Sound (Discussion)
From Screenpedia
Purposes of sound on television
Television lists four "purposes of sound on television":
- Capturing viewer attention.
- Manipulating viewer understanding of the image.
- Maintaining televisual flow.
- Maintaining continuity within individual scenes.
All groups: sound exercises
In class, we'll view a Dodge commercial and examples of how sound can manipulate viewer understanding of the image--that is, can change its meaning.
- As a group, choose a well-known song that, if laid over the commercial, would change its meaning. (No R-rated songs, please.) We'll find an excerpt of it online and lay it over the commercial. Be prepared to explain to the class how your song changes the commercial's meaning.
- 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?) for this shot and write dialogue that illustrates how sound editors can manipulate sound perspective to alter our understanding of a scene (somewhat like the sound editor of Wonder Years did in Figure 8.6, but do not copy that example).
- Illustrate how sound and time could be manipulated in this shot with some other dialogue.
- Finally, include audio that illustrates the difference between diegetic vs. nondiegetic sound.
Types of sound
- Back Group: 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.)
- Front Group: What is "public domain" music? What are "master rights"? How do master rights apply to DVD releases of TV programs?
Sound technology
- Group 4: Explain these terms in the context of digital audio: sampling, dynamic range, and frequency response.
- Group 1: What are the different types of microphone pick-up patterns? How do they affect sound perspective? (Ugly Betty example?)
Bibliography
- Butler, Jeremy G. Television: Critical Methods and Applications. Mahweh, NJ: Lawrence Erlbaum Associates, 2007.