Made By Other People.

Waves Against a Boat.

Just like last year at this time, as you are reading this I will be in the middle of a lake, in a boat, with a line in the water and a beer in my hand. Since last year I posted something fishing related to mark my annual May long weekend fishing trip and caught less than nothing all weekend this year I figured I’d focus on the sound of a boat.

In particular the sound of a bobbing on the waves. This sound is clearly of a small aluminum watercraft rather than something larger. As each small wave hits its hull you can hear the hollow metal reverb. I certainly associate this sound with the most quiet, relaxing of days sitting on a dock somewhere – a boat tied to it waiting for me to take it out for a spin. As it’s a very quiet sound not many films are going to feature it.

Something like Jaws, Piranha or any kind of movie with a water-based creature is most likely the best place to hear it.  A character will wander out onto a dock or be stranded in a boat when his/her motor cuts out. They will be yelling something that will echo into the empty quiet around them. They’ll stop and we’ll hear the gentle rocking of the boat on the waves and then the monster will leap from the depths to grab the character in its massive jaws and dragging them to their watery grave.

Now that I’ve written that I’m sure those images wont come back to haunt me when I’m on the water.

Floating on, more next week.

Sounds of The Avengers.

There’s a great site called the SoundWorks Collection that creates short videos about different aspects of sound work in the film industry. They’re fantastic and I’m disappointed in myself that I haven’t featured them on here before.

The video above is focused on the creation of some of the foley and other effects in The Avengers. A particularly interesting part is when Sound Designer Christopher Boyes details the steps he had to take to get the Hulk’s voice right.

Whether you liked, loved, disliked or disloved The Avengers take a look at the video – if only to hear the same things I’m always going on about but from a paid professional! You can also visit www.soundworkscollection.com for even more interesting stuff.

More next week.

Comic Book Pages.

I like comic books. A lot.

I’ve certainly said it before and before and before and before. I clearly don’t mind seeming repetitive because I’m saying again. The Avengers comes out today and even if you’re not a fan of comic book/superhero movies you have to respect what a landmark of a film it is. They took superheroes (and the actors that played them) from several other films and put them together into one crossover event. This is pretty commonplace in comics but in movies? I could be wrong but I don’t remember that happening before. By the set up alone it really is the comic book movie to end all comic book movies.

With that in mind I have recorded the flipping sound of comic book pages. While I was mainly inspired the Marvel Studios logo (which features the sound of flipping pages) there are plenty of plain ol’ action, comedy, drama, romantic movies that utilize the sound of pages being flipped – mostly because paper books and magazines are still widely used. I know it seems primitive to me too but we have to suffer through for another few years at least.

Until that day though, make sure the type of paper you record for foley matches the one on screen. Modern comics are more like magazines and use a heavier, glossy stock while a phone book (what the hell is a phone book?) uses the thinnest paper that wont simply disintegrate once its touched possible. It sounds like I’m joking but I’m deadly serious. Knowledge of paper stock and paper stock recordings is the first thing you learn when you become an official comic geek. I’ve got a certificate printed on 81/2 X 11 28ld stock white parchment paper to prove it.

I’m off to see the Avengers (again), I’ll assemble again next week.

Welcome to Foley Fridays “Karaoke”. Much like you going out with friends to sing sloppily otop hit pop songs once a month my friends and I will take a scene from a movie, remove all of the dialogue/sound effects (foley) and sloppily record our own live. No editing or mixing involved! No bouncing ball required!

When I work on set as a sound recordist my most hated scenes are any that feature extended bouts of kissing. Imagine the slopping, slurping and sucking of mouth against mouth and tongue against tongue magnified several times and up close. Take after take after take after take. It’s soul crushing. So when my friend approached me with his idea to do the food scene from 91/2 Weeks I felt it was time other people felt my pain.

It’s pretty awesome when someone you respect likes what you’re doing and when Michael Hurlbut came to me with this idea I wasn’t going to turn him down – plus he was beyond enthused to do it. Mike and I met at Ryerson University like many other members of Made By Other People. He’s made some epic short films since that time like Every Day Is Music and Waterbabies. His encyclopedia-like knowledge of film is beyond impressive and intimidating – a point I think that his posts (or should I say immense thesis essays) on this site more than proves.

I also wanted to mention that Mike expertly executed the acute impression of Mickey Rourke and the idea to have Mr. Rourke mumble the titles of other movies he’s been in was all his as well. Mike told me the inspiration came from the 6 months he spent living with him in Tibet – where Mickey never once uttered/gargled a word that wasn’t featured in a title of a movie he starred in.

Cymbals.

With the late, great Levon Helm’s passing yesterday I thought I’d post something drum related this week. Drums? That falls squarely under the heading of music rather than foley! Still, here we are.

While a cymbal (not a symbol) is undeniably an instrument and in a film context often used as a percussion element of a score or in a song used on the sound track, perhaps a song by The Band, it can also be used by itself to help create a “sound effect” all its own. If I had to guess I’d say that being a percussive noisemaker has a lot to do with its ability to b used outside of music in a film. It’s used in many ways across many genres. In comedy, to add punch to a joke – being the chh in the famous “ba-dum-dum chh”(and yes this is still used in film today though pretty subtly or as joke itself). In adventure, to announce the arrival of an exotic leader of a hidden city or his/her concubine. In thriller, to add an accent to a revelation that a character or the audience in no way saw coming. I could continue but it really does run the proverbial gamut – it could even be used as foley for a cymbal being hit in a scene featuring a drummer of some kind.

Using idea of using instruments of any kind to create sound effects isn’t relegated to the cymbal only but it might possibly be the most fun. Tell me you don’t A) want to be a rock star and B) like hitting things with sticks and maybe I’ll consider myself wrong.

That’s all for now – so take a load off, take a load for free and next week we’ll put the load right on me.