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Implementation of Audio FXs, dialogue & Music (Audio Post-Production)

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Harry E. Pistore 2021

INTRODUCTION

My post-production project is based on the implementation of audio effects and dialogue into the opening scene of the film Blade Runner released in 1982, directed by Ridley Scott. It was a low budget film, in Hollywood terms and at the time of its release it did not score well at the box office for its unusual story and plot which wasn’t aimed at the masses (O’Neill, 2020).

The opening scene is set in a big city in a dystopian future, where it is clear that human interaction has negatively impacted the surrounding nature of the place with buildings and factories going on as far as the eye can see.
In the 80’s there were major political tensions due to the Cold War and a trade war between USA and Japan and this may have affected the way the film was shot, which has a very noir style to it (Charisma, 2019). It was officially inspired by Philip K. Dick’s novel entitled “Do Androids Dream Of Electric Sheep” but it is a clear departure from it as it was readapted by a collaboration between Scott and Peoples that Dick described as “simply sensational” (Kerman, 1997, pp. 91-92).

In the original film the sound production may appear a bit dated compared to today’s standards due to the technology used, the interpretation of the future in the 80s and the different use of synthesisers for sound effects. Blade Runner sound design is a crossover between the amelodic ambience, Theremin driven 1956 Forbidden Planet and the grand symphonic soundscapes of Star Wars as explained by Puschak (Nerdwriter1, 2017).

Vangelis had in fact used music and sounds that interconnect each other, as a result the audience very often may not tell when the music ends or a new diegetic sound begins (Morrow, 2017).
Worth noting also a parallelism between Blade Runner and Alphaville by Jean-Luc Godard released in 1965, the very first “tech-noir” film where Godard recreated a futuristic Paris by using context and sound, with Brutalist architecture, neon lights and modern glass-structures around the city without using any special effects, the likes of Blade Runner and the Matrix had then used a similar technique years later (Sherlock, 2022). One of its striking sound effects was Alpha 60’s voice which sounded unsettling and futuristic and inspired me to edit my voice for the replicant’s character.

LOCATIONS & RECORDING TECHNIQUES

All sounds were recorded on my own with a field recorder and a diaphragm mic, mostly done in my treated bedroom-studio to avoid any background noise getting in the way.

The outdoor ambience sound was recorded in the city and was needed for the entire scene, this was recorded by placing my field recorder on a solid platform near a very congested North Street in Brighton then edited to take off the few seagull sounds and adapted with an equaliser, taking off the high-end for the indoor scene (Appendix, pic 9).

The dialogue and a lot of other subtle foley sounds were done in my home studio which has a lot of acoustic treatment from rockwool sound panels to acoustic scatters.

Equipment

The Kaotica Ball (Appendix, pic 3), was superb in taming those high and mid frequency reflections bouncing off the remaining naked walls and ceiling.

The Zoom H1 was used for most of the foley sounds in the project, it has a consistent stereo image due to the X/Y position of the two unidirectional mics which capture a high-quality stereo sound, supporting up to 24-bit (Zoom.co.jp).

The Neumann TLM 103 (Appendix, pic.4) was used mainly for the dialogue due to its sensitivity and it worked extremely well for recording subtle sounds such as the thunder noise, clothing movements, breathing and sighing effects. It was routed to my Focusrite Clarett that has very high quality preamps which helped to increase the sound recording quality.

Two synthesisers, the Korg Prologue 8 and the Ableton Wavetable, were also used to produce the music and some effects like one of the layered sounds of the flying cars.

TIME MANAGEMENT

I had to do some planning to capture the city noise for the clip because Brighton isn’t generally a noisy and claustrophobic city like the one in Blade Runner, so in this case rush hour was the best moment. I then gathered my equipment on North Street which is in the heart of the city and at around 5 pm, on a dry day, I was able to capture a fairly congested urban area that felt extremely populated with plenty of cars and noises of all sorts. Of course layering a few quiet cityscape sounds could have also worked.

