Terminator Effect’s Arrangement

For this week’s lecture we learnt about ‘Sound design’, if it is music or just sound effects? (Diagetic – the border between music and effects)

How is sound used… According to Tomlinson Holman 

• Direct narrative role: Alerting the viewer by cueing an actor with a sound i.e off screen.
• Subliminal narrative role: People listen to sound as a whole, the sound designer can mix unexpected sounds to colour the viewers perception of something i.e the voice of R2D2 is perceived as friendly. 
• Grammatical role: sound that remains unchanged when the pictures change, induces unity in an otherwise disjointed sequence.

A ‘Temp Track’ is used in a film as a temporary measure until the finished score is available.

Examples of effects used in film affectively

The Light Saber sound from Star Wars: Use of a film projector motor, microphone and tv sound plus re-recording.

Vacuum tube of an old Tv mixed with microphone picking up the two humming sounds (interference).

The Flying Machines: Elephants and Vacuum Cleaners.

R2D2: Synths and whistling vocal sounds. Chopped up and then placed in random order.

Chewbacca: A Walrus and other animals for the modulation and a lion growl which is pitched up.

Secret Cues in film…

1. The Classics: Castle Thunder
2. The Uniphone in the 70’s and 80’s
3. The Wilhelm Scream 1951 from the film ‘Distant Drums’, plus different versions of this scream.

Things to think of when adding effects…

• Is it Metallic? Rubbery? 
• The use of Hard Panning?
• The Atmosphere? Alarms for a warehouse feel? Water dripping to suggest a cave environment? 

Terminator Effect’s Arrangement

I have watched the Terminator films a lot over the years. So keeping in theme with the films, i wanted to reflect the fact that the endo-skletion’s are evil.

So to achieve this, i placed an alarm in the scene to make the listener believe there is a huge amount of space (Warehouse). Adding a bit of reverb of course. 

For the  Sparks that were flying around, i used a dentists drill, hydraulics and sparking cables to give the feel that the body parts are getting soldered onto the body. I like this sound because it does sound metallic, and by panning the drills to where they are placed on the screen, gives you the sense of that they are following the listener. 

I am a huge fan of James Cameron and Ridley Scott, so i must say when i searched for certain sound – i discarded a lot of them as i wanted it to sound perfect, as i would see it – they had to be close to the sound i imagined as i knew what sound and effect i wanted the listener to experience.

 

Click on the link below to listen… 🙂

 

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Freebie & The Bean Percussion Arrangement – MFDM

For Task 6 we were told to create a Percussion Arrangement for the car chase scene in ‘Freebie & The Bean’ (1974) – Only using Percussion.

Percussion… The Facts 

• Percussion is usually used for chase scenes & where music is colourful. 
• Drones under Percussion are very effective.  
• ‘American Beauty’ score has a Banjo in between the mix which works well with the Percussion. 
• Try to change the Percussion waves and make them varied (2 or 4 bars and then a change).
• The ‘Six feet Under’ and ‘Medium’ score are alike ‘American Beauty’, the Percussion changes very 2 bars.
• A Soprano sax works nicely with Percussion.
• Try to have a change in texture or break through for other instruments.
• Adding different instruments on every repetition adds more space.
• Measured spaces is a good effect with reverb. 
• Try and delay a whole track, it can create a sense of tension – can be good, can be rubbish. 
• Try various time signatures 7/4? 4/4? 
• Try different BPM’s. 145BPM? 157BPM?

Freebie & The Bean…

1. Use 2 minutes of the chase scene. 
2. Cut back the instruments to let through the dialogue (Background Sound). 
3. Synced to crashes and the dialogue.
4. Only use Percussion – with maybe a hint of a Bass pluck (Only to add colour).
5. No Melody or Grooves in this Task.

To Cue Film in Logic…

• Place Playhead at bar 1. 
• Go to Lists – and then Tempo.
• Choose the section of the film you wish to start at.
• Change the SMPTE position (In Hour, Minutes, Seconds and Frames) – acts as a trim without cutting the film.
• Listening with the Metronome will help keep you in time.
• The faster the BPM the more likely the film will be in time, but it will have less character.

