied to support narrative, establish character, convey emotions, create or support transition: synchresis, synchronous, asynchronous, sound motif, and foley

Write 500 words.


Here is a structure you could use...


Paragraph 1:
What you've been asked to do

Paragraph 2:

Explain the media you are using (i.e. what's happening in your video)

Paragraph 3:

Specific examples

Lesson 7 - Terminology again!

When we talk of sound being used to set the mood or establish the environment we may mention the terms empathetic sound, sound perspective and room tone. Here is what they mean:

• empathetic sound: music or sound effects that match the mood of the action
• sound perspective: the natural change of acoustic properties as sound sources move to and come
  from different on or off screen locations
• room tone: the background and ambient sound of the scene’s location

When we talk of sound being used to support the narrative, establish character, convey emotions and create or support transition we may mention synchresis, synchronous, asynchronous and foley. Here is what they mean:

• synchresis: the combination of visual image and sound image
• synchronous: sounds that match up with the timing of action
• asynchronous: sounds not synchronised with the action on screen 
• foley: post production or live sounds used to reinforce the action on screen

Some more terminology!

This week we'll investigate how sound can be used to...

♦ establish environment

♦ support narrative

♦ create or support transition

♦ set the mood

♦ establish character

♦ convey emotions

Your task will then be to find examples of each of these.

establish environment

Here is an example of the sound used to establish environment in the computer game Darkfall 

support narrative

Here is the opening scene of Saving Private Ryan. The director is trying to convey how disorientating and chaotic the battle is. Sound is used to reinforce this. Pay particular attention to the change that occurs at 4:37. Note how the sound changes, as if our character played by Tom Hanks has lost his hearing. This emphasizes the confusion and disorientation he would have felt.

Here is another example this time from the cartoon Wonder Jungle. This time the job of supporting the story is done purely by the music.

create or support transition

In this example we will return to an old favourite of ours Shawshank Redemption. Keep in mind that we have gone from a noisy court room scene complete with lots of music to a very different scene that feels claustrophobic. The opening of the creaky doors supports this transition.

set the mood

Here is a short piece about the sound setting the mood on the batman film the dark night

establish character

In Jaws a powerful piece of music is used to tell us when the shark is around!  

convey emotions

Here is the famous shower scene from the film Psyco. Listen to how the dissonant music conveys the horror during the attack.

Directed study for Friday afternoon group

Unfortunately I have been called to a meeting so I can't make class today, however I have prepared thios lesson for you so all is not lost!


Your task:

1. Read through the sound design terms listed below. 
2. Talk with a partner about what these terms might mean. 
3. Use youtube to look for examples of each of these terms. 
4. Write down the youtube video address and the time in the video that the sound design term comes in.
5. Aim to get three examples of each term (but don't worry too much if you don't manage them all). 
6. At 2:30pm (halfway through class) you should move around pairing up with people. Show them one of your videos and skip to the time in the video where the sound design term comes in. Ask them to tell you which sound design term it is. You will then swap rolls - watch one of their clips and try and work out what term is encountered.
7. Keep your list of terms to show me next week.

Here are the sound design terms

Harmony: These sounds are pleasing to our ears. They are often used in sound design to create a sense of relaxation or to demonstrate that everything is in its right place within a scene.
Dissonance: Sounds that don’t please our ears – often described as a clash of sounds. They create a sense of conflict or making us feel uneasy. They show us that something is wrong in the scene. 
Diegetic: Any sound that would be heard by the characters in the story.
Nondiegetic: Any sound that would not be heard by the characters in the story. Examples include voice over narration and musical accompaniment.
On screen: Use this term to refer to sound that comes from a source that we can see on screen. E.g. door slams, footsteps. 
Off screen: We hear the sound and we know it is ‘in scene’ but we don’t see the source. Examples are traffic background noise, bird song, thunder or even hearing a monster moving around but we can’t yet see it!  
Active: This relates to off-screen sounds. Active off-screen sounds raise questions in the audience such as “What is it?”, “What’s happening?”, “What does that scary monster look like?”.
Passive: This relates to off-screen sounds. Passive off-screen sounds create atmosphere and environment helping to immerse the audience in the situation. 

Lesson 3 - Sound Design Terminology

This week you will investigate some sound design terminology.

Task: Investigate these phrases and work out how they apply to sound design: Harmony, Dissonance, On screen, Off screen, Diegetic, Nondiegetic, Active, Passive.

