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Sound design and science fiction

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Sound design and science fiction

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Content INFORMATION TO USERS This manuscript has been reproduced from the microfilm master. UMI films the text directly from the original or copy submitted. Thus, some thesis and dissertation copies are in typewriter face, while others may be from any type of computer printer. The quality of this reproduction is dependent upon the quality of the copy submitted. Broken or indistinct print, colored or poor quality illustrations and photographs, print bleedthrough, substandard margins, and improper alignment can adversely affect reproduction. In the unlikely event that the author did not send UMI a complete manuscript and there are missing pages, these will be noted. Also, if unauthorized copyright material had to be removed, a note will indicate the deletion. Oversize materials (e.g., maps, drawings, charts) are reproduced by sectioning the original, beginning at the upper left-hand comer and continuing from left to right in equal sections with small overlaps. Each original is also photographed in one exposure and is included in reduced form at the back of the book. Photographs included in the original manuscript have been reproduced xerographically in this copy. Higher quality 6” x 9” black and white photographic prints are available for any photographs or illustrations appearing in this copy for an additional charge. Contact UMI directly to order. Bell & Howell Information and Learning 300 North Zeeb Road, Ann Arbor, Ml 48106-1346 USA 800-521-0600 Reproduced with permission of the copyright owner. Further reproduction prohibited without permission. Reproduced with permission of the copyright owner. Further reproduction prohibited without permission. SOUND DESIGN AND SCIENCE FICTION by William Brian Whittington A Dissertation Presented to the FACULTY OF THE GRADUATE SCHOOL UNIVERSITY OF SOUTHERN CALIFORNIA In Partial Fulfillment of the Requirements for the Degree DOCTOR OF PHILOSOPHY (Cinema-Television— Critical Studies) May 1999 Copyright 1999 William Brian Whittington Reproduced with permission of the copyright owner. Further reproduction prohibited without permission. UMI Number; 9933802 UMI Microform 9933802 Copyright 1999, by UMI Company. All rights reserved. This microform edition is protected against unauthorized copying under Title 17, United States Code. UMI 300 North Zeeb Road Ann Arbor, MI 48103 Reproduced with permission of the copyright owner. Further reproduction prohibited without permission. UNIVERSITY OF SOUTHERN CALIFORNIA THE GRADUATE SCHOOL UNIVERSITY PARK LOS ANGELES. CALIFORNIA 90007 This dissertation, written by William Brian Whittington under the direction of h..xa Dissertation Committee, and approved by all its members, has been presented to and accepted by The Graduate School, in partial fulfillm ent of re quirements for the degree of DOCTOR OF PHILOSOPHY Dean of Graduate Studies Date DISSERTATION COMMITTEE Chairperson 'gAsrtsOi___ Reproduced with permission of the copyright owner. Further reproduction prohibited without permission. ii TABLE OF CO NTENTS Abstract: iv Introduction Part I Chapter 1 Chapter 2 Part II Chapter 3 Chapter 4 Part III Chapter 5 Chapter 6 Part IV Chapter 7 Chapter 8 Part V Chapter 9 Part VI Chapter 10 Chapter 11 The Dawn of Sound Design Origins and Influences Music and Speculation in 2001: A Space Odyssey 18 44 Sound Montage The Convergence of Hollywood and New Wave Science Fiction Suggestive Fragments in THX 1138 Sound Designing Sound Capture to Construction: The Lexicon of Sound Designs in Star Wars Surround Sound and Science Fiction Sound Effects Genre Splicing: Horror and Science Fiction ALIEN: Audio-biomechanics Voice Design Blade Runners: A Crisis in Voicing Authority, Identity and Spectacle Final Design Sound Mixing and Sound Design in Science Fiction Cinema: A Mixed Paradox Mixing Man and Machine in Terminator 2: Judgment Day 64 91 113 144 162 192 220 252 275 Reproduced with permission of the copyright owner. Further reproduction prohibited without permission. Epilogue 297 Endnotes 302 Filmography 318 Selected Bibliography Glossary 330 323 Reproduced with permission of the copyright owner. Further reproduction prohibited without permission. iv ABSTRACT SOUND DESIGN AND SCIENCE FICTION In this age of visual culture, it is easy to forget that: "The audience is listening." This dissertation argues that in the last three decades from the late 1960s to the early 1990s, film sound has not only rivaled the innovative imagery of contemporary Hollywood cinema but in some ways has surpassed it in status and privilege due to the rise of Sound Design. During this period, the concept of Sound Design has proven mutable, metaphoric, and elusive, transforming from an experimental movement to a model of production and understanding. This dissertation traces its transformation by examining the intersection of cultural, technological and generic influences on the film soundtrack— from the rise of the French New Wave to the introduction of Dolby Stereo. Of particular interest, though, is how the science fiction genre has informed and mediated Sound Design. To highlight these influences, this study offers close textual examinations of a number of seminal science fiction films, including 2001: A Space Odyssey (1968), THX 1138 (1971), Star Wars (1977), Alien (1979), Blade Runner (1982, Director's Cut 1992) and Terminator 2: Judgment Day (1991). These works are unpacked in terms of specific sonic elements or processes Reproduced with permission of the copyright owner. Further reproduction prohibited without permission. V (dialogue/masic/effects, editing and re-recording) to render a unique understanding of planning and patterns of the contemporary film sound track and the mental project that results from its deployment. Ultimately, technical, historical and theoretical discourses converge to offer new insights into the constructed nature of film sound and a new direction in sound criticism, which can be applied to any film or genre. Reproduced with permission of the copyright owner. Further reproduction prohibited without permission. INTRODUCTION 1 In the 1993 film Jurassic Parkr Dr. Ian Malcolm (played by Jeff Goldblum) lies injured in a jeep as a genetically engineered T-Rex approaches through the darkness of a thick jungle. The thunderous footfalls of the creature at a distance shake the ground and reverberate in low rumbles. Tiny ripples break the smooth surface of a pool of water collected in a muddy dinosaur footprint nearby. The shaking and the size of the footprint foreshadow the imminent danger. Malcolm tries to contain his fear by saying: "Anybody hear that? That's a um. ..that's an impact tremor is what it is. I'm fairly alarmed here." In a properly aligned motion picture theater, equipped with a Digital Theater [Sound] System (DTS), the "impact tremors" fill the entire exhibition space, sending vibrations outward, immersing the character and the filmgoers in a jeep, in the jungle, alone. The moment represents a pinnacle in blockbuster cinema and film sound. Cleverly, the scene plays on science fiction-horror conventions by denying a clear visual referent of the dinosaur, heightening anxiety by hiding the creature in the sound effects; the construction of the scene also spatializes the depths of the two dimensional screen through a multichannel signal packed with reverberation and delay; and finally, the digital medium delivers the sound Reproduced with permission of the copyright owner. Further reproduction prohibited without permission. 2 with greater fidelity and dynamic range than any format prior to this point, solidifying the film's status as both cinematic and technological spectacle. Taken as a whole, the convergence of these factors is truly "alarming." In the traditional ontological analysis of sound, the presiding analogy is that of a stone skipped into a pond of water, which produces ripples that radiate, reflect and dissipate. This analogy of the nature of sound waves emerges repeatedly throughout Jurassic Park in cups of water and in muddied footprints as in the scene with the T- Rex. But is this the whole story? Given the rapid advances in sound technology and sound application within contemporary cinema, it is time to expand this analogy to include the air above the water, the thermoclines below, and the conditions under which the water was set in motion. The convergence of these factors can lead to a greater understanding of the entire system of sound which has come to dominate Hollywood cinema, specifically the movement and model known as Sound Design. Clearly film sound has reached a critical juncture as has sound theory and criticism. Over the past three decades, sound technologies and production have fundamentally changed Hollywood cinema and the filmgoing experience. But is the audience listening? The intent of this study is to examine and expose the complex weave of Reproduced with permission of the copyright owner. Further reproduction prohibited without permission. 3 technical and aesthetic factors known as sound design and contextualize them within history, culture and genre. The aims here are threefold. First, this work will re evaluate contemporary film history with a bias toward sound rather than the image. Industrial events such as the breakup of the studio system, the rise of film schools (and the generation of filmmakers it spawned), and the introduction of portable technologies will be re-examined to understand their impact on the film sound track. Secondly, I will examine the formal elements (dialogue, music and effects) and processes (editing and re-recording) of sound design, as a means of exposing the highly constructed nature of the sound track. This detailed approach is a means of dispelling the notion that film sound is simply a matter of capture or copying. In addition, this approach will assist in building a vocabulary of analysis which bridges the gap between production and theory. Finally, this project will examine how genre, particularly the science fiction genre, has fused with sound design to mediate changes in reading codes and meaning production, while redefining audience expectations in contemporary cinema. It is my hope that this study will help film scholars and filmmakers alike in navigating the complexity of film sound as it addresses the patterns of sound conceptualization, construction and design. Reproduced with permission of the copyright owner. Further reproduction prohibited without permission. 4 Given the complexity of film sound today, new models of analysis will need to utilize a variety of different methodologies. Subsequently, this study takes a multi- discursive approach, incorporating historical analysis, cultural studies, formal analysis, and genre studies. The key instrument of analysis is the close textual analysis of specific sound tracks in terms of key elements and processes and their relation to narrative, genre, and reception. Historically, the study covers cinematic sound from the late 1960s to the early 1990s and engages seminal science fiction texts from this period, including: 2001: A Space Odyssey (1968), THX 1138 (1971), Star Wars (1977), Allen (1979), Blade Runner (1982, 1992), and Terminator 2: Judgment Day (1991). But why examine only this time period and only these films? Following the breakup of the studio system, the audio and sound industries experienced an explosion of growth in both the aesthetic and technical fields. The music industry transformed and unified a new generation of youth with Rock and Roll and stereo broadcasting. The stereo babies had arrived, and some of these audiophiles went on to become the "Movie Brats."1 Consumer sound technology also became portable and went Hi Fi. Film sound followed as Dolby Noise Reduction moved out of the labs and into theaters; recording equipment became more portable (and thus more useful in sound experimentation); and sound personnel took Reproduced with permission of the copyright owner. Further reproduction prohibited without permission. 5 greater control over sound construction and "design." Film sound exploded in importance and complexity, and simultaneously, the film sound track experienced an overwhelming influence from genre films, particular science fiction. This genre of the fantastic suddenly became the new arena for cinematic play and spectacle, following the release of Stanley Kubrick's 2001: A Space Odyssey. Genre and sound design converged, and thus the films that are utilized in this study represent not simply eloquent examples of sound processes and practices, but also key contributors to the development of sound design. In terms of reception, the "New Hollywood" (as defined by Thomas Schatz) clearly created new types of film texts and cinematic experiences. 2 it is essential to understand then that the output from this period created new spectators as well. With the ready availability of film texts and production information on the Web and in fan publications, contemporary filmgoers are aggressively attentive to all aspects of filmmaking, which makes them demanding as well. Film sound has challenged and confirmed audience expectations, offering some of the most complex weaves of sound effects, music and dialogue that have ever been attempted. Contemporary soundtracks have thus exploded in privilege and status. In this respect, it is an exciting time for film sound and critical discourse. Reproduced with permission of the copyright owner. Further reproduction prohibited without permission. 6 This study attempts to bring together the multiplicity of these factors to render a unique understanding of the planning and patterns of the contemporary film sound track and the mental project that results from its deployment. Ultimately, technical, historical, and theoretical discourses converge to offer new insights into the constructed nature of the film soundtrack and a new direction in sound criticism. For the most part, this study bypasses traditional sound theory primarily because it does not envision the complex production capabilities of the modern dubbing stage or the use of multichannel sound formats, but rather focuses on realism and all too often the "need" for sound. As Amy Lawrence and many others have noted, classical theory has facilitated a pattern of "attack and neglect" which overlooks or "naturalizes" issues of technology and the mode of sound production.3 Fortunately, contemporary sound theory proves far more useful and insightful. After 60 years of neglect, sound is no longer marginalized. In two influential works Yale French Studies 60 (1980) and Sound Theory/Sound Practice (1992), sound theorist Rick Altman brings together various essays which address sound history, sound theory and music, and he opens up a significant dialogue in film sound discourse.4 in particular, Mary Anne Doane's article, "The Voice in the Cinema: The Articulation of Body and Space," spatializes Reproduced with permission of the copyright owner. Further reproduction prohibited without permission. the deployment of sound in its relation to the diegesis (or story world), screen space and the exhibition environment as it is unified by the conceptual body of the film and the body of the characters within.5 Her article is grounded in a psychoanalytic model, and it foreshadows her subsequent work on sound and ideology. It, therefore, provided a solid foundation for my exploration into surround sound and sound mixing. Rick Altman's essays provided a solid foundation for this study by addressing sound deployment and technology, particularly in examining sound not as "capture” but as "event".6 In addition to these works, Kaja Silverman expanded the inter-relation of the psychoanalytical model with sound studies in her seminal text The Acoustic Mirror (1988)7, and Amy Lawrence’s Echo and Narcissus— Women 's Voices In Classical Hollywood Cinema provided an excellent model of analysis, incorporating close textual analysis of dialogue and the voice in relation to Feminist Theory.8 The clarity and insight of Lawrence' s line of argument served as a powerful guide for this study. In examining historical and technological discourse, John Belton's work entitled "1950s Magnetic Sound: The Frozen Revolution" was essential in developing my own argument on multichannel and artifice in contemporary cinema. ^ with these scholars and other such as Alan Williams, Michel Chion, and Elizabeth Weis, the range of film sound scholarship in general expands its reach in Reproduced with permission of the copyright owner. Further reproduction prohibited without permission. new directions, challenging the cannon of image dominated discourse.10 Adding to this discourse is Sound Design and Science Fiction, which pushes film sound scholarship to the next logical step by bringing together sound theory, process, technology and practice as a means of offering a unified model of analysis. The intent is to bridge the gap between the various channels of discourse and to build a common understanding. Importantly, this work unifies these streams within a genre context, specifically science fiction cinema. In this layered mix, genre functions as a key mediator and method. One of the strengths of science fiction has always been its ability to displace concepts into different times and spaces to offer criticisms and critiques. This work attempts to do the same. Genre examples also offer a specificity when dealing with various sound concepts, which car at times be elusive in their abstract forms and applications. Within this model, then, a multitude of literature (and data) beyond sound theory became essential in informing the line of argument. In particular, technical works, historical chronologies, primary interviews and actual production practice contributed greatly to the breadth of this study. Within the field of production literature, Vincent LoBrutto's Sound-On-Film, a collection of interviews with sound personnel, proved essential as it Reproduced with permission of the copyright owner. Further reproduction prohibited without permission. 9 explored production practices as related to specific films, technology and genres. H This body of interviews stands in sharp contrast to the past studio publicity on Hollywood sound from Warner Bros, and others, which seemed only to mystify the processes as a means of hiding the "magic.” Within LoBrutto *s interviews, contemporary sound practitioners are much less constrained, partly because sound methods and technology have become such a key selling point for films today. Practitioners like Walter Murch, Ben Burtt and Gary Rydstrom have been eloquent in their analysis and analogies in describing what they do. Their contributions (directly and indirectly) have been immeasurable. I was fortunate enough to attend lectures and book signings by two of these individuals to gather additional information and ask follow up questions related to sound d e s i g n . 12 The work of all three of these individuals represents the art of film sound at its best. In terms of primary research, one of the most valuable experiences for gathering data proved to be a 16 week seminar offered at Todd AO Glen Glen Sound Studios in Hollywood, California, under the direction of sound effects editor John Haeny. During this period, a small group of students and I followed several film and television projects through the entire process of sound post production. I was pleasantly surprised to find that practitioners of post production sound were as attentive Reproduced with permission of the copyright owner. Further reproduction prohibited without permission. 10 and devoted to cinematic analysis as the best film scholar. Their insights into the "quiet" work of sound are woven into the tapestry of my argument. In addition to this primary research, technological works created a scientific foundation for this study. Tomlinson Holman's Sound for Film and Television as well as his various articles and lectures directed this study from the very beginning— so much so that I recommend his text as a necessary compendium to this study.13 Lastly, corporate websites including those for the Consumer Electronics Manufacturers Association (CEMA), Dolby Labs, Lucasfilm, Kudelski S.A. (manufacturer of the Nagra tape recorder), and others offered timelines of product development, insights into production methods, and a host of various technical specifications for sound equipment.Within these lines of discourse, the linkages between theory and practice were forged. The final essential component in formulating this model of analysis was the contribution of genre cinema and genre studies, specifically related to science fiction and the fantastic. Since the 1960s, science fiction cinema has re-defined cinematic spectacle with the release of films from 2001: A Space Odyssey to Terminator 2: Judgment Day. These films have recalibrated not just the aesthetics of film sound but the technology of sound as well. Filmmakers such as Stanley Kubrick, George Lucas, Steven Spielberg, Ridley Scott, and James Cameron have often sought to employ Reproduced with permission of the copyright owner. Further reproduction prohibited without permission. 11 the newest technologies which when implemented have become the new standard within the industry and theatrical venues. The implementation of Dolby Stereo with the release of Star Wars is an excellent example of this trend, and it appears new developments may once again find their way into theaters with the release of the forthcoming prequels. These filmmakers and their speculative narratives have also pushed the boundaries of film aesthetics, particularly sound design, into the unexplored realms of the fantastic with some regularity. Most importantly, these films dislocate and experiment with sound codes and strategies, offering excellent examples of the true range of sound design. In light of these new cinematic texts, genre studies have been forced to move beyond simple categorization and definition in order to address issues of humanity, technology, and gender as well their cultural and stylistic implications. Of particular use was Vivian Sobchack's Screening Space— The American Science Fiction Film (1987), which tracks the genre and its transformations across various time frames, including the recent blockbuster era. From her insights on "affect" through "special effects," I build my argument for film sound as spectacle. ^ Concurrently, I drew from works such as Scott Bukatman’s Terminal Identity to explore science fiction subjectivity; Donna Haraway's "A Manifesto for Cyborgs Reproduced with permission of the copyright owner. Further reproduction prohibited without permission. 12 and Linda Williams "Film Bodies: Gender, Genre and Excess" for insights into the connection between the body and t e c h n o l o g y ; 18 ancj Tzvetan Todorov's The Fantastic as a resource into how filmgoers engage the mode of the Fantastic, emotionally and intellectually.18 case studies, in particular, Jerome Agel's The Making of Kubrick's 2001 and Paul M. Sammon’s Future Noirz The Making of Blade Runner, also proved essential in establishing the stylistic conceits and construction methods of the various science fiction f i l m s . 20 From the diversity of this discourse, the mutability and adaptability of science fiction studies is evident, which is clearly one of its strengths. For this reason, a single unified plan for science fiction analysis is not the intent here, rather this work offers speculations on the possibilities of genre and genre studies in general. In connecting genre with sound, I hope to allow filmgoers to understand that cinema has utilized its medium and materials as eloquently as literature has used words. While the stories of science fiction cinema are often not as compelling as those in literature, their construction and strategies are as intricate and inspiring. Within the convergence of these methods and discourses, an integrated model of analysis emerges. The structure of the line of argument presented here is simple. Each of the six parts, except for one, is divided into two Reproduced with permission of the copyright owner. Further reproduction prohibited without permission. 13 parts. The initial chapters of each part contain historical or theoretical analysis, while compendium chapters offer case studies of specific films or technology. Part V is the only exception to this pattern; instead it presents a comparison and contrast between the two releases of Blade Runner in 1982 and 1992 respectively. The case studies are based on culturally and technically important texts, which at first appearance may seem all too familiar. However, if we move beyond the visuals and narrative conceits, an entirely new perspective on these works can be heard in terms of their sound design. In general, this collection of films attests the fluidity and diversity of the science fiction genre, which is continually revitalized and re invented with the introduction of new technologies, new techniques and new narrative strategies. As for specific usage, each film will be employed to examine a particular aspect of film sound, including music, editing, effects, Foley, ambiences, the voice, and finally, the mix process. Placement of these films is not by importance but rather they are organized chronologically and according to the method that best suits the overall model of analysis. The intent is to present a comprehensive analysis of an integrated sound design across a body of films. In short, I will engage in a meta-analysis which cuts across three decades of science fiction filmmaking and offers a complete analysis of the film sound track. Reproduced with permission of the copyright owner. Further reproduction prohibited without permission. 14 In Part I, I focus on the origins and influences on sound design. Like 2001: A Space Odyssey which traces the development and evolution of mankind, this first chapter unearths the industrial, cultural and technological catalysts which trigger this new phase in film sound. In addition, the case study of 2001: A Space Odyssey will address film music and speculation- Within the unexpected juxtaposition of various pre-recorded classical and avant garde musical works and Kubrick's stunning visual imagery of the future, the image-sound relations of this epic science fiction film became charged with speculative possibilities, not simply about the future, but about the nature of film sound. Part II traces the influence of these speculations as related to sound effects and "Sound Montage," which came about through a convergence of new sensibilities from filmmakers working within the New Hollywood and the French New Wave. Through formal experimentation with image and sound, this new generation of filmmakers sought to re vitalize and re—invent the "old Hollywood" as something vibrant and "new." I will argue that essential to this process is the genre of science fiction, which allows and encourages experimentation with new techniques and technology. Supporting this argument is a case study of George Lucas's first feature film THX 1138, which offers one of the most complex weaves of sound planning and Reproduced with permission of the copyright owner. Further reproduction prohibited without permission. 15 patterns in contemporary film. It is an under-rated sound track that challenges the film's innovative images at every turn and ultimately, hints at the future of sound design. Part III continues with this dialogue in terms of the Lucas legacy with an exploration of Ben Burtt’s work on Star Wars. Within this section, I focus on the two distinctions in sound design, specifically addressing the design of individual effects as well as the designing of sound for the theatrical exhibition space. In chapter 5, I will vigorously challenge the notion of sound as simple capture by unmasking the strategies and techniques of sound design. In the compendium case study presented in chapter 6, I deal directly with multichannel presentation, particularly the format of Dolby Stereo, and its relation to reading codes, science fiction and spectacle. Part IV expands the reach of sound design with an examination of the elements of ambience, Foley and general sound effects and their relation to the fantastic, particularly the genres of horror and science fiction. In the convergence of genres, I will argue that an exchange of codes, strategies and considerations occurs, infusing these sound with new privilege and status. In support of this argument, I present a case study of Ridley Scott's science fiction-horror masterpiece Alien, specifically addressing the stylistic conceit of the film (the merging of the Reproduced with permission of the copyright owner. Further reproduction prohibited without permission. 16 organic and technological) and its interpenetration into the "realistic" effects of the sound design. Part V continues with this meta analysis of sound design by offering a close textual analysis of another Ridley Scott film, Blade Runner, which I will argue is actually two distinctly different films, due to revision to the sound design and multiple release strategy. Through an extended comparison and contrast between the two versions of Blade Runner, the original 1982 theatrical release (with the voice-over) and the subsequent 1992 Director' s Cut (without the voice-over), I will deal exclusively with issues of the voice, examining its connection to narrative authority, subjectivity and cinematic spectacle. In this analysis, I will unpack the highly constructed nature of the voice in cinema and expose its influential yet tenuous position within this science fiction narrative and the model of sound design. In Part VI, this comprehensive model of sound design is brought together through an examination of the processes of re-recording and the final sound mix. In addressing the composite nature of the sound track, I will deconstruct the "work" of the overall sound design as related to sound mixing to unmask the forces which stabilize and balance the various formal elements and narrative intents. Countering this balance, however, I find equally powerful forces which threaten to rupture and expose this work. It is within this Reproduced with permission of the copyright owner. Further reproduction prohibited without permission. 17 tension that the paradox of the film sound mix emerges, and the usefulness of genre as mediator is explored. Finally in chapter 11, a case study of Terminator 2: Judgment Day, which is considered by many to be the best mixed film in contemporary cinema, will draw together the many issues of sound design previously explored (from sound effects creation to issues of the voice) and relate them to the mutable and metaphoric genre of science fiction. As the culmination to this study, it is my hope that it demonstrates not only a unified analysis of a particular sound design, but also a method that can be applied to any film or genre. Reproduced with permission of the copyright owner. Further reproduction prohibited without permission. 18 I chapter 1 THE DAWN OF SOUND DESIGN Origins and influences The term Sound Design is mutable, metaphoric and elusive, yet it pervades much of our thinking about contemporary film sound. As with the science fiction genre, the problem with sound design is that it is difficult to frame and define. With the introduction of each new recording technology and technique, the meaning and conception of sound design seem to shift. Within the period of this study from the late 1960s to early 1990s, sound design transformed dramatically from an aesthetic movement seeking to explore film form in new ways to a new model of conceptualizing and constructing film sound. So rather than essentialize the term sound design, this chapter will examine the various historical, technical and cultural layers that inform it— from the fragmentation of the Hollywood Studio System to the rise of the new generation of recording technologies and technicians. This analysis will lead me to reconceptualize recent cinematic history with a bias toward sound rather than image. As a result, chapter 2 will focus specifically on film music. While film music has always been part of the cinematic sound model, even within the silent era, today's science fiction film music tends to be far more aggressive and conceptual than Reproduced with permission of the copyright owner. Further reproduction prohibited without permission. 19 ever before. In 1968, long before anyone spoke of "sound design", 2001: A Space Odyssey demonstrated that image- sound relations could transcend the traditional music and image model, thereby launching the transformation of the film soundtrack into a new era. As with many artistic movements and models, descriptions and definitions usually come after the fact. Initially, the term sound design arose in the San Francisco Bay Area during the production of Francis Ford Coppola's Apocalypse Now, the 1979 Vietnam war film based on Joseph Conrad's The Heart of Darkness. The story follows an army Captain (played by Martin Sheen) into the Cambodian jungles in his mission to assassinate a much decorated Colonel (Marlon Brando) who has gone insane. Cinematically, the film weaves one of the most complex mixtures of dialogue, music and effects in contemporary cinema, skillfully merging multichannel technology and immersive sound with images of war and spectacle. Walter Murch, sound editor and mixer on the film, applied the term sound design to Apocalypse Now primarily because the film employed dense layers of sounds within the 70mm widescreen format to create an immersive effect in theaters. In specific roadshow venues, the multichannel theater array consisted of six channels of sound, specifically left, center, right, left surround, right surround and a low frequency subwoofer channel, which were managed by a Dolby decoder and a Reproduced with permission of the copyright owner. Further reproduction prohibited without permission. 20 surround sound adapter.1 The configuration was a precursor to many of the multi-channel digital formats found in theaters today. For Murch, the multichannel format entailed planning and deploying film sound within the speakers and the theater environment in terms of frequency, separation and spatial quadrants.2 He notes: I had a detailed mapping out of the sound effects and the music on paper— where each of them would be in mono, where each of them would be in simple stereo, where each of them would use full quadraphonic sound...that’s actually where the concept of sound design came from.3 During the "Ride of the Valkyries" (Wagner) helicopter attack on the Vietnamese village, hundreds of sound components from helicopter rotor blades to munitions blasted into the theater. Murch broke down the sounds as if they were music to be played by different sections of an orchestra in different areas of the theater. He notes: We would think of each one of those groupings [sounds of AK-47s, M-16s, Mortars, etc.] in the way a conductor would think of the various groupings in an orchestra— from the most dominant to the least. A conductor might ask himself, 'Where is most of the sound coming from, and what group of instruments is carrying the main melodic line?'4 The sound design for the scene placed filmgoers in the helicopter with all its radio cross chatter and weapon's cross-fire, surrounding them in the sound mixture and Reproduced with permission of the copyright owner. Further reproduction prohibited without permission. 21 environment of Vietnam. Additionally, the music in the scene moved swiftly and smoothly between synchronized source music within the diegesis to full, non-diegetic score, and thus the music blocking with the images of the attack created a cinematic spectacle which forever changed the cultural and historical associations of the Wagner piece, much the same way that Stanley Kubrick had altered the image-sound associations of The Blue Danube in 2001: A Space Odyssey and of Slngin' In the Rain and Beethoven's 5th in A Clockwork Orange. The unexpected juxtaposition of the music with the images and the slippage between source and score demanded a re-thinking of traditional image-sound relations away from coded "realism" toward a surrealist "jolt". Sound and music functioned not just as sonic wallpaper but as a significant factor in generating meaning and emotive effect. In this case, the image-sound spectacle reveals the insanity of the Vietnam war and comments on colonialism through coercion with stirring and ironic bravado. In creating this scene for the multichannel theater system, Murch saw his work on the soundtrack as akin to that of a production designer, but instead of hanging set dressing, he was "hanging" sound. Hence, the term sound design emerged in its initial configuration. Murch's ties to sound design, however, extend to an earlier incarnation that he called "Sound Montage," which was his credit on Reproduced with permission of the copyright owner. Further reproduction prohibited without permission. George Lucas’s first science fiction feature THX 1138 (1971). Utilizing extensive countrapuntal editing and overdubbing, Murch experimented with sound perspective, speed modulation, filters and cinematic-sound metaphor throughout the film. His work reveals a constant tension between musicality and functionality within the genre of science fiction— a tension that will be explored in greater detail in the next chapter. The techniques and overall aesthetic approach that he developed on THX 1138 would extend into Murch's subsequent work from American Graffiti (1973) to The English Patient (1996), thus transforming the soundscape of American cinema. Most notably, Murch embraced experimental "sound montages" in The Conversation (1974), another Coppola film which called attention to sound recording as it unraveled the life of professional eavesdropper Harry Caul (Gene Hackman) and his link to a corporate killing. Like 2001, the film combined international art cinema techniques not just on the visual level with its blue hues and chilling compositions but on the sound level as well. The constant re-evaluation of a single recording of two characters in a park exposes the unstable, subjective and constructed nature of image-sound relations. The most important revelation of the film comes in the emphasis of a single word: "He'd kill us if he had the chance." The emphasis on the word implicates the couple, whom we previously believed Reproduced with permission of the copyright owner. Further reproduction prohibited without permission. 23 were victims, as co-conspirators in the murder of an industrialist. For Murch and his generation, film sound moved beyond realistic mimicry into sonic artistry, cinematic deconstruction and self-ref lexive evaluation. Since Apocalypse Now, sound design has become somewhat controversial in Hollywood production circles particularly when sound recordists and editors appropriated the term "sound designer" or were labeled as such by the popular press. Most notably, Ben Burtt inherited the title for his work on Star Wars (1977), The Empire Strikes Back (1980), and Return of the Jedi (1983). Each of these films featured the unusual sounds of laser-gun blasts, spaceship rumbles, and a host of computer noises and alien languages. Many of these sounds have since become sound icons in popular culture, particularly the data chatter and whistles of R2- D2 and the shimmering oscillations of the Jedi light saber. In part, they have formed a lexicon of sound designs utilized in a host of Lucas film ancillary products from CD ROMs to computer screen savers, reaching far beyond the borders of cinema. In collecting and creating the sounds for the film series, Burtt conflated the traditionally separate duties of recordist, editor and mixer. This collapse of traditional union and departmental designations caused the most concern in Hollywood. Within the traditional studio model, a Sound Supervisor selected sounds from the studio sound library and delegated the Reproduced with permission of the copyright owner. Further reproduction prohibited without permission. 24 editorial and mixing duties to assistants or departments. Subsequently, the final creation of sounds may not have occurred until the final mix. Sound designers challenged this methodology and in doing so gained more control over the diversity and application of sound effects. Jurisdictional tensions were inevitable. Additionally, sound effects now are often in competition with the once dominant aspects of the soundtrack, specifically dialogue and music. Composers in particular saw this emergence of the sound designer as a threat to their artistic contribution to the soundtrack. Read any interview with a composer and you will find laments to this effect. As a production position designation, the term sound designer applies then to production personnel who create specific sound effects, and also to those individuals who supervise the construction of the entire soundtrack during the post production process. The latter position is akin to the Sound Director, a position that arose during the transition to sound and required a balanced technical and aesthetic expertise in the recording process. The separation and distinction is by no means absolute, however. Most sound designers move between these two ends or conflait them depending on the various needs of the production they are working on at that time. For instance, by the time Return of the Jedi was produced in 1983, Ben Burtt was both creating innovative effects for the film as Reproduced with permission of the copyright owner. Further reproduction prohibited without permission. 25 well as serving as one of the principle mixers and architects of the overall sound track. Currently, the Academy of Motion Picture Arts and Sciences does not recognize the term "sound designer" for its awards process, nor do the Hollywood sound or editorial unions list the position among their rosters. Jurisdictional battles over duties, responsibility, and most importantly screen credit have prevented the adoption of the term into these formal circles. Recently, though, Gary Rydstrom (Toy Story, Jurassic Park) and others have taken sound design as a credit on screen but have made sure also to take credit for their actual technical designations, such as mixer or sound editor. By taking multiple credits, a sound designer is assured a place at the podium during the Academy Awards ceremonies. Aptly, Bill Varney, longtime Sound Supervisor at Samuel Goldwyn Studios and later at Universal, views the position designation and the broader conception of sound design with skepticism: I don't think that any one individual designs a sound track. It would be nice to think that someone sits down and has a very concise idea, from the beginning of reel one to the very end of the movie. But all these things get compromised.5 The resistance to the designation reveals a tension within the field of sound production over whether film sound Reproduced with permission of the copyright owner. Further reproduction prohibited without permission. 26 should be viewed as a craft or as artistry. "Good Sound” has traditionally meant clarity and fidelity in capture, particularly in the recording of music and the voice. Within the studio system, sound was equated with recording and "realism," but sound designers emphasize that film sound is a conception and construction. For a sound designer, capture and fidelity are only tools and techniques for creating an integrated tapestry of sound, which is attentive to larger considerations such as space, spectacle, metaphor and thematic motif among others. Interestingly, the tension mirrors the progression and discord within the critical and historical discourse on sound between realism and formalism. Bazin would have been old school, Eisenstein new school. None-the-less, popular discourse rapidly appropriated the term sound design after its introduction and extended its meaning even further, conflating all aspects of film sound into the meaning including the formal elements of the film sound track— dialogue, music and effects— as well as production and reception issues. The term thus became descriptive of a style of sound within the blockbuster tradition of the "New Hollywood" with hardwired connections to technology, production practices, and new expectations about sound delivery and reception. For audiences and sound personnel alike, it has become a model of understanding and containing film sound within contemporary cinema. Reproduced with permission of the copyright owner. Further reproduction prohibited without permission. 27 The term even integrated itself institutionally into many university film programs and has subsequently become a methodology of studying and teaching film sound production. At the University of Southern California, Sound Professor Tomlinson Holman who is also the inventor of THX Sound describes sound design as: "Getting the right sound in the right place at the right time with the equipment available."6 Embedded in this definition is the ever expanding range of historical, technical and theoretical issues of contemporary film sound. The "right sound" is encoded with factors such as the history of sound effects, canons of taste, narrative requirements, and sound perspective. The "right place" and "right time" refer to the codes and conventions of sound-image editing as well as the pragmatics of mixing and presentation. The "equipment available" places the practice within economic and technical parameters. As is evident, the term sound design is far from static, rather it continues to evolve with different influences and contexts from production to academia. For this study, however, the overall model will proceed from a conception of sound design as the planning and patterns of the film sound track (which infers analysis of ideology, production practices and technology) and the mental project which results from its deployment. Embedded in this model is a complex weave of film history, production methods, and Reproduced with permission of the copyright owner. Further reproduction prohibited without permission. 28 technological innovations in sound recording and reproduction. To unravel the foundations of sound design, it first becomes necessary to re-examine familiar histories, technologies and cultural movements not simply with our eyes, but with our ears. The remainder of this section will unravel the foundations of sound design by casting itself back to the late 1940s to the breakup of the studio system and forward to 2001, when the dawn of a new era in sound raised a new set of questions that cinema is still trying to answer. Sounding Off on History, Technology and Culture Although the story of divestiture is by now well known, what is far less familiar is its impact on film sound. In May of 1948, the Supreme Court concluded the Consent Decree case, which was brought by independent theater chains against the Hollywood Studios.7 Effectively, the resolution of the case ended the vertical integration of major film studios in Hollywood, the dominant production and distribution system within the industry. The court deemed that this system constituted a monopoly and was in violation of anti-trust laws. The studios were required to divest their theater chains, discontinue the practices of blind selling and block booking. The "Consent Decree" would prove one of the key catalysts in the decline of the Reproduced with permission of the copyright owner. Further reproduction prohibited without permission. 29 Hollywood studio system as theaters were divested over the next decade. Divestiture had serious consequences for film sound. In terms of theater presentation, the quality of sound reproduction declined radically. When the studios owned the theaters, technical advances could be implemented during the production process with assurances that the theater environment would be able to handle the advance. It can be argued that speaker technology and noise reduction may have advanced much faster if the studios had not been required to divest. Studios like Fox did attempt to exert some control over sound reproduction by releasing films only in specific formats, which would require retrofitting theaters with new sound technology. Theater chains, however, vigorously resisted, petitioning studios to release their wide screen films in traditional optical formats as well as the newer multi-channel magnetic formats. A memo from Chairman of the Allied States Association of Motion Picture exhibitors to Warner Bros, clarifies the dilemma: I do not need to tell you that unless prints of Cinemascope pictures containing one-track sound are made available to thousands of theaters that simply cannot afford the full stereophonic equipment, their situation will be tragic. As you know, there is a violent difference of opinion in the industry as to whether the stereophonic sound adds anything to the enjoyment of the picture. Certainly, there is no Reproduced with permission of the copyright owner. Further reproduction prohibited without permission. 