How not to use a soundtrack…
As an independent film maker, I am also a student of film and the techniques used to create it. Subscription based video rental is one of the most useful tools I’ve ever seen for this, like Blockbuster Online or NetFlix.
I use NetFlix for one simple reason: instant online movie watching. Granted, it’s not their entire catalog, and many of the selections are old, but there’s still plenty there to keep my second monitor at work buzzing with distractions.
Today, I watched 9 1/2 Weeks. Not a bad little erotic/romantic romp. If Mickey Rourke being an asshole is your thing, you’ll be in heaven, although I was a little disappointed to find out that all of Kim Basinger’s nude scenes were performed by a body double.
If I had one real complaint about the movie, though, it’s the soundtrack, and if you’re a budding sound designer I’d strongly suggest you watch it to find out how NOT to create one.
Sound in film should ebb and flow. It is the music and the sound effects that create the emotion of a scene. It can speed the perceived pace of slow editing (see the Death Star trench sequence in Star Wars IV - before George Lucas’s so-called “fixes”), or add tension to otherwise innocuous action (just about every slasher film), just for a start. Like the action in a film, it should rise and fall in volume and tempo.
The soundtrack for 9 1/2 Weeks does just that, but wayyyyyy too extremely: it rose and fell from near-silence to ear-piercing. I was watching the film with headphones on, so there were no auditory distractions. The dialog was so quiet, I had to crank the volume to hear the actors speak. As soon as the music started, I had to turn the volume nearly off because it was so loud. And this was eighties music so it wasn’t exactly pleasant listening to begin with. There was no middle ground.
To be totally honest, I felt pummeled. Absolutely beat to deaf.
Tags: film, film making, foley, independent film, movie, movie making, sound, sound design, sound effects
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