Tips…

1. Use Shakers – they give a nice effect. And make sure you alternate the Shakers.
2. Look for Audio Samples in Logic – you can stretch it to fit your BPM.
3. Choose various audio snip its.
4. Look for places that need reinforcing – more colour.
5. Make some Percussion panned, you can change the panning through Automation. Make the panning varied also.
6. Layer your tracks, it give support to other instruments.

Orchestral Percussion…

Timpani – comes in different sizes (size of the rim) – Kettle drums.

Lower Octave = 84cm, C

Higher Octave = 51cm, C Bass Clef

Some come with a pedal for tuning for next movement. 

Comes together with Brass – Military parades which drums etc had to be carried.

Orchestras use up to 8 Timps.

Cymbals…

• Turkish Cymbals – Zibljan
• Tam Tams in England and America
• Gong is with Dong in Middle – used in Asia predominately 
• Piatti – Suspended Cymbal
• Piatto
• Melits – Beaters – Different varied. Soft, Hard etc…

Misc. Percussion…

• Congas
• Bongos
• Shakers
• Kingta
• Castanets 
• Triangle
• Maracki
• Clave – Good for keeping rhythm. 

Tuned Percussion…

• Central America is important – Merimba – Played with soft beaters.
• Glockenspiel – used by Thomas Newman.
• Xylophone – Stiff slabs & played with hard beaters.
• Vibraphone – like a Leslie – sound of modulation and soft LFO.

Freebie & The Bean Percussion Arrangement…

For this Task, i decided to try and create a tribal African percussion track, as i think they are really energetic, fast moving and has an evolving rhythm – which i tried to emulate.

Baring in mind the techniques used by Thomas Newman, i tried to changed the rhythm in the percussion every 2 / 4 bars. This actually worked really well and made the piece interact well with the visuals. I also slowed the rhythm down so the dialogue is audible. Then for the fast car chases, i sped up the rhythm. 

Using the Volume Automation to make the track quieter so the dialogue was audible, and the BPM was set to 157BPM making the piece full of life and colour. 

If i were to do this again, i would still do the African Tribal feel to the music but perhaps add a bit of Bass, so there is a better drive to the piece. The thing i really liked, was the fast moving rhythm and how the car crashes within the visuals worked well to keep in sync with the music. 

For some reason, i really wanted to put African music to the 2 minutes of the movie, because as everyone knows, i really love the fast music. So i’m actually pretty chuffed with the outcome of this. I could maybe individually change the velocity to the percussion. That would take a very long time, but it would be worth it. If Julio likes this enough, then maybe i will do that.

🙂

CLICK THE LINK BELOW TO VIEW THE MOVIE:

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Bambi – Woodwind Arrangement – MFDM

For Task 5, we were told to create a Woodwind Arrangement for a movie of our choice. 

I decided to do my woodwind arrangement for the Disney film ‘Bambi’ Using the C Major scale. 

Woodwind Arrangement

Flute – Weak at bottom range, but is more powerful as it rises to top range. 

Oboe – Strong at bottom of the range and is weak at the top range.

Clarinet – Is even throughout but lacks power in the middle range. It does have a better range for controllable expression. 

Bassoon – Is similar to the Oboe. 

Piccolo – Strong at the top range. 

Using the above information for my arrangement, and also Julio’s Woodwind template, i think the piece worked quite well. As i wanted to stay away from the ‘building up tension’ music and wanted to have a ‘playful’ piece of music to emulate the visuals.
I used Reverb on the Piccolo, Flute and Strings, allowing the piece to have gaps and making it a bit more spatial. Putting Strings within the piece, made the overall piece work better as the piccolo and the violins doing Pizzicato on the bits where Thumper and Bambi are walking made it more child-like and playful. 

If i were to do the piece again, i would perhaps use an orchestra along with the woodwind instruments, as sometimes it felt like there was something missing, and no woodwind instrument could make up for the missing piece – yet  a bit of brass would fit in place perfectly. 

The thing i liked most about the piece, is the use of Marcado, Staccato and Pizzicato. By doing this it gave a balance to the instrumentation, and only a bit of volume automation was used as the overall mix sounded relatively good. 

CLICK ON THE LINK BELOW TO SEE THE COMPOSITION:

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