- Sounds, words and music
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A soundtrack is a collection of the sounds, words and music used in a film. In the following clip from "The Night of the Hunter" (USA, 1955) directed by Charles Laughton, two children hide in a barn in order to escape from a man who is intent on killing them. By combining a soundtrack composed of specific sounds, words and music with the images on screen, the filmmaker successfully manages to create strong emotions. Let's try to understand exactly how…
At the start of the clip, we hear a pleasant song accompanied by birds chirping, which makes the audience think that the children are safe. But these sounds then give way to the sound of dogs barking and a nursery rhyme sung by the killer. Although this song is very sweet, it is in no way reassuring, especially as it is mixed in with the sound of dogs barking. It creates a tension which the images themselves certainly do not convey. We therefore sense a silent threat, confirmed by the little boy's inner voice, whilst the music becomes increasingly unsettling.
This short analysis demonstrates how a film's soundtrack can be easily broken down into sounds, words and music, but it should always be remembered that these three elements form a whole and interact both with each other and the images on screen.
In some cases, the soundtrack is created in a way which conveys information that the images alone would not be able to, as in this clip from "There Will Be Blood" (USA, 2007) by Paul Thomas Anderson…
The fact that we can hear the sound at a normal volume but that it then becomes muffled, with a slight ringing, indicates that the boy has been deafened by the explosion.
- The growth of sound
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Invented in 1895, cinema films were silent until 1927, but the screenings themselves were far from silent. To compensate for the absence of sound on screen, projections of films were always accompanied by live music played from within the theatre. During the first few years of cinema, there was also a "lecturer" who described and explained the images, and Foley artists who made the sound effects for certain noises, hidden behind the screen or in the wings.
By watching the following clip from "The Kid" (USA, 1921) by Charlie Chaplin, you can imagine what a projection during the silent era would have been like, with live music and Foley…
When "The Kid" was released in 1921, it had no soundtrack. It was only once sound had been introduced to the world of cinema that Charlie Chaplin was able to add his own music and the sound of glass being broken to the soundtrack which was no longer made by Foley artists behind the screen but in a recording studio.
The technique of recording the sound directly onto the film and synchronising it with the images was properly developed in 1927. 6 October of that year saw the public screening of "The Jazz Singer" (USA, 1927) directed by Alan Crosland, which is considered to be the first feature-length motion picture with lip-synchronous speech, as this clip demonstrates.
Starting out as a silent film in which the actors speak but cannot be heard, this clip suddenly has sound: the male character sings and talks! The advent of sound films was a real revolution. All film theatres had to be equipped with loudspeakers and new projectors overnight. Actors had to suddenly start speaking whilst they were used to acting out the emotions of their characters with gestures and facial expressions.
New sound-related cinematic roles were created: boom operators, mixers, sound engineers and of course Foley artists who were tasked with recreating all sorts of sounds, such as those heard at the end of this clip from "Singin' in the Rain" (USA, 1952) directed by Stanley Donen and Gene Kelly…
Once sound films had been introduced, the dialogue that they contained also had to be dubbed into other languages to make the films accessible to as wide an audience as possible… As Christian Frei explains, using the different language versions of "Heidi" directed by Alain Gsponer as an example, dubbing a film not only involves rerecording the dialogue in another language whilst ensuring coherence with the movements of the lips of the actors on screen, but also recreating all the sounds that were recorded at the same time as the dialogue during filming. Footsteps, the swishing of clothing and ringing of bells all become unusable and have to be redone with Foley.
- During or after the shoot?
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When a film is made, there are two ways of recording sounds and dialogue. You can either record them directly during the shoot, at the same time as the images are filmed, or record them after the shoot and add them later, along with the music, during post-synchronisation, i.e. when the sound and the images are put together.
However, the sound is usually recorded during filming and extra sounds are added during post-synchronisation. The sound and the images have to be synchronised well though: when someone walks, you have to hear the sound of their footsteps precisely at the moment when you see their feet touch the ground.
Although the majority of filmmakers work this way, some opt to fully post-synchronise their films after they have been shot by getting the actors to record the dialogue in a studio and employing a Foley artist to recreate all the sounds. Jacques Tati was one such person who preferred this method, as Christian Frei has pointed out. Fellini, another great filmmaker, even asked his actors to make "bla bla bla" noises during filming, as was the case in "The Clowns", from which this clip was taken…
If the sounds are recorded at the same time as the actors speak, this is referred to as direct sound, which is not what Fellini opted for. If there is too much distracting noise during the shoot, the sound engineer will also record what are referred to as "single sounds", which are added afterwards to the soundtrack, during post-synchronisation. It can involve very specific sounds, such as the noise of a vacuum cleaner, or background noise, such as the hustle and bustle of traffic.
