Creation and Development of a Film Soundtrack

Creation and Development of a Film Soundtrack Abstract Cinematic environments are created through image, dialogue, music and sound,  but the craft involved in creating an environmental soundtrack often goes  unnoticed by the film viewer. Soundscapes are rarely just background: they are  powerful storytelling vehicles in their own right, of equal importance to the visuals.  This article examines the process of creating an environmental soundtrack for  cinema from the perspective of a sound designer. Particular attention is given to  how sound is created and layered to enhance, embellish and produce the films  narrative. Using contemporary Australian films, notably Australia (Baz Luhrmann, 2008) and  Happy Feet (George Miller, 2006), the article examines the different challenges in  creating an environmental soundscape for both an animation and a live action film.  The films Avatar (James Cameron, 2009), Little Fish (Rowan Woods, 2005) and The  Magician (Scott Ryan, 2005) are also cited to highlight various approaches to  environmental representation in film sound. While both Australia and Happy Feet  rely on the landscape and environment as integral storytelling components, the  approach to creating their respective soundscapes requires not only natural  recordings, but also the creation of many previously unheard sounds using  synthetic sound design. Keywords: Sound design, Australian film, soundscape, environmental representation,  animation Introduction Soundscapes have the ability to transcend the social and cultural barriers that  sometimes thwart language and even music. Creating an environmental  soundtrack for cinema is as much a technical craft as it is an aesthetic art form.   Often overlooked by the audience, the sounds of the environment in many  contemporary films are based on the synthetic design and recreation of many  settings. Environmental soundscapes are some of the most intricate to create. The  combination of image, dialogue, music and sound help create the overall  soundtrack, however the film viewer is often unaware of the intricacies and  craftwork used in the creation of these aural environments. Furthermore,  narrative of the film is carefully considered in the creation of these environmental  soundtrack elements. This article examines the process of creating an environmental soundtrack for  cinema from the perspective of a sound designer who has worked in the Australian  film industry for over 15 years (Fig 1). The articles focus is on the use of  environmental recordings and sound effects to create a landscape, as opposed to  the use of dialogue and music in the soundtrack. Using two contemporary  Australian films, Happy Feet (George Miller, 2006) and Australia (Baz Luhrmann,  2008), this article examines the different creative process used for an  environmental soundscape for an animation and a live action feature film.   Figure 1: The author at work at Australian Clay Target Association, Wagga Gun Club, Wagga Wagga, Australia. (Photo  courtesy of Tony Turner.) Soundscape Design From earliest societies to contemporary musicians, sound has been an integral  communication component to convey messages, express emotion and to tell a  story. Communication through the use of sound has been significant to human  social evolution. Although spoken language is the predominant form of sonic  communication in our society, other oral and aural methods include rhythm,  melody, percussion, humming, the mimicking of sounds through vocalisations and,  in the modern era, by the recording and creation of music and sounds through the  use of technology. As David Sonnenschein states, [by] giving meaning to noise,  sound becomes communication (2001, p. xix). Through the use of recorded sounds  and the creation of new sounds, the art of sound design has become an important  approach to screen based storytelling. Although landscapes appear to be natural, creative liberty is often given to the  aural representation of these settings as required by the film narrative. While both  Happy Feet and Australia rely on the landscape and environment as integral  storytelling components, the approach to creating their respective soundscapes requires not only natural recordings, but also synthetic sound design and  creation. Whether natural or synthetic, neither approach is less significant than  the other. In this paper my definition of natural recordings pertains to sounds that are created organically through such elements as winds, ice, land mass, water,  animals, vegetation and various other sounds naturally occurring without evidence  of human or industrial influence or activity. Difficulties such as accessibility and noise pollution make our most pristine  locations increasingly difficult to capture sonically. Although not always the  preferred method, synthetic aural environmental design will continue to develop as  a necessary addition to assist in crafting the aural illusion of cinematic  environments. Using a recent trip to Mount Kosciusko as an example (Fig 2), I was  surprised at the amount of noise pollution tainting the sound recordings within the  National Park. Many of these sounds were distant sounds, including small planes  and agricultural sprinklers: however they still managed to appear faintly in the  background of some of the recordings. When used in the context of a film these  edited recordings appear to be natural when first listened to by an audience, but  they are unaware of the use of equalisation, filtering techniques, frequency band  compression and other such technological solutions in eradicating this noise. Th is  processing of the original recordings in turn transforms these natural recordings  to new artificially designed pseudo natural sounding environments.   