FOLEYS & TECHNIQUES

Chimneys (ZoomH1)

In the very beginning the fire spitting chimneys is a crucial part because it gives an idea of the surroundings that the audience will expect, due to the nature and huge presence of these structures, the sound effects had to be huge and frightening in order for them to be believable. There are 5 layers of foleys on some of the chimneys (Pic.1 Appendix):

  1. A running tap water, slowed down, as the water hit the sink, it produced a very similar texture of a burning fire chamber.
  2. A rucksack zipper sound also slowed down which has a very crunchy effect and low-end to it
  3. A riser made with Ableton Wavetable by modulating white noise which was used to give a sweeping texture after they fire up and slowly disappear in the air.
  4. A sub-bass kick gives them a big lift in weight, depth and presence for added realism.
  5. Some fires had to have more white noise applied to them to better match their moving image (Appendix, pic 1).

Reverb automation was needed as some chimneys had to be felt more in the distance than others from the observer, the one at 0:29 was in fact very close and almost no reverb was used (Appendix, pic 1).

Thunder (ZoomH1)

The thunder sound (Appendix, pic.2 – pic.5) layers combination:

  1. The zipper recording again for a low-end crunchy texture.
  2. The slowed-down tap water again.

3. A recording of a tinfoil of me tearing it and moving it in various ways to create a thin metallic sound close to an electric shock (Wikisounds, 2021).

Flying Cars (Synth + Neumann)

The original sound of the flying cars passing by sounded a bit exaggerated and ostentatious with that long metallic fan noise, so I’ve instead simplified it (Appendix, pic 6, 0:41):

  1. I’ve used a synthesiser to modulate the pitch of a sine wave and a sawtooth to recreate the Doppler effect of the sound changing in pitch as it moves away from the observer (Physicsclassroom.com)
  2. Accompanied by a low-end sweep to recreate the movements of the air pressure as the flying cars pass by.
  3. A glass foley recorded by knocking at a big wine glass (Appendix, pic. 7).

Specific parts in the film don’t take into consideration possible sounds due to a choice made by the director, an example is when the camera coming from outside hovers by the ceiling fan, here the examiner isn’t making any sounds even though he is moving, smoking, drinking and walking, this choice may be due to two reasons:

  • –  A technical one, as the scene slowly settles into the room coming from outside but not quite close enough to hear any particular sounds from the office space yet.
  • –  A creative one, where the narrative of the scenes together with the music gives a sense of a dreaming-state which slowly comes to an end as the camera enters the office. Evan Puschak, AKA Nerd Writer, an American video essayist, explains how the whole sound design in Blade Runner is put to use for a more musical purpose which creates the dream-like quality that keeps the audience more entertained and unaware of when the music starts and finishes (Nerdwriter1, 2017). I gave a different interpretation to that scene and added those missing sounds which clearly make the office scene begin earlier than the original but the result is probably cold and emotionless in comparison. The original narrative choice is an example of a transition between the artistic narration that takes care of emotions driven by Vangelis’ music, to a technical one that is more engaged in the physical reality of the happening. According to Puschak, in the whole film, the dialogue, the music and the sound design are cleverly blended together by harmoniously matching the character of the location and lighting, with the score, as the music isn’t written on top of the film but it feels part of the story itself (Marshall, 2017) and gives the audience a sense of belonging.

Worth noting is a version of a voice-over that Ford had to do in the initial shooting of the film but that was later taken off which tells how sometimes less seems indeed to be more even in post-production (Aumeta3, 2016).

Examiner’s Questions Transition

At 3:10 there’s the heartbeat scene in which I felt adding some unsettling melody to, to reinforce the gravity of the situation as the plot moves forward. Here, the original artistic choice of applying a transition between the words and the non-diegetic heartbeat is very evident as the dialogue appears to morph into a dream-like state with the help of effects such as delay and reverb that clearly are there to play with the audience’s emotions and engagement.

Gunshot (ZoomH1)

Another very important sound is the gunshot which is unexpected and dramatic (Appendix, pic.8):

1. An old and loose office chair crashing against a wall, which I’ve recorded at work in a messy staff room that had plenty of stuff scattered around.

