Welcome to It

Welcome to MovieSound Newsletter, a hub of information for movie fans who enjoy the state of the art film soundtracks, both in major theaters and at home. You’re going to read a lot about the making of soundtracks, and the experience of listening to them, written by sound pros who care about craft! We’ll talk about traditional and new-wave methods of making the flickers talk, from Vitaphone disc to the laser disc. You’ll be well informed about all the elements affecting movie and stereo TV tracks, ranging from the best-laid plans to bottom-line realities. In upcoming issues, we’ll talk about each of the myriad technical skills that work together to make today’s complex stereo soundtracks such a high-energy part of the movie experience.

Students and film fans want to be well informed about the techniques of sound designing and editing, mixing, recording dialogue, even replacing unwanted sounds. But even casual filmgoers have a right to expect first-rate sound for our $5-$7 at the box office.

All Techied-Out?

In case you’re new to Moviesound Newsletter with this issue, we’d like to help you understand some of the technical argot our correspondents sometimes slip into… Since we are sound pros writing for the enjoyment of sound track fans, we don’t want to leave you behind. Here’s the MSNL Pocket Dictionary.

As critically important as re-recording mixers have always been to the making of sound movies, it seems there was room for one more vocabulary lesson to MSNL readers.

Re-Respect!

What’s a “Re-recording mixer?” That’s an awkward, if appropriate term, since modern tracks go through so many stages from shooting to predubs to final mix. They are the folks who mix the tracks of FX, music, and dialogue into the total blend we know as a soundtrack. The industry refers to craftspeople who record live sound as “mixers,” or “recording mixers” without the extra “re-”. Though you’ll read it on all modern credits, it ain’t so easy to pronounce “Re-recording mixer” aloud. (Don’t try this at home, boys and girls!) Dateline-Skywalker Ranch, Lucasfilm: Gag sign found on an office door “Tom Johnson, Re/Recording… Gary Rydstrom, Re/Re/Recording”.

Steve Lee’s Trim Bin

For the screeching sound of a TIE fighter’s pass-by in all the Star Wars films, designer Ben Burtt started out with a distinctive elephant scream, to which he added other organic sound elements. If you thought it was an electronic sound, you were mistaken.

Those wonderful gurgle glug gurgle sounds for the test tube apparatus invented by Alec Guinness in The Man in the White Suit (1951) were created by sound editor Mary Habberfield. For the drips, she took pieces of brass and glass and hit them against the palms of her hands. For the bubbles, she used a glass tube to blow air into a pan of glycerine. These and other effects were edited into a rhythmic, musical “loop” by trial and error. The amusing result is a sound signature that every viewer remembers. Though the visual props were not remarkable, the sounds gave the apparatus a kind of personification. It became a supporting character as memorable as Sir Alec’s.

From Steve Lee’s Trim Bin…

Did you know?

The door bell scream in Murder by Death was originally recorded for King Kong (1933), and is the voice of Fay Wray.

Steve Lee’s Trim Bin

In Walt Disney’s animated Alice in Wonderland (1951) the sound of a shimmering spider web (which Disney insisted should make a noise) was created by Jimmy Macdonald. An engineer and musician, Macdonald invented and built hundreds of Disney sound-props. The spider web was a set of wind chimes he made from pieces of scrap duraluminum.

Steve Lee’s Trim Bin

Moviesound Trivia

Did You Know?

Part of the sound of Chekov’s phaser malfunctioning in Star Trek IV—The Voyage Home was actually a hiccup, pulled from an old cartoon sound effects roll.

The voice of the fierce robot villain ED 209 in RoboCop was actually a processed version of the voice of Jon Davison, the film’s producer.

Both Walt Disney and sound man Jim Macdonald took turns performing the voice of Mickey Mouse, but who does it now? A talented sound editor named Wayne Allwine, who worked closely with Macdonald before his retirement. Tony Anselmo has taken over the role of Donald Duck from the late Charles “Ducky” Nash.

Steve Lee’s Trim Bin

Did You Know?

In The Empire Strikes Back, Han Solo hides his ship, the Millennium Falcon, in a mysterious cave on an asteroid, where it is assaulted by strange flying creatures called Mynocks. Ben Burtt used a sped-up horse whinny as an element of sound for the aliens. A similar effect can be heard when a large owl frightens Kate Capshaw in Indiana Jones and the Temple of Doom.

The “head-shake” noise usually heard after a character bashes their head in a Warner Bros. cartoon is informally referred to as the Trombone Gobble, and was first used as a sound effect by Treg Brown, probably in a Bob Clampett cartoon. Sound effects editor Mark Mangini has worked it into many of the films he’s worked on, including Joe Dante’s Innerspace, and both Gremlins I and II.