Clue: active and passive are branches of off-screen sound.

Once you have accurate definitions and clear understandings of these terms you should try and find an example on youtube for each of these terms. Write down the video, the web url (i.e. the http://www. address) and the time in the video where the sound design feature can be heard.

To add a slight edge of competition whoever finds the best example of each term will get to show it to the class at the end. 

...and here are those definitions:


Harmony: These sounds are pleasing to our ears. They are often used in sound design to create a sense of relaxation or to demonstrate that everything is in its right place within a scene.
Dissonance: Sounds that don’t please our ears – often described as a clash of sounds. They create a sense of conflict or making us feel uneasy. They show us that something is wrong in the scene.
Diegetic: Any sound that would be heard by the characters in the story.
Nondiegetic: Any sound that would not be heard by the characters in the story. Examples include voice over narration and musical accompaniment.
On screen: Use this term to refer to sound that comes from a source that we can see on screen. E.g. door slams, footsteps.
Off screen: We hear the sound and we know it is ‘in scene’ but we don’t see the source. Examples are traffic background noise, bird song, thunder or even hearing a monster moving around but we can’t yet see it! 
Active: This relates to off-screen sounds. Active off-screen sounds raise questions in the audience such as “What is it?”, “What’s happening?”, “What does that scary monster look like?”.
Passive: This relates to off-screen sounds. Passive off-screen sounds create atmosphere and environment helping to immerse the audience in the situation.

Lesson 2 - Using sound design equipment

This week you will get some practical experience using sound design software running on the Apple Mac computers.

Task:

• Download a video from youtube
• Import this video into Cubase (the software we will use for sound designing)
• Select three pieces of music from youtube; one which you feel fits the mood of the video well, one which strongly goes against the mood of the video, and a final piece that neither strongly suits or does not suit.
• Import these tracks into Cubase and watch the video whilst listening to each of them in turn. Were your initial feelings about the tracks suitability right?
• Take out a sheet of paper, divide it into three columns and head these columns Good, Bad and Other.
• You should now move around the class watching your classmates videos. Write on their sheet which music you think they chose as Good i.e. the one that suits the video, Bad and Other.

Here is a video of how to download video's from youtube and import them into Cubase from where we can compose music and add sound effects.

Sound design in Cubase the basics from colin dodds on Vimeo.

Lesson 1 - An Introduction

This week we'll...

• Look at the SQA document on Sound Design (this is the governments guidlines as to how these classes should be run)
• Consider what you have to produce during these classes as well as when and how you will be assessed.
• Begin exploring what sound design means and what the task entails

What you will do

These classes have two outcomes which you have to pass:

In Outcome 1 (OC1 for short) you will write two reports. Each report will describe how music and sound are used to support of piece of either film, television, radio, computer games, theatre or animation media. For example you might write one report on the sound design of a james bond film and another report on the sound design used in the Call of Duty computer games.

In Outcome 2 you will put this knowledge to use by creating soundtracks to support different types of media. Before doing this you will create a plan in the form of a sound design map.

Hand-in dates are not finalized at this point but they will roughly be around week 9 for OC1 and week 16 for OC2. I'll up date you on these dates soon.

The Shining

Watch these two versions of the Shining (a 1980’s psychological horror film - possibly one of the scariest films of all time!).

Here is the original http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=5Cb3ik6zP2I - listen to how the music is used to build tension. Classic horrow sound design!

Here is an alternative cut: http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=Os6raCCmAFk - think carefully about how the sound and music has been used to alter the mood.

You should realize just how important the sound design is to the viewers understanding and feelings when they watch a film.

Task: Look on youtube for some alternate versions of films. Good examples include some of the Ferest Gump altered versions (gangster, horror).

The Shawshank Redemption

To get an idea of the complexity of Sound Design watch the first 7 minutes of the Shawshank Redemption. Tasks:

• Write down all the music and sound you encounter in the film, and note the time it comes in.
• Note down how it makes you feel or what it makes you think.
• Consider why the Sound Designer chose these bits of music and sound.
• Write down if each piece of music and sound is “in the scene” or “outside the scene”.

Next week we'll begin investigating some of the terminology used in sound design.

...and finally consider the t-rex's roar in Jurassic park (example here  http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=bwlDW8qFGFA). Has anyone ever heard the sound a t-rex would make? Then a sound designer must have invented it!