  1. Another chair crashing sound, panned to the left (both chairs are panned to get a larger stereo image) and therefore more impact.
  2. An initial cup sound recorded by dropping it on my kitchen counter.
  3. Sound recorded with 3 cups hitting each other, to match the visual of the cup jumping off the table. The sound of the cup flying wouldn’t make any noise in reality but it is important to have it in post-production to emphasise the gravity of the situation.
  4. A sub-bass sound (Synth) to add a lot of impact to the first gunshot (Veenstra, 2021).

Like in Terminator 2, the first gunshot sound is bigger than the second because of a narrative choice (BobbleheadConan2k, 2014), therefore I thought the first shot should be more impactful than the second as it’s totally unexpected so I’ve added a low frequency effect on the first but not on the second.

Wall Collapsing (ZoomH1)

This is a layer of 6 sounds (Appendix, pic.10) of which:

  • –  1 is a sub (Synth) for the low-end impact
  • –  4 are layers of different chair sounds hitting a shelf

– 1 is a chair rolling plus falling over and hitting other things in the room which has a longer tail of noises to emphasise the part where we don’t see the examiner but the wall and debris are still making noise just prior the second shot.

Office Ambience (ZoomH1)

The office ambience (Appendix, pic.9) is another crucial sound effect that conveys the idea of being indoor and in a big building, recording in Brighton as mentioned above,

I was after the low end rumbling so a simple high pass worked extremely well to tame those high frequencies and create that indoor effect by also boosting the low-end in the 20-100Hz frequency band. The high end of this sound was also used in the outdoor scenes as the city unfolds at the beginning and right at the end.

The Voight-Kampff test Machine (ZoomH1)

This is the device the examiner is using on the replicant (Gomes, 2017), to create this I had to get something very unusual, not ordinary therefore a futuristic vibe had to be applied to it (Appendix , pic.11):

  1. The tap water sound hitting the sink worked extremely well on its own, slowed down even more, it revealed many ticking and rattling sounds in between and perfectly suited and matched the visual of the machine turning on at 1:51.
  2. At 2:09 the machine had another part which was easy to match with a simple sound of a bike pump.

The sound of the tap water, in this case the one of the machine, was important to have in the background, at different levels, for the entire duration of the interview because it fills the office with subtle mechanical-like sounds, odd enough to recreate the peculiarity of the futuristic office atmosphere. I didn’t therefore feel the need to add any ulterior beeps or weird effects to it.

ADR

I’ve recreated a dubbing set in my room with treatment around the microphone, the dialogue was done by reading the subtitles from a sheet of paper. A distinction between the examiner voice and the replicant was possible by lowering the latter by two semitones and adding a subtle distortion, this gave a sinister feel to it which was in line with its character. Same for the intercom announcements but increased by two semitones. The dialogue was recorded using a loop for every small sentence, repeated several times until in sync with the visuals but tweaks had to be made on the waveforms to repair certain timing issues, by moving and blending them with crossfades. Ableton

comping feature was used to select the best takes and both characters were panned slightly to their relative source to better recreate a stereo feel and add more engagement.

In order to recreate the big office ambience, a short reverb effect is present on the dialogue, even though the surfaces of the walls are not known, as they may create a distinctive reflection, it will still be convincing because of the “willing suspension of disbelief” which will let the audience stop disbelieving what they see and go along with the storyline (Hooks, 2011), it is often a good idea trying to listen to new effects with eyes closed and see if they are believable, especially in low-budget films. The adding of sound effects that are not originally recorded during filming can be challenging, sound designers in Blade Runner managed to employ a characteristic narrative to the whole film by working with dense layers of multiple sounds, this method was also used later particularly in the Fifth Element to design the sound of the density and scale of population (Evans, 2012).

Sound designer Joanna Demers explains how in Blade Runner the sound design and the soundtrack merge and invite the audience to “look beyond the obvious” and see that there is still humanity and hope even if the visuals tend to show us quite the opposite (Stylus Radio, 2015).

