Anatomy of a film soundtrack - examples?

[da...@landhofilms.com]

I'm going to be giving a presentation soon to aspiring student directors on sound fundamentals and issues that would be helpful for them to keep in mind as directors. I'd like to kick it off with a demonstration of a scene with various sound post stems soloed to see how it all fits together... dialog, fx, foley, etc.

Does anyone on the post side have an old project that they could let me use, or does anyone know even of a good DVD bonus doc that gives examples of this sort of thing?

I'd also love to hear any good stories from the set that reflect the divide between director and sound department - I've heard some good ones here in the past.

Thanks in advance!

Dave

[Marc Wielage]

On Mon, 1 Apr 2013 11:32:47 -0700, da...@landhofilms.com wrote
(in article <c4e6808f-13df-4b1e...@googlegroups.com>):

> Does anyone on the post side have an old project that they could let me use,
> or does anyone know even of a good DVD bonus doc that gives examples of this
> sort of thing?

>------------------------------<snip>------------------------------<

There was a beautiful demo on the old THX "Wow" disc showing a 1-minute scene
from INDIANA JONES & THE LAST CRUSADE showing the original production
dialogue, the ADR sessions, the layers of foley and sound effects being
recorded and mixed, the dialogue being edited and added to the soundtrack,
then the music being recorded and added in the final mix. The 20-minute
presentation did a great job at showing how vastly different sound begins in
the studio and winds up in the film. Copies of the disc still pop up on eBay
from time to time (going back to a Laserdisc released around 1990-1991).

Other good examples can be found in these books:

The Foley Grail: The Art of Performing Sound for Film, Games, and Animation
by Vanessa Theme Ament
published by Focal Press [ISBN 0240811259]

Sound-On-Film: Interviews with Creators of Film Sound
by Vincent LoBrutto
published by Praeger [ISBN 0275944433]

The Practical Art of Motion Picture Sound
by David L. Yewdall
Published by Focal Press [ISBN 0240802888]

Dialogue Editing for Motion Pictures: A Guide to the Invisible Art
by John Purcell
published by Focal Press [ISBN 0240809181]


Each of these provides numerous insights; Yewdall has some very amusing
stories, including how when he added sound effects to a PG-13 horror film,
the film suddenly got an R.

You'll also find many war stories discussed on these internet groups:

JW Sound Group
http://jwsoundgroup.net/

Gearslutz Forum/Post section
http://www.gearslutz.com/board/


--MFW

[da...@landhofilms.com]

Thanks a lot for the suggestions Marc!

Dave