Category: Specialisation module

A Quiet Place is set in a world where it has been taken over by monsters that have super hearing. They explore the world using clicking noises that reflect surfaces similar to echolocation. The world has been destroyed and because of this, the family speak in sign language to avoid detection. They walk barefoot and barely speak. Sound equals death. Literally. They’ve changed everything about the way they live to minimise sound and loud noises. The slightest whisper or small noise will end in death.

If they hear you, they hunt you.

I managed to find a copy of the original script online. I found a few things that the script indicates that the visuals don’t. I don’t want to exactly follow the original film and try to replicate the original, but what I want to do is to realise my own interpretation of the instructions as if I received the brief.

Some things that stand out to me that I will note when doing foley or sound editing/mixing.

This part of the script, it speaks about no sound. And the contrast between silence and changing between. noise appearing quickly. I will note the no sound for the introduction. I’m also curious about sound design elements that aren’t atmosphere. I was thinking about whether I wanted to add synths and small noises to create suspense. I know for sure I don’t want to add music but I feel there might be room for synthesisers mildly when tensions rise.

I like that they specifically say this is the first deliberate sound we’ve heard. It helps me on the mixing stages for sure. I need to think about how delicate everything is going to be to contrast this noise. As they are being almost completely silent. I can’t forget about the wide and closeup scenes with the sound being louder with more detail when closeup.

Here it speaks on the characters being barefoot and the type of running as well. Running lightly. standing on her toes. a few other things that help us understand more than the visuals might show.

This is the last part of the script relating to the clip I’ve chosen. The scriptwriters have used capital letters to emphasise the tension in the clips and perhaps the noise as well as mentioned in the Indiewire blog. This helps to tell me where and when I should be creating or perhaps increasing the floor volume of the overall track volume.

After all my research I’ve gained a lot of information about the ideas and themes of the movies. The sound designing process and the story elements. Here is my basic ruleset for this clip or more so a guide for when I go to record and mix the sounds I can refer back to this.

Whenever Reagen is on the screen if possible make the world experience from her point of view – use filtering and possibly the binaural microphone at university.

Wide and close-ups shots have different levels in sound and audio. Not everything needs to be heard. The characters walk with very light movement as they are always barefoot.

Atmospheres should be quiet and just fill the silence of the room and space they are in. They are in an isolated part of new york where there is no one to help them.

I should visit if possible an anechoic chamber to experience what the sound designers were talking about and put myself into their point of view.

Make most of the sounds myself. And pick up on the tiny details onscreen. In this movie, the sound is everything make sure it is well represented.

When mixing remember about dynamics. If the sound is always loud it will lack the tension when something does happen. Adjust and automate faders to create this sound design choice. Mix faders quietly and slowly over a long period increase the sound and then quickly return to the quiet levels you started on.

If possible attempt to create all the sounds for the clip. Authenticity is key and if done well it will be more immersive.

When mixing start from zero and then work your way up. not the other way around.

Strip out music to showcase the love the family have for each other. We want the characters to showcase and emphasise how they are feeling about each other.

Look into how deaf people perceive the world to educate me on the POV section of Reagan with her cochlear implant.

Also, refer to the script if unsure about what the idea of that scene is. (I NEED TO FIND THE SCRIPT!)

I decided to look into the foley video I found last year to see exactly how they made the sounds for the film as I will be doing a lot of foley. I found the same video again and feel my reflection will be different this time.

You can see how some of the foley was done in a quiet place, for example, the footsteps on sand. Again the sound was written into the script. It was a dream come true.

Most sounds were made exactly as you expect. For other sounds they got creative. Crabs legs for the monster walking. Celery and lettuce for the ear opening on the monster. The sound the monsters makes of the echolocation was a taser on a grape.

The thing about this film was that they were making sounds for things you usually don’t hear. And the characters mostly walk around barefoot toe to heel to not make a lot of noise. The sound was dictated by the theory of the film. Wide shots didn’t have footstep sounds as if the monsters could hear it so could you if not then only on close-ups.

This helps a ton! I really didn’t think about designing sounds based on camera angles and the theory and logic of the film in such a huge context. But again a film like this where sound is everything and the dialogue is almost non-existent means the sound design really needs to be thought off just as much as the visuals.

They also resaid a lot of the same things in this video like the others but a new insight was into the mixing process. They started with nothing and then built up the sounds.

They said the process was “let’s start from zero. Work our way up and up” They wanted to make the audience aware of the sounds they were making.

Another small insight with this interview with John the director was the rules of the universe and the sound design that they accumulated throughout production that helped layer the film with authenticity.

“This sets up the rules of the movie in the perspective of sound. When the camera shots are close up you can really hear the sounds and footsteps up close. But when it’s wide you can’t really hear it. Sound design is huge and the main character of the family in this film”

This quote really just keeps rehashing the importance of the sound design perspective and rules they’ve created. I’m going to write down the key important rules of this movie and reflect on them when I begin to write my plan for the clip.