MIXING

I’ve tried to keep the mix at around -23 lufs (Appendix, pic.12) so as to let the dramatic sounds go well above it to emphasise their impact on the scenes such as the gunshots. Most sounds were equalised and compressed so to even out their dynamic, automation was applied to certain tracks either:

  • –  For creative purposes (Appendix, pic.10) like a delay on the examiner hitting the table emphasising the gravity of the incident
  • –  For technical ones such as panning the flying car at 4:22 or slightly dipping the music and sound effects when the dialogue kicks in. Busses were used for mix control and order, De-essing in the dialogue to tame some irritating sybilants. CONCLUSION I wanted to move away from the 80s nostalgia background noises, saxophone riffs and synthesiser analogue styles with a more contemporary take, by trying not to impose the idea of the future too much, which can lead to becoming outdated over the years. I let sound effects speak for themselves like the Intercom at 1:44 made with just a glass sound (Appendix, pic.14) and apply the “less is more” approach which may lead to a

better lasting concept. I found the notion of the suspension of disbelief incredibly effective and equally frightening as it addresses the easiness in which our brain can be tricked under the right circumstances and in films this happens pretty much all the time.

BIBLIOGRAPHY


Aumeta3, 2016. “Bad voiceover montage (Blade Runner)”. Available at:

https://youtu.be/5A3JkjScUKY (Accessed on: 3 Jan 2022)

BobbleheadConan2k, 2014. “TERMINATOR 2 Making of the sound effects”. About 2019”. Available at: https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=cvmnq9XrSnI&ab_channel=BobbleheadConan2k (Accessed on: 7 Jan 2022)

Charisma, J. 2019. “The Future Is Now: What ‘Blade Runner’ Got Right and Wrong About 2019”. Available at: https://www.vice.com/en/article/qvgyap/the-future-is-now-what-blade-runner-got-right-an d-wrong-about-2019 (Accessed on: 2 Jan 2022)

Evans, R. 2012. “Practical DV Filmmaking – Chapter: Creating A Sound Environment”. 2nd Ed. 2012. Taylor & Francis

Gomes, V. 2017. “The Science Behind Blade Runner’s Voight-Kampff Test”. Available at:https://nautil.us/blog/the-science-behind-blade-runners-voight_kampff-test (Accessed on: 4 Jan 2022)

Hooks, 2011. “The Willing Suspension Of Disbelief”. Available at:

https://www.awn.com/blog/willing-suspension-disbelief#:~:text=In%20a%20nutshell%2C %20the%20willing,to%20empathize%20with%20the%20actors. (Accessed on: 3 Jan 2022)

Kerman, 1997. “Retrofitting Blade Runner”. 2nd Ed. 1997. The University of Wisconsin Press. (page 91-92)

Marshall, 2017. “The Sounds of Blade Runner: How Music & Sound Effects Became Part of the DNA of Ridley Scott’s Futuristic World”. Available at: https://www.openculture.com/2017/05/the-sounds-of-blade-runner.html (Accessed on: 3 Jan 2022)

Messitte, N. 2020. “6 Ways to Use Reverb in Post Production Sound Design”. Available at: https://www.izotope.com/en/learn/reverb-in-post-production-and-sound-design.html (Accessed on: 28 Dec 2021)

Morrow, J. 2017. “Watch: Why Sounds Make Up the DNA of ‘Blade Runner’. Available at: https://nofilmschool.com/2017/05/watch-sounds-blade-runner (Accessed on: 3 Jan 2022)

Nerdwriter1, 2017. “Listening To Blade Runner”. Available at:

https://youtu.be/4T_sSSka9pA (Accessed on: 3 Jan 2022)

O’Neill, S. 2020. “The Real Reason Blade Runner Flopped At The Box Office”. Available At:https://www.looper.com/255424/the-real-reason-blade-runner-flopped-at-the-box-offic e (Accessed on: 3 Jan 2022)

Physicsclassroom.com. “The Doppler Effect”. Available at:

https://www.physicsclassroom.com/class/waves/Lesson-3/The-Doppler-Effect

(Accessed on: 3 Jan 2022)

Sherlock, B. 2022. “This Sci-Fi Noir Predates Blade Runner By Two Decades”. Available at: https://gamerant.com/sci-fi-noir-predates-blade-runner-alphaville (Accessed on: 3 Jan 2022)

