(WEEK 5
Hard Effects – Of the five primary types of sound effects in filmmaking, hard effects are the most typical. These are distinctive sounds such as a car horn, a gunshot, or the slamming of a car door. With hard effects, there is usually a fixed sound connected with the picture; for example, a trigger is pulled and the sound of a gunshot is heard. In such instances, intricate synchronizing of sound to performance – as is necessary with footsteps for instance – is usually not required to evoke realism.
Foley Sound Effects – These sound effects are recorded live by Foley artists and added postproduction to a movie to enhance both its audio quality and believability. Foley is the process of synchronizing sounds with on-screen action. Of all the different Foley sound effects, footsteps are the most common and well known. However, a Foley artist’s craft goes well beyond synchronizing the sound of footsteps to its action on screen. When you hear the realistic whooshes, whacks, and whirls of a fight scene or the clinking and clanking of silverware and dishes in a dinner sequence, you can be certain that a Foley artist worked behind the scenes adding these sound elements to heighten the movie’s realism.
Background Effects – These sound effects, also called ambiences, lend reality to a movie by giving it a sense of location. For example, if you were to watch a movie with a scene of two people talking on a busy New York City street, you would hear the honking of horns and the sound of traffic in the background. It should be noted that background effects (BG) are not directly correlated with a specific onscreen action. Even though car horns were heard in the background in the example above, if one of the individuals conversing on the city street were to get in his car and honk the horn (a sound occurs due to a specific onscreen action), this would be considered a hard effect not a BG.
Electronic Sound Effects – If you’ve ever watched a 1960’s sci-fi movie, you probably heard an example of an electronic sound effect. These effects were initially created with synthesizers and keyboards. Today, with the creation of DAW (Digital Audio Workstation) plug-ins, electronic sound effects are also created from filtered or processed organic sounds. These effects are often used as production elements for movie trailer sound beds and title elements on commercials and television shows.
Design Sound Effects – There may be a sound or sounds needed in a film to assist in building suspense or creating a sense of reality that would be impossible to record naturally (such as the delicate metallic sound of a pin hitting a tiled floor). In such instances, the services of a sound designer – that typically uses a Digital Audio Workstation – would be required to create the desired sound(s).
Under Creative Commons License: Attribution
Sound Effects - It is arguable as to whether mostHalloween music is actually "music" at all. Much of the stuff that you will find does not even feature any notes or melodies. While a great score in a movie can definitely build tension and anticipation, this can be quite hard to match to your own scene e.g. if you are trying to create a mini haunted house for the local kids then music might distract from the overall theme.
In my opinion Midnight Syndicate is the best band in the world when it comes to writing scary soundeffects and scary Halloween music. In reality, Midnight Syndicate write classical music that can be incorporated into virtually any horror setting. Their music provides a genuinely creepy atmosphere that will make your skin crawl.