Figure 2: Yarrangobilly River, Kosciuszko National Park. (Photo courtesy of Caroline Candusso.) When the sound designer commences production on a film, they study the  environmental landscape, location and the period in which the film is set. This  becomes the foundational building block of the soundtrack and determines the  approach to creating the overall narrative for the film through sound. In the film  medium, sound design purposefully communicates to an audience through  recorded and created sounds that augment the onscreen visuals. In contemporary  cinema, dialogue is the primary auditory component used to convey a story,  however the sound ecology of the landscape and the sound effects are of equal  importance. Sound design does not merely replicate what is happening on screen,  it is an additional storytelling component. An example of this occurs in Australia  (Baz Luhrmann, 2008), in the scene where we first learn of the impending attack   on Darwin by the Japanese. Here for the first time a soft, almost whispering of  wind is heard. The plane approach has no engine sounds, only the sounds of the  wings slicing through the air. This was a brief from the director who wanted the  first plane to replicate a shark surfacing with only the fin piercing the water  surface. It is not until the plane is revealed and peels off to the right of screen that  we start to hear the sound of an actual engine, the roar of danger, the sound of an  advancing Zero threat. The sound does not give away the shot before we see the  plane, in fact it adds to the curiosity. The sound of the wind makes the scene even  more menacing and, in this instance, the sound has foreshadowed the action on an  emotional level before the visuals have presented it. In cinema history, advances in sound technology have given filmmakers the  opportunity to take advantage of the creativity of sound and allow it to play an  equally important role as the visuals in storytelling. As George Lucas has noted,  Sound is 50 percent of the movie going experience (2004: online). Hollywood has  increasingly relied on sound to contribute to the contemporary film viewing  experience. Audience expectations of sound place greater emphasis on the craft of  sound design. Approaching the Task of Environmental Sound Creation   With many factors contributing to the use of authentic sound recordings  (including budget, availability of personnel, deadlines etc.), often sounds need to be  fabricated. These sounds may make up the entire soundtrack, or they may only  make up elements of the soundtrack that blend with other recordings of actual  environmental sound. If the soundtrack is created well, it will not appear to be out  of place and the audience will not be aware of any disparities. It is only when the  soundtrack jars that the audience is alerted to the sound and may question the  legitimacy or integrity of the sound sources. A fictitious alien landscape scene, for  example, containing recognisable sounds from our world may elicit a sense of  disbelief. When we see a storm onscreen, we routinely hear thunder; when we see a dog, it  often barks; a door usually creaks; a car might skid when stopping; and explosions  may shake the room. There are many sound clichà ©s consistently used in the  contemporary soundtrack. Through developments in cinema sound technology,  many Hollywood film soundtracks are created to deliver what an audience expects  to hear, rather than represent the actual sounds of the real world. Also sounds are  pared back from all of those that might be in a specific setting to emphasise those  most relevant to the narrative. With the use of high quality speakers with a wide  frequency response, the introduction of the various surround sound formats and  powerful computers with an array of software options, technology is allowing for  greater creativity and flexibility in the soundtrack. The sound designer needs to balance between telling the story using the available  tools, and delivering a soundtrack that is credible for the story and setting. While  the overall soundtrack needs to be treated with careful consideration, so too should  the individual sound components that contribute to it. It is not uncommon for the  sound designer and editors to research the authenticity of various elements within  the film to provide a guide as to the legitimacy of the sounds and the sound sets  required. For example, if we see a shot of the Statue of Liberty, New York and, place of the sound of pigeons, the only birds we hear are kookaburras, the  audience will be distracted from the story, and continuity of the film will be  disrupted.In both Happy Feet and Australia, extensive research was conducted into the  environments and locations of both film settings prior to the editing of any sound.  