Sound in Animation
- · Scratch track: “sketch”of soundtrack (done with the storyboard).
- · Sound effects can come from standard libraries (CDs), everyday sources.
- · Sounds are shorter in animation than in real life.
- · Doesn’t need to be a connection between object creating sound and picture (e.g. coconuts for horses’hooves).
History of Music in Animation
- · Warner Bros. owned hundreds of songs
- · Animation composers required to use a snippet in every animation
- · Disney owned few songs in 20’s and 30’s
- · Encouraged composers to write variations on well-known themes
- · Original work in Silly Symphonies, starting with “Who’s Afraid of the Big Bad Wolf”(1933)
- · Music in feature-length animations (1939 on)
Music in Animation: Carl
Stalling
- · Often regarded as the greatest animation composer ever.
- · Started as a organist, improvisationistfor silent movies.
- · Worked for Warner Bros. 1936 to 1958, after Disney and Iwerks.
- · Famous for musical gags, from orchestral accents (pizzicato violins for tiptoe) to obscure references
- · We’ve learned that cartoons should work without the sound. His cartoons worked without the picture.
Sound
Classifications
The sound heard exclusively by
the audience is referred to as non diegetic. When we see the source of the
sound, it is referred to as on-screen. It is interesting to note that sound can
be both diegetic and off screen. Generally substitute in music terms source
music for diegetic and underscore for non diegetic. Establishing sound is the
common practice of starting a music cue or ambience prior to introducing of
transitioning to a scene. Sound effects that are linked to on-screen objects
are referred to as hard effect. Michel Chion classifies sound into three basic
categories casual, semantic, and reduced. Chion typology provides us with a
valuable theoretical framework for discussing sound effects. Casual (literal)
sound effects are aptly named, as they reinforced cause effect, especially when
realism is desired. In in animation, reality is often subjective and literal
sounds often sound out of place or not dramatic enough. The term semantic is
used to describe sound in which a literal translation is more important than
timbre.