This last video again rehashed a lot of the same information but one key insight was that they predominantly used a lot of new sounds for this production. They said they have a lot of sounds they could use but they felt they wanted to replicate this and create an authentic experience. Although they said they had a few gems in the locked such as a specific stick-breaking sound that they might not be able to record again that they’ve used in this film.

I’m going to try to record everything myself is possible without using any library sounds for a real test of my abilities.

I felt I needed a bit more research after the first few blogs and videos I watched. I want to create a set of rules and notes to dictate the thought process of the sound designers for when I’m doing my recordings or mixing and even the foley for how to accurately depict the ideas the director and scriptwriters had. I think good sound design is when both visuals and the audio department work in synch to create a collective idea.

This interview starts with discussions about John Cage and the interviewer felt that a specific piece of writing that john cage wrote, where he walked into a quiet room and after a while, it wouldn’t be quiet anymore. He could hear his body and the room tone increase. The sound designers reflect on this information and say they know the piece. The room John Cage was talking bout is called an Ancolic chamber. A room within a room perfectly designed with foam absorption to create one of the quietest experiences on planet earth.

They then both speak about their experiences with visiting an Ancolic chamber. At first, he lost his balance, “we use our ears for balance so you’re asked to sit down. “and after a few minutes your ears open up and you start to hear your own body. The blood coursing the circular system. The small sounds become really big sounds and this inspired the sound design for a quiet place. To create a track to open ears up of the audience and then put them into the perspective of the characters and that’s what John the director wanted with the film.”

I think this last quote really gives a huge insight into how they came up with the overall idea of the sound design. It would be really good if I could perhaps visit an anabolic chamber and experience this myself to know what they are talking about.

They also said that when watching the movie with the first rough script the first thing they realised was the love between the family and how can we showcase this? The love of the family trying to survive. They felt they should strip out the music because there was so much in it. Also similar to Tarkovsky’s ideas of movies having no music. And after they removed the music, they were like how can we get close to them? Reagan one of the characters is deaf and John described to us that millie the actor became the spirit guide on set and taught them all American sign language. And when they started working on the sound design for the film they really wanted to get closer, they wanted the audience to feel what they’re feeling. So they thought “well she’s a deaf person In a world where sound is everything. Life or death even.”

So millie also became their spirit guide for unlocking the film. They received a description from John from how she experiences the world when her cochlear implant is on and she described it as a low rumble. And they reflected that to their experience from being in An anechoic chamber to be very similar. The sound of your own body, your heart your nervous system buzzing away. And they based the sound design on these experiences for specific moments in the film when we’re in Millie’s sonic perspective when her implant is on. And there are three moments in the film when she turns the cochlear implant off and digital zero happens. Which they thought is rare, when do any of us have a chance to experience total and complete silence. So the first time they tried it in the studio it took their breath away. Surreal. And in the context of the movie, it immediately connected you to her, her vulnerability and also unlocked so much for storytelling potential.

I know in my clip there is a scene where she is wearing the cochlear implant and the camera specifically allows you to see it. I want to try and take notes for this to impact my decisions on that scene.

They also spoke that when the volume is stripped and sounds aren’t as obvious, it really can make it attractive for the audience. The quiet makes the audience lean in. The picture editing was back to back with the sound. Which were a new experience for the sound designers and they really enjoyed it. The process was reflective with both forms. There was almost no dialogue in the film so Sound was really guiding it. The question was how do we guide the volume? Is it too quiet or too loud how do we balance it?

After choosing my clip which will be the section of A Quiet Place, I wanted to do a bit more research into the Director and the Sound Designers in the movie. I felt that from last year knowing about the foley for the movie and the concept of it I should do some research into the themes and ideas and the conceptual things the sound design incorporates in this specific context. I haven’t watched the movie just yet but for now, I’ve just done a lot of research into the sound for the film.

To start off I looked into the movie as a whole, I watched this video above which spoke on a lot of things and featured interviews from both John Krasinski and both sound designers Erik Aadahl and Ethan Van der Ryn.

One of the most important things about this movie is the way sound was incorporated into it. From the beginning of the conceptual stage and even to the scriptwriting the sound was implemented into it. The sound is the main character in this movie says the sound designers. It was written and planned during the screenwriting stage.

‘A Quiet Place’: How Two Indie Filmmakers Accidentally Wrote a Studio Film for Emily Blunt and John Krasinski

In this Indiewire blog, they speak to the scriptwriters of the film and how they got around the ideas for it. “It’s hard to write a silent movie. You can’t use dialogue to crutch the movie. Usually, in a screenplay sound design is written in addition to and around dialogue.” I found this interesting as this was going to help me with my assignment. It will dictate to me that the sound is everything for this movie if I choose to interpret it this way.

