Ambience and Setting Ideas

http://filmsound.org/

Using the above site I decided to go back through some of the techniques used in the film sound. I wanted to find some good features to make the sound of the Barton Fink clip work. I feel like a lot of what the sound will be in the clip is ambience. Nothing much happens on screen but I feel there is a need to fill out this hotel in an eerie way. Ambience is a better and more subtle way of playing about the psychological nature of the audience. Without any music I feel this would be the best and most subtle way of making this clip seem like it should, of a man in a new and uncertain location. I'm not wanting it to sound like a horror movie though. It needs to be very real and natural and just the basic human nature of uncertainty in a new place. This character is meant to have chosen the hotel due to not wanting to be "Hollywood" so I want to convey how far away from that it truly is. I feel that a more down played darker and subdued ambience would be a big change to the excitement and noise of all the happy people typically in Hollywood.

All of the sound that is heard by the viewer I feel should be Diegetic sound as they should experience the eerie nature of the hotel at the same time as the main character. Everything that is a first for him should be a first for the audience.

I want to add a couple in one of the rooms that the character walks past arguing. I feel that would add a certain tension if done right, and make the scene of a man moving to a new place and living it what seems to be a pretty eerie hotel even more uncomfortable. It would need to be a very muffled argument but one that seems quite one sided to also convey the whole uncomfortable look of the main character. This would help to reinforce the point I mentioned above about the people being less happy here compared to everywhere else in Hollywood.

This is an idea in its early stages and if I implement it and feel it doesn't work with the tone I may remove it. I am still going for an eerie and uncomfortable feel and possibly minimalism and more subtle ambience might suit the mood better.

Barton Fink Foley Session 2

This week I continued on with Foley for Barton Fink. I have done a little more research into the movie and found out about the location of the the film, setting and time period it was set. This has helped with creating sounds through methods such as worldising. I needed the location to sound believable and recording studio ambiance was not a fitting bottom layer for a film set in California in 1941. For this it needed a warm tone which was preferably humid as well. I used the air conditioning unit in the studio to heat the live room to a warm temperature. In post I will continue this theme, rolling-off a little of the high frequency content of the whole mix to give that effect of a damp sound given by humidity and water droplets in the air obstructing some of this frequency content.

As well as this I read that the hotel seems quite eerie and deserted for its size when Barton first sets foot in it, which is the scenes I am doing for the clip. That has allowed me to get an idea for how many sounds should be put into this. From the visuals alone I already got a minimalist idea for the sound and that there should be emphasis placed on his movements as though he is being really loud in this new environment to him. This will also draw focus to this character for the audience and give you his perspective of being uncomfortable in this unfamiliar situation. For this reason I am layering the sounds with other more annoying and grating ones e.g. footsteps with creaking floor boards; bassy and boomy finger taps on the wood; loud key turning in locks and the rattling of his suitcases. Anything that the character touches will almost seem to be abnormally loud and as though he seems to be creating all this noise and drawing an uncomfortable amount of attention to himself. I feel this goes with the theme of the movie as the bell on the check-in counter seems to have this long ring that is also irritating enough for Steve Buscemi's character to want to stop it before properly addressing the Barton character. This also links with the theme of simple, almost quiet and unnoticeable sounds that are getting Barton's attention, such as a mosquito. This will help to convey the thoughts of a man who has his senses highly tuned to his surrounds and is curiously observing all that is around him.
I also worked my way through getting some of the sounds that take place as the character walks around his hotel room such as the bed, type writer and keys.

I've been looking at a soundtrack for the clip and using the time period to narrow it down. It doesn't seem like the majority of it would need music as the eerie tone and emphasis on his movement through the hotel provides a good overall view of the character and I do not want to muddy that image with music. There is one part that I think would suit it though and that is the scene where he looks at the woman sunbathing on the beach. I feel this looks like he wants to escape to that place and he could truly imagine being there. For this reason I want to put some music that would reflect his view so music of that time period would be good. I looked at popular genres of the time and I felt what best suited the beach scene of California was Doo-wop. I found a song that I think would reflect the scene well called Bye Bye Blues, which is sang by a Barber Shop Quartet.

https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=uiwMofWfc5E

I feel like the lyrics seem to communicate with his writers block and uncertainty about moving all the way to L.A.

Barton Fink Foley Recordings Session 1

On Tuesday I was in the studio recording Foley for the Barton Fink sound design clip. For this session I was trying to get the walking done as well as other movement sounds of his jacket and suitcases. For this to work I set up a Pro Tools session with the video imported into it and put it on the monitor facing into the recording room of the studio, so I could walk in time with the actions in the film. I set up a C414 mic, on a stand facing down, next to my feet and positioned it to get a good overall sound between the two feet while doing the walking. Some parts of the studio floor were not ideal as they had squeaky floor boards and hollow bass tip-up areas so I moved the mic around until I found the section that suited the visuals in the clip.

To make it easier to carry out the Foley in time a couple of the other sound design students were working with me. This made it easier to cue up the section I would be acting out so I could be set up and ready. I would have a section of the characters walking highlighted, usually between motions of walking where he started and stopped or when there was a cut in the visuals which caused a big change in the characters pace. This made it much easier to watch the cut up section a few times to get a feel for the characters way of walking, including speed, what foot he placed first and force of his foot falls. I did this to ensure it felt like these were the footsteps of the character. I set up Pro Tools so as to have a count in which made it easier to time my first footsteps with the character.

After this I also got the movement sounds of the character. This included knocking and rattling cases along with his movement and making clothes rustle when necessary to the audiences proximity to the character. As well as this I recorded a few of the other environmental sounds such as fans, fluorescent light hum, doors opening and closing and bell ring to sync up with visual props on screen. I recorded an underlying background ambience too so as to have a room tone for the film and stop there being any silence between the sounds that coming and going on screen, due to the fact this can be disorientating to the audience.

There are minor amendments to do to the Foley footsteps as they do not sync up perfectly. I will edit the clips and align them more with the visuals but so far they sound as though they suit the world of the movie. I will be mixing them in the coming weeks to get the right levels for each layer and drawing focus to what I feel are the main points, and sounds that should be accentuated to go along with the visuals. As well as this I will be adding processing and effects to really put the sound into the world.