Steve Lee’s Trim Bin

More Sound Effects Trivia Droppings

It has been said that the heavy breathing that made Kier Dullea’s space walks in 2001: A Space Odyssey so dramatic, was done by director Stanley Kubrick himself. For the sequel, 2010, director Peter Hyams repeated the chore. Hyams performed for John Lithgow’s space walk, breathing into a ceramic coffee cup.

If the birds in Beauty and the Beast occasionally sound like the traditional sickly-sweet Disney song birds of long ago, it’s because they are. While “realistic” recordings of real forest birds were used as low-level backgrounds, the close-up and fly-by birdies were cut with old sound effect birds from the Disney library (probably recorded for Cinderella.) For the cutest animated birds, nothing can beat the sing-song quality of human whistling.

—SLEE

Scoreboard: Turkeys Get New Gobble

Ridley Scott’s 1985 Legend suffered the slings and arrows of outrageous studio marketing in more ways than one. As so often happens when the “suits” at the studio smell a flop, they started to monkey around with the score. Unfortunately, in their panic, they sometimes end up with a less effective score than what they had in the first place. Examples of this are too numerous to mention. Georges Delerue’s magnificent score for Something Wicked This Way Comes was dumped for James Horner’s. Lalo Schifrin’s clever Jinxed score was thrown out for Miles Goodman’s. The biggest tragedy is that the general public can never hear these rejected masterpieces. But, in the case of Legend, there is some hope. Although the geniuses at Fox decided to replace Jerry Goldsmith’s breathtaking orchestral score with repetitive synthesized drek from Tangerine Dream, they released the FOREIGN version with the Goldsmith score! Don’t ask why. The good news is that the Goldsmith score was briefly released on LP. (Filmtrax Records.) If you know a die-hard collector, it’s worth looking for.

—Rich

Richard Stone is a composer of film and television musical scores

Scoreboard: Good Evening

Reet! Reet! Reet! Reet! Flashes of curtain and knife. Blood-stained water racing down a shower drain. Bernard Herrmann’s chilling music for Hitchcock’s Psycho was as much a revelation in 1960 as it would be today. It has become as much a part of our language as the Deedle Deedle of The Twilight Zone. Why? First, Herrmann used only strings. No woodwinds. No brass. No percussion. Just strings. In a 1971 interview, he revealed that this ingenious strategy was to “complement the black and white photography… with a black and white sound.” But he used them in a way that was new to film music—by cleverly exploiting their cold and piercing qualities and by avoiding the traditional romantic Hollywood sound. Subtle filmic techniques also abet the cause. Celli slowly go up a scale against violins descending a scale as we watch Martin Balsam walk up the stairs. The almost keyless main theme is as unsettling as the Bates Motel itself. But, here’s the real shocker. That now-famous musical moment in the shower was an afterthought. Hitchcock originally told Herrmann to leave the stabbing scenes without music. Then, after seeing the finished film, the disappointed director ordered them to be scored. Good thinking, Hitch.

—Rich

Richard Stone is a composer of film and television musical scores

What are your favorite movie scores? Do you collect recordings of film music? Is music too loud in today’s films? Why do you think that is? Write and throw a few curves at Rich at the SCOREBOARD c/o MSNL.

Scoreboard: For Your Inflammation!

Ever wonder why there’s pop music in some movies that doesn’t match the style of the score or the film? Contemporary economics have spawned the “Music Supervisor,” who is neither composer nor editor, probably not even a musician! This person’s job seems to be to hammer rock ‘n’ roll records into soundtracks… Sometimes to wildly invent ways to justify songs being in scenes where they have no business… Have a character slip a cassette into the slot in a close-up. It’s worth MONEY! If a song becomes associated with a movie, then that scene can be shown in the video on MTV, thus giving free publicity to the movie. Just another way Modern Merchandising drives aesthetics away from film making. Now directors may have to fight to keep unwanted music out! On a recent project, a music supervisor had run out of places to impose a particularly screamy vocal. He found a scene with intimate dialogue in a pricey restaurant, where the director had wisely chosen to run some jazzy cocktail piano. It fit the restaurant, gave the scene some rhythm, and never intruded on the quiet dialogue. The pop vocal was tried with the scene, to the director’s horror. Records don’t go in that kind of restaurant, and you couldn’t hear any dialogue above the screaming. Even quiet vocals don’t work well with dialogue scenes!

Come on, Music Business: Leave our movies alone!