30 need for it in medium and small theaters.® The theater chains prevailed in this instance and throughout the decade in limiting the implementation of new sound technology to road show engagements and spectacle films. The implementation of multichannel formats, however, did receive a significant boost with the development of Dolby Stereo, a format which effectively integrated with existing presentation technology. Only recently though have independent sound houses like Skywalker Ranch (a division of Lucasfilm) and the major studios attempted to re-assert some measure of standards and practices on film sound reproduction by experimenting with THX Sound Systems and implementation of the Theater Alignment Program (TAP). In the push toward better theatrical sound presentation, sound reproduction, separation and localization are optimized by these technologies and standards, and as a result, sound quality has become a significant factor in the economics of theater patronage. According to the Lucasfilm website, THX theaters report higher revenues of "up to 25%" over non THX theaters.9 The audience is in fact "listening" and demanding better sound reproduction from local theaters. This demand was in part faciliated by theaters beginning to advertise their sound systems and sound formats through trailers and poster art beginning in the mid 1980s. Reproduced with permission of the copyright owner. Further reproduction prohibited without permission. 31 In the 1960s, corporate conglomerates began acquiring film studios, causing the further breakup of the studio system and facilitating the dominance of the independent production and the "producer unit" and "package unit" system, best exemplified by the films of Alfred Hitchcock such as North by Northwest (1959). 10 In 1966, Gulf and Western acquired Paramount Studios; Kinney National Services bought Warner Bros, in 1969; while TransAmerica purchased United Artists (1967) and MCA bought Universal.H A strategy of diversification led to corporate expansions into music recording, theme parks, and publishing. However, the film industry suffered unprecedented economic losses. Conditions such as increased film production costs, changing demographics and competition from television almost led to the collapse of the Hollywood film industry. Film historian Thomas Schatz notes: "Studio profits fell from an average of $64 million in the five-year span from 1964 to 1968, to $13 million from 1969 to 1 9 7 3 ."12 Primarily, conglomeration for the film studios meant a reconfiguration of financial structures and down sizing of facilities. In American Film and Society Since 1945, Albert Austen and Leonard Quart note: The studios had become primarily financiers and distributors, treating film more as a business than an industry and consequently taking more Reproduced with permission of the copyright owner. Further reproduction prohibited without permission. 32 interest in profit margins than in the substance of their product.13 As a result, films were no longer produced entirely within the confines of the major studio facilities and the impact on film sound was immediately apparent. Production shifted to the independent production companies and house styles dissipated. The fragmentation and elimination of studio sound departments led to the rise of independent sound houses, such as Todd AO, the Goldwyn Studios, Zoetrope, and later Skywalker Sound. Many houses purchased equipment and facilities from studios which were downsizing and simultaneously integrated new music and computer technologies, which proved smaller and more versatile than previous studio equipment. Sound production and post production became a separate industry. Various sound facilities would compete for independent production contracts, customizing to the technological and aesthetic needs of each new production and its staff. Innovation and technology were advanced as producers and directors grew more attentive to sound and music in terms of aesthetic and economic impact. The "Movie Brats" like George Lucas, Martin Scorsese, Brian DePalma, and Steven Spielberg were all interested in audio as were other filmmakers like William Friedkin and Robert Altman. Dolby Noise Reduction, multi-tracking, and denser sound tracks prevailed during Reproduced with permission of the copyright owner. Further reproduction prohibited without permission. 33 this period on films such as The Exorcist (1973), Nashville (1975), and Star Wars (1977). The "New Hollywood" as it came to be known demanded a new sound to match the visual innovation and aesthetic reach of the blockbuster film, particularly the science fiction blockbuster. The era saw the release of many seminal science fiction films including Close Encounters of the Third Kind (1977), Alien (1979), and the remaining Star Wars sequels. Science fiction films, perhaps more than any other genre, re-calibrated audience expectations for spectacle not only in terms of special effects but in terms of sound. Sound became part of the cinematic event like an amusement attraction. Film revenue soared. Following the studio fragmentation, many sound personnel retired. Others became freelance specialists, moving from film to film without permanent contracts or positions. Some experienced sound editors and mixers went to work for sound houses or attached themselves to specific directors or production units. Sound recordists and production personnel were assisted in the transition to this new mode of production by the introduction of portable recording equipment, which proved one of the key factors in the rise of sound design. The Swiss made Nagra III was a portable 1/4" magnetic tape recorder, designed by Stefan Kudelski and introduced in 1957.14 This model was subsequently upgraded utilizing silicon transistors in 1969 Reproduced with permission of the copyright owner. Further reproduction prohibited without permission. 34 and released as the Nagra IV. It featured a variety of meters, speed varier, a self speed check,, and redundancy systems to assure recording quality and reliability and became a staple of independent filmmakers working in the new documentary stylistic of cinema verite. Portability and economy were key to the recorders adoption by Hollywood's independent sound personnel. The Nagra eliminated the need for large studio sound trucks which formerly held all of the equipment necessary for sound capture. The unit was also inexpensive, under $10,000 dollars and extremely reliable, limiting maintenance costs. Subsequently, a sound recordist could be contracted for both sound expertise and recording equipment. Portability and mobility were essential to developing a new lexicon of film sound. According to Ben Burtt (Star Wars series), the portable technology along with smaller mixing boards and processors allowed the creative potential of film sound to be "rediscovered" and re-invented in this new era.1 - 5 With the Nagra and multi-track recorders, experimentation by sound personnel became possible but more importantly was encouraged by producers and directors like George Lucas and Francis Ford Coppola. For Star Wars, Burtt travelled extensively throughout the Los Angeles area, recording highway noises through corrugated tubing as well as jets and heavy machinery for the futuristic vehicles in the film, all on the portable Nagra. Like the new Reproduced with permission of the copyright owner. Further reproduction prohibited without permission. 35 generation of directors, Burtt understood that sound could not only capture a cinematic reality, but create one. Without access to traditional studio sound departments and sound libraries, producers and directors often had no choice but to commission sound designers to create new catalogues of sound for their films. According to Walter Murch, this was the case for THX 1138. The various sounds of jet cars, robots, and computer circuitry were all created from sets of newly recorded components and manipulated through editing and multitrack recording. It is important to note that Coppola and Lucas both moved their productions to the San Francisco area thus avoiding Hollywood's Unions and the strict divisions of labor. Sound personnel in San Francisco come under the Stagehands Union which allows greater latitude in jurisdictional matters and duties regarding sound mixing and recording. In this context, sound designer Ben Burtt could conflate the duties of recordist and mixer in order to composite infinite variations of new sounds, customized to the needs of a particular narrative and not waiting until the final mix to make critical creative decisions. In part, this shift in mode of production springs from another influential factor in sound design, the film school. Gary Kurtz, producer of Star Wars and American Graffiti notes: "What film schools spawned were film schools. That, more than anything else."16 Though the Reproduced with permission of the copyright owner. Further reproduction prohibited without permission. 36 comment is facetious, a deeper truth lies in the fact that the increase of film courses throughout the country would cause an explosion of cinematic analysis. Major universities such as the University of California Los Angeles (UCLA), the University of Southern California (USC), and New York University (NYU) offered courses in film aesthetics and production, while other Universities included cinema in already established disciplines such as English Literature or language studies. Cinema studies promoted analysis and exploration of film aesthetics, history, economics, and production, and in turn heightened not only cinematic literacy but also sound literacy. Film societies screened a balance of classic Hollywood cinema and international art cinema, all of which influenced the film school generation. The orations and intricate sound editing in Orson Wells's Citizen Kane (1941) were celebrated as idiosyncratic sound recordings by Jean Luc Godard in Alphaville (1965). In terms of student film production, university film programs offered young filmmakers an alternative mode of production to the traditional Hollywood system. Filmmaker Walter Murch, a graduate of USC, explains: Someone who's been to film school has a kind of inverted pyramid of experience ...Because of the curriculum, you are forced to do everything, and only gradually do you focus on one thing, whereas in the industry, it's the exact opposite, if you enter as an assistant Reproduced with permission of the copyright owner. Further reproduction prohibited without permission. 37 sound man, you become a sound man, and then, perhaps, a sound editor.17 The limited scope of film projects would necessitate a mode of production in which individuals would work on their own or in small groups where multiple positions of responsibility would be shared and acknowledged in terms of credits. As a result, future New Hollywood filmmakers became conversant with all facets of cinematic technology and design: In place of the narrow experience the old studios offered, the new filmmakers had been given a thorough grounding in the basics of their craft. It is no coincidence that sound should be so crucial to films like The Godfather or Star Wars, or that editing of Taxi Driver or New York, New York should be so idiosyncratic. Coppola, Lucas, and Scorsese all know the basic technology and grammar of film well enough to take it for granted and transcend it.^® The mode of production in cinema schools provided enough cross over within the disciplines to allow new filmmakers the opportunity to experiment with the image and sound constructions with confidence on their Hollywood financed films. Film sound would never be the same. Concurrent with these cinematic developments, the broadcast industries and the consumer electronics industry created a generation of audiophiles after World War II by offering expanded music programming and high quality, low cost audio components to American consumers, specifically Reproduced with permission of the copyright owner. Further reproduction prohibited without permission. 38 the youth market. Among this generation would emerge filmmakers who were conversant in both sound technology and sound aesthetics and they would apply this knowledge to transform contemporary film sound. In 1948, CBS introduced the long-playing record (LP), developed by Peter C. Goldmark and featuring ' microgroove recording', which allowed over 20 minutes of program material per side, per 12 inch disc.The vinyl recording base and finer grooves offered a significant advance in recording in terms of fidelity and sound quality, but the LP record was only part of the story. The introduction of new radio components fueled the consumer electronics revolution. The invention of the transistor reduced the need for vacuum tubes in radios, thereby reducing the size and bulk of the technology. The Nagra and new film mixing consoles greatly benefited from the technology. The term Hi-Fi, which had previously been used in England before the war to signify custom radio designs, had been adopted by mass market consumer electronics firms such as Fisher and H.H. S c o t t . 20 Sterling and Kittross note: Many hi-fi sets— actually collections of matched components— were designed to take advantage of the growing number of FM stations, many of which programmed classical music, the flood of LP records, and the promise of home tape recording.21 Reproduced with permission of the copyright owner. Further reproduction prohibited without permission. 39 Sound, technology had finally moved from the professional realm to the consumer realm. New advances such as the integrated circuit made the technology even smaller and more affordable. Sterling and Kittross note: In I960, nearly two million FM receivers were sold, about 10 percent of them imports from Germany and Japan, where war-devastated electronics industries had been rebuilt into advanced technology, highly efficient operations. The average FM-AM set came down about $30, only $10 to $15 above the cost of an AM-only r a d i o . 22 Subsequently, a generation of youth arose listening to sound broadcasts far superior to any generation in the past. The stereo babies had arrived. Stereo records and tapes were mass marketed in 1957; and the first FM broadcasts were licensed by the FCC in 1961.23 Rock and Roll found a place on LPs and the radio. Top 40 Radio formats pervaded the airwaves by the late 1950 ' s and crossed over to FM. Specialized music formats lined the tuner dial from Country and Western to Motown. Rock and Roll dominated for younger listeners. It became a new musical form that changed the way a new generation of youth listened and expected music to sound. In the early 1960s, record producer-auteur Phil Spector (with engineer Larry Levine) brought a multi layered sound to rock and roll. Working initially in the mono format, he treated each recording like a theatrical Reproduced with permission of the copyright owner. Further reproduction prohibited without permission. 40 production, offering a "wall of sound" and pushed the range of the medium. Robert Palmer notes: The idea was not to hear individual instruments, but to have so many instruments playing a few simple melodic lines and rhythm patterns that the sound was deliberately blurry, atmospheric, and of course huge: Wagnerian rock and roll with all the trimmings. 24 This multi-layered approach called attention to the aesthetic and technical possibilities of sound in the medium of music. By the mid 1960s, the British Rock group The Beatles and producer George Martin created a series of the highly innovative and experimental works including Revolver, Abbey Road and Sgt. Pepper's Lonely Hearts Club Band album. The Sgt. Pepper's album featured the use of sound effects such as farm animals, circus organs, electronic noise; varied musical styles such as classical, rock, blues and jazz and a diversity of song and lyrics from classically structured ballads to found poetry. In California, The Beach Boys provided the American equivalent with the album Pet Sounds, which Paul McCartney has noted inspired the Sgt. Pepper's album. The Beach Boys would go on to produce the highly inventive song "Good Vibrations," which incorporated the chilling low basses of a cello as used in horror movies and the oscillating and ethereal sounds of the Theremin found in classic science fiction Reproduced with permission of the copyright owner. Further reproduction prohibited without permission. 41 films. The song is consistently praised as one of the most innovative and influential in rock and roll recording. Cinematic sound effects and strategies had pervaded contemporary music, but -the exchange of technological and experimentation flowed easily between the media. The interface resulted in a heightened awareness on the part of younger filmgoers and filmmakers of both music and sound. In short, the new generation demanded the same quality of sound from film that they had come to expect from their music and their own stereo systems. It is no surprise then that films of the late 1960s and early 1970s offered rock and roll not only as a significant facet of the sound track but as part of the narrative storytelling. The most notable Rock and Roll films include Richard Lester's Hard Days Night (1964), Mike Nichol's The Graduate (1967), and George Lucas’s American Graffiti (1973). Lucas even included the names of songs in the log line of each scene of his script for Graffiti. The function and status of music was shifting. Traditional film music, which sought to be self effacing, was superseded by music motivated by diegetic factors. American Graffiti, in particular wove the music into the fabric of the narrative as well as the mise-en- scene. Within the context of the story, the radio DJ Wolfman Jack spins records for a local radio station, while the spaces of the nearby town swim in a "soup" of 1950s rock music which slips between source music and score. The Reproduced with permission of the copyright owner. Further reproduction prohibited without permission. 42 sound design of the film was enhanced by layering in spatial factor. The filmmakers re-recorded music in various spaces, which accentuated the reverberation off walls and surfaces. Music transcended its traditional status and became both sound effect and musical motivator, offering a sense of place and a sense of nostalgia. The endless days of youth were coming to an end. So not unexpectedly, rock music and cinema found common cultural ground. Each provided a forum for protest, for experimentation, and for personal expression and liberation. As Mast notes, "rock music was the other artistic and social passion of the young audiences who were supporting the m o v i e s . "25 Easy Rider (1969) and other youth oriented film tapped into the connection between the mediums and spurred a trend by Hollywood Studios to exploit it. The production of youth films exploded. Rock documentaries like Monterey Pop (1968), Woodstock (1970) and Gimme Shelter (1971) emerged as a new genre of music film. Music became integral in the marketing of all types of mainstream Hollywood films, often providing cross over marketing on radio and unprecedented ancillary revenue. Top 40 placement of music from a film could increase revenue for films to recoup production costs and sometimes exceed box office grosses. Rock music pervaded the aural design of films because of the sensibilities and demands of the young filmmakers who made these films. The importance of film Reproduced with permission of the copyright owner. Further reproduction prohibited without permission. 43 music had shifted from film score to soundtrack. New image and sound relations emerged and music found a place of privilege on the sound track that it had never before had. The self-reflexive nature of this privilege led to a new read on film sound and new expectations. Once the audience had caught on to the possibilities of music and sound, the film industry could never go back to the noisy mono prints of the past or the simple reliance on music scoring and dialogue to carry the soundtrack. A new era of sound beckoned with a new music and new voices. Ironically, though, it was neither rock music or film scoring that brought about one of the most profound changes in cinema sound, it was the classical rendition of The Blue Danube and the avant garde composition Requiem for Sopranof Mezzo- Soprano, Two Mixed Choirs and Orchestra. These pieces heralded a new era in film sound aesthetics by offering not so much answers, but questions. Reproduced with permission of the copyright owner. Further reproduction prohibited without permission. 44 I chapter 2 Music and Speculation in 2001: A Space Odyssey In an interview about 2001: A Space Odyssey (1968), Arthur C. Clarke noted: "If you understood 2001 completely, we failed. We wanted to raise far more questions than we answered." - 1 - The importance of 2001 for this study is that it raised questions not only about the origins of mankind but about the nature of sound in cinema, particularly the status and function of film music. Rather than employ a traditional music score composed specifically for the film, director Stanley Kubrick produced 2001 with previously existing music as a deep structure to the narrative and its speculative aspects. This unprecedented approach, which mimics in part the process used in feature animation but which had never been applied to a science fiction film, transgressed the traditional music image model found in classical Hollywood cinema and heralded the dawn of sound design. The unexpected juxtapositions of previously recorded classical and avant garde compositions with the speculative imagery in 2001 caught many filmgoers and critics off guard. The uncanny effects challenged all who saw the film— so much so that it became akin to a cinematic Rorschach test. What was the meaning of the mysterious Reproduced with permission of the copyright owner. Further reproduction prohibited without permission. 45 monolith and its accompanying three chord musical progression? Was it a catalyst in evolution? Was it God? Or was it simply a beacon left by distant visitors, waiting for a call? The self reflexive constructions throughout the film encouraged a constant questioning of image-sound relations, clearly moving the soundtrack away from the notion of realism and charging it with speculative possibilities. Critics debated the significance and appropriateness of the music, younger audiences gave in to the spectacle and formed rituals of drug taking and spectatorship, and the film school generation viewed 2001 as a new benchmark in science fiction and sound. Like the mysterious monolith, 2001: A Space Odyssey served as a catalyst for change, inspiring metaphysical speculations into human evolution and raising equally significant questions about image-sound relations in cinema that still resonate today. To understand the shift in image-sound relations brought about by 2001, it is first necessary to examine the traditional music image model within classical Hollywood cinema, which finds its roots in classical music, the ballet, opera, and musical theater. Most influential is perhaps the work of composer Richard Wagner (1813-1883) in whom the "German Romantic Movement of the nineteenth century found its completest [sic] musical expression."2 His contribution to musical theater was a reconfiguration Reproduced with permission of the copyright owner. Further reproduction prohibited without permission. 46 of musical structure in relation to narrative, in particular his use of 'leading motifs' or leitmotif as a system of unity: By so designing these fragments that each aptly characterizes the situation or person with whom it is first associated, he enables himself to bring particular thoughts and reminiscences to the memory of his audience at will, and so to strengthen the dramatic significance both of his vocal line and of his orchestral commentary.3 Cinema would adopt these strategies even prior to the transition to sound. In early cinematic musical accompaniment, various emotional rifts or cues such as "misterioso," "dramatic tension" or themes of love provided the flexible catalogue of music offered to accompanists or orchestras in the motion picture theater.4 These cues were usually drawn from "standardized snatches of operas, orchestral music and popular tunes."5 Such leitmotifs sought to fuse musical movements with specific characters or events, offering sonic identification or signature phrases. Leitmotifs could be varied and incorporated into almost any of a film's other musical structures— for instance, to punctuate romance subplots or to foreshadow the entrance or presence of the character. The methodology unified narrative through repetition and variation, often mimicking the action and dramatic structures within the story. Reproduced with permission of the copyright owner. Further reproduction prohibited without permission. With the transition to sound and the inclusion of synchronized dialogue and effects, the utilization and status of music changed somewhat in relation to the image and narrative. Rather than provide a constant stream of melodic constructions, music fragmented and integrated into the structures of the sound track, slipping in and out of scenes and around other sound constructions, particularly dialogue which superseded both music and effects in importance. The strategy of employing leitmotifs became standard to the mode of music production in supporting classical narrative, and two primary distinctions of film music evolved: score and source music. Score generally refers to the entire body of music on the soundtrack. In the classical period, this non-diegetic music often featured original symphonic orchestrations from notable composers such as Dmitri Tiomkin, Bernard Herrmann, Max Steiner, Erich Wolfgang Komgold and others. During the rise of science fiction cinema in the 1950s, Dmitri Tiomkin created the ominous compositions for Howard Hawks' classic production of The Thing- (1950), while Bernard Herrmann famous for the music in Citizen Kane (1941) wrote scores for two seminal science fiction works The Day the Earth Stood Still (1951) and Fahrenheit 451 (1966). Currently, modern science fiction composers like John Williams, Jerry Goldsmith, and James Horner recall these past masters in Reproduced with permission of the copyright owner. Further reproduction prohibited without permission. 48 their work for Star Wars (1977), Star Trek: The Motion Picture (1979) and Aliens (1986). Score most often functions as an omniscient presence offering subtle emotional and narrative cues, which tell the audience how to feel. It has been compared to "wallpaper" by Stravinsky "because it fills in cracks and smoothes down rough textures" of cinema's formal processes of editing, cinematography and the like. 30 while this is in some respects true, it has been noted that "the classical film score enters into a system of narration, endowed with some degree of self-consciousness, a range of knowledge and a degree of communicativeness. "6 Music then is not entirely invisible, rather it often has ideological intents and implications for the narrative. For instance, it can foreshadow character emotions, recall past events, and/or establish period or era through instrumentation and orchestration. But these functions are determined and held in check by classical narrative and image considerations, so that score maintains a specific and limited status, a convention which 2001: A Space Odyssey violates. In contrast, source music is motivated within the story world, usually signifying a specific location or era relevant to the narrative. This cannon has been used to ironic effect within Science Fiction, particularly Kubrick's other masterwork A Clockwork Orange (1971), which features a version of "Singin' in the Rain" sung during a Reproduced with permission of the copyright owner. Further reproduction prohibited without permission. 49 brutal assault. Source music can be an original composition or a pre-existing piece and can be motivated on-screen (for instance, a radio within a scene) or off-screen (a radio in the next room) . Source music often hides narrative intent within the scene, offering commentary or narrative direction in a less intrusive manner. As previously noted, the introduction of rock scores in the late 1960s navigated the boundaries between source music and score. More recently, science fiction films have blurred the lines. Close Encounters of the Third Kind (1977) incorporated the Disney classic "When You Wish Upon A Star" into the dialogue and then into the main score during the final mothership sequence of the film. Similarly, Back to the Future (1985) incorporated the song "The Power of Love" into the narrative, and the score, even spinning the song off as hit single on top 40 radio. The navigation between score and source is in part a legacy from the rethinking of traditional music image relations brought about by 2001 and other films of this era. Within classical Hollywood narrative, traditional scored music formed a specific set of image-sound relations, such as accompanying the dramatic aspect of the scene, cueing specifically to action, playing through the action, summarizing dramatic turns, offering psychological subtext, among others.^ These relations strove to create unity and remain within the boundaries of classical Reproduced with permission of the copyright owner. Further reproduction prohibited without permission. 50 narration. Traditional musical scores thus remained somewhat self effacing and subservient to the image and dramatic action. In contrast, 2001: A Space Odyssey challenged the traditional boundaries of narrative and music, both in production and aesthetic application. As Vivian Sobchack notes: "Kubrick...uses 'unoriginal' film music originally, seeing music not only as supportive of his visuals but also as an active participant in the creation and/or destruction of image content.The music is self conscious in its narrative purpose and overt in its presence within the spectacle. It demanded attention, elevated its status, and as a result, the film required a new reading strategy, which addressed both the visceral intent of the music as well as the intellectual intent. Like the best literary science fiction, 2001 demanded speculation not just about the future but about its own formal production. Ironically, the pattern of music production for 2001 was poised to follow the traditional route. In December of 1967, Stanley Kubrick contacted composer Alex North whom he had worked with on Spaxrtacus (1960) to prepare an original score for 2001: A Space Odyssey. This request was in part at the urging of MGM which had rejected Kubrick's initial suggestion of using classical music recordings in the film. North was intrigued by the concept of the film which was to include only twenty five minutes of dialogue and relatively Reproduced with permission of the copyright owner. Further reproduction prohibited without permission. 51 few sound effects.^ During a two week period in England, North ambitiously composed and recorded approximately forty minutes of music, but then the process suddenly stalled. After waiting for several weeks, North recalled: [In February of 1968] I received word from Kubrick that no more score was necessary, that he was going to use breathing effects for the remainder of the film...I thought perhaps I would still be called upon to compose more music.. .Nothing happened. I went to the screening in New York, and there were most of the "temporary tracks. "10 It has been suggested in various accounts that the delays and utilization of North were perhaps a means of appeasing MGM and that Kubrick never intended to use an original score. Not surprisingly, North and other composers saw the use of pre-existing music in 2001 as a mistake, primarily for aesthetic reasons (the context of the pieces did not fit the time period presented), but not mentioned is the fact that Kubrick's approach challenged not only the traditional mode of music production but the traditional music image model. Kubrick drew from a unique conceit. He treated 2001 as if it were an animated feature and given the high number of special effects shots (over 200), the film can almost be categorized as animation. Instead of unifying the film with an original score late in the post production process as is the case with most live action features, Kubrick edited the Reproduced with permission of the copyright owner. Further reproduction prohibited without permission. 52 film in synchronization with a previously determined musical pattern. Consequently, the classical and avant garde compositions provided the deep structure for the ideas and questions that the film proposed. In a thematic sense, the sound track emphasized the sonic mechanics in order to emphasize the celestial mechanics at work. This shift in mode of production facilitated a shift in reception strategies. A primarily literary reading of the text and dialogue was not encouraged. Instead, a careful reading of image and sound relations was demanded as part of an integrated strategy. 2001 became the future of spectacle cinema, but it was also science fiction, a genre which encourages analysis and discursive play. For every formal convergence of image and sound, monolith and music, ship and waltz, questions arose as to intent and meaning. It is important to note that when discussing the film Director Stanley Kubrick reiterates the importance of the "non-verbal aspects" while author Arthur C. Clarke notes the thematic premises of "hierarchy" and "humanity." 1 ^ It is this tension between the visceral and the intellectual that reveal the strength and the impact of the film and its musical design. Mimicking the narrative structure of the film, the selections of music in 2001: A Space Odyssey collapse different time periods and musical styles from eighteen century classical compositions to the contemporary Reproduced with permission of the copyright owner. Further reproduction prohibited without permission. 53 Hungarian avant garde. These selections range from Johann Strauss's The Blue Danube to Gyorgy Ligeti's Requiem for Soprano, Mezzo-Soprano, Two Mixed Choirs and Orchestra. The historical context of the pieces, however, seems tangential to their use in the film. Kubrick notes: Don't underestimate the charm of ' The Blue Danube,' played by Herbert von Karajan. Most people under 35 can think of it in an objective way, as a beautiful composition. Older people somehow associate it with a Palm Court orchestra or have another unfortunate association, and generally, therefore, criticize its use in the film. It's hard to find anything much better than ' The Blue Danube' for depicting grace and beauty in turning. It also gets about as far away as you can get from the cliche of space music.^ The intent was to strip away the traditional associations and re-configure meaning within a new narrative and formal context. Music almost became akin to a sound effect, stripped of time, place, and associations. In keeping with the Modernist Movement of the period, Kubrick brought together classical music (high art) and science fiction (low art), rejected classical narrative techniques for spectacle, and offered a range of identification patterns from image-sound relations to characters like David Bowman to even a computer, HAL. For Kubrick, it was essential that filmgoers find themselves awash in the film's images and music to truly experience the future and the possibilities Reproduced with permission of the copyright owner. Further reproduction prohibited without permission. 54 presented. Balancing this conceit were the questions the film posed about evolution and celestial mechanics. The first and most famous piece in the film is Also Sprach Zarathustra, a three note progression, C-G-C, which has become forever associated with 2001 and the mysterious monolith. Also Sprach Zarathustra (Thus Spoke Zarathustra) was composed by Richard Strauss in 1898 and the version used in the film was performed by the Berlin Philharmonic Orchestra, conducted by Karl Bohm. In the opening credit sequence, the piece is associated with the aligning of the moon, earth and sun. The building grandeur accentuates the upward movement of these masses and connects the celestial mechanics of the universe with rhythmic mechanics of the music. This spectacle of alignment emerges as leitmotif throughout the film, foreshadowing knowledge, development and evolution. Its association of the music with the film and the monolith are a testimony to the enduring power of spectacle and image-sound identification. The piece recurs in both the Dawn of Man sequence and at the end of the film, framing the film not surprisingly like a musical chord. In this instance, the intertextual connection of the piece does demand some examination. The title of Strauss's composition refers to Philosopher Nietzsche's work of the same name. Yet the distance between the works appears only referential. Composer Richard Strauss noted: Reproduced with permission of the copyright owner. Further reproduction prohibited without permission. 55 I did not intend to write philosophical music. I meant to convey by means of music an idea of the development of the human race from its origin, through the various phases of its development, religious and scientific....13 What seems most important both in the music and the film is the notion of progression. Michel Ciment explains: Richard Strauss 1s symphonic poem is no more an illustration of Nietzche's vision than is Kubrick's film, itself a symphonic poem. Each of them develops and reworks that vision into a completely independent work of art. The death of God challenges man to rise above himself, and 2001 offers the same progression as in Nietzsche, from ape to man and from man to superman. ^ Whereas Strauss transformed the progression into music, Kubrick re-configured it through image-sound spectacle. The musical selection underlines the philosophical nature of the work. It is in conjunction with this music that the "moonwatcher ape" gains understanding. He associates the bone with killing. This mimics the filmgoers association of the music with the monolith and re-enforces the implications that the monolith may be a prime catalyst in the evolution in mankind. In some respects, the monolith serves as an evolutionary alarm clock complete with musical accompaniment. Once again, an alignment of the sun and monolith support the notion of order out of chaos and celestial progression. It's final use ushers in the birth Reproduced with permission of the copyright owner. Further reproduction prohibited without permission. 56 of the "star child" at the end of the film, which serves as the closing punctuation to the idea of ongoing evolution. Closely linked to the monolith is also the Requiem for Soprano, Mezzo-Soprano, Two Mixed Choirs and Orchestra, which was composed by Gyorgy Ligeti and the version in the film was performed by the Bavarian Radio Orchestra, under the conduction of Francis Travis. The music presides over the appearance of the monolith when it is shown with prehistoric man, when it is examined by the scientists on Clavius, and when it floats through space during the Jupiter mission. Michel Ciment notes: Gyorgy Ligeti' s oratorio which serves as a musical leitmotiv for the presence of the monolith reflects Clark's idea that any technology far in advance of our own will be indistinguishable from magic and oddly enough, will have a certain irrational quality. In the prehistoric man sequence, the piece plays over the early morning appearance of the monolith to the apes. Initially, the soundtrack includes the frantic grunts and growls of the apes within the narrative world as they are awakened by the mysterious object, but then with the rising sun, the apes touch the monolith and the music overwhelms the soundtrack. The on-screen noise drops completely from the mix, and a cinematic abstraction builds. The privileged status of the music reveals a shift in subjectivity within the minds of apes. It signals the buzz of thought and Reproduced with permission of the copyright owner. Further reproduction prohibited without permission. 57 understanding. The image of the sun peaking over the monolith then cutting off abruptly to the scene of the ape discovering the bone as weapon supports the notion that the object is somehow initiating a change in thought and evolution. This idea is reinforced by the recurrence of a similar scene on Clavius. When Dr. Heywood Floyd (William Sylvester) visits the moon, the scientists are drawn to the monolith for a photo opportunity. Again, the Requiem plays and becomes unnerving. The scene, though, is humorous as the scientists gather for a picture like a family at a national monument. Thematically, the visual design indicates an attention to order, grouping, and alignment. It also punctuates the context and the place, both physical and metaphysical. These representatives of mankind are on a different celestial body than earth. The event uncovers not just the monolith, but all of the work, the technology, the insight that it took to reach this location and this moment. It represents the ability of humanity to achieve, yet the monolith and the music punctuate the utter mystery of mankind's origin and evolution. With the monolith uncovered and once again exposed to the sun, it triggers. A high pitched buzz is heard in the scientists' helmet headsets. The sound and message are mediated by technology, which is the pivotal transition point between these first two sequences. Specifically, the moment refers to the match Reproduced with permission of the copyright owner. Further reproduction prohibited without permission. 58 on action cut between the bone and the spaceship, which utilizes an ellipsis to underscore the idea of technological progression. Once again, with the buzzing and the music, there is a shift in subjectivity cued by sound, and the echo to the early apes is not lost. The sequence again cuts to a pivotal period of development in the narrative, the Jupiter mission— 18 months later. In the Jupiter and Beyond the Infinite Sequence, the Requiem traces the flight of the monolith as it aligns with the planets and disappears, triggering the "star gate" sequence. In this instance, the buzz of the message transforms into movement through the infinite and it is a journey David Bowman and audience are encouraged to take. It is this sequence which many younger audiences anticipated in their drug taking rituals, no doubt pursuing consciousness raising on cinematic and psychological levels. The ritual becomes akin to light shows at rock concerts and the atmosphere of drug taking and unity with the music. During the slit scan sequence, the music transforms. It segues into another Gyorgy Ligeti piece entitled Atmospheres, performed by the Sudwestfunk Orchestra, conducted by Ernest Bour. In this sequence, image and sound spectacle converge. The subjectivity of Bowman is transferred to the filmgoer in this trip through galaxies, stars, and the unknown. Point of view shots and the privilege and isolation of the music on the soundtrack Reproduced with permission of the copyright owner. Further reproduction prohibited without permission. 59 encourage this transference. The music settles and transforms when Bowman reaches his final destination. In the brightly lit bedroom, distorted samples from the music fragment on the soundtrack into whispers and laughter. The electronic build up makes it unclear whether this is communication or observations like musical voice-over. Regardless, the music is anthropomorphized, yet still mysterious and inexplicable. Neither Kubrick or the film overtly expresses the meaning and justifications of the chattering music, leaving an open ended interpretation. Another significant musical piece which supports this odyssey through the universe is the Blue Danube by Johann Strauss, performed by the Berlin Philharmonic Orchestra and conducted by Herbert von Karajan. The piece accompanies Dr. Floyd in his shuttle trip from Earth to the space port. It adds a whimsical quality to the events such as the movement of the shuttle, the weightlessness of the cabin, and Dr. Floyd's pause to read the instructions for using the zero gravity restroom. More importantly, the spectacle of music and movement comments on the forces of celestial mechanics at work in the film. In the synchronization of images to the music, the physics of the universe adhere to an underlying structure of musical mathematics in perfect time. There is an important commentary here. While the contact civilization controlling the monolith seems to have mastered these elements, humanity is only a part of their Reproduced with permission of the copyright owner. Further reproduction prohibited without permission. 60 workings and only beginning to understand. The waltz profoundly recasts technical notions of physics, gravity and universal forces into visceral and human terms. The visual spectacle set to the waltz implies a dance of grace and progression and ultimately a courtship toward pro creation. Ship and station substitute for sperm and ovum. It is a technical conception which foreshadows the true conception of the "star-child" at the end of the film. So despite its apparent levity, the composition brings a deeper structure to the film, questioning the deeper forces of nature and the universe. In contrast to the whimsy of the Blue Danube, Lux Aetema, composed by Gyorgy Ligeti, performed by the Stuttgard Schola Cantorum and conducted by Clytus Gottwald, provides a more ominous commentary on the proceedings. This disconcerting music leads Dr. Heyward Floyd to the site where the monolith has been unearthed on Clavius. The piece is transitional in most respects, but casts a vale of mystery and fear over the human activities and understandings. It punctuates the mistrust and uncertainty that pervade the human interactions throughout the film. In particular, Floyd's lies about his presence on the space station, and more importantly, HAL’s unstable and distrustful relationship with the crew of the Jupiter mission. As Michel Ciment notes: "2001 presents a world of non-involvement in which each person is extraordinarily Reproduced with permission of the copyright owner. Further reproduction prohibited without permission. 61 detached, imprisoned in his allotted role, living in icy solitude.The use of Gayne Ballet Suite (Adagio), composed by Khatcha-Turian, performed by The Leningrad Philharmonic Orchestra with Gennadi Rozhdestvensky conducting as source music for Dr. Poole's workout regime on the ship bears this out. This music is desolate and soothing, a candid portrait of the man who selected it. The most important use of source music, though, comes at the end of the Jupiter sequence. It is the song "Bicycle Built for Two" which HAL sings as his higher brain functions are being cut off by David Bowman. The song functions on multiple levels. Whereas the other pieces in the film deal with progression, this piece deals with HAL's regression. It is strongly associated with HAL's past, his programming and his makers. Thematically, the moment is again about origins and THE question: where do I come from? As Bowman disconnects the computer, HAL reverts, remembering his youth in rhyme and song. This song is an intertextual reference to early artificial intelligence development. "Bicycle Built for Two" was the first song sung by a computer in an experiment done by John Kelly at Bell Labs.1? Another layer of complexity was added to the song as Arthur C. Clark notes: "In the early 1960s at Bell Laboratories I heard a recording of an Illiac computer singing 'Bicycle Built for Two.' I thought it would be good for a death scene— especially the slowing down of the words Reproduced with permission of the copyright owner. Further reproduction prohibited without permission. 