Final Project

Media 160 Final Project from Maureen Murray on Vimeo.

MOMI Visit

One of the demonstrations that I found the most interesting was one of the last ones that my group experienced. After observing demonstrations that experimented with ADR and sound effects, this demonstration broke down the different audio components from the final version of a scene from Titanic. By separating the various audio tracks and isolating them, it became clear just how necessary each individual track is to the creation of the environment of any specific scene. When only the actor’s voices were heard, the scene seemed ridiculous. The desperate yelling, screaming and panting of the characters seemed comical and out of place, even though many of them were drowning, because there were no audible triggers or responses from the world around them.  Because of the chaos taking place in the scene, any of the sound picked up on location would have been impossible to control and would have drowned out all of the actor’s sounds.  Additionally, sound equipment and giant swimming pools do not mix well so recording equipment would have been kept at a distance on set.  Understanding all of these things, we talked about how each sound is added in post at the discretion of the sound designer.  While most of the choices served to heighten the realistic, although highly dramatic, nature of the scene, it was interesting to learn about where all of the sounds actually came from.  As huge ropes snapped and broke off from the sides of the ship for example, they chose to use the sound of snipers being fired to increase the magnitude of the effect.  Of course, the addition of an orchestral score pulled all of the sounds together and captured the dramatic intensity of the action.