Customer Reviews

Film Sound: Theory and Practice

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I got this book because after 4 years of film school, I still felt as if I had been shortchanged when it came to learning sound design. I had been taught how to record and edit sound, been taught how to do ADR, been taught all the different types of microphones; but I still didn't know WHY to use one type of microphone over another, WHY using an omnidirectional, or a shotgun, or a lavalier mic would change the feel of a scene (and how this would in turn change depending on whether that sound was being matched with a closeup or a long shot). In short, I was never taught the aesthetic significance behind any of the options I was presented with. My formal education on the topic had been entirely technical. As the editors make clear in the preface to this anthology, it was their attempt to compile a book "addressed to aestheticians rather than technicians." At this they've done an incredible job.

The scope is broad - covering theory, practice, history, as well as the technological side - different essays focusing on individual films, directors, genres, historical periods or the medium as a whole. The viewpoints of the authors are also as diverse as anything you'll find in film studies generally, ranging from Marxist, formalist and psychoanalytic analysis to more straightforward historical or technical writing.

As a filmmaker, this book has been eye opening (or should I say ear opening?). For the first time I am finally able to think about sound design in the same way that I think about any other element of a film. Since starting to read the book, I've paid more attention to the sound design in all of the films I've watched.

This book was written in 1985. No doubt does this mean that innovations in the field since 1985 (most notably the dawn of digital editing and sound mixing) are left out from the book. But even so, if you are a filmmaker who is looking to gain some insight into what film sound is all about, this is an excellent place to start.

Part I. History, Technology, and Aesthetics

Introduction
The Coming of Sound: Technological Change in the American Film Industry, by Douglas Gomery
Economic Struggle and Hollywood Imperialism: Europe Converts to Sound, by Douglas Gomery
Film Style and Technology in the Thirties: Sound, by Barry Salt
The Evolution of Sound Technology, by Rick Altman
Ideology and the Practice of Sound Editing and Mixing, by Mary Ann Doane
Technology and Aesthetics of Film Sound, by John Belton

Part II: Theory

Section 1: Classical Sound Theory
A Statement, by S. M. Eisenstein, V. I. Pudovkin, and G. V. Alexandrov
Asynchronism as a Principle of Sound Film, by V. I. Pudovkin
The Art of Sound, by René Clair
Manifesto: Dialogue on Sound, by Basil Wright and B. Vivian Braun
Sound in Films, by Alberto Cavalcanti
A New Laocoön: Artistic Composites and the Talking Film, by Rudolph Arnheim
Theory of Film: Sound, by Bela Balazs
Dialogue and Sound, by Siegfried Kracauer
Slow-Motion Sound, by Jean Epstein

Section 2: Modern Sound Theory
Notes on Sound, by Robert Bresson
Direct Sound: An Interview with, by Jean-Marie Straub and Danièle Huillet
Aural Objects, by Christian Metz
The Voice in the Cinema: The Articulation of Body and Space, by Mary Ann Doane

Part III: Practice

Section I: Practice and Methodology
Fundamental Aesthetics of Sound in the Cinema, by David Bordwell and Kristin Thompson
On the Structural Use of Sound, by Noël Burch

Section 2: Pioneers
The Movies Learn to Talk: Ernst Lubitsch, René Clair, and Rouben Mamoulian, by Arthur Knight
American Sound Films, 1926-1930,, by Ron Mottram
Applause: The Visual and Acoustic Landscape, by Lucy Fischer
Enthusiasm: From Kino-Eye to Radio Eye, by Lucy Fischer
Lang and Pabst: Paradigms for Early Sound Practice, by Noël Carroll
The Voice of Silence: Sound Style in John Stahl's Back Street, by Martin Rubin

Section 3: Stylists
Orson Welles' Use of Sound, by Penny Mintz
The Evolution of Hitchcock's Aural Style and Sound in The Birds, by Elisabeth Weis
The Sound Track of The Rules of the Game, by Michael Litle
Sound in Bresson's Mouchette, by Lindley Hanlon
Godard's Use of Sound, by Alan Williams
Section 4: Contemporary Innovators
Altman, Dolby, and the Second Sound Revolution, by Charles Schreger
Sound Mixing and Apocalypse Now: An Interview with Walter Murch, by Frank Paine
The Sound Designer, by Marc Mancini
Sound and Silence in Narrative and Nonnarrative Cinema, by Fred Camper