62 at the end."18 song combines issues of love, death and madness as it calls for answers to questions of love and fidelity. In the formal manipulation of the source music, Kubrick reiterates themes of fragmentation and madness which are common in his film and intricately woven into selection of music. The slowing of the song also foreshadows Bowman's regression and paradoxical evolution into the infant "star-child." Once again, the film reprises the three chord progression of Also Sprach Zarathustra, leaving open ended questions of mankind's origins and evolution. The profound and unexpected integration of these various musical works proved challenging to all who saw the film, breaking audiences from the ease of understanding they were accustomed to with traditional narratives and traditional film music. The secret language of music which once only whispered to audience' s emotions was now speaking directly to them and asking questions. The questions that the film proposed transformed the status of science fiction in cinema, re-calibrated audience expectations about image- sound relations, and inspired a generation of filmmakers. Echoes of the film's impact clearly resonate in films like John Carpenter's Dark Star (1974), George Lucas's Star Wars (1977), and Steven Spielberg’s Close Encounters of the Third Kind (1977). The transgressive use of music image relations in 2001 offered a challenge to new filmmakers to Reproduced with permission of the copyright owner. Further reproduction prohibited without permission. 63 question not just the status and function of music, but all of the elements of the film soundtrack. A new era in sound consciousness was born. Reproduced with permission of the copyright owner. Further reproduction prohibited without permission. 64 11 chapter 3 SOUND MONTAGE The Convergence of Hollywood and New W ave Science Fiction The title of "Sound Montage" was in part a clever deception hidden in the credit sequence of George Lucas's first feature film THX 1138 (1971), based on his 1967 prize winning student film THX 1138:4EB (Electronic Labyrinth) . Importantly, the title card and the feature film connected not only the processes of sound and editing, but the stylistics of Hollywood cinema and the French New Wave as applied within the context of science fiction. From this experimental movement which tested film form and practices and which encouraged generic exchange, a new model of cinema sound would emerge as a precursor to sound design. It is the goal of this chapter to specifically examine how the convergence of "Sound" and "Montage" represented an attempt by the film school generation to bring together two divergent stylistic movements, specifically the traditions of the classical Hollywood cinema and the idiosyncratic experiments of the French New Wave as a means of revitalizing and re-inventing Hollywood cinema as their own and how the science fiction genre mediated this process. Moreover, the line of argument identifies how this new generation of Hollywood filmmakers went beyond simple Reproduced with permission of the copyright owner. Further reproduction prohibited without permission. 65 stylistic appropriation and introduced new technologies and innovated with production practices as a means of encouraging more refined and constructed image-sound relations, particularly within science fiction cinema. In the convergence of these factors, film sound would begin to take its place as an equal partner in the image-sound model and Hollywood cinema. The Movement of Montage As with sound design, the Hollywood unions did not recognize sound montage as a production designation and that was the intention. Walter Murch explains: "At the start of my career, I was working nonunion, and the title [credit] 'Sound Montage' appeared vague enough not to set off any alarms.The "alarms" and the consequences that Murch and his producers sought to avoid were fines or sanctions by the Hollywood sound unions, which demanded strict divisions of labor and seniority-based hiring within production ranks. For Francis Ford Coppola and George Lucas, however, the risks of hiring the creative but untried Murch nonunion were worth the potential results for the soundtracks of their films. By overriding rigid divisions of labor in Hollywood, Murch could move freely between the positions of sound recordist, sound editor, and sound mixer to create the unique "Sound Montages" for films like THX 1138 and The Conversation (1974). Of particular Reproduced with permission of the copyright owner. Further reproduction prohibited without permission. 66 interest here is the largely overlooked THX 1138. As with 2001: A Space Odyssey, the feature version of THX 1138 interwove musical strategies into the image-sound design; however, Murch recast the traditional instruments of the orchestra with organic instruments and organized the sounds into a symphony of musique concrete. Murch notes: "It is possible to just listen to the sound track of THX exclusive of the dialogue. The sound effects in the background have their own musical organization. "2 The case study presented in chapter 4 will examine the resulting "Sound Montages" and reveal how they rivaled the film's innovative imagery and pushed film sound closer toward the model of sound design. Ironically, the deception of "Sound Montage" as a production designation ultimately exposed itself in the highly innovative and self-reflexive sound constructions that resulted from its invocation. While the title "Sound Montage" masks certain production considerations related to THX 1138, it gives name to a deeper trend in Hollywood at this time. Between 1966 and 1975, the term codifies a movement toward more innovative and refined image-sound relations which challenged traditional modes of representation and demanded more aggressive reading strategies. It was a movement inspired by the popularity of the European art cinema, fueled by a new generation of filmmakers, and brought into the mainstream by a fiscal crisis within the Hollywood Reproduced with permission of the copyright owner. Further reproduction prohibited without permission. 67 system. During this period, Hollywood faced unprecedented fiscal losses estimated at over $600 million dollars industry wide.3 The losses were in part due to changing media consumption, restructuring within the studios, and a changing American society in general, which was preoccupied with the antiwar movement, civil rights and the sexual revolution. There was also the threat posed by television, which drew many older Americans away from theaters as an inexpensive alternative to filmgoing. As a result, the studios sought desperately to cultivate the lucrative youth market and looked to a new generation of filmmakers (or as they have been labeled the "movie brats") whose works had already begun to engage film form and content in new and innovative ways. The studios hoped these new voices and their penchant for experimental modes of representation would speak directly to the counter culture and their ever shifting sensibilities. Leading the way in this stylistic movement were filmmakers like Arthur Penn, Robert Altman, Francis Ford Coppola, William Friedkin, Martin Scorcese and George Lucas. Examples of their innovative sound work can be heard in the gunshots recorded for Bonnie and Clyde (1968), the sound perspectives brought to the music in American Graffiti (1973), the syncopated and jarring effects cut into The Exorcist (1973), the montage of sound effects cut for THX 1138 (1971) and The Conversation (1974), and the Reproduced with permission of the copyright owner. Further reproduction prohibited without permission. 68 layered dialogue exchanges recorded in Nashville (1975). In fact, nearly all of these narratives reflexively call attention to sound apparatus or audio recording processes in some way. The drama in American Graffiti is punctuated by the Rock and Roll play-list of the local radio station; The Exorcist features scenes in which demonic voices are recorded and analyzed; THX 1138 and The Conversation, both center on audio surveillance, no doubt inspired by the Watergate paranoia around recording technology; and finally Nashville features an endless series of recording sessions and performances, all caught on tape. It could be argued that American filmmakers were more interested in film sound during this period than were American film critics. Walter Murch notes: Only a handful of directors...really understand the use of sound as a modulator in dramatic action. Orthodox movie makers think of assembling sound like getting a negative back from the lab; it's something to be farmed out. They would be impatient with any subtleties.^ The inspiration for this experimentation in film form can be traced in part to the rise and popularity of films by international auteurs such as Bergman, Fellini, Kurosawa, Truffaut, Godard, and Antonioni among many others. The European art cinema offered a vibrant and innovative alternative to classical Hollywood cinema, which was at this time producing big budget and often lackluster Reproduced with permission of the copyright owner. Further reproduction prohibited without permission. 69 films. The 1966 success of Antonioni’s Blowup energized the American art house movement, and film societies on campuses across the country began programming foreign films. The "Movie Brats" were watching, studying, and listening, and they were particularly intrigued by the films of the French New Wave. Already well versed in the ways of old Hollywood from countless screenings on television, the film school generation looked to the films of Frangois Truffaut (400 Blows, Fahrenheit 451, Jules and Jim, Shoot the Piano Player), Alain Renais (Hiroshima, mon amour, Last Year at Marienbad) Chris Marker (La Jetee), and in particular Jean- Luc Godard (Breathless, Alphaville) for inspiration and new aesthetic approaches, which would extend the bounds of film as art and not so altruistically allow them entree into the Hollywood system. George Lucas notes: "I loved the style of Godard's films. The graphics, his sense of humor, the way he portrayed the world— he was very cinematic. " 5 Not surprisingly, Lucas's emulation of this style in his University of Southern California student films would bring him to the attention of Warner Bros, studio, which would distribute his first feature THX 1138. Lucas like so many other filmmakers of his generation embraced the French "auteur theory" and put its principles into practice, specifically paying homage to and directly emulating their cinematic heroes like Godard and in the process Reproduced with permission of the copyright owner. Further reproduction prohibited without permission. 70 aggressively controlling every aspect of the filmmaking process, including film sound. New Sound Haves In many respects, the conditions which gave rise to the French New Wave were similar to those which informed the American film renaissance between 1966 and 1975. In France in the late 1950s and throughout 1960s, the French film industry like the Hollywood film industry was undergoing changes in terms of economics, personnel and technology. Fearing the influence of Hollywood films on French media and culture, the French government began to subsidize new films and new filmmakers through the "avance sur recette" system, which was funded by levies on ticket sales and replenished by future earnings of the films it subsidized. 6 In addition, portable camera and sound technology as well as low light film stocks made film production easier, faster, and more mobile. Lastly, a new generation of filmmakers including Truffaut and a number of critics working on the film journal Cahlers du cinema seized on these changes as an opportunity to make their own low budget and often personal films, which challenged the traditional establishment and its output of historical dramas. What distinguishes the French New Wave from their American counterparts, however, was their theoretical Reproduced with permission of the copyright owner. Further reproduction prohibited without permission. 71 inclinations which informed the style and content of their films dramatically. The most influential consideration was the "auteur" theory, which offered a critical model of evaluation and a mode of film production, positing the sensibilities and "signature" a film in the hands of the director. As a result, the films of the New Wave were replete with references and homage to their Hollywood idols like Hitchcock, Hawks, Ford and Humphrey Bogart, who were often the subjects of their critical inquiries. More importantly, though, embedded within these lines of inquiry by the French critics were explorations of mise-en-scene, meaning production and "realism," which translated into experiments with film form and style. Godard provides an excellent example in this instance. It was his intention, which was shared by various member of the French New Wave, to create a revolutionary cinema, which attacked "bourgeois concepts of representation" and challenged audience's perceptions with unpredictable image- sound relations.7 His films in particular are filled with stylistic and formal innovations that constantly separate meaning production between the image and sound track. In general, despite their admiration for Hollywood films, the French New Wave found it necessary to deconstruct them and offer an alternative cinema which screened their view of the world. Godard and others tended toward a much more personal cinema as a result. For some in the movement, this Reproduced with permission of the copyright owner. Further reproduction prohibited without permission. 72 intention comes in part from a Marxist position which informs many modernist texts during this period. Dudley Andrew explains: The Marxists call for a critical cinema which will 'deconstruct' itself at every moment. Instead of fabricating an illusion, this cinema will let the viewer see beneath the images and the story to the process of creation itself....Every subject should be exposed to its socio-economic underpinnings; every signification (every image and narrative relation) should expose its own work. This way we can strive toward the conscious reshaping of the world.® The movement was akin to metafiction in literary circles, which overtly examined the nature of its own content, creation and reception. For both movements, style became content. A lesson quickly picked up on by American filmmakers. Style informed meaning production and in some instances it became meaning. As a result, the films of the French New Wave were filled with examples of cinematic play like hand-held camera work, freeze-frames, jumpcuts and rapid editing patterns on both the image track and soundtrack, all of which proved self conscious and self reflexive. For the French New Wave, these attempts at stylistic innovation were a means of breaking down naturalized codes of cinema and thus revealing to filmgoers how perception is ultimately conditioned by culture, technology and ideology. Lest all these "innovations" be Reproduced with permission of the copyright owner. Further reproduction prohibited without permission. 73 attributed to such high intentions, it must be noted that some of the techniques came as a result of the filmmaker's uncertainty with equipment and the need for stylistic repair work brought on by lack of usable footage or sound. While these techniques were quickly absorbed by American filmmakers, the theoretical intentions were often lost in the translation, except within the science fiction genre. It must be noted that this same intention is often shared by the science fiction genre, as we have already seen in the case of 2001: A Space Odyssey. So not surprisingly, the science fiction genre became a popular and familiar framework within which the new generation of American filmmakers could explore the lessons learned about film form and content from the French New Wave. The French New Wave itself had already recognized the genre as a perfect vessel for stylistic experimentation, cultural critiques and perceptual challenges with the release of La Jetee (1961), Alphaville (1965), and Fahrenheit. 451 (1966). In terms of sound specifically, these three seminal science fiction films included stylistic experimentation with multiple layers of voice-overs, erratic level changes, symbolic uses of sound effect, abrupt sound transitions akin to the visual jumpcut, play with sound perspective and conceptual use of sound montage. Through the use of these formal techniques, the filmmakers shattered reality, broke it into fragments, then re-organized the pieces to create Reproduced with permission of the copyright owner. Further reproduction prohibited without permission. 74 new worlds and new ideas. Importantly, these techniques challenged audiences not only to rethink film form, but to rethink larger issues of technology and its relation to power structures and society, which were key to the Space Race generation. In this way, the genre vessel encouraged another layer of challenges for filmgoers by offering distopian critiques and glimpses at possible futures for the world in a technological age. Most striking in this series of films is Chris Marker's short film La Jetee which is comprised almost entirely of black and white stills except for one full- motion shot of a woman blinking. The fragmentation strikes at the very nature of cinema as it challenges the idea of the "moving picture." The film transfers the perceptual basis of cinema to unify itself from persistence of vision to a linkage by continuous sound. The film is entirely unified by its soundtrack. The sparse composite includes a voice-over, music and sound effects, utilized to exacting and elegant effect. In their utilization, the whole model of traditional cinema and its naturalized codes are upset, just as the narrative world is upset by war and devastation. The story of La Jetee centers on a concentration camp prisoner in post World War III Europe and his forced participation in time travel experiments to contact the future for assistance. In the course of the narrative, the Reproduced with permission of the copyright owner. Further reproduction prohibited without permission. 75 prisoner makes contact with a woman in the past with whom he falls in love but fate cruelly unifies them only through death. The narrative pattern is cyclical and evocative, inspiring a host of Hollywood films including The Terminator (1984), Back to the Future (1985) and of course, 12 Monkeys (1995), though none of these films embraced the audio-visual techniques of the original. These films though do demonstrate the cycle of appropriations which still resonates between the films of the French New Wave produced over thirty years ago and those produced in contemporary Hollywood cinema today. Like many French New Wave films, La Jetee deconstructs and reconstructs history and memory through film form. Echoes of Nazi Germany and the concerns of the nuclear age are apparent in the constant sound of whispers that punctuate the images of the time travel experiments. Some words are spoken in German; others transform into subliminal messages of suggestion, as numbers being counted off or down. This verbal play easily becomes a metaphor for control and the perils of technocracy, which are themes echoed in nearly all Hollywood science fiction films of this period like THX 1138, Planet of the Apes (1968), Silent Running (1972), and Westworld (1973). The anxiety expressed in all of these films is in part emblematic of the era of the Space Age, which was propelled by government Reproduced with permission of the copyright owner. Further reproduction prohibited without permission. 76 development and control of technology from the Manhattan Project to the Apollo missions. In the course of portraying the time travel experiments in La Jetee, sound effects are often utilized to unify and comment on the fragmented imagery and the fragmented future they present. In particular, the sound of the prisoner's heartbeat smoothes the series of shots of the researchers and the images of the past and future. The effect maintains and anchors the multiple time frames. The recording of the effect is in close microphone perspective giving it codes of intimacy, then through mixing, the volume of the effect increases and in some instances cuts off sharply to indicate a time shift or break in the process. This combination of techniques transforms the status of the heart beat from a subjective sound effect heard by the character to overt narrative commentary regarding his condition like a heart monitor. In short, it moves from a diegetic effect from the character's perspective to a privileged effect with the same status as spoken narration. So even sound codes are upset. In these instances of isolation, the heartbeat comments on the atrocities of the experiments, while simultaneously linking us in a visceral way to the character's pain. The layers of complexity are challenging. The results decenter the listener into realizing that not only are there multiple time frames, but there are multiple narrative perspectives Reproduced with permission of the copyright owner. Further reproduction prohibited without permission. 77 at work on all levels of the soundtrack from the sound effects to the narration to the music- Similar shifts in the status of sound are taken up in Hollywood films of this period as the previous examination of film music reveals. In terms of sound effects, THX 1138 borrows the technique more directly and translates the heart beat into a tone, which is utilized for "mindlocks" by the state run "controllers." It too punctuates the perils of state control of technology and allows the state to literally reach into the human mind, locking it off from certain activities and ideas. Another influential story of technocracy with an equally influential style is Godard's Alphaville, which stylistically combines noir and the science fiction genre. In this way, it is a precursor to Blade Runner (1982). Formally, THX 1138 draws heavily from the film's editing and sound patterns. The narrative follows a private eye/assassin Ivan Johnson into a futuristic city where he must kill a scientist who has been leading mind-control experiments. The city is controlled and monitored by a supercomputer called the Alpha 60, which not surprisingly deconstructs history and memories to maintain its position of power. It is the self proclaimed "logical means of destruction" of the past, present, and undoubtedly the future. What is most intriguing and challenging about this film's audio style is the almost independent nature of the Reproduced with permission of the copyright owner. Further reproduction prohibited without permission. 78 sound track over the image track. Sounds and images constantly move off on their own to reveal multiple locations and purposes, which challenge traditional image- sound relations. For example, throughout the film, Godard employs the sound of a computer beep, which he often places over dialogue exchanges. In the beginning of the film, detective Ivan Johnson walks in the hallway with the professor's daughter and asks her about love. As she throws the question back at him in befuddlement, we hear the close perspective recording of a computer beep. Such beeps recur throughout the film, and their placement implies that Alpha 60 is monitoring somewhere in the city, separate but connected. Supporting this idea are the recurrence of cut aways to a brightly lit office building which we can only presume houses the Alpha 60 supercomputer. The shot functions much like the cut aways to HAL's beaming red eye in 2001: A Space Odyssey. In the Alpha 60 examples, sound and image references are separated, causing the filmgoer to critically evaluate the position, meaning and status of these formal elements. From just the sound of beeps, the filmgoer must imagine the computer off screen, doing its work. In fact, it is impossible to see into the consciousness of the Alpha 60 so the only access is through sound, particularly the disembodied voice. The separation of image and sound track is clearly taken up in THX 1138. Walter Murch notes: Reproduced with permission of the copyright owner. Further reproduction prohibited without permission. 79 The closest I can get to describing the sound track for THX 1138 is to say that it was 'another film’ running alongside the film that you were looking at. It had its own internal logic. Sometimes it came into unity with the film, then it would split off, and return again.9 As a result, THX 1138 strongly evokes the formal stylistics of Godard's films— even similar computer beeps are employed in THX 1138 to imply that there is a constant level eavesdropping occurring by the State controllers. The influences from the voice track of Alphaville transfer to THX 1138 as well. Godard seems fascinated by the utilization of the voice throughout Alphaville. Peter Wollen notes that in general: "Godard is obsessed with problems of true speech, lying speech and theatrical speech. "10 Just as Godard uses sound to reveal multiple story local and environments, he uses the voice to reveal multiple narrative perspectives. Alphaville includes a layered pattern of voice-overs from Ivan Johnson and the Alpha 60. Ivan's voice-over closely recalls the voice-overs from Hollywood noir cinema of the 1940s as it includes fragments of his analysis and inner thoughts. He notes: "The ideal, here in Alphaville, is a technocracy like that of termites and ants." He is a man of insight yet his choice of metaphors belies his hard-boiled mentality. Conversely, the voice-over by the Alpha 60 is less Reproduced with permission of the copyright owner. Further reproduction prohibited without permission. 80 traditional in content and style. In the opening of the film, the Alpha 60 notes: "Sometimes reality is too complex for oral communication. But legend embodies it in a form which enables it to spread all over the world. " The idea is as much analysis of film in general as it is a narrative direction for this film. Particularly innovative about the voice of Alpha 60 is its texture. It is a found montage of sound effects and vocal gualities which is comprised of gurgles, gasps, whistles and croaking enunciation, which were produced in composite form by an actor with a larynx tube.The found effect compliments the visual style, which manipulates present day objects and setting to isolate a possible future. It is a conceit utilized in part out of budgetary constraints but also to offer perceptual and ideological anchors. In THX 1138, the filmmakers take up this idea of the found future on the visual and sound track. The filmmakers even employed the effect of the textured voice in the recording of robot police officers, but refine the voices not through medical technology but through a process of re-recording using variations in speed and flanging. Similar experiments with the voice are found in The Conversation, but instead of compositing voices, the layers of complexity are stripped away from the recording to reveal the true nature of the words: "He'd kill us if he had the chance." In both Alphaville and THX 1138, the Reproduced with permission of the copyright owner. Further reproduction prohibited without permission. 81 status of the voice is joined with that of the sound effect to reveal its truly constructed nature. Lastly, Fahrenheit 451, while far more conservative in its style than La Jetee and Alphaville, also utilizes the voice in a particularly innovative way to challenge traditional image-sound relations. In particular, the traditional typeface credits are eradicated and instead presented in spoken form. As a result, the opening of the film is highly self reflexive as crew and production positions are listed. The technique serves as a constant reminder that we are participating in a construction. Not just on the level of language but on a cinematic level as well. The expectation is for written credits which flow unobtrusively, but that is denied. Importantly, the juxtaposition privileges the voice in a position over the imagery. The sequence is jarring yet it also serves a thematic purpose with the genre context. It echoes the end of the film in which books are recited as part of the process of preservation of history and cultural memory. The result of this technique forces filmgoers to examine the text and technology rather than fall into simple narrative suture. In this way, it is emblematic of the French New Wave movement in general. The innovative and often decentering techniques of the French New Wave helped the new generation of filmmakers like Lucas and Murch to rethink Hollywood cinema through Reproduced with permission of the copyright owner. Further reproduction prohibited without permission. 82 film form, especially within a genre context. As a result, science fiction films like THX 1138 combined these techniques to create sonic metaphors and motifs that defied traditional codes of "reality" and recalibrated perceptions about filmmaking and the future. Walter Murch notes: Your perception of this strange world comes from the sound it makes. the more unusual and evocative those sounds are, the more you have a sense of being in a strange place. One of the subtexts of the movie that guided us...was that we wanted a film from the future, rather than a film about the future.12 In general, sound no longer simply accompanied the image, rather it challenged the image. In this respect the convergence of stylistic experimentation and genre considerations in Hollywood cinema by the "movie brats" was as revolutionary as the French New Wave movement. Both groups accomplished a re-evaluation of film form and challenged filmgoers to re-examine the political, social and ideological factors that inform cinema itself. Beyond Style Godard said: "Hollywood no longer exists in the same way, but it re-exists in another w a y . "12 ne m a y have well been talking about the film soundtrack. Sound Montage was not simply a movement of stylistic appropriation or selection borrowing, rather it also became one of changing Reproduced with permission of the copyright owner. Further reproduction prohibited without permission. 83 technology and techniques as well which transformed the Hollywood sound track. Unlike their French counterparts, the new generation of American filmmakers were technophiles and adept at re-thinking traditional techniques and innovating entirely new production processes. As a result, the films of this period saw the implementation of multi tracking, portable technologies, and new re-recording technology, which led to unprecedented refinements of image-sound relations. To see the implications of these new processes and procedures, however, it is first necessary to look back in history in a comparison and contrast. Like the French New Wave, the new generation of Hollywood filmmakers were constantly aware of their relation to the past cinematic output of the industry, drawing from it and diverging from it at the same time. The designation "Sound" within the traditional mode of Hollywood production has traditionally encompassed every thing from recording actors on the stage to re-mixing the final composite tracks of a film. The multi-faceted processes of sound which were handled by recordists, editors and re-recording mixers were consolidated to this single idea and often given as sole credit to a Studio's Sound Department Administrative Director, which is ironic given the strict hierarchy of labor distinctions. Within the traditional Hollywood studio model of production, the mixing and editorial aspects of sound were Reproduced with permission of the copyright owner. Further reproduction prohibited without permission. 84 controlled by a strict division of duties and the limitations of equipment. The primary coordinator was the Sound Department Head, who was conversant in not only the technical aspects of sound but the aesthetic ones as well. The supervisor oversaw the completion of all sound work. In general, the Sound Department Head would spot the film (sometimes with the director) identifying key sound needs, then listen to sound material pulled by an assistant from the studio sound library. When material selections were agreed upon, the sounds were transferred to optical film. Sound kits would be assembled and dispersed to the Re recording Editors who were "responsible for editing, assembling and synchronizing the various sound tracks developed for a motion picture, in order to combine these tracks into a single r e c o r d . " 14 Re-recording Editors were considered part of the Editorial Department, though often the distinction for sound and editing was simply the Post Production Department. Tracks were constructed by reel and when completed were moved to the dubbing stage for mixing by the Re-recording Supervisor. As a result of this methodical process, the composite nature of a particular sound effect (the layers of sound elements split onto separate tracks) was often not heard until the final mix. Additionally, because of technological Limitations, re-mixers could not stop or start the mix of a particular reel when they Reproduced with permission of the copyright owner. Further reproduction prohibited without permission. 85 wanted, rather the re-recording of a reel was performed in one pass, start to finish. These limitations prevented refinement of film sound in general. Re-recording experimentation was possible and encouraged on specific genre films or if a director was particularly sound conscious like Orson Welles or Alfred Hitchcock. Very early after the introduction of sound, the RKO film King Kong (1933) offered one of the first films to use re-recording, with animal sounds such as lion roars and gorilla screeches played backwards and laid over one other to create the roar of Kong. In the field, recording experimentation was limited, however, by the cumbersome equipment. Typically, the equipment necessary for sound recording was substantial, including trucks, batteries, generators, and optical sound equipment. Sound effects sets were kept in the departmental library and experimentation was possible through the manipulation of these mediums much like the processes utilized in radio productions. Multiple turn tables for instance could run recorded effect to create new composite effects or various pre-build sound effects devices could simulate anything from wind to door closes. As studio era Sound Supervisor James G. Stewart (Citizen Kane) noted: In the early days, re-recording was a process you indulged in only if it was absolutely necessary. The release Reproduced with permission of the copyright owner. Further reproduction prohibited without permission. 86 track on most pictures was 80 to 90 percent unaltered original s o u n d . 15 Conversely, in an era of independent productions, producers could rent or purchase the newest and smallest film technology. Subsequently, post production became less uniform than it had been in the studio era. In terms of THX 1138, Lucas edited the images, while Walter Murch cut the sounds and assisted with the final mix. It was a "hands-on" approach carried over from their film school days. For THX 1138, picture and sound were cut simultaneously to promote "a maximum cross-over influence of sound and visuals."16 Consequently, the post production process became a site of vigorous experimentation with its futuristic content and style. Part of this post production revolution was informed by recording technology. The Nagra tape recorder replaced the large sound trucks of the studio era and allowed for creative capture of organic sound effects, and multi-track tape players allowed ease of manipulation of raw effects. Re-recording was vigorously encouraged and demanded by sound conscious producers and directors like Coppola and Lucas. For THX 1138, sound capture and construction became imperative since the production did not have access to a studio sound library. The production publicity for the film notes: "Instead of pulling a sound from a library, Murch searched out the proper noises or engineered them himself, Reproduced with permission of the copyright owner. Further reproduction prohibited without permission. 87 thus customizing the sounds and noises of a future, highly technological era."I? Murch developed the sounds of the Jet cars, the robotic police, and the medical machinery entirely from "scratch." In doing so, he utilized multi track recording technology to experiment with tape speed, microphone to subject distance, and distortion thresholds of the magnetic medium in conjunction with the Nagra tape recorder. For the jet cars specifically, he recorded screams to the point of distortion. Murch notes: I turned the record button all the way up so it was distorting in the original recording. When you distort something that loud, there's a low- frequency pulsing as well as a high element...Then I added Doppler shifting on top of the track of distorted screaming to make it seem like it' s coming toward and away from you. The Tie Fighter sound in Star Wars was done in a very similar w a y . 18 Re-recording and manipulation of these effects was also aided by the introduction of the "rock and roll" transport system and start-stop capabilities on sound dubbers and controlled on the mixing panels. The system allowed previous takes to be listened to backwards and forwards as a means of re-checking sound levels and refining flow. As a result of this technology, entire reels of sound no longer needed to be mixed in a single pass of recording. Instead, multiple passes and a stop-and-start approach were now possible and encouraged, allowing for an ease of Reproduced with permission of the copyright owner. Further reproduction prohibited without permission. 88 experimentation with sound levels, filtering effects, and composite soundtracks. Consequently, THX 1138 featured approximately twenty different layers of sound effects, dialogue, and music brought together in a complex weave of Sound Montages. In general, Sound Montage grew from a conflation of recording, editing and re-recording made easier by new technologies and fostered by production conditions and genre considerations. The Sound Montages in THX 1138 were built out of conscious experimentation in each of the traditional areas of sound production, blurring their distinction. For example, the creation of the voices of the mechanized police robots formulated just this sort of a montage by embedding meaning through re-recording processes. Initially, the actors voices were recorded "dry" or without filtration and in close perspective for clarity and to observe codes of authority and intimacy. Murch notes that they spoke "very much the way you'd expect an over- solicitous funeral director to talk."1^ However, instead of processing the voices in the final mix, Murch cleverly "worldized" these r e c o r d i n g s .20 jje explains: We had one Nagra tape recorder with the clean voices on it. We ham-radioed them into the universe, received them back again as if they were coming from another country, fiddling with the tuning so that we could get that wonderful 'sideband' quality to the voices. Then we rerecorded them on Reproduced with permission of the copyright owner. Further reproduction prohibited without permission. 89 another Nagra and cut them into the final sound track.21 Adding another layer to this process, Murch played with recording speed variations, extending and shortening words or passages of dialogue in slow or fast motion. The final effects were cut with other elements into the final sound track. Thematically, the voices of the robotic police offered a simulacrum of humanity and punctuated the subversion of human identity and authority by technology. As a cinematic construction, the voices exemplify the fluid transition between recording, editing, and re-recording as a means of establishing the voices as narrative motivation, sound effects and objects of the fantastic. It represents a true unification of text and technology. Conclusions Like the process of montage itself, the movement of Sound Montage brought together two disparate cinematic factors, the technological traditions and processes of Hollywood cinema with the idiosyncratic stylistic experiments of the French New Wave, to produce innovative and telling image-sound constructions. Amidst the unified fragments, new perspectives and perceptions arose, mediated within an equally vibrant science fiction context. While these experiments varied in terms of their success, the attempt exposed possibilities not just for the creation of Reproduced with permission of the copyright owner. Further reproduction prohibited without permission. alternative worlds, but for the creation of alternative cinematic expression, particularly in the field of sound. So from the pieces of the past, we can hear the sounds of the future. Reproduced with permission of the copyright owner. Further reproduction prohibited without permission. 91 1 1 chapter 4 Suggestive Fragments in THX 1138 In an interview about the sound in THX 1138, Walter Murch characterized the ambience recordings used for the "White Limbo" sequences in this way: "It's basically the room tone from the Exploratorium in San Francisco... It' s a veil of mysterious sound— it doesn't have anything specific to it, but it is full of suggestive fragments.The description could easily be used to categorize the entire soundtrack for the film. The Sound Montages are full of "suggestive fragments" which offer subtle cinematic metaphors, sharp social criticism and even satire in the tradition of great literary science fiction like Orwell's 1984 and Huxley's Brave New World. The film comments harshly on modernity and the dangers of State controlled technology. In the process, key themes of oppression and repression are evoked by the image-sound relations throughout the film. In the course of the narrative, individuality is stripped away through drugs, religion/consumerism, and technologies like television. In the end, the character of THX (played by Robert Duvall) follows the edict of the counter culture to "Turn on, Tune in, and Drop Out." He turns on to his own individuality and sexuality with the help of his mate LUH (played by Maggie Reproduced with permission of the copyright owner. Further reproduction prohibited without permission. 92 McOmie), tunes in to his dire predicament, and drops out by escaping the underground world in which he is trapped. While these messages are telling of the period in which the film was produced, the importance of the film for this study lies in its use of the medium. The Sound Montages in THX 1138 aggressively challenge the traditional Hollywood image—sound model, which privileges codes of "realism" and effacement. Rather than allowing sound to be an appendage to the image, the filmmakers asserted the position of sound as an equal partner in the process of cinema, much in the style of the films by Godard, moving the sound with, against and sometimes without regard for the image track. In this respect, the film is as revolutionary as 2001: A Space Odyssey in raising questions and challenging perceptions. THX 1138, however, substituted music with musique concrete to attain its goal. While THX 1138 was not as culturally influential (In fact, the film failed to reach much of an audience at all), it was highly influential in Hollywood sound circles.2 In particular, the innovative experiments and conceptual uses of sound laid the groundwork for all of the subsequent George Lucas films including the Star Wars series and the Raiders of the Lost Ark series. Additionally, the stylistic techniques in THX 1138 would travel with Walter Murch to the films by Francis Ford Coppola including The Conversation, The Godfather series, and Apocalypse Now. In this respect, THX 1138 was Reproduced with permission of the copyright owner. Further reproduction prohibited without permission. 93 full of "suggestive fragments" which challenged not only filmgoers but filmmakers to transform the medium of film sound and bring Hollywood cinema closer to the model of sound design. Welcome to the future. Fragmented Futures Just as an overture introduces a musical score through the consolidation of themes and motifs, the opening sequence of a film often foreshadows the themes and motifs of its narrative. THX 1138 follows this concept by offering a rapid succession of images and sounds of intrusion, violence and sedation which are expanded on throughout the film and ultimately linked to the film's speculation on the oppression of individuality. An extended analysis of this opening montage provides insights into the editorial, thematic and generic considerations which converge on the film’s sound track. Before the film begins, the title sequence is proceeded by clips from a Buck Roger's serial. The voice over positions us within a different era and emphasizes the notion of Buck and his humanity, which serves as a telling juxtaposition to THX and his predicament of entrapment within a world slowly being stripped of its humanity. Additionally, these two speculative mythologies placed side-by-side reveal the extent to which the science fiction genre has re-configured itself from the classical to Reproduced with permission of the copyright owner. Further reproduction prohibited without permission. 94 modernist era. Stylistically,, the two films could not be further apart. In terms of sound, one tells the story, the other reveals it through film form. Following the credits, a computerized number 5 appears accompanied by rhythmic computer beeps, as if some computer program has been activated and is perhaps recording. A similar montage occurs in Godard's Alphaville. The history of the beeps themselves can be traced to those used in ADR countdowns, providing start points for actors to replace their dialogue. The intertexual reference is obscure, but seems to reveal a connection between this media intrusion in the future with the media manipulation of the present. On the image track, the re-photographed image of THX (Robert Duvall) appears, revealing him through the fuzz of camera hidden in a medicine cabinet. A close perspective mechanized voice, much like that of a 1960s television commercial announcer, asks, "What's wrong?" The voice is placating and positive accentuating the connection to modem consumerism. THX expresses a need for something "Stronger." Sedation is a key factor in this environment from video screens as in Fahrenheit 451 to actual drugs. Computer printouts cascade through data, re-enforcing the notion that a system has been activated. Another figure, LUH also seeks sedation but retreats from the cabinet with a curt "Never mind." Her voice spins off into auditory evaluation, flanged and processed. It is as if the stress Reproduced with permission of the copyright owner. Further reproduction prohibited without permission. 95 patterns of her voice are under investigation. Later we discover that she has in fact been changing the sedation balance of her "mate" so that he may express love and thus regain his humanity. Foreshadowing what is to come, however, the image of a blood streaked and beaten man follows. We later learn this is THX, a perpetrator of "drug related violations" and "sexual perversion" according to a government prosecutor. The displacement of the image crystallizes the fact that the narrative is deconstructing itself much in the tenor of a French New Wave film. In counterpoint to the image, a mechanical voice asks him: "Can you feel this?...Are you now, or have you ever been? Move Slowly." The tranquil tone of the voice presents a disturbing contrast to the violent imagery, giving hint to the oppressive environment we have entered. History and memory are being questioned, especially in relation to love and intimacy. It is here that "love is the ultimate crime."3 Technology mediates the presentation of all of these images and sounds, filtering them through video cameras and audio processors. Every bit of data is under review and scrutiny, not by a centralized authority but the system of oppression in which the characters are trapped. No central villain is presented, rather it is the cumulative effect of the society, technology and ideology. At this praxis, individual rights erode. The filmgoer is also implicated in Reproduced with permission of the copyright owner. Further reproduction prohibited without permission. 