Sound editors can also work in other areas of the Media, like radio stations and video games. These are slightly different, but essentially do the same thing; edit sounds! As I mentioned above, there are three categories of sound:
Dialogue
The dialogue is the speech of characters. The sound editor can cut and trim the files, and change the audio volume to match the other audio in a film; you don't want a character's whisper heard clearly over an explosion! The dialogue is a fairly straight forward audio aspect, because the actors do most of the work, and all the dialogue editor has to do is look after the files, trim them and position them onto the sound file.
Music
The music is probably the hardest audio to edit. This is because the transition between tracks when the on-screen footage changes can be hard to match carefully, and it is not hard to make the sound appear to jump. For example, if it's a bright sunny day, and then suddenly someone pulls a gun out of their pocket and shoots someone, then I doubt it will be playing Fur Elise in the background. Matching up the backing tracks to the film can be extremely challenging, so these are among the most skilled sound editors.
Effects
The effects are some of the more basic sounds to edit. Making sure they fit in and are positioned correctly is vital; seeing an explosion before the sound appears in obviously unacceptable, unless, of course, it's a distant volcanic eruption, lightning/thunder or something like that, because light travels faster than sound, so the audio would appear after the visual effects. This is something all effects editors must consider, as it's really easy to not do it right.
BEFORE SOUND IN FILMS
Films before around 1930 were nearly all in complete silence, which obviously means sound editors didn't exist. They were considered a scientific revolution back then, but with the invention of sound and colour television, it was almost unbelievable.
The most famous filmmaker in the early 20th century was Charlie Chaplin. His films were almost all silent, and he made a large variety. In those days, the cameras were gigantic pieces of machinery and were not moved once recording started.
With the invention of sound, the sound editor was born. They were proficient, and their numbers grew rapidly as the film industry became more popular. Sound editors were also used in the production of patriotic films, like advertisements such as 'Join your country's army!' *god save the king* and so forth. The sound editor has became a key element of any filmmaking crew and production team.
In the early days of film, there were no production companies as such. They were usually presented under a name, for example 'Charlie Chaplin'.
 |
| Charlie Chaplin |
Foley and Dubbing
Foley in Media is the creation of sound effects that are recorded separately to the video and added in during post-production. Some of these include doors closing, wind howling, glass smashing and people knocking on a door. The purpose of them is to make the sound able to be edited and in this way the sound editor can make sure the sound match up to the video, and to make sure the sound effect is clearly heard. The perfect edit will make sure the foley effect is realistic to the video, and the viewers believe it is a diegetic part of the film.
Foley is usually created with everything you can think of apart from the actual thing it's creating. For example; the noises of the sliding automatic doors in Star Trek are just pieces of paper slipped in and out of an envelope to symbolise the hydraulic noise of the doors. They can also be used to cover up the sounds that are actually recorded, which is down to the sound editor.
Dubbing is another process in sound in the Media, and it is created by removing the original audio of the film and replacing it with a edited version to make it sound better. This is used all the time in musicals, they record the sound there to make sure it will fit, then create a studio recording and overwrite the previous sound, to make the audio sound perfect.
Class example of foley sounds
In groups, we took it in turns to attempt to create foley sounds with a variety of everyday things, like flour in a box, a pink scrunch and a rolled up newspaper. We used these to create the following sound effects:A Cat Purring was created without using any equipment. Instead, we got a member of our group to make a cat purring noise using their tongue close to the sound recorder.
A Punch was created by using the rolled up newspaper and hit somebody on the arm to make a thump sound that, especially on the sound recorder, sounded much like a genuine punch.
A Walking in Snow foley sound was created by using the flour in a box and the scrunchie. By placing the scrunchie into the flour and squashing it with a stick, it allowed us to record a sound identical to walking in snow.
THE FOLEY SOUNDS WE CREATED:
Role of a Music Composer in Film
I will now talk about composers in the media, and my chosen example is Howard Shore, who composed the music for Peter Jackson's Lord of the Rings trilogy. The role of a film music composer is to write and perform unique tracks for the film. Most of these are non-diegetically added in, but some are actually played diegetically on-screen, mostly during scenes in very expensive restaurants, or, like in James Cameron's 'Titanic' film, on the deck of a huge sinking cross-Atlantic steamer! Musical compositions that are unique to a film, like the Star Wars theme, bring a film to life. The start of Iron Man, AC/DC's Back in Black is played. Okay, it sets the scene, but has no personal character to it. When properly composed, film musical tracks can really boost the popularity of films, as people want to go and see the amazing compositions people make! Howard Shore has received 63 awards and 55 nominations.
Howard Shore was born in Toronto, Canada on October 18th 1946 and has has scored music for over 80 films, and so below is a select list of films Howard Shore has composed music for:
- Big (1988)
- The Silence of the Lambs (1991)
- Mrs. Doubtfire (1993)
- That Thing You Do! (1996)
- The Lord of the Rings Trilogy (2001-2003)
- The Twilight Saga: Eclipse (2010)
- The Hobbit Trilogy (2012-2014)
Below here I have embedded a few videos of Howard Shore's compositions. Personally, I like any of the soundtracks from The Lord of the Rings, but I have no particular favourite. My preferred three are Concerning Hobbits and the themes of Rohan and Isengard.
Concerning Hobbits
Rohan's Theme
Isengard's Theme
The way that Howard has placed a heavy contrast between the music helps put a more in-depth character and personality to the regions of Middle-earth in The Lord of the Rings. The film starts with a light, cheery song (my first embedded example - Concerning Hobbits) and moves on to a heavy song (the third example - Isengard) when the tide turns against them. The outstanding contrast between the places of the world in The Lord of the Rings is extremely well-done in the musical aspect of things.
