Jun 1
UnSub Profile: Frank Warner
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UnSub Profile: Frank Warner
♫ Tom Dooley ♫
This ‘oldie but goodie’ popped into my head a few nights ago and it refuses to leave until I share it with you guys! I know why it popped there … one of the writers/political commentators I follow is Lucian K. Truscott (I’ve shared his work here a time or two) and a few days ago he and his wife travelled to New Jersey to see … the Kingston Trio! Yes, they are still touring, still as good as…
Do you know these triplets? (Frank, Sass and Finn Warner)
Yes, I know them well
I know where they're from, but not much else about them
I don't know, but they seem familiar
Never heard of them
♫ Tom Dooley ♫
♫ Tom Dooley ♫
Tonight, I’ve been working hard for several hours on my post for mine and Jeff’s project that will publish at 3:00 this afternoon. At a few points, I found myself actually digging holes in my scalp out of frustration, trying to get my point across without being offensive to anyone. Throughout, I had a song in my head … nope, not Tom Dooley … Ride Like the Windby Bob Seger! But, I played it in…
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Behind the Song: He's Got the Whole World in His Hands
Behind the Song: He’s Got the Whole World in His Hands
He’s Got the Whole World in His Hands is a traditional American spiritual. As a spiritual this song was probably around for a long time before it was recorded and written down. The song was first published in the 1927, paper bound hymnal Spirituals Triumphant, Old He’s Got the Whole World in His Hands and New. In 1933, Frank Warner collected the song from Sue Thomas while she sung the song in…
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Enjoy this video of Walter Murch making funny noises
Cut from the video A Conversation. With Walter Murch, which you should absolutely watch HERE.
Every Frame a Painting's Tony Zhou is back with an informative look at the use of silence in films by Martin Scorsese. “Even though Scorsese is famous for his use of music, one of his best traits is his deliberate and powerful use of silence. Take a glimpse at fifty years of this simple technique from one of cinema's masters.”
Silence is so important. It makes a big difference. In ‘Raging Bull,’ we never really thought too much about the sound effects until Frank Warner and I worked on it with Thelma Schoonmaker. Frank Warner, a great sound effects editor and creator, came up with ideas of how these punches would sound and tried to imagine what it would sound like to a fighter in the ring. Imagine being in a ring, being pummeled, and you do it once a day, twice a day, sometimes with sparring. I couldn’t believe it when I saw what these men do. Then, at one point, Frank looked at us and says, there is no sound. I said, you’re right. Take it all out. Take it out. You go into a whole meditative state and then, wham, the sound comes back in. --The Art of Martin Scorsese
Frank would create a different sound for each punch in this movie, and there are a lot of them, and audition various ones... we never got him to tell us how he made those punches, but they were perfect. [Warner would burn all of his sound effects when he finished a movie] Not because he was afraid that someone else would use them, but because he didn’t want to use them himself. He wanted to approach each film with a completely open mind. --Legendary Editor Thelma Schoonmaker breaks down ‘Raging Bull’
For instance, the sound of the flashbulbs in ‘Raging Bull’ that Frank Warner came up with and the sound of the punches that he came up with in ‘Raging Bull’ were unique. They were not simply punches or flashbulbs. They had a strong emotional component to them. So in that sense he was a sound designer, although he’s the last person in the world to use that term. But that’s what he was doing. --Sound Doctrine: An Interview with Walter Murch
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Concepts and Approaches in Sound Design ep.4 - What is Sound Design?
Other posts in this series:
Sound Of Silence
What isn't Sound Design?
Nature of the Soundtrack
What Is Sound Design?
A Brief History of Sound Design
What is a Sound "Designer" Part 1
What is a Sound "Designer" Part 2
What is a Sound "Designer" Part 3
Linearity, it's east as 1, 2, 3, 4, 5, 6...
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It is my hope that anyone who follows this series of posts will form their own opinions as to what they believe Sound Design to be, based off of both examples that I give and also through each person's own movie-going, video-gaming and TV watching habits. As I mentioned in the previous post on What isn't Sound Design, there is a great deal of ambiguity as to what Sound Design is. As such, there are a wide variety of different interpretations (and room for many more).
Through studies, research, practice and observation, I have formed my own opinions on the matter and eventually came to form a definition that encapsulated what I believe Sound Design to be. This is what I will explore in this post. It isn't intended to be the gospel truth on the matter, but instead should give a frame of reference for all the proceeding posts and examples I throw up.