96 the process of analysis. Just as with the French New Wave narratives, the film demands an active reading strategy in order to synthesize the narrative data and evaluate these images and sounds of the future. The hope is that the filmgoer will also speculate about the possibilities of this sort of oppression in contemporary society. Lucas explains: "We have all the potentials today [for this course toward the future], polluted air to drive you underground, tranquilizing drugs and computers. Whether it happens depend on the human spirit. Or the lack of it."4 As the sequence continues, the social and technical mechanisms of observation and oppression are revealed more clearly in the editorial equivalent of a pull back. The images become less processed, though the sounds remain heavily manipulated as a subtle reminder to the notion of eavesdropping. The allusion to "Big Brother" in George Orwell's 1984 cannot be missed. A central control node is revealed exposing controllers, banks of monitors and computerized consoles, much like a television studio. The images and sound reiterate the connection to modern media practices. In a cut away, a chrome police officer holds the hand of a child as they wait for an elevator. The music accompanying the scene is canned and hollow. To achieve this effect, Murch played "dry" recordings of the music in the empty hallway then re-recorded it to merge its echoes and spatial cues utilizing his technique of "worldizing."5 Reproduced with permission of the copyright owner. Further reproduction prohibited without permission. 97 The result is the audio equivalent of florescent lighting, dulling humanity and emotion within this controlled environment. Thematically, the images and sounds reveal that this society has reverted to infancy by a dependency on mechanization and technology. Throughout the film, the lines of control between humanity and technology are in constant tension for dominance. The plight of the character THX places him at the center of this struggle. He is the resistant child. Within the control node, two controllers LUH and SEN (Donald Pleasance) scan their screens and listen, videotaping and recording relevant data. These are the watchers and the watched. As we have seen, they too are being taped and recorded through their sedation cabinets. On the banks of monitors, a visual record is made of the hand of a fetus. Reprocessed voices chatter: "We killed it." Audio visual reports are made and reported to the Department of Visual Flow. The fragmentation of the human body matches the fragmentation of the human voice on the sound track. Disembodied voices weave together not in expressive communication, but in a mode solely consisting of information and data gathering. Other audio visual clips deal ironically with dissatisfied workers/consumers, illegal sexual activity and a child playing with a sedation cabinet. Pre-recorded messages are dispensed for often satiric effect. The voices were provided by San Francisco Reproduced with permission of the copyright owner. Further reproduction prohibited without permission. 98 radio personalities Terry McGovern and Scott Beach.6 The intertextual connection to contemporary media resonate in terms of consumerism and media manipulation. In a rare show of emotion, LUH watches with pained longing at the young child at play, no parents or guides. In this underground world, procreation is forbidden and strictly controlled with labs. The idea strips away connections to family history and memory. If fact, in the course of the film her identity is recycled and her designation given to her child, which was the result of her unlawful union with THX. Finally, the sequence returns to THX as he works in a construction area assembling the chrome police officers, revealing that he is in some ways responsible for his own oppression, An explosion occurs in another "cell”; alarms sound and a frenzy of voices tally losses. The Sound Montage is a spectacle of cacophony, yet the heavily sedated THX remains on-line. Though headset links, controllers direct his activities. The construction of the montage of voices with the clicks, beeps and reprocessing offers intertexual references to the Space Race, government institutions and television, commenting formally on the anxieties of the period. In his book Terminal Identity, Scott Bukatman notes that between the launch of Sputnik and Apollo: "The state took direct responsibility for technological development, in America and other industrial countries, leading to a centralized belief in the 'utopian Reproduced with permission of the copyright owner. Further reproduction prohibited without permission. 99 notion that man could truly invent his own future.'"7 But was this progress to come at the cost of individuality? That was the tension which emerged and remains with us in many genre narratives. The montage of sounds in THX 1138 taps into these fears and specifically references the NASA telecasts of the moon walk 1969 as well as the Apollo launches. The NASA broadcasts featured close microphone perspective of astronauts and the ground crew, compression because of the restrictions of bandwidth to the radio channel, beeps presumably as time markers, and side banding from static and interference in transmission. All of these elements formulated the sound iconography of the live nature of these television telecasts and are emulated to exacting standards throughout THX 1138. In terms of reception, the sound constructions provides sonic anchors in the familiar broadcast practices and events, while they thrust the listener into the future with their application in this displaced environment. The effects demand an examination of governmental and technological intervention in the present to extrapolate about possible outcomes in the future. As an ad for THX 1138 notes, "The future is here.The shift ends. The dense mesh of Sound Montages presented in this opening sequence immerses the filmgoer within the futuristic environment immediately and without positioning. According to Murch, the concept was to find the future Reproduced with permission of the copyright owner. Further reproduction prohibited without permission. 100 through the sound design and bring it back, without alternation or explanation.9 The conceit demands an altered reading strategy on the part of the filmgoer which is specific to the formal elements of the film, in particular the sound track. In this opening sequence, sedation and satire pervade the image-sound constructions from the canned music to the confused masses waiting for elevators that never come. As with a musical motif, these two factors echo and overlap throughout the film to create a formal unity of composition. Supporting this concept is an equal overlap of narrative elements to draw out speculative critiques. In particular, traditionally separate institutions unite to devastating effect. Unity of Church and State Religion and the State converge in the subsequent Sound Montages as a form of sedation, information gathering and placation for THX and the population of this subterranean society. Early in the film, THX goes to a confessional phone booth, where he speaks to the computer processed spiritual leader OMM. The phonetic pronunciation of the name is a reference to meditation techniques. OMM’s words offering comfort and encouragement are pre-recorded: "My time is yours." The phrase represents a variant of "Peace be with you," just as "May the Force be with you" is used as a variant in Star Wars. The soothing male voice is Reproduced with permission of the copyright owner. Further reproduction prohibited without permission. 101 recorded in close perspective to the microphone, accentuating the codes of authority and intimacy. The quality encourages a trust but also obedience to the State. The voice quality also serves as an intertextual reference to the talking computers in 2001: A Space Odyssey and Alphaville. Vivian Sobchack notes that the voices in THX 1138 engage in "rhetoric unattached to human bodies" and that it is the "outcome of a culture dependent upon media for the interpretation and containment of experience." 10 Authority resides not in the individual voice, but in the sound bites from the reproduction of a synthesized and processed voice distributed to the masses. This anti-media critique is prevalent throughout the film on both the visual and audio tracks. Ironically, the filmmaker and his fellow "movie brats" would be primary contributors to this trend in the decades to follow the release of this film. In his confession, THX struggles with his emotions and inexplicable sexual urges for his roommate LUH. He implicates his "mate" by noting that she has "been acting strange." OMM offers encouragement and platitudes, yet a deeper intervention is occurring. In addition to dispensing wisdom, OMM surreptitiously records the session. Satirically, the image cuts to a tiny lizard amid the wires and data relays. It can be viewed as a hopeful sign that nothing can be completely contained in this world except perhaps information. THX’s voice becomes data as the sound Reproduced with permission of the copyright owner. Further reproduction prohibited without permission. 102 recordings change perspective and timecode chirps are added. As with the voices in Alphaville, another location is revealed. The confessional is far from a private spiritual endeavor or purging, rather i-t serves to monitor social behavior and productivity. THX then is both a confessor of sins and an informant to the State. As with a religious confessional suggesting Catholic ritual orthodoxy, OMM concludes with a blessing which encourages the cycle of production and obedience: Blessings of the state, blessing of the masses. Created in the image of man, by the masses, for the masses. Let us be thankful we have an occupation to fill. Work hard, increase production, prevent accidents, and be happy. Just as in Orwell's 1984, Big Brother is watching and listening. He urges everyone to work, submit and obey. Sexuality is not part of the State run corporate-religious strategy. The idea is a speculation on the extended influence of organized religion and the government on personal rights. The fear lies in a totalitarian alliance between religion, corporations and the government mediated by technology, specifically the technology of sound. In this environment, the stirrings of individual identity and sexual longing that THX is experiencing are "crimes against the State". Reproduced with permission of the copyright owner. Further reproduction prohibited without permission. 103 Music and Sexuality In contrast to 2001: A Space Odyssey, THX 1138 employs music in a more intimate spectacle of image and sound. When LUH breaks THX's sedation cycle/ a sexual liaison between the two characters emerges, revealing their humanity, individuality and love. In these sequences, the visual track utilizes a series of dissolves between the shots of the two lovers rather than direct cuts, offering a sharp contrast to the analytical montage style in other sequences. The sound track unifies the images by privileging the character's breathing and musical underscoring, provided by the woodwind orchestrations of composer Lalo Schifrin (Cool Hand Luke, Bullitt). The music flows from rather than drives the sequence, providing a deliberate contrast to the rhythmic based score throughout the rest of the film. As sound spectacle, it draws us in rather than pushes us away and thus provides one of the more emotionally moving movements of the film. In the tones of the woodwinds, the flow accentuates the discovery of intimacy, love and humanity and represents one of the few erotic sequences in this filmmaker’s body of work. Unfortunately, sexual intimacy in this world is equated with "sexual perversion" or a sickness, demanding constant scrutiny and exposure. In a speculative twist, this heterosexual predicament for LUH and THX was the equivalent of the homosexual predicament within society during the Reproduced with permission of the copyright owner. Further reproduction prohibited without permission. 104 period in which the film was produced. The State responds in equal measure to the "condition" with drugs, mind control, and violence. Subsequently, the music of flow transforms into a pounding drive to rehabilitate and reform. The Broken Man-Machine After nearly destroying his work cell in a nuclear mishap, THX is prosecuted for "drug evasion" and "sexual perversion." The imbalance in his sedation and his sexual liaison with LUH are exposed and in the subsequent trial, the government prosecutor aggressively argues for "immediate destruction." The verdict is reduced, however, to "incurable" and detention is sanctioned. THX's sexual expression with LUH has transgressed the barrier of sexuality and made him a criminal. After the trial THX 1138 is confined to the detention center, where he is confronted by three chrome police officers, the same type of robots he had helped construct for the State to maintain obedience and order. He is thus implicated in his own oppression. In this sequence, the layers of the sound montage reveal a building metaphor of attempted rehabilitation through interrogation and violence. With a laser baton, the chrome police officers prod THX and ask: "Are you now or have you ever been?" The reference recalls the McCarthy hearings of the 1950s, Reproduced with permission of the copyright owner. Further reproduction prohibited without permission. 105 seeking testimony of Communist activities. THX is also considered a traitor to the State for his foray into human sexuality. The music track features the ticking and pounding of metallic instruments and drums, revealing the sonic motif of mechanical intervention. Layered over this, the robotic voices segment THX's body for areas to be shocked or "adjusted". THX runs in a smaller and smaller circle as he is batted between the robots. Effectively, he is treated as if he were a broken machine being pounded back into shape, fixed through pain. Punctuating this process, the composite sound of the laser baton rises and then snaps with clarity as it makes contact. This effect reveals a composite montage of elements and a play on microphone pickup patterns. In the duration of the effect, the electronic hum moves onto the microphone pickup pattern, which is analogous to an image coming into sharp focus. Subsequently, the hum seems to rise and is sweetened with an electronic snap when it touches THX. This integrated Sound Montage features an attention to sound depth, movement and microphone technology and mimics the visual elements to reveal a highly refined cinematic spectacle of oppression. In the end, THX reverts to a fetal position, a motif which recurs throughout the film, most significantly when his child LUH is discovered. Children are also featured in the end of the film, propelled up an Reproduced with permission of the copyright owner. Further reproduction prohibited without permission. 106 escalator like products on a factory assembly line. The commentary on society is bleak and dystopic. Hind and Body T a m p e r i n g A Sound Montage and conterpoint is evident in an equally effective detention scene. In the White Limbo, THX's mind is tampered with by two bureaucratic controllers, who are never revealed except through their voices. Their voices are juxtaposed with the images of THX being shocked and manipulated by a brain implant and pain inducer. Image and sound are competing forms of representation in the scene, yet overlap in their connection to pain and oppression. In the scene, the voice of one controller instructs the other in the utilization of the mind control "board." The shifts in the images and sound are analogous to those offered by a television control board, and the processed images which jump in size and scale support this analogy. Yet the training session is not simply of image manipulation, rather in an Orwellian twist it is manipulation of man and mind. On the level of sound, the dialogue is a training session in incompetence juxtaposed with human suffering as THX screams in pain as the sound buzzes in his brain. One of the controllers admonishes the other, "Don't let it go over 4.7." In this haphazard trial and error process, the bureaucrats manipulate and shock THX's mind without regard Reproduced with permission of the copyright owner. Further reproduction prohibited without permission. 107 for his suffering. Again, the metaphor of the broken machine arises. THX contorts wildly with the buzz of brain stimulation. It is satire and tragedy combined through the conjunction of disembodied voices and dislocated imagery. It is a pattern which mimics the image-sound relations presented in Alphaville. Cleverly, the scene manipulates the spectator perception and knowledge of reading codes. The fact that the voices exist above the image track indicates that they are in a space of privilege and possess a narrative authority much like voice-over. The content of their dialogue, however, challenges this status to the point of satire. It is a wicked commentary on media and its power over viewers, pinpointing transmissions which are sources of pain rather than pleasure. Fragments of Dissent The "suggestive fragments" which Murch refers to in the opening quote are the ambient Sound Montages utilized for the White Limbo where THX and others are held in detention. The sound element is a found effect, offering a sonic equivalent of the stark imagery. The result of the image-sound juxtaposition is unnerving in its psychological impact as it questions perception. Filmgoers are left craning their ears to hear and distinguish the sounds and voices that are presented. They are much like the whispers in La Jetee. The echoes and reverberations in the White Reproduced with permission of the copyright owner. Further reproduction prohibited without permission. 108 Limbo are full of ticks and whispers. Metaphorically, the true horror of the White Limbo is its lifelessness. On the sound track, it is stripped of recognizable sonic anchors, while on the image track it is stripped of all color and spatial cues. Even the costumes are entirely white. They are an extreme extension of the white shirts and government uniforms of the NASA space program. The environment is minimalist in the cruelest sense of the word and a telling metaphor of the society of the subterranean world. Though SEN attempts to rally the prisoners (albeit in a self aggrandizing manner), their lack of direction leaves them as empty as the space they inhabit. Lucas notes: "I felt that society had drifted to a point where everything was being talked about and nothing was being done." 11 In this respect, THX 1138 represents the director's most personal and political film. SEN himself is perhaps the most lost. Throughout the film, he manipulates the computer system to change room assignments, gain access to restricted areas, and alter data. Yet he cannot make sense of or seize on his own chance for freedom. When faced with escape from the subterranean structure at the end of the tram line, he becomes scared and flees back to his imprisonment. The portrayal which is coded throughout the film with homosexual markers reveals not only the sexual oppression within this technocracy but also the embedded repression Reproduced with permission of the copyright owner. Further reproduction prohibited without permission. 109 within the Hollywood systems which sees homosexuality as tragic. It is a dark irony given that the conceit of the film is about outlaw sexuality. None-the-less, Dale Pollack notes: THX demonstrates that problems aren't solved by talking about them— in the White Limbo sequences, the prisoners spend all their time discussing the concept of freedom but never do anything about it. THX achieves freedom by walking into the white infinity; he takes action and accepts the consequences, which can include death.^2 Cutting Through The Data Stream Throughout the film, the layers of Sound Montage accumulate in a system of overabundant information and data which is equated with the overpopulation of the subterranean society. When THX, SEN and the rouge Hologram escape from the White Limbo, they enter a hallway filled with streams of workers. The Sound Montage is an overwhelming cacophony. This is not just movement of masses— these people are the industrial process. The fugitive men who are not sedated are overwhelmed by the process and the noise it creates. They twist like rags in the wind. According to Murch, the sound montage is a mixture of sounds including traffic in tunnels, masses of people in a coliseum and waterfalls. The montage is layered to accentuate both low frequency and high frequency Reproduced with permission of the copyright owner. Further reproduction prohibited without permission. 110 patterns, thus filling the full spectral range of the medium. Murch noted that simply using loud sounds was not enough. To polarize the effect of sound, he layered in another level of intelligible sound to cut through the clutter. He notes: I thought, 'What if in this hallway full of people there was some kind of weird PA system telling these people what to do, but it was in another language that you couldn't understand it— it was just a voice.'...The result was like a science experiment when you take a cloudy solution and add one drop of mercury and it comes crystal clear.13 The montage created the cacophony of movement, yet provided the sharp edge of an directing voice to anchor the flow. It is a telling moment which converges place and process to warn filmgoers about the unceasing data stream of media and modernity and its impact on society. The fear is that we too will become data. In the end, the three men cut through the data stream- THX's search for his mate LUH, however, is bitter sweet. In a computer search, LUH is found to be lost, recycled as her own child. Separated from the others, THX escapes alone. Escapes and New Beginnings As THX 1138 climbs to the surface, the chrome police officers call after him to return. On the sound track, the voices echo in the long escape passageway. The Reproduced with permission of the copyright owner. Further reproduction prohibited without permission. I l l reverberation serves as a reminder of the distance THX has traversed. His separation is both visual, spiritual and sonic. He rejects their plea to return but moves ahead. He reaches the surface where he is dwarfed by the setting sun. It is a sharp contrast to the visually whitewashed graphics which shroud the entirety of the film. The moment, however, is one of resounding uncertainty for the character and for the filmgoers, since it is unclear what awaits THX on the surface or in the future. Only the silhouette of a passing bird across the horizons offers any hope. The hope that the film offered in terms of film sound, however, was undeniable. THX 1138 cost only $750,000 to produce yet the filmmakers took over a year to assemble and construct the various layers of sound elements and an additional three weeks to mix the composite elements. In the process, Lucas and Murch refined the image and sound montages far beyond any other science fiction offering to date, greatly recalibrating expectations for the genre in terms of graphics and sound. In this respect, the film exemplified the Sound Montage movement as it brought together film form and stylistic influences from Hollywood and the French New Wave to promote a rethinking of cinema and society. While the film never provided the box office returns of Lucas' subsequent films, it would represent the foundation which all of his subsequent work would seem to be in reaction to or in dialogue with. Star Wars in Reproduced with permission of the copyright owner. Further reproduction prohibited without permission. 112 particular would borrow the techniques THX 1138, but would apply them more conservatively within the diegetic spaces of that universe. In these spaces, the model of sound design would be born..."A long time ago in a galaxy far, far way..." Reproduced with permission of the copyright owner. Further reproduction prohibited without permission. 113 I I I chapter 5 SOUND DESIGNING Sound Capture to Construction: The Lexicon of Sound Designs in Star Wars In 1975, Ben Burtt was given a year to create the sounds for an entire universe, the Star Wars (1977) universe. He notes: "When I started out, it was very unusual for someone to be employed to make specific sounds for a film....Then along came George Lucas, who instructed me, 'Here, take this microphone and Nagra, take a year and go out and collect all the interesting sounds you can think of.'"1 This "innovative plan" reshaped the lexicon of Hollywood film sound and marked Ben Burtt as one of the premier "sound designers" in the industry. In this era of the "New Hollywood" beginning unofficially with the release of Jaws (1975), the experimental movement of "Sound Montage" segued to a model of "Sound Design." The lessons learned from the French New Wave did not fall into the service of a personal cinema as historians and critics had hoped but into a new kind of Hollywood cinema, which focused on high concept narratives, genre pastiche and special effects. As the new generation of filmmakers embraced the "blockbuster" tradition, the drive toward image-sound refinement to achieve a visceral effect overwhelmed the desire for formal experimentation as a Reproduced with permission of the copyright owner. Further reproduction prohibited without permission. 114 means of perceptual confrontation and consciousness expansion. Fragmentation of the image and sound tracks gave way to unification, anthropomorphism, and spectacle with intertextual references to Hollywood's past output. But as Christian Metz notes, it would a mistake to "scorn" or dismiss these films as irrelevant or simply derivative.2 They are part of an unexpected cinematic revolution in technology and technique, particularly in terms of film sound. Paradoxically, the term sound design which was coined by Walter Murch during the production of Apocalypse Now (1979) took on two divergent but complimentary meanings. First, it came to represent the design of a specific sound effect like a laser blast or the whine of futuristic engine achieved through recording, editing and re-recording in many cases; and secondly, the term referred to the placement of film sound within a theatrical exhibition space or the process that Walter Murch has referred to as "hanging" sound achieved through the final re-recording process.^ Importantly, the unifying factor for these two facets of sound design was an attentiveness to space, both cinematic and theatrical. In the construction process, specific sound designs often elaborate and play with spatial considerations within the story world to gain credibility and emotive effect or to relay narrative information, while new multichannel technology allows film Reproduced with permission of the copyright owner. Further reproduction prohibited without permission. 115 sound to be deployed within the theatrical exhibition space to create new types of spectacle and new image-sound representations. Not surprisingly, this multifaceted model of sound design is best exemplified by and often mediated by a genre that is about the exploration and definition of constructed spaces, the science fiction genre. For this reason, Star Wars emerges as a pivotal film which exemplifies and establishes the sound design model. It is the goal of this section to examine these two facets of sound design to reveal its emergence as a model of production and reception. Chapter 5 will deal with the specifics of sound designing and the need to explore sound not simply as capture but as a construction. Utilizing examples from the first installment of the Star Wars series, I will examine the attentiveness of the sound designs to sound perspective, image-sound relations, and Hollywood codes of "realism" as a means of creating credibility and content within a genre context. Rather than present the specific case study of a film as has been the norm thus far, chapter 6 will deal with sound and space as mediated by developments in multichannel technology, specifically Dolby Stereo, and its relation to the science fiction genre. This technological case study details the ability of multichannel developments in conjunction with genre codes and conventions to expand the cinematic diegesis and foster new forms of cinematic spectacle, Reproduced with permission of the copyright owner. Further reproduction prohibited without permission. 116 offering us new directions in both sound design and science fiction. Problems in Capture, Construction and De-Construction One of the key problems in traditional sound theory is that it often examines film sound as a single composite object of capture or copying, which can be reproduced in an exacting one-to-one correspondence with the original sound. Bela Balcizs, for instance, argues: "There is no difference in dimension and reality between the original sound and the recorded and reproduced sound as there is between real objects and photographic images."4 others such as Andre Bazin and J.L. Baudry also make similar statements. In short, the recording becomes the sound, and it is a single sound unaffected by the recording process or mode of production. Ironically, this notion persists in our popular understanding of film sound even today. Many film critics still do not understand or simply neglect the highly constructed nature of film sound. However, Alan Williams notes: "To define sound as a thing 'in itself' requires the omission of the material circumstances of production and reception of the sound."5 In addition to Williams, other contemporary sound theorists such as Rick Altman, Mary Ann Doane, Kaja Silverman and Amy Lawrence have expressed the need to aggressively deconstruct the film sound track and avoid the notion of "realism" all together. Reproduced with permission of the copyright owner. Further reproduction prohibited without permission. 117 In contemporary Hollywood cinema, production considerations for film sound are as intricate as they are vast, ranging from microphone positioning which can embed a recording with codes of intimacy or isolation to re recording which can focus or privilege a sound through filtering and volume manipulation. Referring just to the process of collecting sound elements, Tomlinson Holman notes: The mechanics of recording are... profoundly affected by the choice of microphone and its corresponding microphone polar pattern, the placement of the microphone and above all, what is recorded.® For example, in some cases the imperfection of microphone polar patterns have been used to match sound to picture. In creating the sounds of the light sabers in Star Wars, Tomlinson Holman notes that Ben Burtt first recorded the sound of a stalled electrical motor ("Grrrrrr" ) and a television power supply (for high frequency sweetening), but then he played these sounds at half speed through a speaker and re-recorded them using a shotgun microphone, which he waved through the air. This type of microphone, which is an interference tube microphone, has a lobed pickup pattern in order to allow it to be highly directional. Subsequently, the sounds that Burtt recorded floated on and off axis, offering the oscillations of the light saber. Reproduced with permission of the copyright owner. Further reproduction prohibited without permission. 118 Layers of construction then occur at the most fundamental level of the sound recording process yet these factors are often naturalized and overlooked by filmgoers and critics alike. In short, a perceptual matching occurs as the filmgoer naturalizes the perspective of the technology and its intervention into the sound event and its reception. Even the most ordinary or "realistic" sound tracks must then be considered constructions rather than simple capture. John Belton notes: The sound track does not duplicate the world set before it; it realizes an imaginary world, endowing the space and objects within the story space another dimension that compliments their temporal and spatial existence as representations. ? It is therefore from this starting point that any and all sound designs must be analyzed. Just as we examine the image through close textual analysis and within historical and technical frameworks, we must examine the sound track with a heightened attentiveness. In the science fiction genre, though, it is both easier and more difficult to examine these sound representations as constructions. In Star Wars, the images present spaces and creatures which are clearly representations, constructed utilizing innovative special effects technology and makeup traditions. For instance, the huge ships traveling through the universe are actually Reproduced with permission of the copyright owner. Further reproduction prohibited without permission. 119 miniature models re-photographed with motion control cameras against animated star fields, and the host of unusual creatures are actually actors fitted with carefully constructed and prosthetic makeup appliances. The sound track is equally as constructed through recording, editing and re-recording techniques, and while the examples are often visceral and overt in their metaphorical and symbolic meanings they are often underestimated in these respects. For example, within this universe, recordings of air conditioners become the rumbles of spaceship engines unlike anything heard in the cinema of science fiction, while the sounds of a television picture tube power supply and an electric motor transform into the oscillations of a light saber, launching a long tradition of swashbuckling sword play into a technologically enhanced future. In the time since the release of Star Wars, these sounds have become familiar sound icons in the lexicon of film sound and computer games and are thus easily identifiable to many listeners. The difficulty in examining these images and sounds as constructions in general though is the powerful pull of the film medium to unify them through synchronization, codes of "realism," narrative causality and genre considerations. Aptly, Walter Murch notes: "A film has its own authority that seems to deny the fact that anyone was involved in it or made it happen. "8 This insight seems especially true on the level of the sound track. Reproduced with permission of the copyright owner. Further reproduction prohibited without permission. 120 Genre conventions are a key factor in this project of self effacement. Within the science fiction genre, in particular, an informal contract of spectatorship is established between film and filmgoers to re-enforce the unity and authority of the representation. It is a tenuous and unspoken contract regarding generic expectations and suspension of disbelief. Paradoxically, filmgoers must agree to a hesitation in belief between reality and fantasy as entry into the mode of the fantastic. Tzvetan Todorov notes: "There is an uncanny phenomenon which we can explain in two fashions, by types of natural causes and supernatural causes. The possibility of a hesitation between the two creates the fantastic effect."9 Ironically, this hesitation is what Ben Burtt and other sound designers play upon in creating their composite sound effects as they combine and manipulate different raw effects into objects of the fantastic. For the sound designer, engaging this mode of the fantastic is a matter of careful attentiveness to recording and production techniques, spatial concerns, the history of sound effects and genre convention. Construction is often a balance between representation and abstraction, which makes the process of pulling the constructions apart all the more difficult. Additionally, once accepted by filmgoers, the process of hesitation become naturalized, and is often only overtly identified and analyzed when a rupture or break occurs. Reproduced with permission of the copyright owner. Further reproduction prohibited without permission. 121 Ruptures can and do occur when a sound effect is too literal in its transposition with the image or context. For instance, the sound of a contemporary car engine juxtaposed with a futuristic land speeder would be immediately rejected. The filmgoer would reject the sound as being counter to genre expectations or might simply designate it as parody as well. The strength of the sound construction then is not simply a matter of image and sound synchronization, rather it is one of sensibilities within the genre framework as well. So while the sound designer packs each construction with layers of sound elements and generic considerations, we must endeavor to unpack and examine them with the same attentiveness. In fact, it is the paradox of science fiction that the genre itself demands an aggressive self examination as a means of encouraging generic "play" and subsequently pleasure. Key to the blockbuster tradition has always been fan group participation through the meticulous examination of cinematic manufacture of popular films from the aspects of special effects to star personas. This activity is demonstrated within the vast numbers of magazines, fanzines, and now internet sites devoted to the production, consumption and de-construction of popular cinema. These venues expand the universe of films beyond the boundaries of the celluloid and the theater and thus expand narrative enunciation and cultural importance, often through Reproduced with permission of the copyright owner. Further reproduction prohibited without permission. 122 intertextual references and play. Star Wars, in particular, has spawned a massive industry of revealing its "behind the scenes" or backstage secrets and processes through CD ROMS, books, websites and fan groups. It has also spawned imitators and countless parodies such as Hardware Wars. In many ways, the aggressive constructing and deconstruction of cinematic texts has inspired a new generation of filmgoers to take a more active role in the production and direction of contemporary media. Film sound like many other lesser explored aspects of cinema has benefited greatly from this new awareness as it helps to build an understanding of the vocabulary of cinematic techniques such as special effects and sound design. Creating a Lexicon of the Fantastic Within the science fiction films in the period prior to this study, sound effects tended toward the electronic, mechanical and ethereal as representative examples of the audio signifiers for future environments and technologies. For instance, the application of the Theremin, which utilizes magnetic fields to generate tones, produced haunting sounds which have become icons in classic science fiction cinema. By the movement of hands within the field generated by the Theremin, performers could produce various emotive rifts and oscillating tones which became associated with futuristic spacecraft and the filmgoer's fears of the Reproduced with permission of the copyright owner. Further reproduction prohibited without permission. 123 unknown. In The Day the Earth Stood Still (1951), Theremin based sounds can be heard as the guardian robot opens and closes his destructive visor. In applications such as this, the line between music and sound effect blurs and thus punctuates a general move by science fiction films to conflate art and science, in particular music and electricity during this period. The convergence pointed toward the future and technical innovation with uncertainty, skepticism and fear, themes which eventually became embedded within genre conventions. It is this sensibility and the emphasis on sonic abstractions (like pure tones to designate the hum of a futuristic engine) that George Lucas and Ben Burtt would react against in the construction of the sound designs for Star Wars. Unlike THX 1138, the sounds for Star Wars were motivated far more aggressively by dramatic and emotive concerns in their application within the narrative and story world. In this respect, the sound track for Star Wars is far more conservative in its overall montages and design, yet the filmmakers did maintain and build upon THX 1138's aggressive attentiveness to experimentation in sound recording and re-mixing, and image-sound refinement. In following these patterns, the model of sound designing solidified, growing from a conflation of the previously separated processes of recording, editing and re-recording. Mediating the efforts were genre considerations and the Reproduced with permission of the copyright owner. Further reproduction prohibited without permission. 124 sensibilities of the filmmakers. As sound effects editor John Haeny of Todd AO Glen Glen noted with some irony: "Sound Design is all about sync and sensibility." As with THX 1138, George Lucas required the creation of a sonic environment which embraced an "organic" or "used future." Of Star Wars, Ben Burtt notes: In my first discussion with George [Lucas] about the film, he said— and I concurred with him— that we wanted an 'organic,' as opposed to electronic and artificial, soundtrack. Since we were going to design a visual world that had rust and dents and dirt, we wanted a sound world which had squeaks and motors that may not be smooth- sounding or quiet— .Therefore we wanted to draw upon raw material from the real world. Once again, an entirely new catalogue of sounds was collected and constructed for the film as part of a stylistic conceit. The idea of utilizing previously recorded sound libraries was rejected to offer the film a new and innovative sound texture and partly because a full studio library was unavailable to the filmmakers. As noted previously, portable sound equipment allowed for unprecedented flexibility, mobility and experimentation in the recording and gathering process. The Kudelski S.A. Nagra website re-iterates: "For the first time ever, a unit weighing only five kilograms could be relied upon to produce recordings of the same quality as those achieved by the best non-portable studio recorders."H Reproduced with permission of the copyright owner. Further reproduction prohibited without permission. 125 Utilizing a Stereo Nagra IV-S tape recorder (introduced in the period from 1970-1977), Burtt collected the "raw material" from unexpected and often mundane sources. As with any library system, he established categories of sounds for collection and construction: weaponry, vehicles, and creatures among others. For example, the vocalizations of a four-month old cinnamon bear, three other bears, a walrus and a badger become the sound elements for the W o o k i e . 1 2 Burtt explains: I went to zoos and farms and recorded animals. I also rented animals from a trainer. I recorded birds, insects, whales, dolphins.... For the vehicles, I recorded aircraft jets. I also recorded all sorts of weapons, artillery, military planes, bombing and strafing effects, all kind of action sounds I felt would be useful.13 These elements would be utilized to build the basic library materials, but already the process of sound designing was underway in the recording of these sounds. Specifically, microphone to subject distance played an essential factor even in the basic recordings of this raw sound material as Burtt experimented with different sound staging akin to deep focus photography and blocking. For example, by hitting an AM transmitter tower guy wire with a hammer and recording the resulting "ping" in a close microphone perspective, Burtt created the unique sound of the laser "blaster" in the film. "Blaster" sounds pervade the opening Reproduced with permission of the copyright owner. Further reproduction prohibited without permission. 126 of the film as the Imperial troopers engage the diplomatic security forces in a brief series of battles and through a combination of recording and re-mixing techniques are encoded with visceral and spatial cues. The sound of the blasts function to create two levels of spatial perspective in this sequence. First, the close perspective sounds sweetened with actual gunfire ricochets encode the blasts with a comic book intimacy and emotional intensity which immerses the filmgoer in the battle and recalls the tradition of cinematic serials, particularly the serial Western; alternatively, as the scene moves rapidly throughout the corridors, the sound perspective shifts vis-a-vis the recording and mix process to bringing another layer to the effects. Entire exchanges of laser fire are implied off screen and processed to signify that the sound has been muffled or dampened by the deck walls. The perspective and sound manipulation constructs a gestalt of the ship's layout from the texture of its surfaces to its spatial breadth. The signal processing gives the action a sense of continuity, temporality and depth, while it is also expanding and mapping out the geography of the environment. As the retreat by the security forces occurs, the sound track rages with exchanges that are partially visible through portholes deep in the backgrounds of the sets. In these instances, the sounds of the "blasters" fall into the Reproduced with permission of the copyright owner. Further reproduction prohibited without permission. 127 distance by changes in volume, increases in reverberation time and extended microphone to subject distance. The sonic-spatial cues help to shape the filmgoers understanding of the constructed geography of the diplomatic ship and simultaneously charge the scenes with a feeling of eminent peril. Such an attentiveness to sound perspective in both recording and re-mixing is crucial in the sound designing process. Walter Murch notes: My general principle of recording sound is never to think of recording just the sound itself. To record a telephone ring I think of recording the space between myself and the telephone. What I'm really recording is a relationship between that telephone and the space around it.... it's incredibly emotional. The air has a lot to do with it; it's sort of a perfume of sound— sound without air has no smell.14 As with the camera lens, the polar patterns of a given microphone help to focus, shape, and construct a sound. The pattern acts much like the frame line does for the image, allowing containment or exclusion. Unlike image recording, the sound recording can capture and re-iterate spatial cues, such as diffraction and reflections, thus implying spaces outside the frame of collection and deep into its interior. These are the factors that give sound its "smell" according to Murch. So at this most fundamental level of Reproduced with permission of the copyright owner. Further reproduction prohibited without permission. 128 sound collection, the construction of the sound design has begun. Constructing Credibility In conjunction with these aspects of sound perspective, designing sounds is also a matter of designing its credibility in relation to perceived reality and the specific imagery presented on the screen. Burtt notes: "The basic thing I do in all of these films [Star Wars series] is to create something that sounds believable to everyone, because it's composed of familiar things that you can't quite recognize immediately."!5 In short, he finds credibility in the anchors of " familiar" sounds from animals to jets as previously mentioned. While these sounds are manipulated through electronic means, they are not generated electronically and thus maintain their complex character in terms of dynamic range and texture variation. This type of credibility is drawn from the conceit of creating and utilizing "organic" sounds for the film. Supplementing this concept is an attentiveness to image and sound credibility, which for the sound designer is a matter of aesthetic sensibilities, genre considerations, spatial factors and ironically image-sound displacement. As previously noted, credibility is tied deeply to the filmgoers genre expectations and their willingness to allow for a hesitation in belief. In many Reproduced with permission of the copyright owner. Further reproduction prohibited without permission. 129 instances, Burtt approached the task of creating the sound for Star Wars in a scientific manner. With an undergraduate degree in physics, he utilized this background to inform his aesthetic choices in the design process. He states: I took a lot of joy in trying to analyze the equipment and creatures George had created. I wanted to know what powered this or that device, what kind of mouth or lungs this or that creature had. Knowing those things was important to conceiving the sound it would make.16 For example, the animal noises (bears, seals, badgers among others) utilized for the character of the Wookie were edited and pitch shifted by slowing down the original recordings and simultaneously matched to the images of actor Peter Mayhew in his mask and costume. The bear vocalizations, in particular, which characteristically resonate from the back of the animal's throat, provided the best match for the prosthetic mask fitted to the actor.I7 Understanding and assessing these physical and acoustic factors was key to making the right "fit" with a sound in relation to the imagery as were the processes of synchronization and editing. Science fiction obviously poses particular problems in terms of sound and image relations in that many of the environments, technologies or creatures do not exist. The "fit" then must be extrapolated and speculated from the available material and circumstances. But as John Belton Reproduced with permission of the copyright owner. Further reproduction prohibited without permission. 