They also speak on the script, and that if there is silence it is underlined. It’s clearly underlined to showcase its importance. They also used font sizes to dictate silence loudness and tension for the script.

Sound directions were written in the script which helped a ton for the sound designers to start working, they felt like they were part of the storytelling instead of accentuating what was already there. The sound designers love it. Especially in this movie, the sound is extra important in the storytelling.

The sound designers also speak on how they used sound to communicate things. They said “Within any storytelling process there are moments where we want to experience what the characters are experiencing and sound is one the of key tools to use that.

For example, experiencing the POV from the hearing aid.

They really wanted the audience to experience the story events through the point of view of the character.  The daughter Reagan played in the film is deaf in real life and in the movie and they felt it was important to experience sound through her way through the cochlear implant. This is to help the audience connect to her character. Experiencing the film through Reagan’s perspective helps you build empathy with her character. And the jagged chops that happen between the pov switching accentuate the jumps.

Another interesting part I found was about dynamics. They spoke about the mixing process when deciding on the overall volume of the film. As they felt like through the first run of the movie the overall sound was similar and quiet and that didn’t fit. It felt boring. They had a film where the sound was everything with very little dialogue and they had to somehow make the silence loud.

So to fix this the sound is really dynamic, so sequences start at a really low volume and increase over time. And it directly mirrors the plot design of the scenes. So they remain quiet until they both reach a breaking point. But even then the plot or sound stays at 100% for a very short amount of time and then the volume drops low again as the tension resets.

Silence sometimes is the best suspense, in a particular scene at the end of the movie there is digital silence right before a chaotic fight with the monster. They also speak on how to balance the loud from quiet by saying “that before another loud dynamic event it is key to give the audience cathartic sounds to reset them”.

The sound designers also believe the best movie have sound ingrained into the script. The screenwriting was unorthodox and this movie shows us what sound design can do. Emphasising characters and the sound is effective when used dynamically to emphasise transition.

I want to look into the script for the film and see what it says. And reflect on the rules of the universe for how the characters survive. I feel at this current moment I want to try and follow the rules and ideas of the current sound designers and see if I can replicate it with authenticity. I’m going to do a bit more research to follow up.

I decided to go for the short clip from the quiet place. I did a blog entry on my year one blog website about the foley in this film. I remember the sound designer from the film speaking about how sound was written in the film script which allowed them to pre-plan aspects before. It also made the sound a key element as in this movie the monsters have super hearing so the characters have to move slowly and silently, they even speak in sign language to avoid detection. In this clip, they are in the supermarket and there is a lot of props and walking around quietly which will need very expressive foley. I’m up for the challenge. I will have to do some more research into the film, watch it completely and annotate a plan for the foley, atmosphere and fx.

I’m going to also find a few props I need for this clip and plan everything accordingly.

Today we repeated last weeks session of improvisation. The class was a lot smaller this week and I think this enabled us to be a bit more experimental. I believe everyone was more careful about their sounds as everyone’s noise came through more than last week.

We had a similar idea of 5minute intervals for just the groups and then overall composition together. Tim brought a feedback mixer this week as well as Cai. Instead of doing foley, I decided to set up Ableton and create a Vector FM synthesiser. I also mapped the knobs on the midi controller to control a high pass filter and delay feedback and time.

I felt when performing I concentrated more on listening this week than last. The fact that my synthesiser was loud and prominent it made me think about where I was in the performance. I kept altering my octave to compliment others and make sure the frequency bands were filled up. I also at one point stopped performing and allowed Tim to solo his feedback mixer. Then when I had an idea I began to come back in and create a buildup with tension.

During the break, I also spoke to Dean to see what he was doing and the plugins he was controlling. Spaces ina-grm a program plugin that lets you automate multi-channel speaker control. There were different patterns like a star and spiral shapes. I’ve booked the performance lab for next week Wednesday 5-8pm to mess around with the speaker multi-channel operations and to record it via the zoom h3 and experiment with that as well.

We also discussed at the end our thoughts. I felt like this week was a bit more cohesive due to the fact it had fewer instruments. Mainly synths and no-input mixing. I also enjoyed more using the synthesiser on Ableton and performing with the two effect parameters I had assigned to the knobs. Milo also wrote some notes and spoke about them too. He spoke about algorithms, expansion and retraction. Thinking about what you’re inputting not just noodling. But decisively intuitively through listening thinking about when to come in. The expansion as well. Not just repeating the same thing again and again but shifting through the process and adding to it on the fly. Then gracefully leaving to allow another sound to come in. After today’s lecture, it made me want to use the performance lab, so I’ll be going next Wednesday.