When sound was introduced to motion pictures, initially it was seen as an inevitable reaction to the action on screen, something Sound Designer Walter Murch refers to as the Shadow of Sound. This idea mirrored real life where sound acts as a shadow to physical events. If you see a dog bark, you sure as hell expect to hear one. It's physically impossible to disconnect the two events in the real world, just as you can never escape your shadow.
However, with the advent of recorded sound, you were able to disconnect the shadow entirely from its owner. You could shift it in time, replace it, manipulate it or remove it entirely. Sound Designers exploit this disconnect all the time. Walter Murch eloquently describes this as...
The ability to freely re-associate image and sound in different contexts and combinations.
“Fireworks", Music Producer: Andrew Feltenstein. Audio Mixer: Rob DiFondi
This is one of my favorite examples because of its sheer simplicity. Instead of hearing all the sounds you might expect (those of nature), you're instead treated to an audio fireworks show. Why is this? I would assume it's because the creators of this advertisement wanted to tell a short story about how "nature is spectacular", and what's more spectacular than a fireworks show. In essence, just as a campfire story about an evil monster is embellished with monstrous vocalizations this story was more effectively told by using a sound pallet with which the audience has a certain association... the "spectacular". Playing with people's expectations is a key aspect of Sound Design.
Storytelling is very much a part of Sound Design. It goes beyond communicating the literal, what's seen on screen i.e. see car --> hear car. Sound Designers use sound as a storytelling device just as music might be used in a film. While a musical cue might suggest tension during a car race as we near the finish line, Sound Designers might try to make the engine sounds particularly strained, perhaps giving it a vocal-like quality.
The fight scenes in Raging Bull (1980) are a wonderful example of how sound can help tell a story. The fight sequences are so visceral for a number of reasons. One aspect that really helps them stand out involves the way they sounded.
You might notice the animalistic assault is appropriately accompanied by animalistic sounds. We hear lion roars overlaid with the sounds of the punches. Is there a lion in the crowd, is there anything on screen that justifies the presence of such a sound? No, but do we question it? No, we do not. Why? Because it's only a component of the sound we hear and as I discussed in my last post, the Nature of the Soundtrack, no one is really consciously listening to the soundtrack. The roar will not be singled out in the mid of the listener as they are gripped by the visual spectacle as much as the aural. So why use a lion roar?
The Sound Designer, Frank E. Warner used lion roars for the same reason the sounds of fireworks were used in the CSX ad: Because we have certain associations with certain sounds. Lion roars sound scary because the human race has evolved to fear such a creature and the sounds it makes. It's hardwired into us, we hear a lion roar and instinctively we want to run in the other direction for the purposes of self-preservation (unless you're a Sound Designer, in which case you grab your portable recorder and run towards it!).
Ben Burtt - Sound Designer for Star Wars
In the Raging Bull example, one can make the strong argument that layering the lion roar on top of the punching sound would elicit a similar guttural and emotional reaction in the viewer, even though they aren't "listening" to it. In fact the impact is so much more powerful because they can't explain it. Were they to actually hear a lion roar, the illusion would be destroyed and it might sound comical. However because they don't think about it, the subconscious mind allows sound design to work its magic.
To try and bring this all together, I want to revisit the passage from The Emotional Sounds of Star Wars that I looked at last week where Ben Burtt talked of his initial discussion with George Lucas about how they were going to treat sound.
When I initially started on star wars, I asked George Lucas "Are we going to do a movie which is that 2001 style, because I am a physics graduate and I can give you that kind of soundtrack or I can forget all that and we can put in anything that we want.
He said: "Well we are going to have music and if you are not going to justify where the orchestra comes from, I guess we can have any kind of sound we want." We sort of nodded and said "Let’s go for what is emotionally right." We will put in a sound if we feel we need it for impact or for dramatic value. So we threw out the physic ideas and went with sound in space, which turned out to be a lot more fun.
Their decision to "go for what is emotionally right" is a key component of what Sound Design concerns itself with. Whenever Sound Design is used, it is almost always in an attempt to elicit some kind of emotional response. The emotional pallet of Sound Design is as broad as that of Music. It can be used to convey fear, suspense, impending danger, sheer joy and happiness or even sadness...
So in summation, here's my (current)... (and personal) definition of what I believe Sound Design to be. I've tried to keep it as short at possible.
Sound Design is the intentional use of sound to aid storytelling by eliciting emotional responses from an audience member.
By this definition, if sound isn't playing any part in the storytelling process or conveying any sense of emotion, I do not consider that to be Sound Design. Harsh I know! I like to draw a distinction between the art of Sound Design, and the process of Designing Sounds.
In the next post I will discuss what it means to be a Sound Designer, where the term originally came from and take a look at the history of the subject.