It might be that the sound engineer forgets to record a single sound or the director thinks that it is not expressive enough or that the quality is not good enough. The sound engineer may very well be able to find an equivalent sound in a sound bank, but the director will no doubt prefer to use the services of a Foley artist to achieve the best possible result. For sounds for fantasy films, there is an even greater need to use a Foley artist. For example, how can you convey the noise made by an alien or a UFO other than by inventing it with all sorts of equipment?
Here is a clip from the film "The Conversation" (USA, 1974) by Francis Ford Coppola in which the listening process and the soundtrack are very important… Are these direct sounds, single sounds or Foley sounds?
This clip clearly does not contain any direct sound recorded during filming. These are therefore all single sounds added afterwards, such as the noise from the street or the rewinding, or Foley sounds, for example the noises made when the recording device is being handled.
Using the example of his own documentary, "Space Tourists" (2009), Christian Frei nicely highlights the difference between direct sound and sound added afterwards during post-synchronisation. The filmmaker in particular explains why he had to use post-synchronised sound to add sound effects to the scene where Anousheh Ansari, the American billionaire travelling in the space shuttle, brushes her teeth.
Let's now take a look at the next clip, from "2001: A Space Odyssey" (USA, 1968) by Stanley Kubrick: is this direct sound or post-synchronised sound?
Unlike in the documentary "Space Tourists", this astronaut was not filmed in space. The images were shot in a film studio with the aid of various different special effects. The sound of the astronaut's heavy breathing was therefore post-synchronised. This is a subjective sound because you perceive it as if you were the character yourself, wearing the spacesuit. It is worth mentioning the key function of this sound here: together with the images, it conveys the fact that space is completely silent, contrary to what the chain-reaction explosions in the interstellar fight scenes of the "Star Wars" saga would have us believe.
As these clips show, sounds are most often post-synchronised in fictional films, unlike with documentaries, where filmmakers generally use direct sound out of respect for the reality that they are seeking to capture. But sometimes documentary directors use Foley sounds because a sound is missing, isn't suitable or isn't expressive enough.
- Stronger than images?
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Sound generally integrates so well with the images on screen that you hardly pay any attention to it and don't perceive it as such. However, as Christian Frei explains by taking "Playtime" by Jacques Tati as a comic example, sound can become so important that it dictates the rhythm of the images.
In the following clip from "Dancer in the Dark" (Denmark, 2000) directed by Lars von Trier, how can we define the nature of the sounds? Are these sounds or music?
Both! In fact, the sounds are initially processed as realistic machinery noises before they create a rhythm which gradually transforms them into music. This then encourages the worker to sing and dance, like in a musical
This type of transformation is often found in musicals, whereby a realistic sound morphs gradually into music. As if noticing this switch, the characters abandon what they're doing and temporarily interrupt the flow of the story to sing and dance.
The following clip from "The Great Dictator" (USA, 1940) by Charlie Chaplin is an extreme example of how music can seize control over the images by imposing its rhythm in the scene.
Charlie Chaplin shaves a client, synchronising each of his hand movements to the melody of the infamous operatic aria from Rossini's opera "The Barber of Seville", note by note. This practice is called "Mickey Mousing" because it appeared in the first sound cartoon in cinematic history, directed by Walt Disney in 1928, which featured Mickey. "Mickey Mousing" is often used to give a scene a comic dimension.
Likewise, words can also be processed as sounds, as demonstrated in the following clip from "Girlhood" (France, 2014) directed by Céline Sciamma…
In this scene, the girls' discussions are initially incomprehensible and constitute a cheerful, noisy mass of sound. Suddenly this noise gives way to a very noticeable silence: the young girls stop talking because they pass by the boys from the city. Thanks to this sound effect, the audience realises that the young girls don't feel comfortable at all with the boys who have very chauvinist attitudes towards them in the film.
- About Christian Frei
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Nominated at the 2001 Oscars for "War Photographer", a documentary film about a war photographer, Christian Frei boasts a film career which takes him all over the world.
Christian Frei has made numerous documentaries such as "The Giant Buddhas" (2005), about the destruction of giant Buddha statues by the Taliban in Afghanistan, "Space Tourists" (2009), which focuses on space tourism, and "Genesis 2.0" (2018), about the "hunt" for mammoths after global warming has revealed their carcasses which had been buried in the Siberian permafrost.
In all his films, Christian Frei pays a lot of attention to the essential role of sound, as his short lesson on Foley demonstrates.
