The Sound Wagon

The voice is elusive. Once you've eliminated everything that is not the voice itself—the body houses it, the words it carries, the notes it sings, the traits by which it defines a speaking person, and the timbres that color it, what’s left?  — Michel Chion             Sound if often heard but not seen. And I’m not talking about seeing the source of that sound, but to see the sound waves, the vibratory patterns—to put sound in the spotlight as material form and it being physically present as part of the world that’s being shown in the frame. We tend to always relate a voice with body just as we relate a sound effect with an object. But, what happens when we separate the voice from the original source and give it to another body or object? My focus is not going to be on how sound makes itself visible when we analyze its physics, my focus is going to be on the marriage of the voice with another body. How the detachment of b...

The NYFF is New York's most important film festival--bringing prime films last year like Carol , Steve Jobs, Brooklyn, and Bridge of Spies (Fun Fact: The Lobster , one of the films that I saw and talked about on my Festival Madness: Indie Films blog entry was also shown), it charms the viewers with the most anticipated films and potential Oscar candidates. Now, long story short, I found out about the festival one week before it started. Obviously, I knew at that instance that I had to go and at least watch one film. Having gone through the experience of both working and attending the Florida Film Festival this last April, I wanted to know how different it would be from the aforementioned. The red carpet for the 54th New York Film Festival This is where it got tricky, since I found out a week before the big event, most of the films were already sold out or on stand by with the possibility of the release of more tickets during the week. I was kind of bummed, but that didn...

With the release of Netflix's newest original series  Stranger Thing s, people have come to relieve what we call "80's nostalgia", both visually and sonically. But, are we really relieving the glory days of synthesizers and Star Wars? Or did 2016 just showed us a new way to craft sound by blending the vintage with the modern? Ever since I binge-watched the entire show a month ago, I've been wanting to write about it. I spent days and days thinking on how I could make an entry that would be worth your while, but that would also teach me something in the end.  I texted one of my close friends who's currently a Film student and, knowing he sees things from a different perspective I asked him what kind of topics sound wise would he be interested in reading. Amid our conversation he said something that really caught my attention. He mentioned that although there have been various films and shows this year that have brought back the 80's nostalgia, ...

Three minutes into this docu short and I already knew I had to write about it.  The Secret World of Foley follows the journey of British Foley artists: Sue Harding ( Les Misérables, The Imitation Game, and Philomena ) and Peter Burgis (V for Vendetta, Harry Potter and the Deathly Hallows, and The Danish Girl) as they perform the art of Foley for a film titled Clovelly. Throughout this thirteen-minute short, we see the pair perform all sorts of sounds to match that of what is going on in Clovelly, a fishing village in England. The Foley studio where the magic is seen happening is inside the prestigious Pinewood Studios (if you're not a sound nerd, but you love Star Wars then you might recognize this name!). Left to Right: Sue Harding and Peter Burgis There is no better representation of what goes on inside this section of the world of audio post production than this documentary short. When I first hit play I started to listen to it through my laptop speakers, but I q...

Exactly one year ago I won two tickets to the 24th Florida Film Festival. For the ones that don't know, the Florida Film Festival is accredited as a qualifying festival for the Oscars. Exciting isn't it? At that point in my life, I'd never attended a film festival nor truly knew the workflow of it, let alone the existence of the Florida Film Fest. I invited my cousin and we made it to three different independent films including one international. It definitely left me wanting to go back, but sadly, we only had tickets for one day. I made it a goal to sign up as a volunteer for next year's festival. And so it happened. One year later, or, two weeks ago, I had the opportunity to help out in said festival.  It was such an amazing experience being able to hear film lovers, filmmakers, producers, press, and others talk to each other passionately about the showings as I did my work. Apart from pre-screening/QC, ushering people to the theater, cleaning tables, and coun...

 Last night at The 88th Academy Awards, Mark Mangini and David White won the Oscar for Best Sound Editing for their amazing work on Mad Max: Fury Road . To top it all, Gregg Rudloff, Chris Jenkins, and Ben Osmo won the Oscar for Best Sound Mixing for said film. What makes the sounds of Mad Max stand out from competition? I believe that it's fair to say it's the dedication to personify every sound that we hear throughout the entire movie; to make a fictitious atmosphere sound believable. Even if it was the smallest detail, the Sound Editors had one goal, and it was for the audience, as unrealistically as it looked, to be affected and to believe that what they heard truly happened in real time. The entire movie is dominated by intense vehicle sounds and war machines. There were a lot of visuals that needed to be accompanied by powerful sounds. Sound Editor and Designer Mark Mangini recently talked to The Frame about how he had some pretty interesting ideas whi...

Not many people realize how important is the audio postproduction process for any visual media. As a matter of fact, sound is 50% of a film. Without it, you probably wouldn't be as emotionally driven to it as you are when you're watching it; sound is vital to the storytelling telling process in filmmaking. Although talkies emerged in the early/mid 1900s, movies were never truly silent. Music was the primary key when it came to adding emotion to a scene – it still is. That being said, filmmakers have always found a way to incorporate sound so that it creates the perfect environment. Ben Burtt doing some field recording. "Filmmakers began to experiment with special effects almost as soon as motion pictures were invented. The history of special effects is the history of motion pictures" -Ben Burtt The Sound Department consists of many creative and hardworking people that often have to wear multiple hats. You have the Sound Designers, Sound Editors, Foley Arti...