—DS

Scoreboard: ‘88 Keys Unnoticed

As it has been since Creation, some of the year’s most heavily-hyped films, deserving or not, were nominated for Best Score Oscars^®, while some of ‘88’s most innovative movie music went unnoticed. And Oscar^® promotion has overshadowed films released since January that have already disappeared. Here are some of my faves of recent memory:

Danny Elfman’s Beetlejuice had faint echoes of vintage Warner Bros. cartoon music, catapulting us all further into the surreal depths of Tim Burton Land, John Barry gave us prurient, sensual strings in Masquerade, truly a great score in the Hollywood tradition. And Basil Poledouris contributed what many believe to be one of the best scores of his career to John Milius’ Farewell to the King. Still available on CD, it evokes the warmth and primitive innocence of tribal people, yet mixes engagingly with the militarism and epic violence of Milius’ obsession. Recorded in Budapest, the score uses a traditional orchestra combined with Balinese gongs, bells, and a pan flute. The film, dubbed in Dolby SR, sounds almost as good as the music by itself. And then there’s Zelly and Me. Has anyone seen this movie? I haven’t, and I don’t know anyone who’s even heard of it, but it’s one of my favorite film CD’s: An understated autumnal reverie from the pen of Pino Donaggio. Write in if you know anything about the film.⁵ We’re curious.

—Rich

Richard Stone is a composer of film and television musical scores

Scoreboard: Wall-to-Wall Music

Have you noticed lately how much music you hear during your favorite, (or maybe not so favorite) movies? More and more, it seems that film scores dominate the movie-going experience. For a quick comparison, listen how music is used in any classic film from the ‘Thirties or ‘Forties. Now listen to a contemporary film track. Quite a difference, eh? Well why is this happening?

In the “good old days”, music was used to underscore the action… to support it, if you will. The film composer would write for specific spots that needed emotional enhancement. Film music was sparse, but consequently more effective.

What we have today is a different story. While the composer may have the traditional method in mind, music may be grossly overused at the insistence of a director, producer, or even the composer himself. (Not to be sexist, but can you name a female film composer? That is another issue.) Too much music destroys any possibility of the score creeping in subliminally. A composer can also dominate the final mix, and force incredible levels of music, even in dialogue scenes. If the Powers That Be have no faith in their product, they tell themselves that the film will “sell” better with more and louder music.

We would like to know your opinions about music in films. Enough? Too much? Is minimalism your thing or what? Please write and let us know your views on this rather permeating aspect of movies.

—VTA

Scoreboard: You Are There

The following dialogue, paraphrased from a story told to me by a big-name film editor, changed the course of film music for the rest of our lives. The year was 1976. The place, a cutting room in northern California. A science fiction adventure is being edited and it’s time to prepare some “temp” music (culled from scores of other films and mixed in for a test screening)

—Rich

Richard Stone is a composer of film and television musical scores

Scoreboard: Gobbige In, Gobbige Out

Readers of American Film’s October issue saw Frank Spotnitz’s fine piece on sound designers, and MSNL readers recognized Mark Mangini from our two-parter on Star Trek IV and V.

Most sound people don’t know Mangini aside from his “Sound Effects By” credit on movies (Gremlins, Explorers, Three Men and a Baby, Trek IV and V, The ‘Burbs). But there is some crossover between the work of sound effects and music, and not a few sound people have other lives as musicians. The opening music in Steve Soderbergh’s phenomenal psychological hit sex, lies, and videotape is a folky, funky, 12-string guitar piece written and performed by Mangini.

Soderbergh heard him play it nearly a year before “sex, lies” went into post-production, and knew right away that it had the right feel for his opening scene. If you listen to Mangini’s guitar and Cliff Martinez’ brooding, ambient score on the CD album of sex, lies, and videotape you’ll probably notice a strange phenomenon particular to film composing: There is rarely any reason for a film composer to title tunes in the same way that a popular artist would.

In the normal course of recording for a movie, each musical cue might be referred to in a way that relates to a certain scene, but that has nothing to do with the emotional feel of the music. Music editors and mixers may be given an even more mundane set of numbered references, when the tapes are fresh from the scoring stage. A cue that reduces an audience to tears might have once been known as “M-64 Take 3 alternate”.

Soderbergh and Martinez called the cues by way of bits of action or dialogue that came near their placement in a scene. So, the titles of the score cues for “sex, lies” are things like Looks Like a Tablecloth, Take My Skirt Off, Sniff The Jacket, and I’m Gonna Drawl. Mangini’s peppy, “ramblin’” guitar piece ended up being called Garbage, because that’s the first line of dialogue!

Scoreboard: Aggregate

Theatrical cartoons traditionally had “a great deal of movement” covered by orchestrated instrumental effects. When Bugs Bunny tripped lightly up a staircase, Carl Stalling would likely have scored plucked strings in perfect footstep-sync.

