Sound (Discussion)
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Purposes of sound on television
Television lists four "purposes of sound on television":
- Capturing viewer attention.
- Manipulating viewer understanding of the image.
- Maintaining television flow.
- Maintaining continuity within individual scenes.
Sound technology
- What are the different types of microphone pick-up patterns? How do they affect sound perspective? (Ugly Betty example.)
Sound exercises
1. Sound-image interaction
A Dodge commercial exercise provides examples of how sound can manipulate viewer understanding of the image--that is, can change its meaning.
- The textbook discusses the impact of Gymnopedie No. 1 and "Solidarity Forever." What do you think is the effect of each of the additional pieces of music available online here.
- Group One: Henri’s Notions, "Mrs. Kelly’s Chickens/Louis Waltz"
- Group Two: Huxford Symphony Orchestra, Tchaikovsky Symphony No. 4
- Group Three: Jake Berry, "Walking"
- Group Four: "Movie music": "Invaders from Mars"
2. Sound perspective, time, and the diegesis
- Each group: Think back to the Chevrolet commercial that we broke down and the shot of Mother, salesman, Father, son in the car. As a group, pretend you're doing ADR (and what is ADR?) and sound mixing for this shot:
- Write dialogue and/or specify sound effects that illustrates how sound editors can manipulate sound perspective to alter our understanding of a scene (somewhat like the sound editor of Ugly Betty did in the textbook example, but do not copy it). Briefly explain how your audio does so.
- Illustrate how sound and time could be manipulated in this shot, creating new dialogue and/or other audio to lay over the image (as in the textbook's example from Damages). Briefly explain how your audio does so.
- Finally, describe new audio for the scene that illustrates the difference between diegetic vs. intradiegetic sound. Briefly explain how your audio does so.
Extra credit (two points)
- Choose a well-known song that, if laid over the commercial, would change its meaning. (No R-rated songs, please.)
- Create a new video that uses the Dodge commercial, but replaces the original sound with this song.
- Upload the video to Blackboard, via Panopto, to share it with the class. Here's how:
- Log in to Blackboard.
- Click "Course videos" on the menu on the left.
- Click the folder button with a long, unhelpful name: "41439.202040:" and so on. This is the "assignments" folder.
- Click "Create" button.
- Click "Upload media".
- Drag video into open window, or click to find them on your computer.
- Close window. The video will automatically be submitted to me for approval.
- Write a short explanation of how you feel your song changes the meaning of the commercials images. Email it to jbutler@ua.edu .
- Deadline: Friday, December 4th, 11:49 p.m.
Types of sound
- What are the three main types of sound in TV production and how do digital audio workstations mirror those three types? (See Ugly Betty ProTools layout for music editor.)
- What is "public domain" music? What are "master rights"? How do master rights apply to DVD releases of TV programs?
Bibliography
- Butler, Jeremy G. Television: Visual Storytelling and Screen Culture. New York: Routledge, 2018.