Revision Ideas part 1

I have recorded all my sounds for Barton Fink and I was going back through all of my course notes before tackling the clip to ensure I had all of the right ideas, and that I would achieve them correctly through applying professionally accepted techniques. Upon examining the week 1 introduction to the unit I was reminded of some important techniques that may be useful in fleshing out the sound design.

The pitch shifted vocalisations mixed with the lion roar that gave the voice of King Kong is a great technique for making things seem larger than they are. Doing this to features such as the doors, footsteps and button pushes on the typewriter could in fact make everything seem that much more heavy and cumbersome, showing Barton's stresses.

Silence and fear of the dark is why sound was needed originally but I could look to use it to cause a slight unease for the audience. I wil need to look further into the manner in which it can be used as I don't want it to take a horror turn or be so obvious that it breaks the subtlety I'm going for. I don't want the audience to think the hotel is scary I just want them to get that natural human emotion where they feel something isn't right.

Ensuring the realism will be heavily depedent on the old technique of synchronising the sound with the images. This is a must for a natural look and feel. I will be doing this with the footsteps to show that there is nothing untoward with the character of Barton and keeping him very natural. On the other hand some sounds may benefit from being slightly out of time with their surroundings such as a clock ticking or the ring of the bell.

As well as his something as basic as appropriate panning and level boosting and attenuating are key components. I want to emphasise certain features that would not naturally be heard and show that the hotel is a bit off. I want to make Barton's breathing overly loud to show how quiet the hotel is as well as his footsteps echoing down the hallways. I will use the panning to show features in the background moving about or provide localisation in the stereo field. This will help to make the world more believable and bring it to life so that it isn't too out of the ordinary.