Ted talks : everything your hear in film is a lie

Hello everyone,

Tasos Frantzolas is a sound designer and he spoke us about sound effects and the fact that lots of things in films are lies. Indeed, he shows us that the sound of the rain is made with bacon which is cooking, the sound of cigarette which is consuming is made with cellophane or saran wrap ball, the sound of a punch is made by a cabbage stabbed with a knife, the sound of breaking bounds by breaking frozen lettuce or celery, the sound of birds flapping by checking kitchen gloves. He also said that all the sound that we heard are added in postproduction. This is for example the case when a phone is ringing.
He remembered a story of a sound designer who had to do the sound of a propeller’s submarine. He couldn’t rent a submarin so to do the sound, he placed two microphones in a swimming pool’s friend: one overhead and the other underwater and do a cannonball. He recorded the sound with the two micros, modified a bit the two sounds, gathered the two sounds and repeated the two sounds and had his propeller’s submarin sound.

Now, Tasos Frantzolas wanted to speak about some sound effects. First of all he spoke about reverberation which is the perseveration of a sound after the original sound has ended. He showed that depending on the place of we are the sound is more or less long. For instance, a gunshot lasts normally half a second time but it lasts more in a bathroom, much more in a church and even more in a canion. He explained after that realisators use zero reverb in emmotially, intimate scenes or in a narration and use much reverb in flashback, when we are inside the head of a character or when we are listenning the voice of god.
He spoke also about silence which is very important in cinema. Indeed, it can enable to create a climate of tension before a communication or silence can provoke thoughts of the character. In Yin Yang, he said that slicence needs loudness and loudness needs silence.
He spoke also about ambiance. According to the place of we are, there is a specific ambiance. For instance, ambiance in a market in Morocco is totally different of ambiance in time square in New York.
He said also that some sounds like birds which are singing in the morning are invigorationg. That type of sound has considered as normality and we are used to hearing that. But more recently, realisators have discovered industrial sounds which are new sounds which we are not used to hearing. That type of sounds carry often negative connotation and provok fear or irritation. David Lynch often use that type of sound.
Sounds could often also have signifaction. For instance a glass broken could significate the end of a friendship or a relationship or church bells can indicatate mortallity. Sound is a language in their own rights. We also can use instrument to create a climate of fear.
Finally, he spoke about offscreen sounds or accusmatic sounds which are sounds which don’t have any rapport with the action. For instance he took a video of a baby who is laughing and deleted the sound and replaced it by something completely different like the sound of a ping pong ball which is bouncing or the sound of swords. This cause source of mystery or tension.That type of sounds are often used by Riddley Scott or Alfred Hitchock.