130 notes cinema sound does not have to conform to reality: "Images attain credibility in the conformation to objective reality; sounds, in their conformation to the image of that reality, to a derivative reconstruction of objective reality."^® when that "objective reality" is entirely constructed as it is in a science fiction context, the images and the narrative cue the creation of the sounds which accompany them, during the production process. In this instance, Burtt closely observed the imagery, the technology and creature creation within the visual world of Star Wars and extrapolated from these elements as a starting point for the accompanying sound designs. This is not to imply that the sound was subservient to the image, rather the image provided one particular means of organization. Ironically, in creating these objects of the fantastic, Burtt depended on the power of separating sounds from their source referents as well. Just as a matter of production practice, the recording of a sound such as the growl of the bear would be split from its image in the sound effects collection process. Sound and referent are separated. The de-contextualization of almost any sound generally throws it into the realm of the fantastic for all listeners except for those with advanced ear training. This instability in identification creates anxiety and hesitation, hence entree into the mode of the fantastic. It Reproduced with permission of the copyright owner. Further reproduction prohibited without permission. 131 leaves the audiences craning their ears to comprehend exactly what the origin of a sound is. Sound designers depend on this phenomena to create and deploy innovative new sounds, combining the familiar with the unfamiliar. In the example of the sound design for the Wookie, the noises are recognized as familiar (something animal based) and unfamiliar at the same time (an animal language given their status as dialogue within the various scenes). The familiar properties become subconscious anchors in the real, while their idiosyncratic organization become a springboard into the speculative and the fantastic. The balance of credibility in any sound-image construction is therefore tenuous and that is part of the pleasure and draw of the science fiction genre- The filmgoer is constantly questioning the deception they are hearing and seeing, yet hoping that it will succeed in creating spectacle and narratives of the fantastic. Engaging Genre, Space and Spectacle The complexity of a sound design expands even further as the constructions directly engaged the thematic and generic considerations of a film. The "spotting" of any film in order to create and place the various sound effects requires a measure of textual analysis and attentiveness to genre by sound personnel. In this way, sound selection and creation can be unified and evolved over the various reels Reproduced with permission of the copyright owner. Further reproduction prohibited without permission. 132 of the film to build motifs, accentuate themes and punctuate dramatic passages. In the design process for Star Wars, Burtt consciously engaged the film’s themes (good vs. evil, human vs. technological), the iconography (lasers, space craft, and communication devices) and archetypes (good son and evil father) with his sound designs to offer new layers of meaning. In these instances, sound does not simply attempt to conform to physics of the "real world" but rather engages the textual and/or emotional dynamics of the narrative. Burtt notes: In space fantasy the work becomes much more abstract. Your imagination can take much greater leaps. You are not limited by what people are expecting. Sound in fantasy can function somewhat like music. You can decide what emotional reaction you want to create.^ Once again, sound design aspires to the status of music, and so like music, combines representation and abstraction to emotive and dramatic effect. One obvious conceptual and textual construction in any science fiction work comes in the representation of outer space and movement through it. Unlike 2001: A Space Odyssey, though, Star Wars does not adhere to the scientific principles of silence within a vacuum. Rather, most of the actions, dogfights, battles and ship movements are punctuated by a flurry of sound effects from laser blasts and explosions to engine rumbles. The abandonment of Reproduced with permission of the copyright owner. Further reproduction prohibited without permission. 133 scientific principles was an aesthetic decision on the part of Lucas and Burtt to make the film more visceral and emotive in its dramatic impact.20 gu- t - there are genre concerns as well. Their decision was in part an attempt to emulate the stylistic and impact of the multi—reel serials of the Classical Hollywood era, particularly the westerns. As with the Western, the vast, exciting and dangerous space constructed in Star Wars through its sound design represents a new frontier to be contained, dominated and controlled. Historically, this decision to render this space with sound would color the soundtracks of almost every subsequent science fiction film from Star Trek— The Motion Picture (1979) to the recently released Starship Troopers (1997) . By rendering sound in the vacuum, Star Wars aggressively represented outer space as an immersive environment for the filmgoer to navigate and tame as well. The sound designs become the cinematic data utilized to process the narrative causality and plot trajectory. In this respect, the position of the filmgoer mimics that of the pilots within space craft in the story world, constantly repositioning themselves to challenges ahead. A new type of identification to the spectacle occurs and ultimately, the sound design allows the filmgoer to ride the film rather than simply view it. This evolution in Reproduced with permission of the copyright owner. Further reproduction prohibited without permission. 134 suture will be covered more fully in the next chapter as a deeper examination of multichannel sound is developed. Complicating the representations of space were additional layers of meaning as well. In the creation of the sounds for the various space crafts in Star Wars, there were also attempts to create a metaphorical and thematic terrain by establishing a method of aural contrasts. Burtt notes: The Empire spaceships sounded a certain way as compared to the Imperial fleet; that was a deliberate style change. Everybody in the Empire had shrieking, howling, ghostlike, frightening sounds....Whereas the rebel forces had more junky-sounding planes and spaceships...they tended to pop and sputter more.21 The Millennium Falcon in particular sputters and groans through the film like a car with a dying battery. These sound designs establish a sense of cinematic geography as well as textual geography. They comically question the reliability of Hans Solo (primarily his commitment to Luke's and Leia's ideals) and his vessel, and offer in general a universe that isn't dominated by finely tuned mechanisms and technology. In terms of cinematic geography, the rumble of engines permeate through the ships decks, accompanied by the sound of propulsion mechanisms, computers and weapons arrays, which reinforce the visual iconography and conventions of the science fiction genre. Reproduced with permission of the copyright owner. Further reproduction prohibited without permission. 135 In contrast, Darth Vader's ship in the final scenes of the film screeches and whines in a far more anthropomorphic manner. As previously noted, the ship's noises were achieved through recording human screams to the point of distortion and composite with various other aircraft effects. The sound design, therefore, reinforces the notion of technology trapping the human spirit and soul, which is fully realized in the character design of Darth Vader. He represents a merging of human flesh and the technology, which in this early chapter of the series characterizes him as the epitome of evil. His use of "the force" has somehow been twisted by the mechanisms that sustain him. His ship and its sounds are extensions of the spiritual and physical intermingling with the mechanical and thus scream in pain. The contrast between the two types of craft and their sounds re-enforces the narrative themes of good verses evil and the deeper mythological aspects of the film. It is a binary that Burtt is keenly aware, even in the most subtle effects. He sums up the contrast best in his discussion of the sounds for the light sabers: "Darth Vader's laser sword is pitched in a minor key, whereas Ben Kenobi's is more of a C major cord. When they get together, they don't really harmonize very well— a disharmony. "22 However, it is from this "disharmony" that the dramatic tension of the film emerged and re-calibrated the standards for cinema sound within the blockbuster tradition. Reproduced with permission of the copyright owner. Further reproduction prohibited without permission. 136 Layers in -the Lexicon: Editing and Re-recording Beyond the recording process, it is essential to explore more specifically the organizational process of editing and re-recording in the creation of sound constructions. As previously mentioned, sound design emerged from the conflation of the duties of the recordist, editor and mixer as well as the utilization of new portable technologies. On Star IVar's, Burtt utilized a "TEAC four and two-track decks, a stereo Nagra, some basic outboard gear, and a 35mm mag transport to make his own t r a n s f e r s . "23 ge set up the portable technology in his Los Angeles apartment and established a self contained sound studio, which was versatile in manipulating raw material he had captured. By conflating the processes of editing and re-recording, he added additional layers of enunciation to the sound constructions, offering a sharp contrast to the methods of the Classical Hollywood which preceded this period. Both Burtt and Lucas were fascinated with the use of sound as language and exploited the notion fully in the sound designing process for the film. The character of R2- D2 is perhaps the most intriguing in this respect. Through the careful sound editing and re-recording of beeps, whistles, burps and the like, the character is shaped, humanized, and anthropomophized (Burtt also added his own vocalizations to provide more tangible anchors in the Reproduced with permission of the copyright owner. Further reproduction prohibited without permission. 137 real). The implication in the editing of these sound effects is that sound becomes akin to dialogue, enunciating narrative points and punctuating narrative events. It reveals not just an attentiveness to the textual level of enunciation but the emotional level as well. Through the organization of the sounds, we know when the "droid" is distressed, concerned, fearful, and whimsical. For example, in his encounter with the Jawas, he screams, jitters and pops when hit by a laser blast. Key to this design is an attentive to rhythm, syncopation, and emotion, following the cadence of spoken language as an embedded structure. R2' s "dialogue" cues the audience to connect with his wound yet subverts this with a comic pratfall on the visual track. Sound and image relations are in constant dialogue, and in this respect, the construction is akin to musical counterpoint and punctuation. Like music, the sound design becomes the secret language that tells the audience how to feel, offering the abstract and the representational. The process of re-recording can add additional layers of metaphoric enunciation and understanding to the sound constructions as well, while also tying directly into the overall generic concerns of the film. For example, the voice of Darth Vader quickly became a sound icon through the summing of the voice of James Earl Jones and the sound effect of underwater breathing equipment, a scuba regulator. The composite design has since become an icon of Reproduced with permission of the copyright owner. Further reproduction prohibited without permission. 138 evil, emulated and parodied in numerous films. As a work of sound design, it unifies the technological and the human to its most monstrous effects. The re-recording process "streams" the two sound elements together creating a dramatic tension on the level of the sound track that supports and unifies the narrative themes of human vs. the technological. Of Darth Vader, Obi-Wan Kenobi (Alec Guinness) notes: "He's more machine than man now." Finally, re-recording is also utilized to expand the diegetic geography through the addition of spatial markers such as reverberation and reflections. The footsteps in Star Wars are particularly telling in this respect. As the Storm Troopers take over the Princess's ship in the opening scenes, their footfalls establish the geography of the craft. The clanking footsteps re-enforce the notion the characters are walking on metal grates. The sets, however, were entirely constructed out of wood and plastic materials. The footfalls were created through careful Foley re-recording and editing on metal surfaces. The design of these sync hit effects creates strong signification in terms of the nature of this environment and its construction. They also established a new tradition and attentiveness to even the most minute details of image- sound relations within Hollywood blockbuster. These factors would be key in establishing the lexicon of sound design in Reproduced with permission of the copyright owner. Further reproduction prohibited without permission. 139 this new era of filmmaking, though the past is far from forgotten. Designing with Past Traditions Key to the sound design process is an attentiveness to past codes and methods of sound construction and capture. Ben Burtt notes: I think the sound designer has to be aware of how sound has been done historically. Each person who comes into a movie has seen thousands of other movies, and you have to take that into account. That doesn't mean you have to copy, it just means that you have to know [about it]. I think the best education a new artist could have, in any field, is to learn all the way up to where the frontier is, and then take those few steps beyond it. 24 It is then essential to remember there is a historically vested component to any sound design. How sounds were captured, manipulated and applied in the past often informs how they are created and utilized in films today. Within the classical Hollywood period, sound departments established vast libraries of sound effects. These effects were placed on records and tapes for perusal by sound supervisors and editors then transferred to another medium, such as optical or magnetic film stock for editorial purposes. The sound libraries housed sounds ranging from gunshots to bird calls. Categories were established and Reproduced with permission of the copyright owner. Further reproduction prohibited without permission. 140 catalogued for easy retrieval. Today, this process continues and is assisted by computer data bases with the capability of string searches and relational searches as well as instantaneous retrieval and performance of sounds. Specific Hollywood studios established their house styles based in part on the repeated use of specific sound effects from their libraries. For example, the Warner Bros, studio had a particular set of sounds such as chin socks, gunfire, and tire screeches which became the foundation of the sound for their gangster films. As much as the images of these films have become icons in American culture, so too have their sound effects. They are recognizable and in part formulate genre expectations. In this respect, the sounds of the classical Hollywood cinema must inform the sound designs today. In borrowing from the past, the layers of intertextual references become part of the New Hollywood's adherence to genre pastiche, whether intended or not. Sound effects from the past directly inform those of the present. For example, the arrow "whizzes" from the Errol Flynn film The Adventures of Robin Hood (1938) set the standard for the sound of weaponry in the adventure film/swashbuckler- Even the most recent re-telling, particularly Warner Bros. Robin Hood— Prince of Thieves (1991) sampled these original sound effects and utilized them as the foundation of the sweeping arrow slings.25 The science fiction genre too must still Reproduced with permission of the copyright owner. Further reproduction prohibited without permission. 141 borrow from past films in terms of "chin socks", weapons fire, and environmental backgrounds. Traditions and expectations dictate the connection. The break up of the Hollywood system fractured the sound processes and sound libraries to some extent. Sound assets (at least those on older recording formats) were sold and/or donated. Others were packaged and sold as consumer or professional recordings for use in radio, television and film formats. The sound library for Columbia Studios among others was donated to the University of Southern California, where it was catalogued by then graduate student Ben Burtt. This process directly contributed to his acute awareness of sound history and pedagogy. He remains one of the most articulate and knowledgeable historians on film sound today. He states: "I became very interested in sound used in old films and the aesthetics of how sound had been used to augment the visual dramas.. .Just by watching a show and listening for a few moments, I can tell you whether it was Fox or Paramount or Warner Bros. "26 Burtt would use this knowledge in the organization and creation of the sound effects library for Star Wars, offering updated equivalents to sword play and gun battles which translated into light saber duels and laser blasts. More importantly, he understood the expected sound codes of image-sound relations, not just for films of the fantastic Reproduced with permission of the copyright owner. Further reproduction prohibited without permission. 142 but typical Hollywood films, which had so influenced audience understandings and expectations regarding sound in Hollywood cinema. In the course of creating the sound designs for Star Wars, Burtt would extend and incorporate Hollywood's past output, thus re-enforcing the trend in "New Hollywood" narratives to do the same. Conclusions Indisputably, with its release in 1977, Star Wars solidified the model of sound designing (which conflated recording, editing and re-recording) and demonstrated sound design’s symbiotic relationship to the genre of science fiction. The initial film and its subsequent sequels, The Empire Strikes Back (1980) and Return of the Jedi (1983), re-calibrated the standards for film sound both aesthetically and technically. The highly successful series ushered in not only the era of sound design but the era of widespread utilization of multichannel sound, in particular Dolby Stereo, which is the focus of the case study in next chapter. With this technology, the definition of sound design expands even further to encompass Walter Murch's notion of "hanging" sound in the exhibition space, which ultimately alters notions of cinematic spectacle and generic expectations. The contribution of these changes helped to transform the old Hollywood into the New Reproduced with permission of the copyright owner. Further reproduction prohibited without permission. 143 Hollywood and as many have noted, signified a cinematic revolution. Christian Metz aptly concludes: It would be a mistake to scorn.. .the Star Wars series and many others of the same genre....[T]hese films testify to an astonishing vitality of visual invention and technological ingenuity, and to a vivacity of spirit in concrete things which is, as many continental people like to forget, a real form of intelligence. .. .Furthermore, those films employ the absolute and permanent exhibition of the signifier: we must therefore believe that they are revolutionary.27 Reproduced with permission of the copyright owner. Further reproduction prohibited without permission. 144 III chapter 6 Surround Sound and Science Fiction Over the past 30 years, sound technology like special effects technology has been hard wired to the science fiction genre. In part, it is a conceit of the genre not only to be about technology but to be its embodiment. However, unlike special visual effects which usually find themselves outdated after several on-screen appearances (e.g., morphing and bladder makeup effects), the introduction of sound technology often recalibrates audience expectations so that the newest advances— whether they be in the area of noise reduction or digital presentation— immediately become the standard. Sequels and subsequent studio releases rapidly assimilate the new technology, while applying it creatively, conceptually or simply consistently within the medium. In part, the assimilation is influenced by economic factors as new technology supplants the old, but it is also bound to the science fiction genre itself, a genre which demands a forward reach (both narratively and technically), a transgression of existing norms and an attentiveness to its own manufacture. More than any other genre, science fiction as a category in cinema permeates its celluloid borders into the process of production and technology to pose new Reproduced with permission of the copyright owner. Further reproduction prohibited without permission. 145 questions concerning the relations between image and sound for the filmgoer. This case study explores the reach of recent science fiction into the realm of multichannel sound technology, specifically surround sound and the often elusive and neglected soundtrack material found there. What is revealed is not simply a technology forced to interface with a set of generic conventions, but a symbiosis of the two, each dependent on the other to survive in the cinematic medium and within a larger cultural context. Primarily, economics shaped the relationship between the technology and the genre as the "New Hollywood" science fiction films were produced and marketed specifically with multichannel sound advances as a point of attraction and spectacle. The tag line "Presented in Dolby Stereo" can be found in any number of film ads and posters from the mid-1970s on. Historically, the development and acceptance of multichannel technology coincided with the resurgence of science fiction narratives beginning with 2001: A Space Odyssey (1968), proceeding through the Star Wars-Empire- Jedi series and now into digital era with new formats such as Dolby Digital, SDDS and DTS which was introduced with Jurassic Park (1993). Science fiction as a genre pulses in the net of electronic crossovers and matrixes. Additionally, the interface between the technology and the genre shares ideological connections establishing new forms Reproduced with permission of the copyright owner. Further reproduction prohibited without permission. 146 of thematic emphasis and metaphoric constructions within cinema. In short, a spatial component to sound offered a new privilege of sound over the image. Finally, the connection between the multichannel technology and science fiction has cultural implications. The symbiosis reconfigured the cinematic experience through aggressively creative and conceptual aesthetic application. The compact layers of the soundtrack were no longer confined to mono presentation, but rather they are deployed as sound fields within the theater environment— left, center, right and surrounds. The combination of technology and genre reformulated the film experience into spectacle by offering sonic movement, localization, separation, and new relations between filmgoers and the film's diegesis. While a multiplicity of formats offer surround sound material, the four channel Dolby matrix format, which gained widespread use in genre films of the mid-1970s, is perhaps the most familiar and serves as the focus of this chapter. Many home audio receivers offer the equivalent of the technology called Dolby Surround utilizing Pro-Logic1 1 1 circuitry, and most video tapes are Dolby Surround encoded as well. Examples of soundtrack effects within the surround channels include the opening sequence of Star Wars (1977) in which a huge space ship swoops in, rumbling and firing lasers, along the z axis into the depths of space. Also, the credit sequence of Superman (1978) features flybys or Reproduced with permission of the copyright owner. Further reproduction prohibited without permission. 147 "whooshes" as the various credit lines move outward from the screen, then dramatically, the sound and credit lines shift direction inward as the Superman logo appears. (In the 70 mm format, the film offered split stereo surrounds.) Currently, the introduction of newer formats (Dolby Digital and DTS) for home use seek to displace Dolby Surround as the standard by offering discrete stereo surround channels as well as a discrete subwoofer channel, thus bringing a 70 mm magnetic sound equivalent to the home market. The theaterical market, however, offered its own challenges in terms of film sound. On May 17, 1965, in London, England, Ray Dolby founded Dolby Laboratories with the intent of addressing issues of noise and hiss on recorded audio tapes. The company eventually grew into "an international manufacturing and licensing business with offices in England, the United States as well as Japan" with its annual revenue according to 1995 statistics exceeding $40 million dollars.1 The primary developments by the company include a family of noise reduction processes for consumer electronics and professional mixing and recording technology. More importantly to cinema, however, was the development of Dolby Stereo/Surround Sound, which was introduced in November of 1974.2 in Dolby Labs own cyber-words, the technology can be defined as a highly practical 35 mm stereo optical release print format originally identified as Dolby Stereo. In the Reproduced with permission of the copyright owner. Further reproduction prohibited without permission. 148 space allotted to the conventional mono optical soundtrack are two soundtracks that carry not only left and right information as in home stereo sound, but also information for a third center-screen channel and most notably a fourth surround channel for ambient sound and special effects . 3 The format also offered better fidelity than the other optical systems of that period, as well as an improvement of the signal-to-noise ratio. The producers of Star Wars are often credited with ushering Dolby Stereo into widespread use in the domestic theater circuit by requiring that prints of the film be Dolby Stereo encoded. Subsequently, theater owners who wished to book and present the film were required to equip theaters with decoding technology. The box office success of the film, as well as other films such Close Encounters of the Third Kind (1977) and Superman, in turn altered audience expectations as well as sound aesthetics within the "New Hollywood" which was energized by these blockbuster successes. Dolby Stereo became a requirement for various types of genre films, primarily because of sound quality and the multichannel spectacle that it provided. In short, the technology functioned to commodify science fiction films as well as provide content. Ray Dolby offers his sound bite: "Even with Star Wars, the theater owners did not want to spend the money.. .but very slowly they came around. "4 in tandem with the release of successful genre films, Dolby Labs Reproduced with permission of the copyright owner. Further reproduction prohibited without permission. 149 aggressively marketed their product based on issues of economy, sound quality and "realism." Additionally, adjustments were made in the technology so that Dolby 35 mm Stereo prints were reasonably compatible with mono projection systems so that separate prints did not need to be struck by distributors for different presentation environments. One of the paramount reasons for Dolby Stereo's success appears to be the technology's ability to integrate into the existing mode of film sound production and reproduction, avoiding some of the problems that magnetic technology faced, which John Belton chronicles in his article, "1950's Magnetic Sound: The Frozen Revolution."5 As previously noted, the advertising for Dolby Stereo often emphasized the "realism" of the sound, presumably because it eradicated the difference between sound recording and the actual sound, and also delivered sound material around the listener (offering the equivalent of sound patterning in daily life). In "The Voice in the Cinema: The Articulation of Body and Space," Mary Anne Doane argues that the eradication of the "distance perceived between the (sound) object and its representation" is a central project of sound technology, specifically Dolby Noise Reduction.6 Sound technology needs to hide its production or risk destablizing the "ideology of organic unity" within a film.7 But can technology ever Reproduced with permission of the copyright owner. Further reproduction prohibited without permission. 150 hide itself and its work entirely? Despite Dolby Noise Reductions best attempts to eradicate its work and hiss for that matter, the production of that work is evident in mode of production and film style.8 For example, mixing practices mediate soundtrack material through volume changes to avoid overextending the optical medium. Ear training and systematic analysis of soundtracks expose this sound work. If the argument regarding effacement is extended to include stereo, multichannel presentation subverts the project even further. While stereo does present sound around the listener (as in real life), it is far from realistic. Sounds within the surrounds are formal constructions and highly encoded with recording and presentation methods formulated over time and across media (too extensive to explore here). However, Science fiction often subverts these codes to expose their constructed nature. Recently, the film 12 Monkeys (1995) presented a scene in which the main character, Cole, found himself trapped in a detention cell and a disembodied voice swirled around him in the surround channels, questioning his sanity. Panning the dialogue of the disembodied voice through the surround channels transgressed a fundamental code of multichannel presentation, which is to place all dialogue in the center speakers. The transgression challenged the code so the audience would engage the Reproduced with permission of the copyright owner. Further reproduction prohibited without permission. 151 spectacle of movement and question the sanity of the character as well as the nature of film sound. On further analysis, Dolby Stereo/Surround Sound is perhaps not meant to heighten realism at all, but just the opposite. Belton notes, Stereo film ranged across a variety of genres, from musical (OklahomaI, Carousel, South Pacific, West Side Story) to historical spectacles (Around the World in 80 Days, Spartacus, The Alamo, Mutiny on the Bounty, Lawrence of Arabia, Cleopatra) and biblical epics (Ben Hur, The Big Fisherman). Through its usage as an element of spectacle and through its identification with the genres of spectacle, stereo sound became associated for audiences not so much with greater realism as with greater artifice.3 Stereo formats then have a tradition of accentuating artifice, not realism, and this notion integrates well with the science fiction genre. From a cultural perspective, the science fiction contract between spectator and film text accepts and encourages the blur of realism and artifice as convention. This blur in identification then allows speculation regarding the future with anchors in the present. For example, Arthur C. Clarke notes that "[t]wo-thirds of 2001 is realistic— hardware and technology" and this provides balance and context for the "metaphysical, philosophical, and religious" issues presented within the narrative.10 When we see a Pan Am logo on the side of a space craft or a Reproduced with permission of the copyright owner. Further reproduction prohibited without permission. 152 Hilton sign within a set, we are anchored in the present and thrust into the future simultaneously. In terms of sound, narrative and technical methods formulate their own logic and structures to create their own conceptions of the real and the believable in relation to the future. For example, the images of a model of a spacecraft shot with motion control apparatus are fused with the multichannel sounds of low rumbles, which are actually air conditioner noises (manipulated in terms of speed and "sweetened" with overdubbing). This juxtaposition is accepted within the narrative context of Star Wars, offering us a future that is constructed out of familiar though highly manipulated sound materials. If, however, the juxtaposition is presented inconsistently or without attention to detail, it represents a breach of understanding, and the work is subject to rejection. Ironically, it is often on the grounds of being "unrealistic." Re-recording artist and mixer Walter Murch notes that when creating a work of cinematic science fiction, it must be evocative and full of "suggestive fragments" as discussed in the chapters on THX 1138. The science fiction genre then acknowledges artifice as a construction to create speculation, hesitation and doubt which is the nature of the fantastic according to Tzvetan T o d o r o v . ^ - 2 Science fiction ideology thrives on this artifice and a self-reflexive awareness of Reproduced with permission of the copyright owner. Further reproduction prohibited without permission. 153 it by filmgoers, and multichannel sound technology has contributed significantly to this project in cinema, offering us sonic spectacle that fuses wonder, speculation and belief. The resurgence of the spectacle filmmaking intersects with science fiction at about the time Ray Dolby began his experiments with multichannel sound and noise reduction. As detailed in the opening chapters of this study, 2001: A Space Odyssey redefined the cinematic spectacle and posited it within the science fiction genre. Mixing motion control cinematography, metaphysics and classical music, the film was received as both art and "event" cinema, conflating the notions of narrative and spectacle for the filmgoer. Director Stanley Kubrick notes: "I intended the film to be an intensely subjective experience that reaches the viewer at an inner level of consciousness, just as music does; to ' explain' a Beethoven symphony would be to emasculate it by erecting an artificial barrier between conception and appreciation. You're free to speculate as you wish about the philosophical and allegorical meaning of the film." 13 2001: A Space Odyssey typified spectacle for the "space race" generation, posing questions about humanity's place in the universe through the cinematic medium. The conceit and impact of the film deeply affected the sensibilities of the "New Hollywood" filmmakers, and by the mid-1970s, science fiction emerged as a blockbuster, a franchise and Reproduced with permission of the copyright owner. Further reproduction prohibited without permission. 154 an "A" genre, inheriting fully the status of spectacle in part due to advances in visual effects and equally important advances in stereo, which the new generation of filmmakers demanded. The introduction of Dolby Stereo and the surround channels offered three specific components to the new science fiction spectacles: the localization of effects, elimination or avoidance of masking, and sonic enhancement through spatial placement. Localization allows sounds to move across the screen. In Star Wars, Luke Skywalker's land speeder moves from left to right, panned with a rise and fall simulating depth and movement. The dynamic nature of the sound's movements accentuates the visceral experience of the event. It is a spectacle of movement and represents a shift in the genre to engage the audiences in new ways. In her book Screening Spaces, Vivian Sobchack notes that "both playfulness and pleasure axe cinematic qualities new to science fiction in the late 1970's and the 80's, replacing the cool, detached, and scientific vision authenticating the fictions of its generic predecessors." The ultimate example of this playfulness is represented in the final sequence of Close Encounters of the Third Kind, in which the surround channels carry the sounds of the alien crafts jetting by, the reverberate radio chatter from the government controllers, and the mutual tones of communication and music. The scene places characters and Reproduced with permission of the copyright owner. Further reproduction prohibited without permission. 155 audiences alike into a visual and sonic playpen of the fantastic. Another aesthetic advantage is the reduction or elimination of masking. When collapsed to one speaker or headphones, one sound of greater amplitude can cover another sound, creating a condition known as masking. Dolby Stereo offers the option of setting sounds apart in time and space. The low rumbles from a command ship can be placed in the surrounds and not in the center speakers where they might cancel out or overwhelm the mid-range dialogue or other effects. Thus, variations of sound location, density and volume within the surround channels can punctuate events on screen without the loss of intelligibility that might occur if the entire soundtrack was limited to the center speakers. Finally, Dolby Stereo offers sonic enhancement through the added dimension of space. Surround sound envelopes create sound fields in the various quadrants of the theater environment. In the trash compactor scene in Star Wars, dialogue plays in the center channel, the beating of the compactor presses in the left and right channels, and the low rumbles of the ship and whines of the press play in the surrounds. Echoes and reverberations of dialogue and effects also play in the surrounds, offering spatial indicators as to the size of the compartment. Concentrating specifically on the surrounds, the formal elements of Reproduced with permission of the copyright owner. Further reproduction prohibited without permission. 156 ambiences are deployed in the theater space to fill in the spatial gaps caused by the limits of the screen. Thus, the reach of the film’s diegesis suddenly expands the length of the theater. The reach of the sound material positions the filmgoer within the film's diegesis. Space then is not only important on the screen but off the screen. The use of surround sound offers a total sonic environment, which masks the real environment of the theater space to create a sonic space with no entry and no exit. Sobchack notes that "postmodern space is ’hyper-real': a representation determined to totalize, stand for, and replace all other space. As Jean Baudrillard identifies it, this absolute space' is also the space of ' simulation. '" 15 sound within these new science fiction spectacles supported this project as a genre convention, immersing filmgoers within new environments, new worlds . Ultimately, surround sound technology transforms the theater environment and demands participation, almost akin to an amusement park attraction. Audiences are encouraged to "get into it." Tom Gunning notes that "recent spectacle cinema has re-affirmed its roots in stimulus and carnival rides, in what might be called the Spielberg-Lucas-Coppola cinema of effects." Vivian Sobchack goes further and notes that these spectacles and special effects "rides" have altered the science fiction genre by shifting emphasis away from technological analysis to technical expressions Reproduced with permission of the copyright owner. Further reproduction prohibited without permission. 157 (which comes in the form of visual effects). She writes: "The genre has transformed its 'objective' representation of a 'high' technology into the 'subjective' symbolization of a technologized 'high.’"I7 This notion was launched by 2001 which dwells more on materiality and manufacture than on traditional linear narrative structures and has pervaded contemporary cinema. The science fiction genre does address this condition, however, through intertextual play. Traditionally, the science fiction genre encourages the analysis of films as open texts, in which the filmgoers can bring their own experience to the films and explore intertextual references between films, soundtracks, video games and multimedia forms of entertainment. Subsequently, through a certain amount of play, the narratives gain complexity of enunciation. It is around this intertextual play that fan members initiate much of their discourse. Sound effects, sound montages and sound placement often present references, parodies and homage to other science fiction works to create these levels of complexity. For example, a number of critics have noted that in the final scenes of Alien (1979), Lt. Ripley's frantic breathing, recorded in closer perspective within a helmet to accentuate the claustrophobic space can be associated with David Bowman's breathing in 2001: A Space Odyssey as he disconnects HAL. Bowman finds himself hypersensitive to Reproduced with permission of the copyright owner. Further reproduction prohibited without permission. 158 the claustrophobic nature of the helmet after his failure to retrieve his helmet earlier in the film. The effects of Alien echo 2001: A Space Odyssey intertextually. Additionally, they are both presented within the surround channels offering the filmgoer a sonic point of view, claustrophobic and visceral, which encourages a greater connection between filmgoer and the protagonists. On the level of the mode of production, sound designers contribute to this notion of interplay overtly by borrowing, trading or re-using sound effects. For example, some sounds from a film like THX 1138 (1971) then can be found in Star Wars, because the films share the same director and some of the same sound personnel. Similarly, the sound sets recorded for a film like RoboCop (1987) appear in a number of science fiction films, including the subsequent sequels. This is partly due to the particular sound production house where the soundtracks are designed and is a matter of house style and economic considerations. The interrelation of science fiction and surround sound deepens with an exploration of stereo conventions and the formal elements of the soundtrack, specifically ambiences or backgrounds. Historically, soundtracks within the Hollywood mode of production avoid idiosyncratic sound applications for fear of exposing the constructed nature of the narratives. For example, with regard to surround sound material, dialogue is rarely found in the surrounds for Reproduced with permission of the copyright owner. Further reproduction prohibited without permission. 159 fear of a localization effect, which might draw the spectator's eye off the screen and out of the narrative. Pans off the screen into the surrounds are generally executed quickly with immediate fall off, while a movement from the surrounds to the screen undoubtedly converges with sounds from the front speakers. Also, sounds in the surrounds are often mixed in the front speakers as a form of redundancy in case a theater is not equipped or has faulty surrounds.18 While science fiction films adhere to these codes for the most part, they also transgress these norms, seeking to expand their reach both technically and aesthetically. In 2001: A Space Odyssey, HAL's dialogue and voice spread across all sound channels, including the surrounds. The effect offers no location and every location at once, metaphorically revealing the idea of omnipresence. HAL is not only the voice of the ship, he is the ship, and the sound's placement in the theater punctuates the listener's presence within that space. In Star Wars, the disembodied voice of Obi-Wan Kenobi settles into the surrounds as well. The voice commands Luke to "Use the Force" during his bombing run on the Deathstar. The close perspective voice again offers a sonic point of view, placing the listener not only within the space craft, but in the position of the pilot. The dialogue and its placement in the surrounds thus play upon the spirituality of the narrative ("the Force"). Reproduced with permission of the copyright owner. Further reproduction prohibited without permission. 160 Suture then is not only in the image (shot/reverse shot); it can be found within dialogue and surround sound technology. Finally, some of the most prevalent sound effects that reside in the surrounds are atmospheric effects or backgrounds. The science fiction genre like the horror genre is highly dependent upon visual effects and sound effects to create mood and meaning. In Star Wars, Close Encounters of the Third Kind and 2001: A Space Odyssey, low rumbles of ships, engine noise and wind are sound icons, representing the movement forward into the future or the desolation of that future. Sobchack aptly notes, "Natural forces like wind and the sea made alien and threatening by the amplification and isolation of their sound on the track— crashing surf, screaming wind, both become aural icons, metaphors for extreme desolation."19 Placing these effects within the surrounds, further privileges these sounds and their impact. As a genre, science fiction has roots in "Utopian" fiction, which often displaced contemporaneous issues and characters into unfamiliar settings to allow analysis and scrutiny. Surround sound mimics this approach and places the filmgoer within a new sonic environment such as the trash compactor in Star Wars. When ambient sound effects are deployed, cognitive geography is offered through echoes, reflections and reverberations, which create Reproduced with permission of the copyright owner. Further reproduction prohibited without permission. 161 spatial anchors or cues. Spaces then can exist without image-based referents. No image is necessary. Ambient sounds like the low rumbles of the ship or the echo effects of voices or Foley fill in the gaps. The effect is a constant state of hesitation, a constant questioning of "Where am I?”, a question demanded by the science fiction genre on a metaphysical as well as a pragmatic level. Surround sound then offers a kind of sonic peripheral vision not provided by the screen directly ahead. The sounds and the narratives strive to establish the listener within the diegesis and sometimes within the minds of the characters in the diegesis, adjoining them with thoughts, speculations, and possibilities. In this respect, the traditional hierarchy of image over sound is shattered. Sound and sounds within the surrounds offer access into areas the image is not willing or is unable to go. In these instances, the sound design has not just achieved equality with the image, but has in fact surpassed it. Reproduced with permission of the copyright owner. Further reproduction prohibited without permission. chapter 7 162 SOUND EFFECTS Genre Splicing: Horror and Science Fiction In 1979, Ridley Scott’s Allen launched science fiction cinema into the darkest recesses of space with the warning: "In space, no one can hear you scream." The tag line from the now familiar green and black posters offered a clever fusion of science fiction conventions ("space") and horror effects ("scream"). This linguistic amalgam drew directly from the stylistic conceit of the film, which according to the filmmakers was formulated in reaction to George Lucas's earlier space fantasy.1 Rather than present a genre pastiche, as Star Wars (1977) had done, Allen offered a unique pattern of genre splicing to the blockbuster tradition, binding elements from two genres directly and overtly. Science fiction and horror collided on nearly every level of the production from the narrative which begins as a exploration mission to investigate an acoustical beacon but abruptly turns into a mission of simple survival to the production design which offers renderings of speculative technologies of the future set against primordial almost dreamlike organic masses. The splicing of these disparate elements revised genre codes, conventions and expectations, in particular charging the Reproduced with permission of the copyright owner. Further reproduction prohibited without permission. 