Particular attention was given to the study of the wildlife, espe cially birds and  insects, and the seasons. Other research investigated the locations on a larger  scale including the weather of Antarctica-which notably does not develop thunder.  Careful sound choice allows the audience to be situated within the depicted  environment. At the commencement of sound post-production, one of the most important  preparatory steps is to read the script or to watch an edit of the film in its entirety.   Depending on the film, the sound team may have the luxury of reading a script  during the film pre-production phase or in other instances a rough edit may be  given to the sound team to view almost immediately after shooting has completed.  In some instances they may be given both. Providing either a script or an early edit  of the film allows for the planning of the dramatic journey of the film, and the  mapping of the narrative dynamics through sound. This can be in the form of  physically drawing a chart or a graph mapping the drama and dynamics of the film  over time. This allows careful designing of sounds to build up to the climactic  scenes in the film, and then to use quiet moments to increase dramatic impact.  Having a graphic representation of the film allows for the nuanced planning of the  soundtrack, which will follow and often assist the onscreen narrative. Depending  on the directors approach to the film, this method can also be helpful for creati ng  juxtaposition between the onscreen drama and the aural drama. Sound has the  power to emphasise or soften a story depending on the directors decisions. Happy  Feet has a scene depicting a leopard seal chasing the central protagonist, Mumble,  underwater. Due to the visual size and menacing teeth of the leopard seal the  original sounds edited for the scene had to be re-crafted to suit the targeted  audience of children. Many of the original growls were replaced by less aggressive  grunts, and more breaths were added to soften the chase and viciousness of the  antagonist. Every film has its own challenges and requires its own approach to the sound  design. Some films are created to imitate reality and often contain sounds of  actual location sound recordings of what the audience is seeing on screen,  recorded on set from the filmed locations. In the films Little Fish (Rowan Woods,  2005) and The Magician (Scott Ryan, 2010) for which I was a sound effects editor,  sound designer Sam Petty aimed to recreate the actual real sound of the locations  in both films. Petty retraced the shots of The Magician and recorded the film  locations throughout Melbourne. On Little Fish I retraced and recorded many of the  film location environments including several locations in Cabramatta, Sydney (Fig  3). Both the Cabramatta train station and the featured shopping mall are central to  establishing the locations within this film. Having to recreate these locations from  either library sounds or unauthentic recordings would have been very time   consuming, and still may not provide the desired authenticity.   It is important to note that the shooting schedule does not generally allow enough  time for the location sound crew to capture many sounds of locations during  filming. The primary concern of the location sound recordist and crew is to capture  the dialogue and the actor performances. The audio post-production crew then  need to seek permissions to re-record after initial filming, which requires further  time and funding that are rarely included in the budget.    In contrast to films like The Magician and Little Fish, many films require the use of  exotic, rare and even previously unheard or fabricated environmental sounds. With  the increase in films based around visual effects, films can be located in fictional  lands with entirely contrived characters and creatures.  Depending on the context of the film, an audience will have preconceived ideas of   what the sounds should be for particular scenes. This is the case even for animated  films that are set in entirely contrived locales. James Camerons Avatar (2009) is a  well-cited contemporary example. No one has physically experienced this mythical  land of Pandora, although we have some sense of what we would expect to hear,  for example, by associating the forest with familiar rainforest, or by the appearance  of certain creatures. The environmental sounds alone comprise many previously  unheard insects, specific and unusual animals, other background animal  vocalisations, and types of vegetation. On occasions such as this it may be necessary to create entirely new sounds for  these new worlds. These original sounds may start their incarnation from the  recordings of sounds from our own world or they may be completely synthesised.   What is important is to keep these new sounds identifiable according to our  current expectations. Some designing techniques for these new sounds may  include the following:   transforming existing sounds through the use of pitch changing,  equalisation, or any number of filtering processes using specific recordings of rare or unusual sounds   pitching or modifying electronics, machinery or vehicles   pitching and combining various animal vocalisations   using synthesis to create new sounds, and others.   