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    Sound in film

    I just chanced across this rather excellent blog. It reminded me of how I was particularly struck by the way that the sound in the dream sequences in the adaptation of 'Whistle and I'll Come to You' that I posted on the 'Ghost Stories' thread really ramped up the tension. The way Hordern's cries were cut short in the editing. Simple stuff, but very effective.

    Also, my favourite film - 'Eraserhead' - had some pretty unique (at the time) sounds in it too: the constant static, the omnipresent thud of machinery, certain other sounds amplified way too high. It all contributed to the making it feel like a scratchy old 78 pressing of a dream you once had.

    Anyway, this all made me wonder what your favourite examples of sound and sound usage in films were?

    #2
    Sound in film

    Has to be The Conversation. And the beginning of Apocalypse Now--if you've seen it in a theater with good surround, you know. Besides Coppola, both of those had sound done by Walter Murch. He's written a few books on sound in film. I haven't read them, but they're supposed to be great.

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      #3
      Sound in film

      Interesting thread Clive. My first answer would be the use of complete silence interspersed with heavy spacesuit breathing in the outer space scenes of "2001".

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        #4
        Sound in film

        It's odd, but I was thinking about this very topic tonight (I don't know quite why) before seeing the thread - about going to see Earthquake in Coventry in 1975. I had to go for a wee during the film, and I remember feeling the walls shaking in the bog ... Sensurround, you see.

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          #5
          Sound in film

          Yeah, The Conversation is a real virtuoso case (a good example of talented people making the most of a small budget, I'd guess). All David Lynch's stuff gets its power from the sound, too - not just the songs but the subtle rumbles and what-have-you. And that record stuck on a playout groove in the final (?) episode of Twin Peaks, the one where the shit really goes off - that really got me when I was 14 or so.

          Star Wars would be hopelessly naff if the sound wasn't so brilliant.

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            #6
            Sound in film

            The Conversation is great.

            Every year that I've used it on film modules, tho', the feedback mentions it as the worst thing about the module.

            Kids today, eh?

            Once when I bowed to the popular will, I used Goodfellas instead.

            Not so obviously an example of artful sound design, but cos it uses every available kind of film sound (voiceover, sound effects, intra- and extra-diegetic music, realist dialogue, direct address etc etc) in an effective and interesting way.

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              #7
              Sound in film

              Many's the time that I've seen a film and not really commented on the use of sound - although this thread is coming up with some good examples - but perhaps that's the sign of how good the sound bods are, with the textures and detail so intricately done that you don't really know how good a job they've achieved until someone actually points it out.

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                #8
                Sound in film

                Definitely. I recently watched Bunuel's 60s/70s films, and couldn't put my finger on what gave them such a unique feel (aside from all the mental shit that happens in them of course). Then the penny dropped: there's next to no background sound, in the form of music or non-naturalistic sound effects or what-have-you. The absence is really noticable; they're more like TV plays in that way.

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