After last weeks improvisational exercise we decided to think about as groups to plan or come up with a score or a way to direct the group’s performances. We created a group chat and sent some ideas in the mix. Tim thought of getting the group to play in a certain style of an artist/group/genre. For example, perform what a seaside would sound like in the style of Massive Attack. Hywel had ideas of trying to make an all-vocal performance happen. We all agreed that might be really interesting but were unsure if everyone would cooperate.

I suggested the Oblique Cards idea, for each person in our group to come up with one or two strategies for the groups to do then we can shuffle them and hand them out to see how they are interpreted. Hywel liked it and suggested we have a few for the groups to shuffle every 45 seconds. I thought perhaps that was too quick and if we each made 5 or so we can make sure none are repeated. We agreed on bringing at least 1 or two card ideas for the next lecture to see what happens.

My first card idea was.

“Perform as if you are in an alternate universe where you are the complete opposite of yourself, in terms of your personality.”

After last weeks lecture, I found the unconscious dynamics of the group really interesting to observe and also the power dynamic the instrument section held when performing. I chose this card in particular because I wanted to see what direction the performance would go if directed by people that usually don’t lead.

The second card idea was.

“Fight the urge to create patterns, meaning and structure. Remove yourself from your usual routine with your instrument/object”

I choose this as the second idea based on my reflection from last weeks lecture. I found that we all approached our instruments based on how we usually use them at home. I wanted to see people that usually have intuitive structured ways of using their instruments/objects, use them in a completely different way.

After the sound for screen lecture today, I had already booked out the foley room and composition studio for the evening and invited Raul and Harry to practice foley with me before working on our own videos. I feel it’s important to practice as when doing my video for the assignment submission I want it to be streamlined which allows me more time to concentrate more on the artistic decisions than figuring out how to work pro tools and the studio.

I had the We Need To Talk About Kevin film clip from last weeks foley session and I wanted to reflect and learn of the mistakes from last week.

We started by tidying up the project as last week I didn’t organise it too well. I deleted some of the markers and streamlined them into numbers as it was easy to know what number was what rather than long text. We created some more tracks for the feet as we wanted to repeat the exercise again and just get more comfortable with the gains structure and mic positions. I got rid of most of the sounds recorded last week and deactivated the track and hide them to keep the clips but so they are not on the screen.

We started by doing the movement sounds of the clothing. With the first shot being of the mother on the sofa. I and Raul were in the control room with Harry in the foley room.

We were speaking through the talkback function which worked really well. We accidentally got the inputs mixed around and had a little issue with trying to get the gain structure perfect. Note for next time is to when there is an issue. start the signal flow from the source and make sure everything is correct before asking the technicians! Raul taught me some other pro tools shortcuts that helped with time and efficiency. I also studied the keyboard as it has all the pro tools shortcuts on it. We got Harry doing the foley and we communicated to him about what it sounded like and perhaps too aggressive at first. So we got him to do minimalistic movements with Raul’s jacket for the clothing sounds. We quickly realised that less is more. We also used the Neumann TLM 103 to experiment with the different mics. We placed the mic about 10cm from the audio source and felt it sounded well as before that it was too close and the performer was hitting the mic when trying to do foley.

We then swapped to Raul doing the footsteps for the wood flooring. We made him take his socks off as in the movie she is barefoot and we wanted that skin connection subtle noises that create when walking on wood barefoot. We decided to use the shotgun Sennheiser 416. I felt the Sennheiser 416 is more directed and had a lot less room tone in the recordings due to its super-cardioid polar pattern. Which personally I felt it was much better for those close small intimate sounds like walking on wood. We also discussed walking and how Raul was doing it. The noise of his jeans was also an issue which we got around by him rolling them up.

It then came to my turn being the foley artist and I had the job of clothing and footsteps. I did the same procedure and had Harry play the clip a few times for me to practice it before we get going. I actually ended up turning the lights off in the room as it allowed me to get more immersed in the video that was playing. I sat down and moved the tv closer to me which I felt gave me a more relaxed approach and allowed me to do the sounds based on intuition more than thinking too much bout it. We also used the 416 microphone and it worked perfectly. I found that once I thought less about what was needed and acted it actually worked better. I also felt like at times we were worrying too much about getting the perfect sound instead of being more vigilant with the time and getting more ideas across. Overall I felt I improved my knowledge of mic positions, gain structure and a huge level up on my Pro Tools abilities.

Here is a short video outcome filmed on my phone of our exercise. I’m really happy with the learning I did and feel I’m ready to tackle the proper video now. I’m going to finalise my video clip which at the moment is the quiet place and do some background research and then create the Pro Tools template with blank regions and foley marker cues. I’m happy we focused more on the things we needed to learn rather than trying to get everything with foley sounds as it was a perfect excercise.