A musically inspired experiment like Fantasia needed no sound effects. Many cartoon sound effects, as any Spike Jones⁶ fan understands, are made by percussionists’ props, and may be well-integrated into a score. So music can easily do the work of some sound effects.

Sometimes it’s not easy to pry apart a mixed soundtrack and determine where the music leaves off and the sound effects begin. An extreme example is the wonderful Louis and Bebe Barron score for Forbidden Planet, the first all-electronic music film score. The 1956 production used sounds made strictly by manipulating oscillators, reel-to-reel tape and other audio hardware, a full generation before synthesizers. While there is a world of innovative early electric music and Musique Concrète from that period, it never really found its way into the movies. Sound effects for some of the Star Trek-like props and weapons in Forbidden Planet sneak imperceptibly out of the electronic music and slither right back into it.

When film composers use the sounds of instruments from Third World cultures, they encourage audiences to think Globally. We’re hearing new sounds from handmade instruments played for thousands of years. (It’s trendy to call this stuff “World Music”, though we used to call it “Folk Music.”) Some of these sounds, like the Aboriginal didjery-doo, African thumb-pianos, and all kinds of drums and whistles are borderline sound effects, and will give tremendous color to a score. It shouldn’t come as a surprise that some of Hollywood’s sound effects innovators are musicians. Among Foley artists are musicians and dancers. Some of the best sound effects and dialogue mixers cut their professional teeth in the record industry. Working with film, they are tied to the mechanical needs of synchronization, but a sense of sound coloration and rhythm can bring great finesse to their tracks.

The Third Man, with all its great direction and cinematography, is remembered uniquely for its theme and score played on a zither, which gives a particularly Eastern European flavor. But the climax, a stylized, moody chase in the sewer has only sound effects in the track. The breathing and echoing footsteps of Orson Welles and Joseph Cotton; The roaring and drips of water, all sound effects. Orchestral score might have added tension, but would have been alarmingly inconsistent with the homey, wry touches that the zither had already established.

Next time: When it doesn’t work out.—DS

Scoreboard: Mix ‘n’ Don’t Match!

Last time, we talked about the integration of sound effects and music via the ideal scoring of musical sound effects. The low-budget TV show or cartoon provides an example of the awkward highlighting of action with canned sound effects. In the case of a staccato action, like a character running up stairs, it’s likely that FX and music will clash. Someone will cut footsteps, or cartoon hits on a xylophone, but they won’t have anything to do with the rhythm or tonality of the music for that scene. No one has time to work it out, so the overall mix is less than pleasant to hear.

Scoreboard also mentioned the new interest in folk instruments of different cultures. As “World Music” becomes trendy (didn’t we used to call it folk music?), directors and rerecording mixers will be trying to evoke earthy, ethnic moods using some traditional folk instruments that may be primitive enough to resemble sound effects.

Unfortunately, movie sound effects and music can work at cross-purposes. A fluid, ambient stream of sound effects can be ruined by music cues with percussive or brassy sounds. Composers must often be frustrated by sound editors’ “noise” intruding upon their scores. Traditional underscoring could invoke mood in a nearly subliminal way, working on us without the obvious presence that a main title theme, a character theme, or a love theme might have.

Real problems arise when effects and music tracks, prepared by separate groups of people under different schedule constraints, finally come together for a movie mix. MSNL has previously written about how good dialogue scenes can be ruined by the vocals on pop records. Who can hear spoken words above singing?

Are modern directors musically uneducated? Or are they bowing to financial pressure from music-packaging dealmakers?

Often FX and music clash innocently enough, when for instance, a composer creates a low ominous tone to evoke mystery, and sound editors create a low ominous tone to give life to a science-fiction prop. Now the two sounds fight to be heard. Ideally, the composer and FX people will take opposite ends of the sound spectrum, complementing each other’s work. Under present working situations, this is usually problematic. But if all the elements come together gracefully, movies can sound better than ever!

—DS

Scoreboard: Postcards from the Edge

In some of our prior issues, we have been critical of the use, or as we may feel, misuse of music scoring in films. Well, now for some good news. For those of you who may have already seen Postcards from the Edge may have noticed a lack of film scoring. There are only a few key spots, (we counted four) where underscoring is used. The film is allowed to breathe with witty dialogue and superb acting. Apparently, director Mike Nichols understands the beauty of simplicity, and let the dialogue, production sound, and subtle post production sound (with the exception of a pearl necklace being all too attention-getting), carry the film aurally without too much music. Kudos to Mike Nichols and credited music composer Carly Simon for such delightful restraint.

—VTA