163 science fiction genre with a sense of dread and anxiety about the future. In terms of sound, the generic exchange transformed the sound track of the film into an almost sonic organism, which deeply connected with filmgoers consciously and subconsciously. Science fiction sound effects (engines, computers, and androids) became infused with horrific emotions (dis-ease, shock, and terror). Even the most mundane of sound elements— ambiences, Foley and general sound effects— became charged with new meaning, privilege and status. Ultimately, the film's unprecedented sonic constructions offered new image-sound relations as a means of rethinking sound suture and spectacle, which extended the parameters and possibilities of the sound design model. It is the intent of this chapter and compendium case study of Alien to analyze how horror codes and conventions have transformed science fiction cinema and expanded the pallet of sound design in contemporary Hollywood cinema. Chapter 7 explores how the dark lyricism of horror has settled into the most unsuspecting places of the film sound track, specifically into the elements of ambiences, Foley, and general sound effects. Within the category of ambiences, I will examine how music strategies, editing patterns and geographic cues converge to unify narrative elements and establish landscapes of the fantastic, which are both external and internal— like a form of sonic Reproduced with permission of the copyright owner. Further reproduction prohibited without permission. 164 expressionism. The elements of Foley are deconstructed in terms of their relationship to identity, "excess," and the body (a critical point of convergence and anxiety within the horror genre), while overall sound effects are connected to an examination of anthropomorphism, invisibility and subjectivity.2 within the generic exchanges between horror and science fiction, I argue that reading codes and expectations are revised to expand the reach of contemporary sound design. This project of analysis is carried out in greater detail in the case study of Alien, which follows. The specific analysis also concentrates more fully on the theoretical implications of the functions and status of the formal elements of ambiences, Foley and effects and how they transform from "realism" to representations of the fantastic as they adhere to the horror-science fiction conceit of audio biomechanics, inspired by the designs of artist H.R. Giger. The Dark Lyricism of Horror and Narrative Disjunction Since the release of early sound films such as Alfred Hitchcock's Blackmail (1929) and Fritz Lang’s AT (1930), which utilizes Grieg's Peer Gynt suite whistled off-screen by a child murder (played by Peter Lorre) to foreshadow his crimes, music (both score and source) has set the stage for cinema's dark excursions into the human psyche and the realm of the fantastic. In general, horror films utilize Reproduced with permission of the copyright owner. Further reproduction prohibited without permission. 165 music and sound effects to establish emotive intensity and impact far more aggressively and conceptually than any other genre, aside from the musical. Film composer Hans Salter, who was responsible for many of Universal's classic horror scores such as The Wolfman (1941) and The Ghost of Frankenstein (1942), notes: In scoring horror pictures, the main element is that of creating atmosphere— the apprehensive mood, which keeps the viewer on the edge of his seat.^ Music and sound effects (particularly ambient effects) in horror films present a dark lyricism shaped by the need for a spectacle of intensity or excess, dark emotions and atmosphere. Orchestrations in minor keys, thunder rumbles and guttural growls can foreshadow a descent into unfamiliar territory or accentuate psychological fracture or weakness within characters. The expressionist results are chilling to filmgoers as the music and sounds of the night rakes up and down their spines. The genre contract regarding horror films often stresses visceral impact over narrative nuance and complexity in general. Therefore, films are often held together and judged by their ability to sustain tension or provide shock to the filmgoers, which often supersedes the need for narrative causality as the dominant framework for understanding and fulfillment. In short, the horror film is more often meant to frighten Reproduced with permission of the copyright owner. Further reproduction prohibited without permission. 166 rather than enlighten, though some of them have achieved both. Historically, this pattern of dark lyricism, however, may not have been entirely formulated by purposeful design. As is the case with most classical Hollywood cinema, the content of these films was massively over-determined by a variety of influences from economics to genre status within exhibition venues. During this period, horror films were generally considered "B" films in terms of their status within the mode of production and distribution. The economic pressures were to create the films cheaply, quickly and in volume. Their narrative and aesthetic style was deeply influenced by these factors. Composer Salter notes: The Universal horror pictures were a great challenge to me...To be candid about it, a lot of these films were really not that good— the scenes were disjointed, there was little cohesion, and they were not even scary. You had to create the horror with the music, to create the tension that was otherwise not there on the screen.4 In contrast to classical Hollywood narrative, horror films can not be characterized entirely by cause and effect chains as the David Bordwell, Janet Staiger, and Kristin Thompson model suggests in The Classical Hollywood Cinema: Film Style and Mode of Production to 1960. Rather horror films are often filled (sometimes intentionally and other Reproduced with permission of the copyright owner. Further reproduction prohibited without permission. 167 times not) with narrative disjunction, character fracture, non sequiturs and spectacles of excess. These elements according to Rick Altman indicate: "the existence of a competing logic, a second voice [in the classical narrative system]."5 As a result, music became crucial in establishing narrative intent, drive and unity. With this elevated status within the genre, a pattern of musical strategies and conventions was firmly established. For example, low tones for tensions, musical stings to create shock, and anthropomorphic orchestrations to take the place of screams or "realistic" effects among others. These elements established the overall mood of a film, which many filmgoers consider one of the unique pleasures of these genre offerings. From film to film, a transference of musical methods and conventions occurred within particular studios and between genres. Hans Salter notes: A great deal of music was used and reused at Universal in those years. I would use bits and pieces of scores from the library, including my own, and Charlie Previn used to call this process 'Salterizing.'5 Like coding from a genetic sequence, the traits of horror music were passed along, slipping easily between the genres of the fantastic. The science fiction films of the 1950s, in particular Howard Hawks' The Thing (1951), Them! (1954) Invasion of the Body Snatchers (1956) carry the signatures Reproduced with permission of the copyright owner. Further reproduction prohibited without permission. 168 of horror's influence, not just on the level of the sound track but in terms of narrative themes, iconography and characterizations. Issues of psychological fracture and paranoia, atomic experimentation, fear of the unknown are shared between the genres. The generic exchange expanded the reach of both genres in terms of their emotional impact and altered expectations. Ultimately, the dark lyricism of horror brought together not just the disjunctive narratives of terror, but the genres of the fantastic through formal play. As Todorov aptly notes: "As a rule...a genre is always defined in relation to the genres adjacent to it."7 Horror and science fiction share a wicked and often mischievous connection. The Sounds of Horror in the Era of Sound Design Within the era of sound design, the dark lyricism of horror quickly pervaded the design and construction of the entire sound track and its elements, setting the mood for new kinds of fears. Triggering the exchange in the early 1960s, Alfred Hitchcock's Psycho (1960) utilized screeching violins within the infamous shower sequence to mask and mimic the screams of Marion Crane as she was stabbed. Music superseded the place and status of the voice in this instance, speaking to the filmgoer in a visceral and primal way. Subsequently, Hitchcock's The Birds (1963) intermingled similar musical screeches with bird screams Reproduced with permission of the copyright owner. Further reproduction prohibited without permission. 169 (created with emerging computer technology), while The Haunting (1963) based its narrative tension entirely on musical cues and sound effects to express psychological fracture of the main protagonist, rather than utilizing ubiquitous flashbacks, clouded lenses or other special visual effects. Just as the musical patterns and meanings of the classical music in 2001:A Space Odyssey sparked a transference to the music concrete in THX 1138, a similar exchange was occurring within contemporary horror cinema between the music and sound effects tracks. A new era in horror and sound was about to be unleashed. Concurrent with the rise in popularity of science fiction films during this period, the era of sound design saw the increase in the production of horror films, another highly stylized and technically dependent genre. The late 1960s saw the release of Rosemary's Baby (1968) and Night of the Living Dead (1968), both of which used off-screen sounds from chanting to groans effectively. The 1970s brought the release of such films as The Exorcist (1973), Jaws (1975), Carrie (1976) and Halloween (1978). Once again, the film school generation made its mark and entree into Hollywood through highly stylized and experimental genre offerings. These films contributed not only to the fiscal stability of Hollywood through unprecedented box office income, but they also heavily informed changes in film sound. In particular, William Friedkin's The Exorcist Reproduced with permission of the copyright owner. Further reproduction prohibited without permission. 170 featured complex sound montages and metaphors which often superseded the images in narrative importance; Steven Spielberg’s Jaws carefully interwove music with sound effects to create the ominous presence of a great white shark lurking just beneath the waves, filling in for the mechanical shark which refused to swim and chew on cue; and John Carpenter' s Halloween set a haunting and unforgettable musical tune to a small town crisis. Recalling Hans Salter's criticism of early Universal horror films, contemporary film critics argued that the films of this new period in Hollywood history become "incoherent" as a result of the shift away from traditional literary foundations and narrative causality.** However, as this study argues, these genre narratives underwent stylistic and narrative reconfigurations in terms of image and sound relations, which brought to the foreground spectacle and formal play and thus demanded new reading strategies rather than critical rejection. Within the genres of the fantastic, the production of narrative meaning was shifting from an emphasis dialogue to sound effects. The 1973 film The Exorcist directed by William Friedkin perhaps best exemplifies this shift as it utilizes sound design to create new layers of enunciation through sound metaphor, montage and motifs. In particular, the opening sequence of the film which is set in Northern Iraq utilizes sound motifs and metaphor Reproduced with permission of the copyright owner. Further reproduction prohibited without permission. 171 to establish the spiritual conflict within the film as well as to foreshadow its outcome. As the Exorcist Father Merrin (played by Max von Sydow) sits in a cafe amidst the bustling streets of the city, the ambient sounds from a foundry pound around him like an irregular heart beat. The motif and rhythm of heart sounds reveals Merrin' s human weakness. He has a heart condition, which is confirmed as we see him take nitroglycerin pills. The sequence begins with objective sound, but transforms into subjective sound. The chanting and music in the sequence offer a rhythmic variation on the heart metaphor and seem to close in on Merrin through a rise in volume levels, a heightening of intensity and shortening in duration of the sounds. The desert transforms into a claustrophobic space through manipulation of these ambient sounds and music, bearing out Merrin's physical frailty. The subjectivity shift moves the sound from within the diegetic framework into the realm of character psychology and metaphysics as it taps into the notion of the character's fate. It establishes a sense of dread and foreboding. The sound sequence builds to a eerie crescendo moments later inside the study of a fellow archeologist. As Merrin examines relics from the dig, a ticking clock in the room inexplicably stops. Silence. Genre and sound considerations converge as this single sound effect foreshadows Merrin's death from a heart attack at the end Reproduced with permission of the copyright owner. Further reproduction prohibited without permission. 172 of the film. Ironically, it is moment in which sound spectacle is achieved through silence.9 The Iraq sequence in the film ends by punctuating the specific metaphysical conflict between man and the devil. Again, the framework is established through sound and a shift in subjectivity. Merrin goes into the desert where he faces the statue of the laughing demon. The soundtrack suddenly fills with the growls and gnashing of two dogs locked in combat. This objective sound transforms suddenly into narrative commentary through re-recording manipulation. The sound is isolated, amplified and processed with reverberation, thus privileging its status, revealing metaphorically the endless battle between good and evil. This sonic construction echoes throughout the film as a butler fights with a dinner guest in the McNeil home, and more importantly, when Regan McNeil undergoes her possession and her voice transforms into a hybrid human- devil. In each case, growls punctuate the soundtrack, though none is processed in this same way. Taken together, these sounds serve to structure the narrative, accentuating the slippage between man and beast/devil, posing questions regarding what it means to be human. Each recurrence of this motif punctuates the conflict between the natural and the supernatural and offers the filmgoer entry into the mode of the fantastic. Reproduced with permission of the copyright owner. Further reproduction prohibited without permission. 173 On a visceral level, the mixing of these sequences explores sudden volume level changes, contrasting soft and loud sounds to shock and jar filmgoers. This strategy establishes a pattern of tension and release common to horror films. The "baiting" scene in Jaws in which Chief Brody is confronted by the shark for the first time is another contemporaneous example. After a loud hiss and expulsion of water from the shark, the Chief backs away from the stern of the boat and breaks the anxiety with the softly spoken line: "We're going to need a bigger boat." Additionally, the compilation of ambiences and sound effects utilized in The Exorcist sequence evokes a particular mood— a sense of the dread. Theorist Bhashkar Sarkar notes: "Sound conveys the inscrutability of the unfamiliar, particularly of places— jungles (crickets, animal howls), deserts (wind, rattlesnakes), old oriental cities (bazaars, middle eastern musicThese excursions into the unfamiliar function as tests to sanity (for characters and filmgoers alike). For the filmgoer, the experience of the unfamiliar becomes synonymous with its effect— the anxiety, tension, and dread. That is one of the pleasures and expectations of horror, which as critic James Twitchell aptly notes means "to bristle."H It is in these strategies and the resulting image- sound relations that the unity and coherence of the horror film can be found. As horror writer, H.P. Lovecraft notes: Reproduced with permission of the copyright owner. Further reproduction prohibited without permission. 174 The ultimate criterion of authenticity (of the fantastic) is not plot structure but the creation of a specific impression.. .Hence we must judge...not so much by the author's intentions, and the mechanisms of the plot, but by the emotional intensity it provokes... an emotion of profound fear and terror, the presence of unsuspected worlds and powers. 12 In cinematic terms, sound design in films like The Exorcist offered its own "impression" on the conscious and subconscious levels, expanding the pallet of emotional intensity through subtle spectacles of excess and the dark lyricism of horror. Dark Lyricism Seeps into the Ambiences of Science Fiction Within a sound track, ambiences generally formulate the background or environmental audio textures for a scene or sequence, playing closely to the images to establish atmosphere and temporal continuity. The Exorcist sequence exemplifies this deftly. As a matter of function, ambiences often run across picture cuts, providing unity to the disparate images much like musical scoring. In typical Hollywood films, ambiences provide the equivalent of a sonic long shot (wind through trees or waves crashing on a beach) then recede in relation to the dialogue, only to return in their original intensity when words are exhausted. In terms of genre considerations, horror films Reproduced with permission of the copyright owner. Further reproduction prohibited without permission. 175 derive layers of emotional intensity and meaning from even the most innocent background ambiences, transforming them into representations of outer and inner landscapes. As we have seen, the ambient sounds of a city (sounds of a foundry, villagers praying, and street vendors) in The Exorcist turn metaphoric and foreboding through repetition, volume changes and editing, establishing not only the atmosphere of the location but a structural and thematic conceit, which takes us into the character of Father Merrin. During this same period of filmmaking, the science fiction genre would assimilate these strategies and transform them in relation to the genre's concerns. In part, this was because many of these genre films exchanged not only codes of production, but shared post production houses and personnel. In science fiction-horror films, the sound of wind in particular takes on apocalyptic dimensions often associated with scientific breakthroughs or technology. The anxiety and dread comes when science and technology fail, and ultimately, these associations recalibrated expectations for the science fiction sound track. In the 1973 Michael Crichton film Westworld, the wind of the desert rises on the sound track when the theme park starts "Going wrong." As two technicians pick up a mechanical snake which has attacked a guest, the isolation of desert wind on the sound track signals a shift from programmed fun to unexpected Reproduced with permission of the copyright owner. Further reproduction prohibited without permission. 176 fear, chaos and death- The motif of wind recurs to chilling effect when the park's entire population of simulacra undergoes "central mechanism psychosis." In an attempt to shut down the park, the scientists inadvertently cut off their own air supply and suffocate in the control center below ground. It is an ironic twist on motif of atmospheric sound effects or in this case, the lack of them. Concurrently, in the Westworld section of the park, the Gunslinger (played by Yul Brynner) confronts Richard Benjamin and James Brolin. The ambient wind on the sound track unifies the scene as the men face off in the street, and the sound of birds sweetens the track. Unexpectedly, the Gunslinger (donning a cruel smile) kills James Brolin then ruthlessly pursues Benjamin. Like the force of the wind, the Gunslinger is unstoppable, becoming the embodiment of technology gone awry. He is a controlling force, armored and without conscience— thus he represents technology as a means of dehumanization, a primary fear in the modern world. Within this era of genre splicing, even the codes of the Western are transformed in this film. No longer does the wind represent the open frontier of the West, instead it transforms into an internal fear of the technological frontier. The original Terminator (1984) ends on a similar note as Sarah Conner, heading to South America, stops at a gas station where she is told, "There's a storm a coming." Reproduced with permission of the copyright owner. Further reproduction prohibited without permission. 177 Looking to dark, bellowing clouds, she alone knows it is the storm of a impending nuclear war. "I know," she says. These are not simply the sound cues of an impending storm, but the apocalyptic winds of Judgment Day. The ambient sounds of wind are also connected to the Alien or "Other," which is often coded as a threat to humanity. In John Carpenter's 1982 version of The Thing, the ambient wind first punctuates the isolated nature of the location, drawing a connection to the horror convention of the haunted house in the middle nowhere. It is in part this isolation that makes the men of the research camp distrustful, agitated and emotionally insular, and thus implicates them in their own destruction. The arrival of the Thing in the form of a sled dog brings with it both the forces of nature (an impending windstorm) and the forces of the supernatural (a being that can assimilate and destroy humanity). Once again, sonic expressionism establishes an external and internal landscape through privilege and repetition. In conjunction with the bleached out images of the snowy landscape, the ambient wind shifts the snow into infinitely mutable configurations and is equivocated with the Alien's ability to transform into anything it samples or "absorbs." The creature's true horror is unleashed only when the men try to contain it. As Clark places the infected dog in a holding pen, the volume of the wind rises noticeably and takes on anthropomorphic qualities, moaning Reproduced with permission of the copyright owner. Further reproduction prohibited without permission. 178 and screaming. The sound design builds to a cacophony (dog yelps, sounds of liquid oozing, bones crunching and wind pounding) until the Thing explodes into a mass of flesh tentacles. The ambient sounds punctuates the notion that this creature cannot be contained and subsequently, humanity is doomed. It is a horror of Armageddon. In her article "The Imagination of Disaster," Susan Sontag notes: "The accidental awakening of the super-destructive monster who has slept in the earth since prehistory is, often, an obvious metaphor for the Bomb."13 while she was specifically talking about the science fiction films of the 1950s, the meaning carries (partly because The Thing is a remake of a 1950s film) but it is also extended to include other devastating forces in contemporary history like AIDs and famine. Within contemporary science fiction-horror hybrids, the sounds of waves or water effects are also charged with foreboding and dread as they are isolated and privileged within the sound design. In the Ken Russell film Altered States (1980), Dr. Eddie Jessip (played by William Hurt) utilizes a water-filled deprivation tank (and powerful hallucinogenic drugs) to genetically regress. His altered states of consciousness or "mind trips" are rife with disjointed religious, sexual and abstract imagery, partly in homage to 2001's slit screen sequences and overall narrative concerns. Jessip's breakthrough, however, goes Reproduced with permission of the copyright owner. Further reproduction prohibited without permission. 179 awry as well, and in a swirl of electrically charged water, he nearly converts into primordial ooze. The sound effects and ambiences of his blowout center around water— crashing waves, bursts of steam, splashing liquid, and the rumble of swirling water. The ambiences (which blur with sound effects) link to the processes of human evolution (fish to mammal), leading Jessip to the cynical realization that the great truth of life is "nothing." This realization is perhaps the ultimate statement of desolation. Rather than find comfort in the pools of knowledge from the past, there is only metaphysical longing and loss. Throughout all of these examples, the sounds of ambiences map not just the diegetic spaces and locations of these science fiction-horror narratives, but traverse the psychological and intellectual terrain of the film's characters and cast doubt on the impending future. The sound designs become charged with new layers of meanings as a result and these constructions must be unpacked in relation to narrative themes and visceral intents. For filmgoers, these densely layered sound constructions quickly became genre expectations in this era of sound design and blockbuster cinema, and science fiction landscapes as a result become less speculative and more uneasy in their concerns about technology, scientific breakthroughs and the future. Reproduced with permission of the copyright owner. Further reproduction prohibited without permission. 180 Foley: Body Horrors and Excess While ambiences explore the terrain of the external and sometimes psychological world of the fantastic, Foley effects move closer to the body in their convergence with horror conventions and codes. Horror films in general are considered one of the key body genres in cinema, both for their representations of the body (often in decay) and for their stimulation and manipulation of the filmgoer's body. Linda Williams notes that within body genres like pornography, melodrama, horror and now science fiction, "the body of the spectator is caught up in an almost involuntary mimicry of the emotion or sensation of the body on the screen.This perceptual matching is a crucial factor in the planning, patterns, and impact of Foley sound effects in the era of sound design. Additionally, within body genres, issues of identification and transgression emerge in the pursuit of the spectacle of excess as horror creeps into every clothes rustle, recorded gesture, and footstep. But what exactly is Foley? The term Foley is given to those sound effects that are created in synchronization with the projected image during sound post production. Footsteps are the most traditional example of Foley effects, yet in this era of aggressive foreign distribution, Foley work covers almost all aspects of on-screen action from character movements to armaments. The term Foley attached itself to this process Reproduced with permission of the copyright owner. Further reproduction prohibited without permission. 181 in the 1950s when sound editor Jack Foley was working on the film Smuggler's Island at Universal. Several sequences in the film demanded the sounds of a canoe paddle cutting through a lake, which Jack Foley performed and recorded in synchronization with the projected image to save time in sound effects editing.15 The results were so effective that the technique quickly became associated with his name. Sound editor Robert Mott explains: Jack Foley did not invent this technique. His name simply became identified with it. Prior to this, sounds that needed to be laid down on film were referred to as synchronized effects. At Paramount Pictures, for instance, the term was make and sync In general, Foley functions to create synchronized effects for narrative actions within the story world, establishing geographical and temporal cues to give the two dimensional image greater depth and credibility. Genre films often take a more transgressive approach to the function and utilization of Foley sound effects. For example, Foley effects have been utilized to establish tension, anticipation or fear of the unknown within the mystery genre, a carry over from radio serials. John Belton notes in regards to Foley effects that "their separation from their source can produce suspense" as in the case of the "familiar off-screen footsteps that stalk central characters, such as the helpless L.B. Jeffries trapped in Reproduced with permission of the copyright owner. Further reproduction prohibited without permission. 182 his darkened apartment at the end of Hitchcock' s Rear Window (1954)-"17 jn this instance, the sound of dislocated footsteps has become a sonic icon within the suspense genre. In horror cinema specifically, Foley effects tend to punctuate our fears of ourselves, specifically our own bodies. Just as there is an identification between the physical presence of an actor and his or her voice through the sound track, there is an identification of particular body sounds with a specific individual, generally correlated by spatial cues, actions and synchronization. Within horror, the identification often fractures or explodes in excess as the body inevitably begins to disintegrate or is disrupted by external forces, either natural or supernatural. The filmgoer is often caught in the middle ground between sympathy and revulsion. Creature films exemplify this reach of Foley sound effects into these body fears. For example, in American Werewolf in London (1981), the protagonist David Kesler (played by David Naughton) transforms into a werewolf in a small London flat, rented by a nurse who has taken him in. While we see the award winning makeup and bladder effects by artist Rick Baker, the sound track is filled with Foley effects of bones crunching, hair growing, limbs flapping and joints snapping. The Foley sounds punctuate the alienation of the character from his own body. He tears off Reproduced with permission of the copyright owner. Further reproduction prohibited without permission. 183 his clothes and screams in pain as he undergoes this metamorphosis. In this spectacle of visual and sonic excess, there is also a visceral connection between filmgoers and the character. The image-sound relations get beneath our skin. When I saw the film on its the initial release, the audience literally howled in pain, awe and ecstasy. As science fiction and horror undergo generic exchanges during this period in Hollywood cinema, this fixation with the body and body sounds merges with issues of technology and the future. Science fiction centers on issues of identification and transformation within a futuristic context, where bodies are technically enhanced, synthesized and mechanized. Subsequently, the dark lyricism of horror merges with science fiction concerns to offer a constant questioning of who is human and who is not, and these hybrids encourage filmgoers to explore the implications of this division. Ultimately, these questions lead to anxieties about authenticity and control, which are played out narratively as well as on the sound track. In Westworld, the Gunslinger embodies and projects these anxieties. In the extended pursuit sequence with Walter Benjamin, the sound track offers the constant, rhythmic click of the Gunslinger's spurs. The sound effect is uniquely layered in it meanings in relation to the various genres at work in the film. It is first an icon of Reproduced with permission of the copyright owner. Further reproduction prohibited without permission. 184 the Western, connected to horsemanship and the taming of the American frontier. Part of the pursuit in Westworld involves a horse chase. The footfalls also generate suspense (a horror staple) as the clicks are displaced from the image of the Gunslinger in the passageways of the underground control center. Through changing levels and shifting sound perspective, these Foley effect energize feelings of fear in the character and filmgoers. Terror is generated from relative proximity to the threat. Finally, within the over-arching science fiction context, these references are transgressed— the sound effect becomes charged with a sense of dread about the future, particularly related to robotics technology. Early on the Gunslinger is revealed to be simulacrum. His face plate is removed and his inner mechanisms are repaired and upgraded. As a result, he unexpectedly becomes a more efficient killer, a threat to guests and controllers alike. The Gunslinger's footfalls in their unbroken repetition take on metaphoric significance during the pursuit of Benjamin, coming to represent the consequences of unchecked technological growth for corporate gain and/or human pleasure. Westworld after all is an amusement park for the rich, where identity shifts for humans and the machines are encouraged. In the end, the Walter Benjamin character is forced to unmask the simulacrum with acid and finally fire, destroying the body in a spectacle of excess, Reproduced with permission of the copyright owner. Further reproduction prohibited without permission. 185 specifically burned circuits and sparks. The sound track explodes with Foley and related sound effects as this threat to human authenticity and control is contained. Similarly, the James Cameron film The Terminator (1984) echoes this attentiveness to body sounds as related to authenticity (identity) and control. In this case, the Foley sounds link the Terminator technology to issues of unchecked militarism. The Terminator is a product of Skynet, a military computer which gained sentience and instigated a worldwide nuclear holocaust to gain control over the planet. In her article "Cyborg Manifesto," Donna Haraway notes: "The main trouble with cyborgs, of course, is that they are the illegitimate offspring of militarism and patriarchal capitalism."1® But more importantly, as "illegitimate offspring," they are "exceedingly unfaithful to their origins [fathers]" and quickly turn, bringing destruction and horror.1^ Like the Gunslinger, the Terminator embodies this horror of Armageddon. It has been sent through time to kill Sarah Conner, the mother of the future leader of the Human Resistance. The Foley effects linked with the Terminator are coded with associations to metal and the mechanistic (the click of boots, processes of self repair, and close perspective sounds of armaments). These sounds hint at the hidden identity of the Terminator beneath the human flesh. In the pealing away of the flesh (the extraction of an eye, Reproduced with permission of the copyright owner. Further reproduction prohibited without permission. 186 in particular), the military endoskeleton of the Terminator is revealed. The Foley sounds detail the precision of the self surgery by the Terminator— the click of instruments, the drops of blood, and the removal of flesh. It is a true spectacle of excess (and the body), which offers revulsion and revelation thus fulfilling both horror and science fiction expectations. Sound Effects: Anthropomorphism, Invisibility, Subjectivity Within the genres of horror and science fiction, there is slippage between the elements of ambience, Foley and sound effects. This interpenetration is part of the design process, promoting unity and interconnection between layers. A sound effect can, however, be defined in general as a discrete recording of a particular sound event or a constructed event, produced from any number of various composite sounds or simply captured through innovative recording techniques. For example, a discrete sound effect might be a computer booting up or a set of lights flickering on. But within a genre context, even these simple effects do not fall into the realm of "realism." In Alien, a simple lighting effect may include at minimum three layers of sound— a florescent filament clicking, a flurry of musical tones and an ambient hum. Beyond the mechanics of the creation of such an effect, a currency of meaning emerges when placed within the science fiction Reproduced with permission of the copyright owner. Further reproduction prohibited without permission. 187 -horror context. In the opening sequence of the film, the composite sound effect of the ship's lighting creates the idea of the body of the ship awakening. This intent is supported by the gradual waking of the life support systems (air, heat, and communications) and finally the ship's crew. Throughout the film, sound effects take on elevated status and privilege as the veins of horror and science fiction feed into them, transforming them into an organism of sound. This organism will be more fully examined in the next chapter. As previously explored, the horror genre aggressively utilizes various motifs and metaphors to structure narrative content, yet one strategy recurs repeatedly, specifically the notion of anthropomorphism of objects, processes or locations. In the genre context, fire screams, wind howls and haunted houses groan. In the process of generic exchange, science fiction profits and transforms the notion by once again connecting it to technology or the Alien. In Star Wars, we have already examined how Darth Vader’s ship, screams in pain as an extension of his technologically enhanced body. In the film The Thing (1982), anthropomorphism is connected to the flesh and the Alien more directly. In one scene the character of McReady (played by Kurt Russell) performs a heat test on a petrie dish of each "man's" blood. When he reaches the human-alien hybrid blood, it screams and leaps to floor when confronted Reproduced with permission of the copyright owner. Further reproduction prohibited without permission. 188 with the heated coil of wire. The moment is charged with dread, horror and shock, and the screams are echoed by the men who are tied to chairs with the unmasked Alien (and its teeth). If sound effects can create bodies, they can also be utilized to hide them as well. Within the horror context, sound effects have continually been utilized to hide visual referents as a means of creating suspense, anxiety and fear. Bashkar Sarkar notes: "The sheer invisibility of the (potentially) monstrous induces horror."20 The separation from the visual referent establishes a sound body of its own, autonomous of the image, challenging and destabilizing Western epistemology that "Seeing is believing." The invisibility of the referent is in part bound to production practices, as a means of saving money or hiding production problems. Jaws, in particular, faced unprecedented production delays and mechanical problems related to the mechanical shark— its eradication from the film while effective was not what the filmmakers had planned. Within science fiction-horror hybrids, issues of invisibility converge with technology, and a ghost in the machine emerges. In the 1987 John McTiernan film Predator, the audience never gets a complete gestalt of the creature until the end of the film. The filmmaker effectively hides its presence through utilizing sound effects and subject point of view shots, which present digitally enhanced Reproduced with permission of the copyright owner. Further reproduction prohibited without permission. 189 "scans" and multicolored heat signatures of the combat troops led by Arnold Schwarzenegger. When the Predator attacks, the sound track is filled with jungle noises (birds, movement of foliage, snapping of branches) as well as a strange, heavily processed clicking noise. The visual referent of the creature is hidden throughout. Narratively, the Predator utilizes a protective shield, hardwired into a suit, which camouflages its presence like a chameleon. On the sound track, the clicking noise signals the creatures presence and becomes its signature motif. At the end of the film, the sound is revealed to be the creature' s chattering teeth, altered as it passes through a breathing processor beneath its protective mask. Critical to maintaining horror and invisibility is controlling subjectivity. In Jawsr the shark is hidden in the point of view of view shots, which observe, stalk and attack its victims. The horror genre is obsessed with limiting subjectivity as a form of claustrophobia of knowledge and understanding. The technique provides the ultimate form of suture in terms of the filmgoer, offering a restricted and narrowed focus. It is a forced glance, binding identification with the menace and instigator of dread. The opening of Halloween presents one of the premier examples of this positioning as the young Michael Myers puts on a Halloween mask, ascends the stairs of his home, and kills his sister with a kitchen knife. Reproduced with permission of the copyright owner. Further reproduction prohibited without permission. 190 Within the science fiction genre, the shifting of subjectivity is central to establishing tension as well, carrying the idea to the soundtrack level. Bashkar Sarkar notes: "Film genres that revolve around relatively unconventional subjectivities are marked by a manifest dependence on their soundtracks21 in Predator, the image track emphasizes point of view shots of the men it is stalking. The Foley effects of the men's footfalls are amplified and their voices recorded and mimicked, heard through the ears of the creature. In this way, the filmgoer is sutured into the listening position of the Predator. Importantly, the sound of a heartbeat precedes each attack on the ground troops. The placement and position of the sound within the mix suggests that the Predator is technologically in tune with the body rhythms of its prey (It is a concept borrowed from Alien). The sound effect presents a sonic point of view and a targeting system. Such use of body effects is supported by a perceptual matching within the filmgoer, creating a sense of dread. In such instances, physiology assists in establishing heightened anxiety, increased heart rate, and fear response as empathy goes out to the characters within the narrative. Filmgoers match the sounds like they would the rhythms of a drum beat. The anxiety is supported by a split identification as well, between victim and attacker. There is sympathy for the victim, and a sense of inevitability and dread charged Reproduced with permission of the copyright owner. Further reproduction prohibited without permission. 191 in the position of the attacker. The inevitability of death is what is most distressing in such instances. Conclusions In the generic exchange between horror and science fiction, even the most "natural" sound effects (ambiences, Foley, effects) can be pushed into the realm of the supernatural with only the slightest urgings. Terror is the scream that has no echo. It is the uncanny sensation of the familiar suddenly becoming unfamiliar. For the model of sound design, these excursions into the realm of the fantastic have been essential in expanding the pallet of film sound in terms of construction, deployment and reception. These genre experiments have allowed sound to move beyond the physical landscapes of the imagery presented on the screen into the psychological landscapes of the characters and subsequently filmgoers. The results brought a deeper sense of immersion to the cinematic spectacles of this period, and transformed audience expectations for science fiction and sound. Reproduced with permission of the copyright owner. Further reproduction prohibited without permission. chapter 8 192 ALI EN Audio-biomechanics Since its release in 1979 Alien has produced three sequels (Aliens, Alien-*r and Alien Resurrection) , a series of paperbacks, a variety of new medi_a games, and volumes of critical and theoretical analysis. 1 So like Star Wars, Alien too must be a familiar text... or is it? Does anyone remember the sound of the heartbeat -which precedes each Alien attack? Or the sounds of the different pulsating backgrounds for the separate decks of the ship? Or the sounds of frenzied respiration and footfalls as the crew attempts to escape to safety in the shuttle? Probably not. Though the images, characters and narrative plot points have become ingrained in our culture, the sounds within the film are still unfamiliar and unexplored. This case study will analyze how seemingly "realistic" sound effects within the film transform into expressionistic constructions of the fantastic. Specifically, I will explore the interpenetration of horror and science fiction codes and considerations into three specific components of the film's sound design— ambiences, sound effects, and Foley— and reveal the theoretical and textual implications of this fusion. Ultimately, what is revealed in the sound design is Reproduced with permission of the copyright owner. Further reproduction prohibited without permission. 193 an organism that is much like the Alien in the film - part human, part machine; mutable, metaphoric, and very elusive. Sound Theories, Sound Realities How do sound effects, Foley and ambiences function within a typical film? Sound supervisor Marvin M. Kerner, author of The Art of the Sound Effects Editor, would tell us: The function of sound effects is threefold; (1) to simulate reality; (2) to add or create something off scene that is not really there; and (3) to help the director create a mood.2 In short, sound functions to mimic "reality", create spatial dimension and provide narrative content as well as a poetic stylistic. Sound also functions to create metaphor and spatial unity as well. In his discussion and critique of the sound production process, Kerner neglects to address production ideology (recording practices, processes, and the history of reading codes) as well the influence of genre codes, considerations and expectations. Each of his categories serve various industrial, narrative, or directoral aims, which for Kerner are so naturalized they are not mentioned or considered in his evaluation of function, yet they are crucial in the construction and deconstruction of any sound track. Many recent sound theorists like Amy Lawrence (Echo and Narcissus) and Alan Williams ("Is Sound Recording Like a Reproduced with permission of the copyright owner. Further reproduction prohibited without permission. 194 Language") have begun to question these basic functions and aims in search of the hidden structures and influences behind them. Primarily, they have examined the conception of "realism" (a term used in both popular and theoretical discourse) which they argue is more aptly explored as representation. Lawrence writes: The myth of "objective" sound reproduction ("mechanical neutrality") disguises the ideology of the apparatus, including (a) the ideology into which the apparatus is inserted, and (b) that which it promotes and organizes itself around.3 In Echo and Narcissus, Lawrence examines how women's voices are contained and shaped by the narratives in which they appear as well as by the sound apparatus which constructs them and Hollywood industrial practices that control them. Lawrence reveals that sound elements, specifically the voice and dialogue, are far from being gender neutral or "natural" in their construction. In particular, women's voices are highly fetishized through recording practices (filtering, smoothing,- and editing) and are ultimately contained within the diegesis in classical Hollywood films such as Rain (1932) and Notorious (1946), thus elevating the masculine subject position and its dominance over the text. In short, sound always includes layers of coding and construction which is over-determined and embedded by the production process and structures that support it. Reproduced with permission of the copyright owner. Further reproduction prohibited without permission. 195 Lawrence encourages a move away from "realism: "Sound film's efforts to camouflage its materiality behind a myth of realism needs to be strenuously deconstructed. "4 Even codes of "realism" are in fact created and passed along from production to production and thus formulate cinematic expectations, if we extend her model of analysis. Unpacking codes of realism, however, is difficult. One of the key obstacles is the composite nature of a sound track which hides much of the material work of the mode of production. Isolation of specific sound cuts, fades, and even effects is extremely difficult, and rarely do individuals outside the industry have access to the separate tracks or elements used in the creation of a film soundtrack. Cue sheets, sound logs, and mixers notes would be useful in scholarly research, yet these documents are rarely preserved.5 In the move toward understanding and conceptualizing sound as a constructed representation, Alan Williams begins his deconstruction at the most elemental level of film sound— the recording itself. He writes: My contention is that in sound recording, as in image recording, the apparatus performs a significant perceptual work for us— isolating, intensifying, analyzing sonic and visual material. It gives an implied physical perspective on image or sound source, though not the full, material context of everyday vision or hearing, but the signs of such a physical situation. We do not hear, we are heard. More than Reproduced with permission of the copyright owner. Further reproduction prohibited without permission. 