Stylus Radio, 2015. “Blade Runner Blues”. Available at:

https://soundcloud.com/stylusradio/blade-runner-blues?si=02d3bfb817cc4161b09a741a 363cb003&utm_source=clipboard&utm_medium=text&utm_campaign=social_sharing (Accessed on: 5 Jan 2022)

Veenstra, R. 2021. “Learn How to Make High-Impact Sounds for Movies and Trailers”. Available at: https://www.ableton.com/en/blog/learn-how-to-make-high-impact-sounds-for-movies-an d-trailers (Accessed on: 5 Jan 2022)

Wikisounds, 2021. “Making Sound of Thunder”.
Available at: https://www.instagram.com/p/CR2Wce8l5AR/?utm_medium=copy_link (Accessed on: 26 Dec 2021)

Zoom.co.jp “Good Things Come In Small Packages”. Available at: https://www.zoom.co.jp/products/handy-recorder/h1-handy-recorder (Accessed on: 28 Dec 2021)

APPENDIX

1. Chimneys

2. Thunder

3. Kaotica Ball

4. Microphones: Zoom H1, Neumann TLM 103

5. Thunder

6. Flying Car

7. Glass foley

8. Gunshot

9. Indoor ambience

10. Wall collapsing + Delay automation

11. Tap Water = Voight-Kampff test Machine

13. LUFs

14. Intercom

SPOTTING SHEETS

SAGU

ADR SPOTTING SHEET

File: ADR Spotting Sheet.doc

Production / Project: Blade Runner 1982 Date: 12 Dec 2021
Project Revision Number: 1

ADR Editor: Mike Hopkins
Producer: Hampton Fancher, Charles de Lauzirika, Michael Deeley Director: Ridley Scott

Scene/ CueTime In 00:00:00:00 Time Out 00:00:00:00Actor/CharacterDialogueNotes
INTERCOM00:01:30:00CONCIERGE
00:01:40:00EXAMINER
INTERCOM00:01:46:00CONCIERGE
00:01:53:00EXAMINER
00:02:00:00REPLICANT
00:02:04:00EXAMINER
00:02:06:00REPLICANT
00:02:11:00REPLICANT
00:02:14:00EXAMINER
00:02:19:00REPLICANT
00:02:22:00EXAMINER
00:02:23:00REPLICANT
00:02:25:00EXAMINER
00:02:26:00REPLICANT
00:02:27:00EXAMINER
00:02:28:00REPLICANT
00:02:30:00EXAMINER
00:02:34:00REPLICANT
00:02:37:00EXAMINER
00:02:40:00REPLICANT
00:02:41:00EXAMINER
00:02:44:00REPLICANT
00:02:45:00EXAMINER
00:02:46:00REPLICANT
00:02:47:00EXAMINER
00:02:50:00REPLICANT
00:02:51:00EXAMINER
00:03:58:00REPLICANT
00:03:03:00EXAMINER
00:03:05:00REPLICANT
00:03:06:00EXAMINER
00:03:08:00REPLICANT
00:03:13:00EXAMINER
00:03:16:00REPLICANT
00:03:21:00EXAMINER
00:03:29:00REPLICANT
00:03:31:00EXAMINER
00:03:41:00EXAMINER
00:03:54:00EXAMINER
00:03:58:00EXAMINER
00:04:03:00REPLICANT
00:04:05:00EXAMINER
00:04:07:00REPLICANT
ADVERT00:04:25:00ADVERTISEMENT

SAGU

Foley SPOTTING SHEET

File: Foley Spotting Sheet.doc

Production / Project: Blade Runner 1982 Date: 12 Dec 2021
Project Revision Number: 1

Foley Artist/Walker: John Roesch
Producer: Hampton Fancher, Charles de Lauzirika, Michael Deeley Director: Ridley Scott

