Sound effects

[DB7]

Is the sound of Guinness' experiment in The Man in the White Suit and Ian Carmichael's Swiftmobile in School for Scoundrels the same? I'm sure I also heard it in The Fantastic Mr Fox and other films.

[batman]

I have always thought they were the same.

[smudge]

Me too...



Smudge

[Bernardo]

Well there is are archives of sound effects though I always thought that the chemical experiment was an edited mix though it is like the other. The files are freely available (for a price). I have a gigabyte or two for my videos far more than I use but they are fun to play with.

[DB7]

There was another old film I heard that plink-plunk sound effect in but I can't immediately recall it. I was surprised to hear it pop up in Clooney's Mr Fox.

[darrenburnfan]

Kenneth More's steam-driven horseless carriage in his 1958 film The Sheriff Of Fractured Jaw also made similar if not the same sounds when he got it going. "So far, I've only been able to make it go up and down...but if ever I should succeed in making it go to and from, just think what that will mean!"

[christoph404]

For "Bridge On The River Kwai" scores of cameras and recording equipment were set up to cover the actual blowing up of the bridge with a real train plunging into the river. Unfortunately a technical glitch meant that no sound was recorded and David Lean was left with silent images of a spectacular full size explosion and train wreck. It was a huge problem that was solved back in London by using a readily available sound effects LP which happened to have a track titled "train crash", I imagine its been used quite a few times over the years!

[JamesM]

The history of the original recording.



http://www.oup.com/us/companion.webs...og_6Sept09.pdf

[Bernardo]

I believe that in the most 'Hi Tech' movies the live audio does not sound real enough so they go through a process where there is a screening and the weapon clicks and reloads etc are added in by technicians using a variety of effects. Was that in a documentary I saw some years back?

[Steve Crook]

name='Bernardo']I believe that in the most 'Hi Tech' movies the live audio does not sound real enough so they go through a process where there is a screening and the weapon clicks and reloads etc are added in by technicians using a variety of effects. Was that in a documentary I saw some years back?

That's been the case for many films ever since they invented sound films. Watch any of the old American musicals where someone is tap-dancing. Is that really the sound of their tap shoes, or is the sound added on afterwards?



Steve

[GRAEME]

My favourite sound effect is from How to Murder Your Wife - the Gloppada Gloppada Machine which is just Jack Lemmon's voice saying gloppada gloppada, gloppada gloppada ...

[George Bailey]

I am sure you know Steve that all of Astaires tap dancing sound was added later and what a remarkable piece of editing it was. The sound effect I always hear as the same is in Westerns when there is gunfire with ricochets and echoing.

[Gerald Lovell]

I've heard the same dog bark in literally dozens of British films from the 50s and 60s. Someone once told me it wasn't a real dog at all, but Percy Edwards at work!

[penfold]

name='Steve Crook']That's been the case for many films ever since they invented sound films.



Steve

And of course, before sound films.....machines were sold to (high end) silent cinemas which incorporated banks of sound effects into an upright-piano-sized console.

[penfold]

I couldn't find any footage of one in action, but this clip gives an idea of the sort of ingenuity available to the cinema pit. This one is playing off the piano roll, but the keyboard works independently too.



[ame="http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=U0JZszqC7mk&feature=related"]YouTube- New Joe Plays[/ame]



Now you know why silent comedy films tend to be shorts....

[Steve Crook]

name='penfold']I couldn't find any footage of one in action, but this clip gives an idea of the sort of ingenuity available to the cinema pit. This one is playing off the piano roll, but the keyboard works independently too.



YouTube- New Joe Plays



Now you know why silent comedy films tend to be shorts....

Superb



Steve

[christoph404]

name='Bernardo']I believe that in the most 'Hi Tech' movies the live audio does not sound real enough so they go through a process where there is a screening and the weapon clicks and reloads etc are added in by technicians using a variety of effects. Was that in a documentary I saw some years back?

Not just Hi Tech movies, possibly every movie since "talking pictures" arrived.The "technicians" are known as "Foley Artists", another little known yet crucial member of a film crew and they are usually very creative and inventive people rather than just technicians, for example a punch to the jaw is represented with such classic sounds as snapping bamboo or belting a water melon with a hammer....and so on. It takes a fair bit of imagination to come up with things like that! But usually all the normal sounds are added later as well, opening and closing doors, stirring a cup, clinking glasses, footsteps etc etc.

[Steve Crook]

name='christoph404']Not just Hi Tech movies, possibly every movie since "talking pictures" arrived.The "technicians" are known as "Foley Artists", another little known yet crucial member of a film crew and they are usually very creative and inventive people rather than just technicians, for example a punch to the jaw is represented with such classic sounds as snapping bamboo or belting a water melon with a hammer....and so on. It takes a fair bit of imagination to come up with things like that! But usually all the normal sounds are added later as well, opening and closing doors, stirring a cup, clinking glasses, footsteps etc etc.

Not just "sound effects" but voices as well. Voices rarely record well on location and often need to be redubbed to make them sound more "realistic"



Steve

[christoph404]

name='Steve Crook']Not just "sound effects" but voices as well. Voices rarely record well on location and often need to be redubbed to make them sound more "realistic"



Steve

Thats true, voices are sometimes even redubbed with a different actor! In some countries such as Italy, filming is usually done without any sound at all recorded on set, everything is added later, dialogue sound effects the lot! I think that is also the case with Bollywood films.

[Steve Crook]

name='christoph404']Thats true, voices are sometimes even redubbed with a different actor! In some countries such as Italy, filming is usually done without any sound at all recorded on set, everything is added later, dialogue sound effects the lot! I think that is also the case with Bollywood films.

When I used to go to Germany in the 1970s, all the films they showed on German TV were dubbed - by the same few actors



John Wayne, Laurence Olivier, Sabu? They all sounded the same to the Germans



Steve