196 that: we accept the machine as organism, and its "attitudes” as our own.® "Realistic" sound effects, as we have seen, are entirely mediated by the recording apparatus and the technical choices that the recordist makes on the set or out in the field. Choices may include microphone selection (omni directional or directional) and variations in microphone to subject positioning, which establishes sound perspective and spatial cues. The apparatus filters, constructs and presents a specific point of view. As this study has shown, it is necessary to move well beyond the recording process to get at the true nature of any sound construction. While Williams' conclusions are correct, he leaves out the crucial post production processes of sound editing and mixing. Mixing and montage are highly manipulative processes by which sound is further isolated, intensified and analyzed. Additionally, genre considerations and codes must be accounted for as well within the model of analysis. Suspension of disbelief and image and sound credibility must be layered into the model of deconstruction. Subsequently, within genre films like Alien, the thump of a character's hands against a table, the scattering of dishes, and a flurry of desperate gasps can throw even the most "realistic" effects into expressionistic relief. Reproduced with permission of the copyright owner. Further reproduction prohibited without permission. 197 Audio-biomechanics "I mixed up technical and organic things. I call this 'biomechanics, '" explains artist H.R. Giger, who served as the conceptual designer on the film Alien.7 Giger's designs like his word-creation are a fusion of the mechanical and the human. It is this conceit which merged science fiction and horror, sound and body. This concept pervades the film on every level. The production design features an Alien pilot fused into a navigational chair; a character within the narrative (Ash) is revealed to be man and machine; and most importantly for this study, the sound design offers a complex weave of human and mechanical noises, which in Giger's terms might be called audio-biomechanics. The sound track and its reception fuse sound, body and machine (and this needs aggressive deconstruction to be de-naturalized and understood). Giger's artistic stylistic serves as the basis for the dominant conceit that controls the film and the perceptions of the filmgoer. Within his stylistic as applied to the effects, Foley and ambiences are issues of organic unity, anthropomorphism, and gender, which keep the filmgoers in the grips of stylistic and emotional excess. Ambiences and Spatial Unification In the opening sequence of the film, the camera moves from the exterior of the ship, through the lower decks of engineering, down passage ways, and onto the main decks and Reproduced with permission of the copyright owner. Further reproduction prohibited without permission. 198 living quarters. The musical score weaves in and out of the sound design as we cut into the ship. The ambiences for the various spaces shift subtly, providing different sound perspectives and cues which indicate the geography and breadth of the environment. Initially, the exterior transition shot as the ship passes is encoded with the low rumbles of the ship's engines, akin to a hiss or wind of an empty radio bandwidth. In fact, the shot includes the image of a communications dish. The steady, low rumble establishes the unimpeded purpose of the vessel, yet punctuates the fact that this ship is isolated and cut off in the vast reaches of space. Inside, the sound breaks down and deconstructs the spaces, establishing the sonic geography and atmosphere. First, the engine area is revealed. The clank and drone of metal moving like pistons establishes motion and the propulsion of the vessel. The main decks share a similar sound but muffled to express the distance from the previous space. The Hollywood industrial practices here are cleverly hidden. Sound cuts overlap slightly to avoid sound gaps and a break in audience suture, sound levels are fairly consistent, hiding the work of the mixing apparatus, and sound processors (filters on the mixing board and reverberation chambers in the mixing studio) are used to dampen and distance the sounds to match the spatial images that are presented. Ultimately, manipulation of these Reproduced with permission of the copyright owner. Further reproduction prohibited without permission. 199 ambiences support the notion of a unified space despite the fact that these are constructed sets and miniatures. "Realistic" sound cues (reverberation and sound absorption) are placed in the service of the fantastic as a form of suture to the environment. Simultaneously within the filmgoer, a hesitation in belief formulates as the sonic anchors are set. The science fiction genre depends heavily upon this contract of believability and credibility; however, it must fulfill obligations in terms of production values and craftsmanship. If ambiences do not match the spaces (based on previous genre codes and spatial perspective), the link breaks down, and the contract is broken. Arguably, within this genre, it is a link that is as important as the one established between the body and voice. Science fiction is ultimately about constructed spaces and ambiences are crucial in that respect. Dystopia and Desolation Beyond spatial unification, the ambiences take on greater layers of meaning in relation the genre and narrative. Later in the film, the sound of ambient wind of LB426 emphasizes the harsh environment of the planet the crew explores, as well as establishes a sense of foreboding about the future of the ship and crew. Alien is particularly dystopic in its view of the future as the narrative conceit of the film we discover is built on the Reproduced with permission of the copyright owner. Further reproduction prohibited without permission. 200 "Company" placing its profits ahead of its employees ("Crew expendable.") to acquire a dangerous organic species for their "bioweapons" division. The wind of desolation accounts for human failings— in particular, corporate greed. The dystopian sentiments are echoed earlier in the film through sound, when the communications systems on the ship give the same sort of desolate "air" as the crew tries to hail earth. Technology fails them, leaving them isolated in the vastness of space. The repetition in variation of the desolation ambiences works much like a musical refrain. As with the haunting piano rift in Halloween, it cues the killer/the antagonist/driver of dread, establishing the mood. In Allen, the context is more subtle as it builds metaphysical meaning as well. It evokes a loss of humanity and connection, working on the filmgoer to punctuate infinity, futility, and dread regarding the future as set by our present course of corporate capitalism. This is the speculative nature of science fiction converging with the horror aspects in the generic exchange. In this context, the ambience works to isolate the characters (and filmgoers) in order to strip away power and hope. Even the ambiences associated with the ship assume this role as well. As the narrative unfolds, the space of the ship and the sounds that represent it narrow as the Alien intruder expands its territory. Sounds of alarms, Reproduced with permission of the copyright owner. Further reproduction prohibited without permission. 201 blasts of steam, and rumbling blasts compress the geography of the space. It is as if there is no room for humanity when the new species is introduced. The safe zones for the Nostromo's crew grow smaller and smaller so that they are left only with a small shuttle craft as their life boat. Through the ambiences and sound effects, a sense of claustrophobia is created for the characters and filmgoers (denying power and hope). This conflation reaches its pinnacle when crew member Lt. Ripley (played by Sigourney Weaver) dons a space suit and creates her own self contained, sufficient environment, which is punctuated only by the sound of her shivering breaths. She is isolated, alone. In resolving the crisis, Ripley turns the stifled ambience to her advantage, blowing the shuttle hatch and ejecting the creature in a rush of wind. Desolation is turned into salvation. It is punctuated by an engine blast which sizzles and uncouples the Alien from its tether, sending it spinning into space. As previously discussed in chapter 6, the sound design and surround channels immerse filmgoers within the extended diegesis (albeit a close quartered space), offering suture and identification with the character. Balancing this spectacle of visceral effect is the metaphysical meaning and impact— the fears of uncertainty and doubt about the future. Reproduced with permission of the copyright owner. Further reproduction prohibited without permission. 202 Ship as Mother: Sound Effects and Anthropomorphism In addition to transforming natural elements within the narrative, the sound design also energizes the mechanical elements with expressionistic meaning. In particular, the cargo ship Nostromo takes on the characteristics of an organic body, thus infusing technology with horror intents. As the camera moves to the flight deck of the ship, slinky toys and pens attached to the consoles bob, a crew chair shutters with movement; paper moves as the air systems charge up; and the camera rests on a helmet. The images cross cut between the helmet and computer screen. Nearly every important sound effect in the film is contained in fragmented form in this short sequence. The methodology of the sound cutting is much like the composition of a music score: a melody or leitmotif is established and the score plays out variations and rifts of the pattern. Melodies or leitmotifs function to establish character and an emotive effect on the filmgoer. A dark lyricism settles in. Here, discrete sound effects are introduced and later they are expanded upon in repetition and variations as the narrative progresses. The result supports the narrative ideology of the ship as an organism and a character, while also offering sonic containment and unity. The score by composer Jerry Goldsmith (Star Trek, Poltergeist) works in conjunction with the sound design in Reproduced with permission of the copyright owner. Further reproduction prohibited without permission. 203 a unique way to interpenetrate the sound effects elements. Other science fiction films of this era— in particular Star Wars and Close Encounters of the Third Kind— utilize scores and orchestrations reminiscent of the classical Hollywood period, which was dominated by the influences of composers Erich Korngold and Max Steiner. In contrast, Goldsmith fragments this aesthetic and incorporates musical instruments like sound effects and ambiences. Strings are plucked chaotically to sound like falling rain and wind instruments move toward extended sustain and simple tonality to carry the sense of desolation and tension. The effects are disturbing because they play off musical codes of the horror genre directly. A cliche of this strategy would be a low tone oscillated on a cello. The music and the ambiences of this film utilize these codes heavily, rising and falling, to create a heightened anxiety and sense of dread in the filmgoer. The spectacle of sound is embedded within the musical movement, conspiring to offer a fearful, unseen presence which is invisible to the eye. As the camera moves across the deck, again we hear the ambience of the ship. As the ship awakens, so do the metaphoric implications. The ambience of the clanking pistons becomes the heartbeat as heard by a child within the uterus (Later, the heartbeat will be transferred to the child-Alien) . Importantly, the ship is engendered as female, building a collection of birthing metaphors and Reproduced with permission of the copyright owner. Further reproduction prohibited without permission. 204 analogies. This distinction can be traced to Maritime Society in which vessels were gender coded by their crews. Also, the narrative supports the notion through terminology. The computer that controls the ship is called "Mother" based on its computer designation "MU/TH/UR/ 6000."8 The frigate connectors are called the "umbilical." Physiologically, the heartbeat ambiences have an important effect of lulling filmgoers into a position of fetal plenitude. The sound levels and unbroken nature of sound presence support the conceit. An instance such as this offers a pure example of the symbiosis between sound apparatus - sound object - and filmgoer. In short, a vibration of sound resonates within the body. Other sounds assist in the fusion by offering other visceral connections. Oxygen is plentiful as is indicted by the sounds of movement of papers on a table, and the toys attached to the various consoles click and spring, establishing a visual and sonic playpen for those within the film and for those watching and listening to the sound track. At the computer station, the screen awakens. The sound effects jump cut in rapid succession, varying in level and pitch. The sound effects include: computer noises, teletype printing, intercom blips, data disks moving, a radio processed sound, and an alarm signaling then complete silence. It is only in the final sequence that the computer Reproduced with permission of the copyright owner. Further reproduction prohibited without permission. 205 will finally get a voice, completing the final sonic phase of humanization and characterization. As in a music score, all of these sound effects recur throughout the film. For example, each time a crew member accesses the computer, the teletype effect recurs; the radio processing noise occurs as the pilots attempt communications; and the alarm signals warn of the eminent destruction of the ship. The containment and repetition of the effects emphasizes the unity of the organism. The computer sounds are also coded as communication units, carefully deciphered by the crew. Alarms are screams, warning of danger. Clicks are sometimes warnings. It must also be noted that the symbiosis between crew and mother occurs on every level; they even have their own language. Later, when the hull of the freighter is ruptured as the Nostromo descends to the planet LB426, the expulsion of air sends a scream through the ship and the surround sound channels. In response to the howl, the engineer Parker yells: "What the hell was that?" Within this context, the sound of the breaching ship foreshadows the chest buster scene later in the film. The ship, like Kane, is given a voice albeit only to be able to scream and howl in pain. This ship also breathes, talks, and monitors life support, maintaining homeostasis. With this anthropomorphic turn, the filmgoer is given another reason to identify with the Reproduced with permission of the copyright owner. Further reproduction prohibited without permission. 206 ship as a organic-technological construction, becoming emotionally invested in its fate and the fate of her crew. Other important sound effects complete the formulation of this anthropomorphic organism. The computer room in which the Captain and later Ripley interact with the computer resonates with the sound of close perspective breathing. The close recording of the sound emphasizes codes of intimacy, and the rhythmic nature of the breathing offers a sensation of calm. The death of this organism comes all too quickly though. When the main ship detonates, two sound effects occur to signify the death. The pulse of the ship, monitored from the shuttle, beeps rhythmically then flat-lines like a heart monitor signaling cardiac arrest, and within the final explosions, screams overlap the three low booms that decimate the ship and her cargo. Within the scope of the narrative, the character of the "Mother" is established with these highly coded sound effects, a system of dependence is explored, and the sonic life cycle of the ship is examined from birth to death. But what about the ship’s offspring? The sound of children? Sound Effects and the Child-Alien In his article "Re-imagining the Gargoyles Psychoanalytical Notes on Alien," Harvey Greenberg writes: "The creature is mysteriously ungraspable, viciously implacable, improbably beautiful, and lewd.”9 within the Reproduced with permission of the copyright owner. Further reproduction prohibited without permission. 207 creature, Giger's stylistic of "biomechanics" plays out in its most complete form. The parasitic organism gestates within a human host, using part of the host's DNA to formulate itself. It then destroys its womb and begins quickly adapting and mutating to its environment. When the creature reaches maturity, it is a mix of the organic (skin and cells) and the mechanistic (metal teeth and black dorsal tubes) played out within the shadowy outline of human form. However, as Greenberg notes, the creature is "photographed so obliquely that a coherent gestalt can never be constructed." In terms of sound, the stylistic dictates that the creature share human and machine traits as well. Though the creature does lack language, Greenberg notes: "It is not inconceivable that it can read the crew's thoughts."11 When the creature is born and when it later attacks, it is linked with two sound effects, specifically the scream and the heartbeat. The scream effects are a complex mix of human, machine and animal noises which are processed through filters and pitch shifted to create a shrill noise. It is in cases like this that cue sheets and mixing notes would be extremely valuable in determining the exact mixture. The layers fuse to establish the link between machine and organism. During the attempts to capture the creature, the captain of the vessel Dallas (played by Tom Skerritt) works his way through the air shafts, cutting off Reproduced with permission of the copyright owner. Further reproduction prohibited without permission. 208 various escape routes for the creature. The fully grown creature, however, suddenly appears, attacking with arms open. The image track literally gives just a flash of the visual referent, while the sound track sustains the scream of the creature, which carries across into the communication systems of the ship like audio feedback. This sound is recognizable to anyone who has accidentally held a hot microphone to a sound speaker. The layered and processed nature of the sound is played out in this single effect, synchronized to emanate from the machine-beast image and processed to sound as if heard through the audio headset worn by the character Dallas. The blur of the mechanical and the human is apparent as each step in the construction serves the conceptual style of film. In the end, the scream appears to be gender neutral, perhaps because the creature is hermaphroditic, though it is still vaguely human. The crew members and filmgoers hear the incident only through technology, creating a sensation of dislocation. The effect also offers a narrative commentary, re-enforcing the notion that the Alien is as much a part of the ship as it is an autonomous organism and that it is in control. In this way, it remains invisible even in the shuttle craft where it seems to merge with the pipe, wires, and computer technology. But like a faulty piece of technology, it must eventually be changed out and disposed of by the end of the film. Reproduced with permission of the copyright owner. Further reproduction prohibited without permission. 209 The Alien creature is also distinguished by the sound of a heartbeat. The effect seems to be transferred from the mother ship to the child-alien as an extension of technological anthropomorphism. The sound of a heartbeat precedes each attack of the crew members by the Alien. The volume of the sound effect slowly rises from the heartbeat ambiences of the ship to a position of privilege. The placement and position of the sound within the mix suggests that the Alien is in tune with the body rhythms of its prey. As in the film Predator, it establishes a sonic point ' of view. With each Alien encounter, the heartbeat effect appears, slowly fading in. It becomes an important leitmotif to identify the character of the Alien, and it offers only one variation. At the end of the film when Ripley is in the shuttle, the heartbeat is replaced by a mechanical beep, which cues the creature's hand to suddenly lash out. The lack of the characteristic heartbeat makes the creature's appearance even more shocking, but also suggests that the creature may have been fusing with the ship's technology. A certain amount of ambiguity can be read into this particular effect. Since Greenberg has suggested the notion of telepathy, the heartbeat may be that of the Alien's prey (the crew) and function like a targeting mechanism. In narrative terms, it would then match the sonic tracking device used by the crew to search Reproduced with permission of the copyright owner. Further reproduction prohibited without permission. 210 the ship. The heartbeat may then simply serve as a signature for death. Body Sounds and Foley When the remaining crew members (Parker, Lambert and Ripley) decide to detonate the ship, they rush down a corridor and formulate their escape plan. As they move their bodies, clutch their weapons, walk on the grates of the ship, the soundtrack fills with the reactive sounds, yet these are often not production recordings. These are constructed on the Foley stage by Foley artists and cut in synchronization to the picture. Despite the mundane nature of the effects, a certain amount of coding does occur. Foley sounds provide pivotal sonic anchors to the body and unify the space in which the body moves. In terms of production practices, close microphone perspective delineates each sound very clearly and very intimately. In the example above, the Foley creates a feeling of claustrophobia. The frenzied nature of the footsteps, the rapid clothing movements, the labored breathing, all suggest entrapment. In short, spatial unity of the corridor is established as well as a geography of the body within it. In this category of sound design, there is considerable slippage between Foley and ADR, particularly in the area of breathing which can sometimes be considered Reproduced with permission of the copyright owner. Further reproduction prohibited without permission. 211 dialogue and other times Foley or effects. Breathing, however, is charged with an aspect of gender. For example, in the final sequence of the film, Ripley puts on a life support helmet and her breathing becomes labored and processed, echoing off the inside of the helmet and picked up by the inside microphone. At this point, the breathing is coded as claustrophobic, feminine and as some have suggested, erotic. Greenberg notes: Her breathing, amplified within her helmet, is heard in accelerating gasps and moans (libidinous variation on the famous sequence in 2001, where Dave Bowman's breathing is heard echoing in his own ears, as he goes to disconnect the murderous HAL).12 Greenberg reads the scene as a seduction/rape and the Foley/ADR sounds seem to support this notion. Within this reading, Greenberg also sees the sound as an echo to a previous work in the genre, 2001. This is important to note because rarely is sound seen to have references to other works, despite the fact that sometimes even the same sound effects carry over as sound creators share effects and emulate the work of those they admire. Body Horrors As Foley transgresses its normal function, a sense of distrust around the body emerges. In a conversation with Ripley, Dallas notes: "I don't trust anybody." The Reproduced with permission of the copyright owner. Further reproduction prohibited without permission. 212 anxieties emerge around breaking of the ships protocol, hierarchy in command, control and ultimately, human authenticity. It is the science officer Ash (played by Ian Holm), who comes to embody the terror of the unknown which lies within. When he finds that Ripley has read the Company's orders regarding acquisition of the Alien, he attempts to kill her, but fortunately, the crew intervenes. In the struggle, one of the ship's technician's Parker (played by Yaphet Kotto) decapitates Ash with a fire extinguisher. As the Ash's synthetic body disintegrates, it spews white fluid in jets, its limbs flail knocking at the walls, and its circuitry babbles, squeaks and chatters as it shorts out. The Foley and sound effects extensively cover the explosion of the body and its loss of identity (exposure as non-human). The spectacle of excess (on the narrative and sonic levels) reveals the robot as a threat both to human authenticity as well as human survival. In this context, we fear ourselves and our technological creations (programming and all). The most transgressive extension of this fear of the body and subsequent excess of body sounds (and identification) comes in the birthing of the Alien creature itself. Gestating in the stomach of crew member Kane (played John Hurt), the creature rips through the man’s chest cage, eviscerating him during the crew's final dinner. The Foley effects blur in a clutter of choking Reproduced with permission of the copyright owner. Further reproduction prohibited without permission. 213 sounds, struggling noises, plates scattering and crashing, screams, bones breaking and the rush of bodily fluids. The body's own organs and life sustaining fluids well up to attack and decimate the whole as the creature is born. The horror and perceptual matching on both visual and aural level is primal. Harvey R. Greenberg notes that, "each viewer's catastrophic response to Kane's disembowelment may well be determined by reactivation of personal archaic fantasies about primal scene and the birth process."13 The birth of the creature punctuates the birthing imagery that runs through the entire design of the film and aptly represents the complexity and ingenuity of generic exchange between horror and science fiction. Rather than the grandeur of the birth of the Star Child in 2001: A Space Odyssey, the birth in Alien is an abomination, a speculation brought forth from a corrupt and desolate future. In addition, it focuses the horror of the body, not on the female body as is generally the case in horror films, but rather inverts the paradigm onto the male b o d y . jt is a transgression to the axiom that "women make the best victims."!5 The entire course of the film does not, however, stray too far from the axiom as it leaves Ripley (the lone female crew member) to confront the Alien in a battle to the death in the final sequence of the film. Both horror and science fiction expectations are thus fulfilled. Reproduced with permission of the copyright owner. Further reproduction prohibited without permission. 214 The Voice Though this particular soundtrack relies heavily on sounds other than the voice, it is worth noting how the use of sound in the film engages Kaja Silverman's seminal theories on the voice. In The Acoustic Mirror, Silverman argues that: Hollywood's soundtrack is engendered through a complex system of displacements which locate the male voice as the point of apparent textual origin, while establishing the diegetic containment of the female voice. She also notes that the female voice is logistically and linguistically constrained by Hollywood sound practices. The sound track of Alien offers some excellent examples (i.e. breathing within the helmet), and in an early scene, it is a sound effect that facilitates the "containment." After the ship has made a less than smooth landing on the planet surface, Parker, Brett and Ripley survey the damage to one of the decks. As the scene plays out, Ripley speaks to the men through the rising sound of steam hissing from a pipe. The corridor bellows with white smoke. The sound, controlled by Parker, rises to a cacophony and Parker even joins in with a childish taunt "What'cha say Ripley?" as the sound reaches a final pitch, drowning out Ripley's voice and her authority. The difference in power positions is evident (She is an officer and they are engineers), and Reproduced with permission of the copyright owner. Further reproduction prohibited without permission. 215 the sound effect is uniquely engendered to punctuate the notion of male lack. It has been suggested by Annette Kuhn that Alien is a film about male anxieties "set loose by a decade of feminist and gay activism" and that the manifestations of the anxiety carry a wide range of examples.17 Kuhn notes: "Alien was a basically male anxiety fantasy: that a man could be impregnated was the ultimate outrage."1® Women face equal outrages in terms of sound and the voice. Throughout the film, the women's voices are suppressed, despite the fact that they are the true voices of reason. Kane orders Lambert to "Quit griping" as they head out to survey the Alien ship, and Ripley is countermanded and patronized at crucial command moments, particularly at the moment when she refuses to admit the contaminated Kane onto the ship. The suppression of the female voice culminates when Ripley is nearly choked to death with a pornographic magazine rolled into a phallic like tube. The symbolism is blatant. Not only is her voice in jeopardy of suppression, so is her life. This containment of the female voice is transgressed in part at the end of the film, when Ripley's voice takes over a narrative function. She notes: Final report of the commercial starship Nostromo. Third officer reporting. The other members of the crew — Kane, Lambert, Parker, Brett, Ash, and Captain Dallas— are dead. Reproduced with permission of the copyright owner. Further reproduction prohibited without permission. 216 Cargo and ship destroyed. I should reach the frontier in about six weeks. With a little luck, the network will pick me up. This is Ripley, last survivor of the Nostromo, signing off. In the end, she is the sole survivor and the final authority over what has occurred. While this voice is mediated by technology, her voice resonates not just in this film, but throughout the series. In the third film, these same lines are displaced outside the diegesis, giving her authority over that narrative and the prior installments. Unfortunately, the forth installment seems to undo this authority, as the military takes over not just her voice, but her DNA, creating a genetically enhanced version of the Ripley character as a means of extracting the Alien. Issues of the voice will be more fully explored in the next chapter in relation to another Ridley Scott film, Blade Runner. Interpenetration of Sound Effects, Ambiences and Foley A key scene at the end of the second act brings together all of the various elements that examined so far, and the sound design of the scene is so powerful it threatens the hierarchy that privileges image over sound. As Lambert and Parker check the oxygen canisters, Ripley corners the ship's cat and puts him into a carrying case. The open microphone links on the ship allow her to hear the canister of oxygen being thrown to the floor by Lambert and Reproduced with permission of the copyright owner. Further reproduction prohibited without permission. 217 Parker. Immediately, the Alien emerges and Lambert and Parker are attacked. Ripley desperately runs to them, but she discovers both are dead. Music plays a significant role in establishing the tension of the scene; however, the integration of the sounds is far more disturbing and enervating. The open microphone links allow an overlapping of the sonic scenes. This narrative device allows the sound editing and processing to be hidden within the diegesis. The result is a unification of sound and space. The open microphones allow the simultaneity of the events to be established. Ripley runs (her footfalls resonating) at the same instant Lambert begins her screams of panic. The ambience over the multiple images of Ripley running remain constant, thus unifying the image cutting. In this instance, ambience could be thought of in Bazinian terms as the equivalent to the long take. The Foley of her footfalls indicates movement through space and provides anchors in the body. Steam effects and their accompanying sounds block her way through the passages. The effects are linked to the anthropomorphism of "Mother." Ripley's gasps reveal her desperation. At the same time, Lambert's voice is stolen in the panic of the moment. Her lack of speech is another example of the suppression and containment of the female voice. Meanwhile, Parker is killed in a cacophony of music. Finally, Lambert Reproduced with permission of the copyright owner. Further reproduction prohibited without permission. 218 can only breath and scream as Ripley listens in. The voice is close perspective and processed heavily. Her death is not shown, but implied through the sound effect of her screams, which are cut off abruptly. The Alien remains invisible for the most part, hiding in the horrific sounds. The off-screen death is a convention of the horror genre; the axiom being that what you do not see is far worse than what you do see. In this instance, the sound design is so overwhelming, no image could match its impact. Conclus ions The interpenetration of horror and science fiction codes and conventions within Alien transformed even the most "realistic" sound effects— ambiences, Foley, and general sound effects— into sonic icons of the fantastic, which often elude filmgoers in the hallowed corridors of the narrative diegesis. The uncertainty and unpredictability of these sound effects, however, ties into the pleasures of horror and specifically, tension established in haunted house films. We never know what terror is around the next corner. The dark lyricism of horror which has settled into the science fiction sound track has brought this question not only to the sense of place but to concerns about technology and our understanding of time. The filmgoer is left to ask, What does the future hold? In Ridley Scott's next film Blade Reproduced with permission of the copyright owner. Further reproduction prohibited without permission. 219 Runner, he offers some answers to this question and provides provocative new questions that Sound Design (ever elusive and mutable) is uniquely situated to consider and address. Reproduced with permission of the copyright owner. Further reproduction prohibited without permission. 220 \ f chapter 9 VOICE DESIGN Blade Runners: A Crisis in Voicing Authority, Identity, and Spectacle The 1982 film Blade Runner by director Ridley Scott is perhaps one of the most written about science fiction films in contemporary cinematic history. Based on Philip K. Dick's classic science fiction novel Do Androids Dream of Electric Sheep, the film featured a conflation of science fiction and film noir, drawing on a stylistic conceit that looked forty years forward into the future and forty years back. The critical discourse surrounding the film includes numerous volumes on production history, including the through and detailed Future Noir: The Making of Blade Runner by Paul M. Sammon and various theoretical works including Retrofitting Blade Runner, a collection of essays edited by Judith B. Kerman which offers an array of insights and critical approaches. 1 Yet none of these works significantly address the primary site of difference between the original theatrical release in 1982 and the subsequent Director's Cut released in 1992, specifically the voice-over. When and if the issue of the voice is included, the debate is marginalized or essentialized to one of "necessity" or quality of the vocal performance. Ironically, these arguments echo the debates around the Reproduced with permission of the copyright owner. Further reproduction prohibited without permission. 221 need and function of sound in cinema during the transition to sound. Further clouding the voice-over debate is the production history of the film. Various historical accounts of Blade Runner have argued that the voice-over was forced onto the film by distribution company, Warner Bros, studio, without the director's consent. However, the voice-over did appear in a number of the early drafts of the screenplay and was considered by both the director and the studio during various stages of the production process. In part, the voice-over came from the novel as a sort of scaffolding on which the film’s rich visual spectacle would hang. However, during the production of the film, it does not appear as if the filmmakers intended the voice-over to be an integral part of the narrative or its innovative imagery. Anticipating changes in the story and the visual design, writer David Peoples noted: "We wanted to make sure that the storyline wasn't dependent on the narration."2 Yet three versions of the narration were recorded during the post production of the film. In an interview, Michael Deeley called the voice-over a "concession" to Warner Bros, studio executives who critiqued the film as "Dull. Pointless. Confusing. "3 As a result of these conflicting intentions, the credibility and the intent of the voice over in the original theatrical release were thrown into question. Reproduced with permission of the copyright owner. Further reproduction prohibited without permission. 222 On a theoretical level, the voice-over in Blade Runner reveals a crisis in the status of the voice within contemporary filmmaking and subsequently in the model of sound design, punctuating the film's importance to this study. Through an extended comparison and contrast of the two versions of Blade Runner, this chapter will deal exclusively with issues of the voice, in particular its privilege within the sound track hierarchy, its connection to narrative authority and subjectivity, and finally its relation to cinematic spectacle. The intent is to reveal the highly constructed nature of the voice, which is privileged in the production process, and expose its influential yet tenuous position within this science fiction narrative and the model of contemporary sound design. Credibility and Status of the Voice With the inclusion of the voice-over in the original release of Blade Runner, the filmmakers attempted to draw filmgoers into the narrative through a traditional cinematic device, simply allowing a character within the diegesis to tell the story. In classical Hollywood cinema, this type of voice-over implies subjective authority, offers the possibility of self revelation and nostalgic recollection, and drives the plot through narrative enunciation. In Blade Runner, the voice-over offers many of Reproduced with permission of the copyright owner. Further reproduction prohibited without permission. 223 these facets; however, against the complex weave of dense images and deeper thematic issues, it destablizes the narrative, throwing into crisis the image-sound relations and subsequently their emotive effects. In short, the spectacle and thematic conclusions of the film hinged on the fragmented and flat explanations and analysis of the proceedings by the main character, a down and out cop- assassin named Deckard. Filmgoers recognized the cinematic approach as arcane, a throw back to the film noir stylistic from the 1940s and 1950s which emphasized often troubled characters reflections on crisis, trauma or death. Within film noir, voice-overs, which are usually gendered male, are often considered unstable constructions, yet they offer a limited and controlled subjectivity over the narrative. On the issue of instability and crisis, Kaja Silverman notes: The voice that narrates Billy Wilder's Double Indemnity (1944), for example, 'belongs' to a dying man, who received his mortal injury at the hands of a woman. The voice-over in Rudolph Mate's D.O.A. originates from a character who is shot to death during the course of the film, and whose virility is in doubt from the very outset.4 Similarly, Deckard's voice in Blade Runner is in an existential crisis and thus unstable. It offers the reflections of a "man" who constantly questions the nature of his job (i.e. his purpose in life), his own judgment, Reproduced with permission of the copyright owner. Further reproduction prohibited without permission. 2 2 4 and his own conflicted emotions regarding love and death. After an encounter with Rachael (Sean Young), Deckard states: "Replicants weren't suppose to have feelings. Neither were Blade Runners. What the hell was happening to me?" Complicating this status, the voice-over does not seem sincere both in its performance by actor Harrison Ford or in its utilization by the filmmakers, which adds further instability. Historical accounts have suggested that Ford purposefully read the lines in an emotionless manner to avoid their inclusion in the film. Ford notes: "It was in my contract that I do the voice-overs, but I hated them. "5 Of the performance, director Ridley Scott notes: "We just couldn't get it. We wrestled with it and wrestled with it. Which frustrated Harrison to no end, because he’s clearly a talented and formidable actor.Scott also seemed ambivalent about the overall use and need of the voice-over in his accounts of the making of the film. He notes: You start to convince yourself that, well, it's going to be okay....It's only when you really view and hear these things years later that you think, 'Oh my God! It's awful! Because A) Blade Runner's voice-over was over explanation, and B) the narration, although admittedly influenced by Raymond Chandler, wasn't Chandleresque enough."7 The consequences of the inclusion of the voice-over to the sound design were critical. Due to these layers of Reproduced with permission of the copyright owner. Further reproduction prohibited without permission. 225 destabalizing factors, Deckard's voice and its credibility were brought into question, which eroded his subjective authority over the narrative. The voice-over languished in a middle ground, offering an authority with limited knowledge yet revealing an uncertain character torn in his love for the object of his scorn, the replicant Rachael. In this way, the voice-over construction revealed the unresolved tension between the generic conventions of science fiction and film noir. In the fall of 1992, when the film was re-released in the Director's Cut version, the voice-over was removed and key scenes re-integrated, particularly the dream sequence involving the unicorn. The "happy ending" of the film was also trimmed. The difference was immediately apparent to film critics and filmgoers who re-evaluated the film and labeled it a "masterpiece." Few, however, connected the change in status to the voice and the altered sound design. Without the voice-over, new image-sound relations appeared which significantly altered the narrative as well as the nature of the spectacle and its impact. The re-editing and re-mixed Director’s Cut encouraged filmgoers to swim in the dense sonic and visual world of Blade Runner as it foregrounds the music by Vangelis and the film’s ambient backgrounds and sound effects. The results were lyrical and visceral rather than detached and analytical. Reproduced with permission of the copyright owner. Further reproduction prohibited without permission. 226 More importantly, the status and identity of Deckard, the main character, changed significantly. The removal of the voice-over removed his authority over the narrative and repositioned him more firmly within the diegesis and its narrative ambiguities, pushing the film further into the dark recesses of film noir sensibilities. It heightened the emotional crisis for the character, not just on the issue of death but on the issue of life and humanity. With the inclusion of the additional scenes, the narrative even raised the question of whether Deckard was in fact human. As with the other characters in the film - the replicants - his subjectivity and even his memories are in question, and this is the site of crisis within both the character and the film. The release of The Director's Cut of Blade Runner strips away the voice-over entirely, forcing all the characters more firmly into the narrative diegesis. Hence, the generic exchange within this hybrid film shifts significantly from noir to science fiction, consequently from the familiar to the unknown. This new configuration re-frames the debate around the voice and its authority not in terms of gender as related to film noir but rather in terms of human authenticity, a dominant concern of science fiction. In the Director's Cut, the film noir and science fiction elements conjoined more fully, and the end result of the removal of the voice-over and the restoration of the Reproduced with permission of the copyright owner. Further reproduction prohibited without permission. 2 2 7 deleted scenes deepens the thematic inquiry of the film, focusing it more fully on the nature of memory, identity and ultimately humanity. Production and Privilege of the Voice The two versions of Blade Runner which were released nearly 10 years apart unintentionally revealed the status of the voice within contemporary cinema by calling attention to the placement and manufacture of Harrison Ford's voice-over. The crisis was limited primarily to issues of necessity and performance, but it also reveals the highly constructed nature of the voice and its impact on image-sound relations and the narrative. In general, representations of the voice have always maintained a privileged status within the hierarchy of film sound, superseding both music and sound effects. This privilege is in part due to the fact that institutionally, the voice has aligned itself so closely with the technology and production practices of cinema sound. Additionally, it accesses separate perceptual mechanisms within the human mind. Yet it is important to understand that the voice in contemporary sound design is as much a construction as any other type of sound effect. In fact, manipulations of the voice are sometimes even more aggressive than they are for other sound elements from recording to mixing. Reproduced with permission of the copyright owner. Further reproduction prohibited without permission. 228 In the recording process, microphones are specifically designed to enhance the qualities of the voice, giving the full frequency range without over emphasizing bass response for instance as well as compensating for single point pickup with compression to even the texture of the voice. This targeted capture assures fidelity and intelligibility of dialogue, which the mix process foregrounds. As has already been explored within chapter 6 on multichannel presentation, dialogue resides primarily in the center speakers thus giving it further privilege within the theatrical exhibition space. Microphone positioning is a key part of the construction and coding process as well. In the recording of a voice-over, close microphone positioning offers a quality of "authority" as it accentuates bass response and codes of intimacy. Historically, the close positioning recalls the radio aesthetic. Blade Runner plays on the codes of intimacy by recording the voice-over without background ambience and in close perspective, accentuating the notion that the filmgoer is privy to the character's inner thoughts. For example, the first sentences of the voice-over in the original release of Blade Runner blur the line between narrative and introspective guilt. Deckard notes: "They don't advertise for killers in the newspaper. That was my profession. Ex cop. Ex-killer. Ex-Blade Runner." The confessional quality is almost uncanny in its effect to float over the imagery Reproduced with permission of the copyright owner. Further reproduction prohibited without permission. 229 and thus gains privilege over even the most dense visual elements of the rainy urban squalor. John Belton notes: The authority of a voice-over track is partly the result of its spatial qualities. It occupies a space that is beyond or outside that of the film, thus it can be either privileged (Apocalypse Now) or disadvantaged (Days of Heaven) in terms of its knowledge of information on the picture 'track.’8 The recording and placement of the voice-over then removes it from the visual and spatial anchors of synchronization and background noise, only to anchor it in consciousness of the character. It therefore dominates the sound design, offering competing again all of the other elements. In the narrative structure of Blade Runner, the voice-over reveals Deckard's observations and analysis of the events within the diegesis, and it is nearly impossible to ignore despite its credibility problems. The power to enunciate and explain is part of its authority. In the Director's Cut of the film, the dialogue is foreground and privileged somewhat but not to the extent of the voice-over. In terms of dialogue, part of the privilege of the voice lies in the fact that the production recordings of dialogue generally serve as the scaffolding around which the entire sound design is based. Within Hollywood sound design, dialogue is still considered one of the primary conduits of disseminating narrative information Reproduced with permission of the copyright owner. Further reproduction prohibited without permission. 