FLY #Time Code 00:00:00:00Foley DescriptionNotes
100:01:38:00KNOCK KNOCK …
200:01:44:00STEPS
300:01:46:00CHAIR NOISE
400:01:48:00CUP NOISE
500:01:49:00STEPS
600:01:49:00BUZZER
700:01:50:00REPLICANT DETECTOR MACHINE
800:01:59:00MACHINE SWITCH
900:02:03:00MACHINE NOISE
1000:02:06:00MACHINE PUMP
1100:02:20:00PAGE TURNING
1200:02:33:00PAGE NOISE
1300:02:37:00PAGE TURNING
1400:02:39:00PAGE NOISE
1500:02:55:00CLOTHING NOISE
1600:03:03:00CIGARETTE PUFF
1700:03:05:00EXHALING SMOKE
1800:03:08:00PAGE NOISE
1900:03:21:00CLOTHING NOISE
2000:03:43:00PEN ON TABLE
2100:03:44:00PUFF
2200:03:47:00EXHALING SMOKE
2300:03:53:00CLOTHING
2400:03:54:00ASHTRAY NOISE
2500:04:07:00CLOTHING
2600:04:10:00CUP SPLASHING
2700:04:15:00TABLE NOISE

SAGU

Ambience SPOTTING SHEET

File: Ambience Spotting Sheet.doc

Production / Project: Blade Runner 1982 Date: 12 Dec 2021
Project Revision Number: 1

Atmos Sound Editor: Laurent Kossayan
Producer: Hampton Fancher, Charles de Lauzirika, Michael Deeley Director: Ridley Scott

AMB #Time In 00:00:00:00 Time Out 00:00:00:00Ambience DescriptionSource or FilenameNotes
OUTDOOR00:00:00:00CITY NOISE
INDOOR00:01:20:00OFFICEBEEPING BACKGROUND
OUTDOOR00:04:15:00CITY NOISE

SAGU

MUSIC SPOTTING SHEET

File: Music Spotting Sheet.doc

Production / Project: Blade Runner 1982 Date: 12 Dec 2021
Project Revision Number: 1

Music Editor: Stephanie Lowry
Composer / Music Producer: Vangelis
Producer: Hampton Fancher, Charles de Lauzirika, Michael Deeley Director: Ridley Scott

Scene/ CueTime In 00:00:00:00 Time Out 00:00:00:00Total TimeScene DescriptionNotes
00:00:00:00TITLESPERCUSSIONS
00:00:07:00CITY OPENINGMUSIC CHORDS
00:00:10:00CITYPERCUSSIONS
00:00:12:00CITY / APPROACHING OFFICEMUSIC
00:01:16:001:04
00:03:15:000:45PUPIL / HEARTBEATNON-DIEGETIC / PERCS
00:03:35:000:10UNSETTLING MUSIC
00:04:11:000:03GUNSHOTGUNSHOT
00:04:15:000:09ADVERTISEMENTDIEGETIC MUSIC

SAGU

Sound Effect SPOTTING SHEET

File: Sound Effects Spotting Sheet.doc

Production / Project: Blade Runner 1982 Date: 12 Dec 2021
Project Revision Number: 1

Sound Effects Editor: Christopher Assells, Dino Dimuro Producer: Hampton Fancher, Charles de Lauzirika, Michael Deeley Director: Ridley Scott

Effect #Time In 00:00:00:00 Time Out 00:00:00:00Sound Effect DescriptionSource or Filename for this EffectNotes
00:00:06:00FIRES BURNING
00:00:12:00FIRES BURNING
00:00:15:00FIRES BURNING
00:00:20:00FLAME NOISE
00:00:21:00CAR FLYING BY
00:00:26:00FLAME NOISE
00:00:27:00THUNDER
00:00:28:00BIG FIRE CLOSE BY
00:00:32:00FIRE IN THE DISTANCE
00:00:40:00CAR FLYING BY
00:00:44:00FLAME NOISE
00:00:52:00FLAME NOISE
00:00:56:00CAR FLYING BY
00:01:00:00CAR FLYING BY
00:01:02:00FLAME ERUPTING
00:04:10:00GUNSHOT
00:04:11:00WALL COLLAPSING
00:04:14:00GUNSHOT
00:04:18:00CAR FLYING BY
00:04:23:00HORN