Space

Acoustics, silence, and the frequency spectrum

Tim Harrison, Sound Design for Film, chapter 11

Today’s goals

  • Describe the audible clues that suggest a space or listening perspective.
  • Explain how changing reflections, frequency balance, or sound density changes a scene.
  • Propose a sound change and explain how it would affect a scene.

From dialogue to space

Last week, you combined performances and replaced a line to picture.

Now ask: where should that voice seem to be, and whose listening perspective do we hear?

Recall one clue that made your ADR sound like part of the scene.

Acoustic space

  • Echo is an audible, separate repeat.
  • Reverberation is a dense collection of reflections that decays over time.
  • The balance of direct sound and reflections helps suggest distance and enclosure.

Citizen Kane

What do the reflections suggest about the room and the distance between the voices?

Spectral perspective

  • Frequency balance changes a sound’s brightness, weight, and clarity.
  • Filtering can suggest a barrier, playback device, or subjective listening perspective.
  • Masking happens when one sound makes another harder to hear.

Come and See

After the bombardment, how does the sound change our access to the world around Flyora?

Negative space

A sparse soundtrack leaves room for particular sounds to stand out.

  • What has been removed or reduced?
  • What remains audible?
  • How does the contrast change our attention or sense of time?

Oppenheimer

What remains audible while we wait for the blast, and how does the blast change the scene?

Silence before an impact

Reducing sound before an impact can make the arrival feel more forceful.

Reverb pre-delay is different. It is the interval between the direct sound and the onset of reverberation.

Sicario

How do space, frequency balance, and quiet-to-loud contrast work together at the border?

Redesign a scene

Choose one film excerpt from today. Work individually.

  1. Name an audible detail in the original.
  2. Propose one change to its room sound, frequency balance, or use of silence.
  3. Explain how that change would affect the audience’s experience.

Make a few notes, then share your idea. No separate submission.

Discuss and check

Share a few redesigns with the class.

What would the audience hear differently, and why would that matter?

Before you leave, explain one difference between changing the room sound and changing the frequency balance.

Next in the semester

  • Wednesday: use your recorded dialogue to compare clean, worldized, and futzed sound in worldizing and futz .
  • Friday: use the SFX work session to check processing choices and files.
  • Later: apply spatial continuity and selective detail in Ambiences and your final film.

Optional examples

Use these for comparison or further listening.

For each clip, name an audible detail before explaining its effect on the scene.

Das Boot

Which sounds suggest the enclosure around the crew?

Inception

How does the soundtrack distinguish the spaces as the sequence cuts between them?

Interstellar

Which frequency ranges dominate, and what do they draw attention to?

Arrival

How does the balance of voices, background, and low-frequency sound shape the encounter?

WALL-E

How do music and effects shape the sense of movement and space?

Challengers

What becomes more prominent as the sound perspective changes?

Spirited Away

Which sounds hold your attention during the train ride, and what does the scene leave space for?

Worldizing with Richard King

What does recording playback in a real space contribute to the result?