Although budget constraints will influence the approach to film sound design, so  too does the availability and existence of-and access to-required sounds. When  creating a sonic environment or landscape for a film, wherever it is set, it is  important to consider what is real to the location, what seems real, and what  sounds the audience expects to hear. In summary, factors determining the  approach to the creation of the environments include whether the location exists in  the real world, whether environmental recordings were made during on-location  filming, whether the storyline is located in a contemporary setting, and whether  funds and safety allow the recording of the location.  This leads to a discussion of two contemporary feature films from the perspective of  a sound effects editor1. Produced on relatively big budgets for Australian feature  films,2 both Happy Feet and Australia included a dedicated atmosphere sound  editor as part of the sound te am. This role is often absorbed by the sound effects  editor on smaller productions and lower budget projects. In both films, my sound  effect creation and editing drove the use of the environment as an integral story  component and, as such, I worked very closely with the atmosphere editors. What  distinguished my role from that of the atmosphere editor was that my contribution  treated the landscape as a character. Working in sound effects, I specifically  designed many sounds for both films with integrated and often highlighted story  elements associated with the environments. These films differ quite considerably and provide contrasting examples of sonic  environment creation. The films are set in remarkable and distinctive locations; Happy Feet is an animated film set in Antarctica, while Australia is a live action film  set in the Northern Territory, Australia.3 Both films pose varying degrees of  complexity in terms of their sonic environmental depictions on screen.  Creating a Sound Environment As with the visuals, the sound for an animated film differs from live action film. With no actual filming on location, all characters are created, all sets are rendered,  and all visuals are designed by animation artists. There is no cinematographer filming actors at an actual geographical location as with a live action film (although  voice acting is recorded for the animators). Sound recordings of the film set  locations are not captured as there is no filming on location.4 Therefore all sound  environments need to be recorded and/or created from the ground up.   1 In this article I focus on the environmental sounds, and a consideration of spot effects is a topic for a further study.   2 According to the International Movie Database (IMDB.com) the budget for Happy Feet was $100,000,000  (http://www.imdb.com/title/tt0366548/) and $130,000,000 for Australia (http://www.imdb.com/title/tt0455824/).   3 Some scenes were shot in various locations in Northern Territory, northern Queensland and Sydneys Fox Studios.   4 However some animators, notably Australian Yoram Gross, have used filmed bush background for the drawn characters.  See Dot and the Kangaroo (1977) and other work.Screen Sound n3, 2012 128   Happy Feet Millers Academy Award winning Happy Feet tells the story of Mumble, an emperor  penguin who, instead of being able to sing, tap dances. The characters of the film  also included many animated Antarctic animals, primarily penguins. The  combination of an animated remote environment (Antarctica) and animated  animals meant that every sound for this film had to be created.  Through the use of detailed layers of sound, sound design is about creating a level  of believability. It is not just a matter of placing a single sound into a scene and  hoping that the audience believes it. Ambiences in our everyday life are complex,  with chaotic and sometimes even choreographed symphonies, with the land, the  wind, animals, birds and vegetation all playing their tunes within a given space. In  addition to these individual sounds, these acoustic spaces are important in  representing the onscreen landscape spaces.   The challenge of creating such an unpolluted, isolated and dangerous atmosphere  meant that the sound design had to be precise and untainted by unwanted  background noises. As the budget didnt allow for a sound team to travel and  record actual Antarctic locations, climatic conditions and animal activities, we had  to rely on pre-existing sound recordings of Antarctica or recordings made in more  accessible locations such as Thredbo ski resort in Australia and from some  locations in New Zealands South Island.   