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 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.
- Henri’s Notions, "Mrs. Kelly’s Chickens/Louis Waltz"
- Huxford Symphony Orchestra, Tchaikovsky Symphony No. 4
- Jake Berry, "Walking"
- "Movie music": "Invaders from Mars"
- 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 (probably to Blackboard) to share it with the class.
- Write a short explanation of how you feel your song changes the meaning of the commercials images.
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. nondiegetic sound. Briefly explain how your audio does so.
- One person from each group must write the group's responses in Blackboard in the survey titled, "Sound perspective, time, and the diegesis," in the Assignments folder.
- I will select the responses that best exemplify these sound-image principles and post them here. If I select a response from your group, then everyone in that group (who was not absent) will earn one extra credit point.
- Responses must be submitted by 11:59 p.m. tomorrow (10/4) to qualify for extra credit.
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.