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DEBORAH REED, 1950- 2023
film, filmmaking, media Mike Hallenbeck 11/27/23 film, filmmaking, media Mike Hallenbeck 11/27/23

DEBORAH REED, 1950- 2023

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SCORE + SOUND FOR FILM: “FIGHTING SLEEP”
film, film festival, filmmaking, short film, sound design, music for picture, music composition Mike Hallenbeck 11/1/23 film, film festival, filmmaking, short film, sound design, music for picture, music composition Mike Hallenbeck 11/1/23

SCORE + SOUND FOR FILM: “FIGHTING SLEEP”

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music for picture, music Mike Hallenbeck 10/25/23 music for picture, music Mike Hallenbeck 10/25/23

MUSIC PLACEMENTS: “GET SET GALACTIC”

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SOUND DESIGN FOR FILM: RECOMMENDED READING/ VIEWING/ LISTENING (AND ONE ARTICLE)

A non-exhaustive list of resources relating to sound design for picture. There’s plenty else out there, but these I can recommend in particular. I’m keeping this list short on purpose. And once again, this isn’t intended as the be-all and end-all; it’s just what one guy recommends. Enjoy!

BOOKS

= = = = =

THEORY

The Storytelling Animal: How Stories Make Us Human by Jonathan Gottschall. Not about film per se, but a fine exploration of narrative itself and why it matters. A very helpful text for anyone who works on narrative craft in any form.

Audio-Vision by Michel Chion

Soundscape: The School of Sound Lectures 1998-2003, ed. Larry Sider

Film Sound: Theory and Practice, ed. Elisabeth Weis and John Belton

PRACTICE

Sound Design: The Expressive Power of Music, Voice and Sound Effects in Cinema by David Sonnenschein

The Location Sound Bible: How to Record Professional Dialog for Film and TV by Ric Viers

Dialog Editing for Motion Pictures: A Guide to the Invisible Art by John Purcell

The Sound Effects Bible: How to Create and Record Hollywood Style Sound Effects by Ric Viers

The Foley Grail: The Art of Performing Sound for Film, Games, and Animation by Vanessa Theme Ament

PODCASTS

(Some are moribund but still have useful info. Some are about music as well, but feature useful sound design info.)

Tonebenders

Soundworks Collection

Dolby Creator Talks

SoundGirls

Sound Business with Akash Thakkar

Audio Nowcast

ARTICLES

Here's Why Movie Dialogue Has Gotten More Difficult To Understand (And Three Ways To Fix It)

Article (contains video)

FILMS

The Conversation, 1974, d. Francis Ford Coppola. “Apocalypse Now” comes up in a lot of sound design conversations, and rightly so, but when it comes to Walter Murch’s work, I find this film to be trickier, a lot more intriguing, and mentioned less often. Sound is embedded into this film’s essence to a ==== degree.

M, 1931, d. Fritz Lang. You wouldn’t know this was Fritz Lang’s first sound film, given the pivotal role sound plays in its plot— not to mention the canny ways sound functions within the narrative. It’s the stark and haunting tale of a city’s hunt for a child murderer. Simply put: a laugh riot!

Making Waves: The Art of Cinematic Sound (documentary), 2019, d. Midge Costin. Oddly, I still haven’t seen this. Excellent by all accounts, though.

Everything Everywhere All At Once, 2022, d. Daniel Kwan and Daniel Schneinert. A bit of a “duh” entry, given that it’s a film that pretty much blows the mind by means of every department, but it bears mention given its thoughtful sound design and music.

Ripley (Netflix series), 2024, d. Steven Zaillian. A quiet and tense thriller, worth watching for entertainment purposes alone, but hugely impressive (to me, anyway) for the subtlety and nuance of its Foley and sound editing given the rich soundscape that unfolds. Lots of great work hiding in plain sight.

Aliens, 1986, d. James Cameron. A great example of dynamics in film mixing. While renowned as an action film, long stretches of the film roll by in quieter registers until all hell breaks loose.

Eraserhead, 1977, d. David Lynch. Sound designer Alan Splet collaborated happily with David Lynch on a variety of projects until his death at a sadly young age. Eraserhead showcases his penchant for coaxing otherworldly textures from field recordings and musique concrete experiments.

The Black Stallion, 1979, d. Carroll Ballard. Once familiar with Alan Splet’s bizarre approach, it’s a lot of fun to hear the weirdness embedded into more quotidian soundscapes. The result reveals an almost magic realist sensibility.

Gravity, 2013, d. Alphonso Cuarón. Not only a thoughtful exploration of how astronauts experience sound in space, but a deft shuffling of perceptual phenomena between radio transmissions, in-helmet convolutions, and straight up hallucinations. Plus Steven Price’s score often fills in the blanks where sound effects aren’t allowed to intrude. Stressortainment!

Cool Cat Audio is a sound design, post production audio, music composition, and recording studio based in Minneapolis, MN. Owner, sound designer, composer, and mix engineer Mike Hallenbeck works both locally and virtually throughout the US and around the world. Mailing address: PO Box 2545, Minneapolis, MN 55402 — CONTACT VIA EMAIL