sound design article

Over the past few decades video game have been progressed since the 50's. Video games initially had no sound, a bit like movies until the 1970's when games such as pac man started coming out with monophonic sounds. Providing blips for the game music and the sound effects. In the 70's the sounds were made by the programmers , people with no musical experience so games were more limited and there wasn't access to certain props to make the sounds for certain games. Another famous game was pong. As the gaming industry started progressing into the 80's more consoles have started being made and also more games were being produced and the sales in games started increasing. Games such as Final Fantasy Fame, Mario and Zelda. Consoles such as the Nintendo Entertainment System and Sega Megadrive have been produced. Sooner or later more channels of audio were produced and something resembling music can be embedded onto the games, but were still limited. When the sega megadrive came out it was more affordable and popular. It was then the sound was improved and the MIDI instruments to replace the old sounds that were being used. In modern day there are new consoles such as the Playstation 3 and Xbox 360 where the games have a whole sound team who create sounds just for the game itself which means they have much bigger budgets as the gaming industry has expanded dramatically. 

Sound designers plan and provide the sound effects in the game. Certain sounds in games are created by normal voices for the scripts, but certain other sounds are to create lifelike noises by using music and using abstract sounds to create the sound for the game. Sound designers and composers start their work by studying the script first so they know exactly what sounds to put into the game to get the best sound out effect out of it. Some directors will already have very clear ideas about what the sound effects and/or music should sound like, while others may request that the sound designer/composer sit in on rehearsals to assist with developing effects and music to fit the correct context in which they'll be used. Once they know what the script is about and what they need to do the composer begins to add the musical pieces and the sound designer begins to gather and  create the necessary sounds for the game. There are many well known sound designers such as one who is called Ben Burtt. He is an american sound designer who has worked on various well known films such as the Star Wars series and also the Indiana Jones series also Wall-E and E.T. Ben is most notable for creating many of the iconic sound effects in the Star Wars series. Burtt is not only a sound designer but also a director an editor and also a film writer.

The modern movie i have chose to talk about is Transformers 3. I will be describing the processes they have used to create the sound effects throughout the movie.
Transformers have used various ways of creating their sounds. Their main objective of the sounds is to get the most organic or natural sounds as they can so they can then make them into more of the electronic sounds.
They have achieved this objective perfectly, one of the ways in which they have creating shooting sounds is that they got a electric guitar and a screwdriver and had 1 or 2 hour 
sessions just to get the perfect shooting sounds from the guitar.

They have also used the guitar sounds for the alien battleships in the movie which have big buns which lock into place and the motor sound from the gun came 100 percent from the electric guitar!

For some of their military gunshots came from shotguns which they have used in a desserted land where they have set up microphones all around the surface area they have been using so they can pick up the best sounds from each side of the area to then they can go onto editing later for the movie.
Transformers had an incredible amount of access as to what they can do with the movie. They had an amazing rocket sound which was used by a real rocket. They set up their microphones a quarter mile away from the rocket and rigged all their microphones and set the timers to the time the rocket was about to launch. When night fell the rocket was launched and the sounds were established. There is a part in the movie where all you can hear is the rocket sound which shows us that they have made use of having the advantage of using a real rocket.

They have also used a foley stage in their movie. This is where they have recorded the sounds of the alien battleships crashing. Some of the sounds which are created there have been made in the foley stage by dry ice and metal which creates a sound which is really effective.

Altogether we can see that the sound designers of the Transformers movie have really thought about what sort of sounds they will be using and they have taken the natural sounds and made it into something totally different made it really creative and they were successful in doing so. 


In the modern day we can see that gaming companies have expanded a lot more since the 50's and even the 90's. Gaming companies nowadays have their very own audio team working specifically on certain sounds that are created in the game. They have similar teams in which movie companies have. 

In some games a surround sound decoder which takes each audio information and places it into the correct channel such as the sub or the left speaker channel for example. The decoder may be added in some embodiments to convert monophonic and stereo games into surround sound. The surround sound may be made to produce certain effects, such as the tactile effect and a gradual build up of suspense and anticipation that increases the players interest, excitement and enjoyment in the game!

Altogether the things that i have gathered from this is that sound designers have an important role as their job description. We may not see it but their role is key which makes the movie or the game that they are producing as effective as we see it. This has helped me be more creative with the sounds that i use in my game and has given me an insight as to how to go about doing it. 