With many shots depicting the rugged landscape of Antarctica, often the detail  within the sound design can pass unnoticed. If we look specifically at Lovelaces  Pile (Fig 4) the sounds can be unpacked to reveal far more detail than what is  initially heard. Basic element Breakdown of sounds Winds Close up winds (flurries of snow) Distant winds to give sense of space Wind howling through icicles Snow Movements on snow by penguins Melting snow Snow falling off cliffs in the background Ice-land Mass (subtle) Movements of ice Ice cracks and creaks Ice thumps Animals Background penguin vocals near and far Background penguin movement Table 1: Landscape sounds in Lovelaces Pile scene in Happy Feet   From this list the sound editor has 11 possible sets of sounds that may be  deployed to create the environmental backdrop for this scene. This excludes any  character or action related sounds; it is only the ambient background.   Without access to record authentic atmospheres, many of the sounds were  recorded or sourced from other locations in order to imitate the film set. These  would then be reconstructed as the sounds could vary entirely. We were fortunate  that we had some actual recordings of Antarctica for the film. During production,  supervising sound editor and sound designer, Wayne Pashley, sent a mini-disc  recorder to the Antarctic and asked scientists to record sounds whilst doing their  field studies. Unfortunately, the recording quality was not always film worthy as  the scientists are not trained sound recordists. Happy Feet did contain some actual  sounds from Antarctica, although a high percentage of sounds were either non-  Antarctic recordings or studio recordings created specifically for the film.   The animal recordings from Antarctica were used where possible to create an  underlying realistic bed for the film. Some of the successful recorded sounds used  included those of elephant seals, adà ©lie penguins, emperor penguins and even skua  birds. These beds of animal noises gave the background environment a sense of  reality upon which to layer the main characters. The main and featured animals  were often recreated using studio recordings and other sources of sound  recordings.   Some of the successful Antarctic environmental recordings included iceberg  movements, ice winds, and slushy icy water. These were also edited and used  where possible alongside additional created sounds. Again, these realistic  environmental sounds were primarily employed to evoke a believable background  ambience. To emphasise the size and weight of several of the large icebergs,  controlled recording and studio techniques helped create such large masses. This  included close microphone techniques and using dry-ice (liquid nitrogen) to freeze  large objects that we could then record being dragged across the floor. With the  realistic Antarctic recordings serving as our bed, these additional recreated sounds  became the embellishments and the dramatic highlights.   As storytellers in our own right, creative liberty allowed for the reappropriation of  these sounds. At times these sounds would be used only as a bed and then  additional snow, ice and wind elements would be created and embellished to better  represent the onscreen visuals and the unfolding drama. Some of these sounds  came from our own original Foley studio recording sessions using props to design   sounds to be used to highlight onscreen action. An example of the studio  recordings included creating snow for the feet close-ups where the characters  dance on the snow. As we did not have access to snow, we recorded crushed ice,  salt, cereal, sugar, sand and several other props to mimic the sound of snow.  Recording in a studio allowed us to create our sounds specifically for the particular  scene. Throughout the film, the seasons changed over a one-year cycle and we  wanted to represent this as best we could through the changing environment  sounds. We had allocated recording days where we could record specific sounds in  a very clean, precise manner. If we needed more grit in our snow we could just  change the elements we were recording, or if we needed the snow to sound more  wet we could just mix in some more water when required. We were not dictated by  natural resources. The other advantage of having these studio recording days was  that we could rec ord sounds specifically for the big screen. What I mean by this is  that we could record sounds specifically for the surround sound speakers. Using  the close-up of feet on snow as an example, if a character flicked his/her  flipper/foot in close-up, we could record different snow elements for the left, centre  and right hand side of the flipper and have the debris snow crumbles pan back into  the surrounds. This would have been impossible to record with such precision as  an actual performance in real life. By having control of individual sound elements,  we were able to creatively challenge the cinema and screen space to highlight the  environmental immersion.   Australia Set during the Second World War, Australias storyline centres on a cattle drive in  the rugged terrain of northern Australia, as an English aristocrat travels across  harsh environments with her stock. From the opening moments, even before the  first visual images, sound is used to position the audience of Australia. From the  initial fade in from black we begin to hear ethereal singing, native birds, insects,  winds and the gradual swell of string instruments. In these opening scenes, the sounds of different winds, animals and insects  intertwine with an emotional journey across an environmental backdrop that  transforms, as the audience witness the death of Lord Ashley, from above ground  and into the muffled and mysterious murky underwater drones and whale song.  