P2: Research and present a report into the creation of a
soundtrack (e.g. Ben Burtt – Wall-E). Explain how varied
equipment and techniques are used to record these
sounds
In the industry, Ben Burtt is a renowned foley artist. Having worked from 1975 to present, he has worked on several big name movies ranging from Star Wars to Wall-E.To create sounds Burtt uses a variety techniques and instruments. In addition to using more traditional methods and instruments such as strings and drums, Burtt also uses a variety of custom machines to make the specific sound desired by the productions, such as rain makers and gravel trays. Ben Burrt is also known to use his own vocals to create sound as well as gathering sounds from the real world for his films.
The foley sound which Burtt creates is then recorded using microphones. The location and proximity of the microphone to the sound dramatically affects the resulting audio clip. He would also vary which microphones he uses as a more sensitive would be best suited to capturing audio from subtle sound sources, where as a boom mic would be best suited to recording exterior sound or directional audio.
Examples of how Ben Burrt creates sound can be seen in the film Wall-E. The sci fi style animation required a large and varied range of sound effects and audio to dub over the animation. One such sound effect is a futuristic gun shot, he achieved this by using a spring to recreate the sound which was then edited with adjustments to pitch and speed etc. Changes in pitch and speed are prevalent throughout the work of sound designers with Burrt speaking greatly of how speed of playing an instrument contributes to its effect.
Sound is key at connecting the film to the target audience. Within the film Wall E the exciting, energetic and loud sounds designed by Ben Burtt appeals to Disney’s younger target audience for the film, with ages ranging from 8 to 13. The sound design also reinforces the genre of the piece. The metallic style sounds used throughout the film fit well with the sci-fi genre and a prevalent throughout similar styled movies. Furthermore, due to the nature of the film and it being a animation it is heavily dependant on sound as they obviously can be no field recordings. In addition to this, the film features little dialogue which appeals to a younger audience, but this means they have to be engaged otherwise by the sounds created. Examples how Burrt did this can be seen in the scene were the rocket takes off, this was created by using a large sheet of metal to create a thunder rumble sound which mimics the sound of the engine.
P2: Practice example of applying soundtrack tools (e.g.Nature doc, Film Clip) with commentary on your workingprocess.
Adding sound to film clip
As part of this task sound was added to a video clip from a film. To do so, several soundtracks, wild tracks and foley sounds were sourced, then imported into premiere where they were then edited in accordance to the visuals. This included changing the levels of the audio in order to make it realistic in line with the surrounding environment, in addition to this some effects were added and the curves of the volume changed to fade in, fade out and vary the loudness. This can be seen below... Examples of sound implemented into this track include: Beachboys backing tack, beach side wildtrack, city wildtarack, highway wild track and several other sound effects such as dogs barking, cars passing, horns, pedestrians walking, boots, laughing, chatting, braking, engine revving, sports cars and swooshes used to reinforce the visuals of the whip pan transitions seen at 0.32 seconds.
Vox Pop
This voxpop was made by first going out and recording the answers to the question with a voice recorder, using separate clips. These were then imported into audition and using the cut tool reduced down to the correct length and cutting out the wind noise where the audio peaked. Some effects were then added, such as nice reduction and dehisser. This was then compiled together and exported.
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