Bibliography: http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Pac-Man
                    http://history1900s.about.com/od/1980s/qt/Pac-Man.htm
                    http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=wyB8BR82Fno&safe=active
                    Btec level 3 creative media textbook

These are the links to where I got my information from for this article. We can see that the resources are from the internet and also published textbooks.

5 music videos of different genres

This is the first music video i have chosen to do which falls under the genre of R&B. The song is called 'Burn' and was bought out by well known american artist 'Usher'. A soon as the video starts we see a variety of close up shots as we can see...

These are the first images from the video that start off. We can see a pattern straight away by it showing the girls eyes and Ushers eyes and then the girls mouth and Ushers mouth. This tells us straight away that the video is about them both and their relationship.It then goes on to show images of both of them which gives us another indication that the song is about them alone. We can also see the way they portrayed them, Ushers facial expressions show that he is in deep thoughts and the woman is shown in the dark with one spotlight on her which reflects her personality.
This image summarises that the song is about them both, and having Usher in front and a image of the woman behind is showing that Usher once had her and she is not around anymore apart from the portrait of her in his home.
Another close up of the woman with a tear running down her eyes reflects the theme of the song.

The genre of this song is a mix of R&B and ballad which we can see from the beat of the video which uses instruments such as the guitar and piano. It also can be shown through the lyrics. The lyrics in this song are about a break up, when you read the lyrics you can tell that the song is going to be slow and meaningful. In each stanza of this song the word 'burn' which shows a comparison between the song name and the lyrics.

This is a extreme close up they have used in the video and we can see the rage in his eyes and the effective technique they have used here is the fire in his eyes to indicate the songs name 'burn'.

This is the song 'Shine Ya Light' from the artist Rita Ora. This video uses many styles and conventions.

The video starts by a mobile phone calling with the directors name which is rare in a music video, so getting the directors name out is a good thing for the director so they can promote themselves and show their work.This is showing the phone which displays the directors name.The video of this song is set in the artists home country of Kosovo in the city of Pristina.

It even shows in the beginning of the video where the video is set. The reason why she has chosen to place her video in Kosovo is to show her fans where she is from and what her home country is really like.

The actual video starts with a mid shot of Rita Ora with the Kosovo flag masked around her face which  shows the relationship between the setting of the shoot and the love she has for her home country.
The main things which we have picked up from this music video is are the types of shots that are generated throughout and most shots have been used.Live Performance shotClose Up ShotThese are just some of the shots that have been used.

This is the video from Guns&Roses called 'Welcome to the jungle'. The genre of this music video symbolises the band themselves by the way they have long/messy hair, dark 

clothing and most of their videos are in placed in a dark setting.

There are close up shots of the band themselves and the instruments they use. This shows off their genre and their individual personality slightly more. They used a live performance shot of them performing to a group of fans. From this we can see that their fans are also like them.

The video also uses partial narrative which means its showing us some sort of narrative and some sort of suggestion that there is a story behind this video.

Main points that we can pick up from this video is the performance shots and how they use a sense of idiology.
  The next music video i am going to talk about is from artist Wiley called 'Heatwave'. The genre of this song is grime/dance. Misc-en-scene is used in this video by the setting and the location of the video and also the ambient lighting and props such as the pool and the bikinis that the woman are wearing.There are a lot of close up shots being used in the video of the girls and the artist himself. The editor has also used slow motion to create more of an effect and this makes the audience feel the vibe of the music and makes them want to get in the mood of the song which is having fun and partying. 

The target audience for this video are teenagers and young adults ageing from 16-24 years old. 

The main purpose of this video is to sell the audience something fun and something that is fun listening to in a party. They use a lot of close up shots to remind the audience who the song is made by and the video seems as though the actors in it were allowed to what they wanted and the video was not scripted.
 

This is the brand new single bought out from British boy band One Direction. The video of this song is different from most other music videos that you see. This video record the making of the video which is something different and lets the audience into the inside world of music videos. 

Throughout the video they show individual artists with mid shots and also close up shots. This is to get a grab of each artist from the band. 

This last image shows all of the band together in a happy mood symbolises the genre of the song.


Another thing i have picked up from this video is the style of it. Throughout it we can see that they have adapted some old pieces and made it their own using intertexuality.

All these images related to the 50's/60's theme. The first image has an old fashioned leader which counts the sequence in before the video starts. The second image has a retro font to it which also links to the theme. The third image uses iconography which links bank to the 1950's movie 'On The Town'. The final image relates to Elvis Presley's scene in his film 'Jailhouse Rock', which was also produced in the 1950's.