Playing in slow-motion the images show King George (David Gulpilil) telling Nullah  (Brandon Walters) to make yourself invisible as the white fellas are herding cattle  across the river onto the Carney property. Although music is also playing  concurrently with the sound effects, the effects design specifically aims to make  reference to Aboriginal dreamtime. As Lord Ashley is killed and falls to the water  above Nullah with a spear through his chest, the water turns crimson, the sound  hints that Lord Ashley has been killed by the people moving the cattle, the same  people Nullah is also hiding from. Visually it isnt until we see the snakeskin boot  of N eil Fletcher (David Wenham) that we realise that he is the killer.  Although the sounds chosen for this sequence are simple environmental  recordings, what is important is the way in which they have been reappropriated to  form part of the narrative. Through transformation, including pitch and other  manipulation techniques of the original recordings, these evolve into new, unheardof  sounds that yet seem familiar. When designing such delicate sounds, much time was spent experimenting with  the creation of sounds that morph unnoticeably from one sound into another  throughout the opening sequence. Tonal frequencies, recording quality and mixing  techniques were constantly balanced and adjusted to create a single fluid flow of  environmental sounds. At the same time, although continually transforming, the  sounds needed to contain characteristics of the original sound sources, allowing  the audience to connect the aural with the visual. Throughout Australia, designed  sounds are used very subtly. Overall the film uses actual location and natural  sounds to convey the Australian landscape, with the designed sounds being  reserved for scenes with Nullah, the death of Daisy and for King George, as these  relate to the dreamtime and spirituality.   With vast landscapes of Australias Northern Territory depicted through  cinematography, natural sounds are needed to convey the impact of the  environment. Supervising sound editor and sound designer, Wayne Pashley,  retraced many of the original locations in the film during the sound postproduction  phase. Using a Soundfield ST350 ambisonic microphone, Pashley was  able to record in surround sound an entire three-dimensional landscape on  location. Until recently, creating film surround sound was only possible during the  post-production process, but this particular technology allowed for a pristine,  natural recording of the environment. These recordings in surround were then  decoded, edited and used as beds for the atmosphere tracks of the film. Pashley  observed: We also wanted to be true to the landscape of Australia. So often in big  productions like this, the sound design guys just reach for Bush  Atmosphere Number Three [library effect] or whatever, and everything  comes out sounding the same. Also, what you hear is usually completely  unrelated to the environment you see on the screen. We wanted this to be  different. Australia is, I think, the first movie that sounds correct, that gives  a true sense of how this country sounds. (cited in Soundfield, 2008:  online) With many scenes depicting broad vistas, having the atmospheres recorded in  surround from the outset allows the sounds to reflect the vastness of the actual  locations. In sound editing, the atmosphere tracks are often edited from existing  stereo recordings, thus limiting the detail within the acoustic space. In most  instances, artificial reverb is introduced to make the sounds appear to be wider  within the acoustic space. Recording in surround sound reduces the need for and  use of these contrived techniques. All animal sounds for Australia were purposely recorded for the film. Working  remotely and living in regional New South Wales, I was able to record many of the  animal vocalisations of cows and horses for the film at locales situated near where I  live. The cows were particularly challenging to record as they are often difficult to  get close to without them running away. Having the livestock saleyards proved to  be a very convenient way to record cows at close proximity. Also having so many  cows in such a small space allowed the recording of mass group cows to be used in  many of the backgrounds. Situated within a livestock pen meant that the beasts  were particularly vocal, which allowed for high quality recording and performance  and, later, for flexibility in editing their bellows. Conclusion Often overshadowed by dialogue and music, the environmental atmospheric  sounds of a film are often overlooked by audiences. These aural landscapes  comprise either actual recordings or synthetic recordings constructed to  acoustically represent the onscreen locations. Both Happy Feet and Australia rely  on the aural landscape environment as essential storytelling characters within  each film. Based on very distinct locations, the films differed notably in the  approaches to their environmental landscape sound design. In a general  comparison Happy Feet featured far more inauthe