230 and in this way remains connected to classical Hollywood cinema. Within Blade Runner, Bryant, Tyrell, Sebastian and even the scientist who makes eyes— all relay crucial information within the narrative through dialogue. But dialogue’s ability to relay information does not simply rely on words. Importantly, it provides essential spatial cues from the production environment thus unifying the voice to the diegesis and overall sound design. Echoes, reverberation, and synchronization all provide cues of spatial and temporal unity, which quell anxiety about cinematic narrative as a construction. For instance, in a scene in Tyrell's office, Rachael enters and asks Deckard, "Do you like our owl?" The voice carries a slight echo as she walks toward the table, anchoring it both to space being presented and to the image of her character. The words also synchronized to her lips, further embedding the connection to this character and her image. Yet true to film noir sensibilities this can also be read as fetishizing the female voice through sound spectacle. Again, the tension between science fiction and film noir appears in the most subtle effects. Rupture of these codes can be examined in almost any passage of replaced dialogue or ADR. Automatic Dialogue Replacement (ADR), which is a means by which actors re record their performance in synchronization with the projected picture, is generally utilized when production Reproduced with permission of the copyright owner. Further reproduction prohibited without permission. 231 recordings are unusable due to technical or production considerations- A great deal of the dialogue in Blade Runner was replaced through the ADR process due to difficulties in microphone positioning within the elaborate sets. In general, the recording of new lines is done "dry" within an ADR studio without the environmental presence of the original scene. "Bad" ADR is perceived as unprofessional and so the matching process of ADR to the image involves layering in ambience or presence from the original scene during the mix down and adding reverberation. Yet the variables or potential points of exposure are numerous and include synchronization, microphone type, microphone-to-subject position, and character movement. Any one or all of these factors can rupture the unity and credibility of the image-sound relations. In Blade Runner, when Deckard visits the snake designer, such a rupture occurs. The ADR does not match the action - thus revealing a synchronization rupture and exposes the cinematic process, a point which many fans have noted as a site of rupture in terms of image-sound credibility. This rupture is tempered by the camera to subject distance. At best, these ruptures reveal the tenuous nature of the voice within the sound design model and demarcate the privilege of the voice. The privilege of the voice is also promoted in the processes of sound editing and mixing. In dialogue editing, Reproduced with permission of the copyright owner. Further reproduction prohibited without permission. 232 the recordings of the various actors ’ voices are split onto separate tracks to allow more options in terms of equalization and manipulation during the mixing process. For this same reason, recorded dialogue tracks are divided by gender as well. In part, the privilege of the voice is drawn from technical concerns. Because the voice has a limited frequency range, the other elements of the sound track are often subordinated to the voice to assure the lower frequencies do not mask the mid-range frequencies of the voice track. While in separation, the voice tracks are "smoothed" or combined with presence from the production environment to create unification and continuity during the mix process. Sound editor John Haeny of Todd AO Glen Glen in Los Angeles notes: Dialogue editing and mixing is about creating a continuous experience. The dialogue must seem consistent from take to take, scene to scene. It's like a play. It must be a continuous flow of the voice.^ The "flow" facilitates the narrative unity and suture like persistence of vision does with the image. Not surprisingly, the lead mixer deals with dialogue and supervises the integration of all of the other sonic elements around the voice. The voice then is meticulously deconstructed, only to be re-constructed to eliminate inconsistencies or technical ruptures in order to provide narrative intelligibility, enunciation and stability. Both Reproduced with permission of the copyright owner. Further reproduction prohibited without permission. 233 versions of Blade Runner elevate the voice through these processes. The original version, however, foregrounds the voice-over more prominently in the mix, offering it privilege over the other sound elements, but leaving it the most vulnerable to exposure. In general, nearly every facet of the production and post production process regarding the voice elevates its importance and privilege within the Hollywood mode of production and accentuates the authority of the voice in establishing point of view. Authority of Knowledge and Enunciation When Deckard is called in by his former boss, Lieutenant Bryant (M. Emmet Walsh), his status as an authority figure is called into question. Forcing him back into service to "retire" the replicants, Bryant tells Deckard, "You know the score, pal. If you’re not cop, you're little people." Accompanying these lines on the visual track, Gaff (Edward James Olmos) makes a origami paper chicken, which he places in an ashtray. It thus becomes a clever metaphor for Deckard and his status and place in the city. The image-sound construction reveals the moment to be part commentary, part threat. Later, in his voice-over, Deckard explains his fear of losing his authority: "I'd quit because I’d had a belly full of killing. But then I'd rather be a killer than a victim. And Reproduced with permission of the copyright owner. Further reproduction prohibited without permission. 234 that’s exactly what Bryant's threat about 'little people' meant." The issues of authority and subjectivity are significant aspects of the film as well as contemporary theoretical discourse on sound, specifically in terms of gender. Male narrators dominate classical Hollywood cinema, positing "textual authority" within the male voice, while containing the female voice within the diegesis.10 In particular, the omniscient voice-over reveals a struggle for narrative control and point of view. It is a struggle between image and sound as well as masculine and feminine. In many respects, the voice is considered a primary "carrier of meaning" for the filmgoer.1^ At stake in the image-sound model and the sound design as a whole is an ideological perspective, a dominant viewpoint in the cinematic representation. In this respect, the voice-over in Blade Runner is the point of view for examining this cinematic world. Its utilization references a long tradition of sound and image construction within the noir genre and cinema in general. The voice-over encourages stability and privileged knowledge to quell any anxiety filmgoers have about loss of control or "lack", which might serve to expose the dominant structures of narrative and cinema.H Deckard's voice-over in Blade Runner maintains this place of privilege and ^authority by its very use. From the Reproduced with permission of the copyright owner. Further reproduction prohibited without permission. 235 beginning of the filmr he is established as a tracker, protagonist and guide, presenting the narrative point of view and framing an understanding of action, characters and events. His voice-over imposes a subjective view point which is at times nostalgic, regretful, observant and often analytical. In an early analysis of Gaff, he notes: "The charmer's name was Gaff. I'd seen him around. Bryant must have upped him to the Blade Runner unit. That gibberish he talked was city speak." Deckard's perceptions completely direct the narrative understanding of the dense weave of characters, images, and events. These observations supersede the costume design, lighting, and character blocking. In the original release of the film, Deckard's voice over establishes a pattern of authority, direction and enunciation that permeates image-sound relations and foregrounds the detective and film noir aspects. The removal of the voice-over for the Director's Cut establishes an entirely new pattern of authority, direction and enunciation which foregrounds the science fiction aspects of the narrative, particularly focusing on the tensions between the human and the non-human. For instance in the scene with Lieutenant Bryant, Deckaxd's voice-over characterizes Bryant's comments about "skin jobs" in terms of race; with the removal of this framing, the comment and Reproduced with permission of the copyright owner. Further reproduction prohibited without permission. 236 its context stresses the difference between the authentic and the synthetic. The shifts are sometimes subtle, sometimes profound. In the first scene with the voice-over, Deckard is seated just off the crowded street, reading the paper. He explains, "They don't advertise for killers in the newspaper." We learn that he is an ex-cop, a Blade Runner. He was married, assume divorced, given that she referred to him as "cold fish." In general, the voice-over offers some redundancy of the information within the scene. The verbal anchors presented are the reference to the newspaper and of course the recognizable voice quality of the actor, Harrison Ford, both of which are re-iterated and supported on the image track- The voice-over frames the character in terms of his backstory, his general attitude, and his job as an authority figure within the city. The backstory can only be taken as truthful and authoritative, since there are no markers to indicate otherwise. The memories and information are not yet privy to revision as Rachael's backstory is when the story of the spider is revealed. Deckard's subjectivity and insights are far too removed from this inquiry which occurs much later in the film. He is, therefore, deemed a reliable and authoritative narrator within the diegesis, offering a noticeably present tense account of events and actions. Reproduced with permission of the copyright owner. Further reproduction prohibited without permission. 237 Conversely, without the voice-over a much different pattern of character introduction and reliability emerges. The image and sound relations within the diegesis carry the narrative information, emphasizing the mise-en-scene and spectacle of the local. The sonic environment presented is oppressive and immersive. In this dense cityscape, rain blankets the street and surrounds us in a swirl of atmospheric sound effects including the flickering of neon, bustling crowds shuffling on the sidewalk and snippets of media recordings. Deckard looks up silently and listens as an advertising blimp passes. The announcer calls to the masses below: "A new life awaits you in the Off-World colonies. The chance to begin again in a golden land of opportunity and adventure." The advertisement rhetorically poses the question— why hasn't he gone? Why does he (and so many others) remain in this oppressive environment? Additionally, without the voice-over, he is a man without a background, without a family, and without purpose as yet. We don’t know if he is a criminal or a cop. The advertising announcement above hints at his future by noting: "Use your new friend as a personal problem solver...The custom tailored genetically engineered humanoid replicant designed especially for your use." Deckard is to become a problem solver and the problem he solves are the replicants. Ironically in the course of the film, though, he becomes both problem and problem solver. The only possible Reproduced with permission of the copyright owner. Further reproduction prohibited without permission. 238 historical backstory presented comes much later when the photographs are revealed on the piano in his apartment. Suspiciously, it is a collection much like Leon’s (Brion James) thus revealing Deckard's similarity to the replicants. We can never quite be sure of his authority and his reliability from what we have seen or heard. In his encounter with Gaff, Deckard explains in his voice-over about the language difference or "gutter talk." This is described as a linguist polyglot, a "mishmash of Japanese, Spanish, German, what-have-you." In this case, the voice-over frames the understanding of the events and the character in terms of class. Gaff is lower class, working his way up through the ranks of police to the Blade Runner unit. Deckard's authority as narrator directs the thematic emphasis on this issue. The deeper metaphoric implications are left unexamined as the perspective is naturalized by the filmgoer. Without the voice-over, the metaphoric implication are stronger in terms of the Gaff character. The class issue is eradicated and transformed into an issue of genetics and cultural blending. He states: "Monsieur, ada na kobishin angum bi te.” His words syncopate with hints of Japanese, Spanish and German, while his visual presentation reveals a amalgam of different races and physical cultural markers from his skin tone to his goatee. Much like the genetic engineer Sebastian, Gaff is also "decrepit." He limps forward, supported by a cane Reproduced with permission of the copyright owner. Further reproduction prohibited without permission. 239 and flanked by his support team of officers. He is a mix of cultures, and he represents the intersection of various human gene pools, definitely not engineered. He is a striking juxtaposition to the replicants and even Deckard. In a way, Gaff is us and in some way is the true overseeing authority in the film. He leaves the telling origami markers, and he makes the most directed and profound narrative remarks. He codifies Deckard (In translation: "He said you Blade Runner" and at the end, "You've done a man's job."). Gaff represents humanity in all its variation, yet it is Deckard and the replicants that ultimately hold our attention. Their stories and words serve as a mirror in which we can see ourselves. As with most science fiction, displacement is the means to true analysis and insight. In the initial Blade Runner release, Deckard's voice over and its authority over the narrative events is also supported by its redundancy in terms of depicting the events and actions on the visual track. When Deckard visits Leon's apartment, he presents his observations as he works: "I didn't know whether Leon gave Holden a legit address. But it was the only lead I had so I checked it out." The image track supports the observations as Deckard and Gaff enter and search the apartment. In the bathtub, Deckard finds a reptile scale. In his voice over, he poses questions about the investigation and makes realizations: "Whatever was in the bathtub was not human. Replicants Reproduced with permission of the copyright owner. Further reproduction prohibited without permission. 240 don't have scales." Concurrently,, all of these redundant observations become the filmgoer's realizations and perspective on the events unfolding. Our guide Deckard finds a stack of Leon's photos and notes: "And family photos? Replicants didn't have families either." Only later does Deckard realize the collection of photos squares with what Tyrell (Joe Turkel) told him about the replicants. They need the cushion of memories, even false memories, to deal with their emotions. In case we missed it visually, the same material is covered in the voice-over. As demonstrated throughout, the credibility and stability of the voice-over is far from uniform throughout the film. Its tenuous status is most apparent and revealing at the end of the film. Following the game of cat and mouse with Roy Batty (Rutger Hauer), Deckard nearly falls to his death only to be saved by the failing replicant. Deckard offers: I don't know why he saved my life. Maybe in those last moments he loved life more than he ever had before, not just his life, any body's life, my life. All he wanted were the same answers the rest of us want. Where do I come from? Where am I going? How long have I got? All I could do was sit there and watch him die. Ultimately, our guide Deckard has no answers. His comments are classically noir in their inability to offer a definitive solution to the problem of the replicants and their return. Additionally, Deckard does not appear to have Reproduced with permission of the copyright owner. Further reproduction prohibited without permission. 241 learned anything from the experience. He has taken no emotional journey into understanding his prey so he can understand himself. His credibility as our narrative surrogate is undercut substantially in this final epilogue. The mystery is left open ended and unsatisfying. Conversely, without the voice-over, the final moments with Batty and Deckard are far more profound, lyrical, and tragic. The lines spoken by Batty resonate without commentary as he states: "Quite an experience to live in fear. That's what it is to be a slave." The attention of the scene focuses not on Deckard but on Batty, dwelling on his voice, his narrative authority and the poetic words, which punctuate his death. The dramatic tension and narrative enunciation of the scene completely shifts. The object of scorn is revealed to be "More human than human." Batty notes: "I've seen things you people wouldn't believe. Attack ships on fire off the shoulder of Orion. I watched sea beams glitter in the darkness at Tannhauser Gate. All those moments will be lost in time." In this final speech, Batty reveals his memories and his history so that Deckard honors and understands them, mourning their loss "like tears in rain." The authority and privilege of the voice is thus transferred from Deckard to Batty. The moment also leaves open the issues of sympathy and identification. The filmgoer is left to ask: Does Deckard see himself in Batty? Do we see ourselves in him as well? Reproduced with permission of the copyright owner. Further reproduction prohibited without permission. 2 4 2 Human or Replicant;: Identify Yourself I After "retiring" Zhora (Joanna Cassidy) the replicant from the strip club in Chinatown, Deckard’s voice-over notes: "The report would be routine retirement of a replicant, which didn't make me feel any better about shooting a woman in the back." Again, the character of Deckard is in crisis, questioning his job and his own authority. Thematically, the conflict is between the authentic and the synthetic, the human and the replicant. The word "retirement" takes the place of "execution," cushioning its real meaning. Marleen Barr notes: "The euphemism is part of a metalanguage of discrimination directed against metahumans." 13 The creation of the replicants as slaves has brought about this conflict between simulacrum and the original. Celeste Olalquiaga notes: ...human beings in Blade Runner have technologically replicated themselves to such an exact degree that their own existence is now endangered. Created as slaves, replicants develop in time the only feature that distinguishes them from their makers: emotions. Like all simulacra, replicants undermine the notion of an original by disavowing any difference between themselves and their creators.I4 By foregrounding the commentary on issues of difference through the voice-over, oppression occurs in the Reproduced with permission of the copyright owner. Further reproduction prohibited without permission. 243 categorization and labeling of the replicants as less than human (e.g. "skin jobs"). This distinction serves as a striking contrast to Tyrell motto: "More Human than Human." Uncontrolled replicants are perceived as a threat to authenticity of the human, violating the unique nature of humanity and its freedoms so they must be "retired." Pyle notes: Blade Runner and the Terminator series not only reflect upon the threats to humanity posed by unchecked technological developments, they raise even more probing questions about the consequences of our definitions of the human. 15 But the revisions in the two versions of the film bring into question who exactly is human and who is a replicant? Rachael doesn't know her status until she is tested by the "Voight-Kamphff" test. While she does ask if Deckard has taken the test himself, he doesn't provide an answer. Because Deckard passes out, the filmgoer is left to assume he has just been hardened by his duties as a Blade Runner. The voice-over in general situates Deckard as human. As previously mentioned, he reveals his backstory with his wife, his job and his professional relations to Gaff and Bryant in the detailed voice-over, which is supported by its redundancy throughout. While its status is unstable at times, there are no markers to indicate that this background information is unreliable. In general, his Reproduced with permission of the copyright owner. Further reproduction prohibited without permission. 2 4 4 descriptions and insights side with authority, the police, the hunters of the replicants. Little ambiguity is left in terms of his allegiance to humanity. He even "rescues" Rachael in the end from her fate of "retirement." He notes: "Gaff had been there and let her live. Four years, he figured. He was wrong. Tyrell had told me Rachael was special. No termination date. I didn't know how long we had together. Who does?" His hero status is based on his ability to eradicate distinctions between high and low, replicant and human. Without the voice-over and with the inclusion of the additional visual information, this process of identification for Deckard and all of the characters remains far more fluid and open, and the textual authority is thus diffused throughout the film in dialogue and the image-sound constructions. For instance, Leon's voice is utilized repeatedly to characterize and thematically re enforce events, punctuating the difference between human and non human and drawing his voice into a position of textual authority. From his initial interview, Holden asks him to tell him about his mother. Leon says, "You want to know about my mother..." He then kills the man with a resonating gun blast. The question is never answered but is repeated throughout the film. No past is revealed because there isn't one. Leon's voice jumps to a position of privilege through the replaying of this encounter on tape Reproduced with permission of the copyright owner. Further reproduction prohibited without permission. 245 by Deckard. The voice continually re-iterates the metaphysical question: "Who am I? And where did I come from?" This pondering of origins and identity is a key question for the replicants and the narrative. Deckard too is obsessed with identification. It is part of his job to assure he doesn't "retire a human by mistake." In voice-over, he exposes Rachael's identity and backstory. He notes: "Tyrell really did a job on Rachael. Right down to the snapshot of the mother she never had. The daughter she never was." As with Leon, photographs are markers of history, memory, identity, but without them, there is no story, no identification. Deckard's voice-over about Rachael confirms this idea. Without the voice-over, Deckard has no story to tell either. His wife, his professional relations, and his backstory are wiped away. The pictures on his piano may be fake, may in fact be more planted memories. On the level of dialogue, lines within the diegesis take on greater thematic resonance in terms of the issue of identity. Deckard asks Tyrell, "How can it not know what it is?" It is as much a reflection on Deckard as it is on Rachael. How can he not know who he is? In addition, Zhora asks Deckard "Are you for real?" And throughout his final scenes, Batty's references to Deckard as a "little man" take on an ironic tenor. Crucial information exposing Deckard as a replicant comes from the Gaff character. At Reproduced with permission of the copyright owner. Further reproduction prohibited without permission. 246 the end, Gaff states: "You've done a man's job, sir." Deckard is not a man, and Gaff knows it. The suggestion is that Gaff is privy to Deckard's mind, his memories, his real identity. He tells Deckard on the rooftop, "It's too bad she won't live, but then again. . .who does?" This statement recurs at the end of the film in Deckard's memory as he and Rachael escape. It is accompanied by the discovery of the origami unicorn in the hallway outside Deckard's apartment. Deckard instantly makes the connection to Gaff. The discovery signifies that Gaff let Rachael live. But the understanding goes deeper. The unicorn icon recalls Deckard's dream of the unicorn, which is the crucial footage added in the Director's Cut. In the reference to the dream, Deckard realizes Gaff perhaps has access to his memories, his dream, his identity. How can he not know who or what he is? Deckard's expression becomes somber. The hunter is now the hunted. Deckard nods his understanding. Gaff's voice-off is laden with reverberation, thus elevating its status in the image-sound relation and cueing it as an interior recollection on Deckard's part. Ironically, it reiterates the fact that Gaff seems to have this ability to not only extract and observe memories but to plant them as well. Again, Gaff's authority is paramount in these instances and punctuates his status as a Blade Runner, privy to information beyond the realm of the "little people." The moment in the hallway Reproduced with permission of the copyright owner. Further reproduction prohibited without permission. 2 4 7 for Deckard and Rachael ends with the chilling slam of the elevator door, which breaks suture not only with these characters we have come to view as "human" but with the film itself. The Opposition of Voice and Spectacle The two versions of Blade Runner differ significantly in their impact in terms of sound design and cinematic spectacle. In the original theatrical release, the final mix of the film foregrounds the voice-over as the driving narrative force and aspect of audience identification. As previously noted, Deckard's voice floats above all the other elements in its authority and driving observations of the plot to impose an intellectual understanding of narrative events and character actions. I would argue that this is one of the reasons why the film performed so poorly at the box office bringing in only $27 million dollars in its initial domestic run.The voice-over undercut the spectacle of the film's imagery and suppressed the rich musical score by Vangelis. In short, a competition between the voice-over track and the image track was created which confused filmgoers. Thus, paradoxically, although the purpose of the voice-over was allegedly to give new clarity to the story, it actually ended up distorting it and undermining the visuals as well as the other components of the film's sound track. Conversely, the Director's Cut Reproduced with permission of the copyright owner. Further reproduction prohibited without permission. 248 which eliminates the voice-over and re-mixes the entire sound track re-defines the image-sound relations and heightens their visceral impact and metaphoric significance. The music in particular is foregrounded as are the ambient effects. These revisions encourage new reading codes regarding the nature of the film's image- sound relations as spectacle, stressing the lyrical and poetic aspects and offering a far more visceral and emotional experience for the filmgoer to navigate. As previously mentioned, the opening scenes with Deckard frame his background and authority as narrator through voice-over. With its removal, the ambient effects and visual design dominate the scene. The blimp and its advertisement for the Off World colonies is foregrounded within the cityscape. As a sound effect, the voice is processed with reverberation which offers spatial cues as to the environment, sending the words reflecting off the buildings and streets. Its complexity as a recording matches the complexity of the mise-en-scene, accentuating the spectacle. The spatial component of the image-sound construction is exploded rather than imploded as it is with the voice-over which draws the spectator identification into the hallowed consciousness of the character. In addition, the sound of the foghorn places the blimp within the context of travel to the New World. It is a sound icon Reproduced with permission of the copyright owner. Further reproduction prohibited without permission. 249 of nostalgia recalling ships, travel and the spirit of "adventure." The nature of the cinematic spectacle and its relation to this futuristic space is more fully exemplified in the next scene in which Gaff flies Deckard to the police headquarters in a hovercar. Without the voice over, the spectacle of space, movement and flight overwhelms us in a new kind of narrative pleasure. Scott Bukatman notes: The scene provides, as does so much science fiction, a privileged tour of a richly layered futurity in a narrative moment which exists solely to present this urban space both bewildering and familiar. The city is sepia-toned and mist-enshrouded, a fully industrial and smog bound expanse which retains, in this sequence at least, some semblance of a romantic utopian impulse. The romantic impulse is strongly supported by the sound design which accentuates the notion of flight. The lift off is initiated with the chatter of processed radio-voices and jet engines, which propels the hovercar upward. The sounds dissolve into the score by Vangelis, which features an orchestration of spectral voices, chimes and synthesized tones. The music carries the visceral impact of floating, soaring and falling as it matches the movements of the hovercar. The composition blurs the line between sound effects and music, just as the mise-en-scene blurs any difference between the exterior and interior spaces. The Reproduced with permission of the copyright owner. Further reproduction prohibited without permission. 250 spectacle of flight and movement is also accentuated as two other hovercars pass beneath Deckard and Gaff and the engines whir and slip by in a Doppler shift effect into the surround channels. The scene is framed by a radio processed voice, perhaps a controller, guiding the hovercar into the station. The spectacle overwhelms us viscerally and emotionally, setting the stage for this richly textured world. Scott Bukatman notes that the filmgoer sees (and I would argue hears) how this future functions and participates in a "temporary alliance between technology and poetry, this mechanical ballet."18 As with 2001: A Space Odyssey, this film dances with the spectacle of flight and motion in the convergence of image and sound design. Conclusions It can be argued that science fiction stories are never finished, rather they are re-told and re-formulated within different contexts and different times to acquire longer life and deeper resonance. Their constant state of flux is perhaps one of their greatest assets. Ridley Scott's Blade Runner represents eloquently the power and impact of this continual state of revision and flux. These two versions of the film are in constant dialogue with one another, each offering a different subjective experience and a different sound design. They provide a powerful Reproduced with permission of the copyright owner. Further reproduction prohibited without permission. 251 example of the nature and status of the voice within contemporary cinema and punctuate the difference in reading strategies within contemporary cinema due to the changes in the sound track and the rise of sound design. Undoubtedly there will be another version of this film which includes the additional footage which did not make it into the Director's Cut, particularly the scenes in which Deckard visits Holden in the hospital. Or perhaps advances in cloning and genetic engineering will bring to light once again the questions of origin and identity and cause a re- evaluation of the film. In this context, a new generation of filmgoers may ask themselves: "Where do I come from? Where am I going? How long have I got?" Reproduced with permission of the copyright owner. Further reproduction prohibited without permission. 252 V I chapter 10 FINAL DESIGN Sound Mixing and Sound Design in Science Fiction Cinema: A Mixed Paradox Attend any film screening these days and there will probably be a trailer for the THX sound delivery system, another for the specific format in which the film will be presented such as Dolby Digital, SDDS or DTS, and perhaps a short vignette on an element of the film sound track such as Foley or the process of sound effects mixing. Each teaser reveals the constructed nature of cinematic sound and its connection to spectacle. The THX trailer in particular calls attention to the pallet of sound's frequency range from the very highest to the very lowest, and it also plays with the spectacle of sound movement by panning sound effects through the front and back of the exhibition space. Similarly, the format trailers accentuate the clarity, fidelity and multichannel dynamics of the given reproduction medium, while the production vignettes (which in Los Angeles are utilized to advertise the LA Times Calendar Section) often reveal the highly intensive mode of sound production. These trailers present a microcosm of issues related to the completed sound design. Sound-image relations, format choice, and sound localization are all brought to the foreground and offered Reproduced with permission of the copyright owner. Further reproduction prohibited without permission. 25 3 as a form of cinematic sound play, yet these aspects of cinema sound are often left unexplained, masked, or mystified in terms of their inner workings or implications. They simply leave some filmgoer to recall the Simpson's THX trailer and yell in irony: "Turn it up!"l This chapter and final case study will vigorously examine the inner workings of this cinematic play in sound mixing and reveal the tensions that arise in the unification and deployment of a film's final sound design. Specifically, the case study of Terminator 2: Judgment Day (1991) in chapter 11 will draw together many of the sound design issues previously explored (from sound effects creation to the manipulation of the voice) and examine their overall relationship to the codes and conventions of the science fiction genre. For this reason, it serves as the culmination of this study, demonstrating not only a unified analysis of a particular sound design, but also a method that can be applied to any film or genre. Conversely, this chapter will aggressively deconstruct the "work" of the overall sound design and in particular the facet of sound mixing to unmask both the forces that stabilize and balance the sound track as well as the equally powerful forces that threaten to rupture and expose its work. While a description of the specifics of the sound mix is not the primary objective here, this chapter figuratively offers an opportunity to get behind the mixing' Reproduced with permission of the copyright owner. Further reproduction prohibited without permission. 254 console to tinker with the ideological, generic and theoretical layers of the sound track and ultimately examine their deployment and influence on the Hollywood model of sound design. The Paradox of Mixing In this final stage of film sound construction, a paradox arises. On the one hand, the sound mix seeks to be self effacing through the manipulation of volume levels, uniform placement of sound elements, and an attentiveness to image (in terms of scale, synchronization and content); yet, on the other hand, the sound mix expressly calls attention to the sound design as a construction and spectacle through the manipulation of sound perspective, anthropomorphism, and localization of sound elements within the theatrical exhibition space. In other words, mixed sound strives simultaneously to be both invisible and overt. Thus, for filmgoers, the deployment and reception of mixed sound is often characterized by an interplay between suture and spectacle. Mediating the balance between these two aspects is genre. Science fiction and other genres of the fantastic have been particularly adept in this process, playing on genre considerations, conventions and expectation. In fact, in the trailers previously mentioned, animation (a form of the fantastic) holds the paradox in Reproduced with permission of the copyright owner. Further reproduction prohibited without permission. 255 check. The Simpson's THX trailer with its exploding heads and shattering eye glasses utilizes traditional animation, while the Dolby Digital trailer employs computer generated graphics of helicopters strafing a city scape to showcase its sound developments and capabilities. In many instances, genre considerations and reading protocols are transferred to the process of sound mixing and design to construct and unify the cinematic event. It is within this paradox that contemporary film sound gains greater mobility in terms of aesthetics, narrative subjectivity, and meaning, expanding the reach of film sound further than ever before. In this final stage of construction and deployment, the planning and patterns of the film sound track converge and establish the mental project that is ultimately the "Sound Design", in the popular sense of the word, as used by film critics and reviewers. But is the audience listening? Ideology and Transformation Critic Mary Ann Doane in her ground-breaking article "Ideology and the Practice of Sound Editing and Mixing" examines these key processes in relation to the notion of effacement within classical Hollywood cinema. She argues that traditional production practices are rooted in an ideology of the image, which encourages filmgoers to observe rather than examine, to naturalize rather than Reproduced with permission of the copyright owner. Further reproduction prohibited without permission. 256 analyze, to look rather than listen as a means of understanding.^ Additionally, in the language of sound production, there are sanctioned attempts to separate image and sound in terms of how they are conceived and conceptualized by practitioners (and undoubtedly disseminated to the filmgoers through "behind the scenes" accounts and publicity) . Emotive terms like "mood" and "atmosphere" are employed to describe and subsequently de- emphasize sound processes, while the image is framed in terms of intelligibility and knowledge. 3 The language separates sound (in particular effects and music) from possible analysis, leaving it mysterious and intangible, but at the same time, acknowledging its importance in meaning production.4 This is perhaps one of the reasons why film sound studies have been so neglected. Ironically, the distinction in film language is countered by a vigorous attempt by sound personnel to unify disparate image and sound constructions through a battery of sound production practices and processes. Heterogeneity is vigorously denied. In general, the effort to construct sound-image unity incorporates a host of technologies including mixing consoles, pieces of "outboard gear" operating in the frequency, level and/or time domains, patch bays, reverb chambers and the like. Techniques from dialogue editing to gradual level changes from shot to shot also "promote a sense of effortlessness and ease in Reproduced with permission of the copyright owner. Further reproduction prohibited without permission. 2 5 7 capturing the natural" and thus sound becomes "silent" support for the imagein the schism between language and practice, however, there does exist the constant potential for rupture through many factors including the voice (Voice-over can transmit "knowledge" by simply telling the story as in Blade Runner) . As a result, a constant balancing act must occur to keep the ideology in check. The carefully orchestrated mix becomes one of the key means of creating that balance. Ultimately, it drives classical Hollywood cinema toward an aggressive eradication of post production work as a means of maintaining the dominance of the image.6 In true science fiction fashion, though, this ideology has been assimilated and transformed in the era of multichannel sound design. As this study has shown, sound's status within the cinematic model has evolved significantly since the late 1960s and in many instances rivaled the image for the filmgoer's attention. Filmmakers and filmgoers alike are no longer content to allow sound to be subservient to the image. Genre expectations by filmgoers, particularly within the science fiction genre, demand state of the sound technologies and sound designs which match the innovative special effects. As a result, sound design is a far more aggressive, overt and active participant in the production of meaning and transmission of knowledge from Reproduced with permission of the copyright owner. Further reproduction prohibited without permission. 2 5 8 core elements of music, effects and dialogue to localization of effects within the theater space- The drive toward effacement is still present in techniques such as dialogue smoothing, the elimination or filtering of inconsistencies, and the balancing of sound levels. But new factors brought on by multichannel sound formats and new traditions within blockbuster cinema have driven sound design into the realm of spectacle, metaphor, and cinematic immersion as a form of visceral enlightenment. In the interface between effacement and spectacle challenges, though, the mixing paradox arises. For filmgoers, it pushes reading codes forward as perceptions and narrative cognition are challenged. For the filmmakers, it poses a crisis between suture and suspension of disbelief and the ubiquitous question: How much is too much? In his book Sound for Film and Television, Tomlinson Holman aptly codifies one of the primary issues faced in mixing for blockbuster films. Addressing the distinctions between image and sound perception, he writes: An example of vision dominating sound in film is the "Exit Sign" effect. In Top Gun, when jets fly left to right across the screen and then exit screen right, what may be perceived aurally is the jet flying off screen as well, right into the exit sign. In fact, the film sound system does not have the capability to accomplish this effect technically, but it is nonetheless Reproduced with permission of the copyright owner. Further reproduction prohibited without permission. 259 perceived due to vision overwhelming auditory spatialization.7 The influence of sound localization demonstrates the ever present potential for rupture between the visual and auditory tracks, and the implications are sometimes devastating. Holman notes, "Mismatches between position of a sound source visually and aurally do cause cognitive dissonance, which tends toward limiting the suspension of disbelief usually sought."8 So a constant navigation between image and sound must be maintained in terms of their contributions to meaning production and suture. In short, a mixer must be attentive to not only the limitations of the format medium of a particular film sound track, but also those limitations of the filmgoers and their perceptions as they evaluate that same sound track in the theater. Mixing in its very nature is a means of creating balance, and in the era of sound design that balancing act is far more complex than ever before. Effacement through 'Allowable Relationships' As demonstrated, the difference between image and sound as conveyers of meaning has the potential for creating instability in the sound-image model; however, Doane notes, "Practices of sound editing and mixing are designed to mask this contradiction through the specification of allowable relationships between sound and Reproduced with permission of the copyright owner. Further reproduction prohibited without permission. 260 image. In the classical Hollywood cinema according to Doane, these allowable relations included maintaining consistent levels between various shots to ensure continuous flow, and also diminishing sound inconsistencies through avoidance of abrupt sound cuts on the frame line. This 'work' of self effacement has become even more substantial and deft in contemporary films such as Terminator 2: Judgment Day, which is considered by many sound personnel to be one of the best mixes in recent Hollywood cinema. Sound designer Gary Rystrom notes: The challenge [of the film] turned out to be more in the mixing than the creation [of effects]. You have the dialogue, the music, and the larger-than-life sound effects all thrown together. That's where a lot of creative choices had to be made to give it a flow and some dynamic shape, so you weren’t bombarded by sound.10 In general, one of the primary aims of the sound mix is to eradicate any inconsistencies in terms of recording quality in order to provide a continuous flow. Many techniques and technologies are employed to achieve this end. Dialogue, for instance, is meticulously smoothed with sound presence from the production environment. For this process, sound editors separate dialogue tracks in a checker board of fragments (ADR, production dialogue, and wild recordings), but leave as much room presence from a scene on both sides of the recorded lines. Room presence may also be sampled in a computer and laid under ADR Reproduced with permission of the copyright owner. Further reproduction prohibited without permission. 2 6 1 tracks, which are recorded without presence. Subsequently, when the dialogue tracks are mixed down, the dialogue mixer utilizes skillful cross fades of the presence to cover any inconsistencies and maintain the illusion of continuous dialogue. Effectively the ambience serves as a through line for the dialogue. Tomlinson Holman evokes Gestalt theory to explain this technique as the principle of "Good continuation."11 Sound in effect flows unhindered by sonic distraction, distortion, or self conscious reflection. This technique is utilized heavily in contemporary cinema to eradicate jarring transitions between ADR and production recordings and promote intelligibility on the dialogue track. For example in T2r this principle is played out in the initial hospital scenes in which Sarah Connor (played by Linda Hamilton) is watching herself on video recounting her stories of nuclear annihilation. The dialogue mixer (Tom Johnson) moved skillfully between ADR recordings and production recordings of the actress through a series of cross fades, equalization and ambient cover. Johnson notes: "The editors give me handles on both sides of the line, and I just have to do a bunch of crossfades to make it sound like it was recorded by a microphone in one t a k e . "12 This process of smoothing pervades the film since according to Sound Supervisor Gloria S. Borders over 70% of the dialogue and breathing in the film was replaced through looping.12 Reproduced with permission of the copyright owner. Further reproduction prohibited without permission. 262 Effacement also occurs in the sound mix when voices are equalized and processed from scene to scene to reduce recording noise and provide consistency in voice texture. Throughout T2, the voice of Edward Furlong (the teenage actor who played the young John Connor) changed over the ten month shoot due to the onset of puberty and as a result, the mismatched production and ADR recordings had to be pitch shifted from scene to scene, utilizing a device called a Lexicon 2400, "which will actually speed up or down a tape machine, or whatever [the voice for instance], and pitch it accordingly [while keeping the duration of the effect correctly synchronized].” 14 <jhe effect assured continuity, giving the voice a consistent character and hiding any frequency changes. Similar techniques of effacement are often used for the sound effects and music tracks as well. Ironically, the best sound work is often considered the least noticeable. Confronting the Work of Sound But can the work of the sound track processes and practices ever be entirely eradicated? In this age of sound design and spectacle, the work of the mix can not be truly eradicated nor does it want to be entirely. John Belton notes: .. .work, even the work that seeks to efface itself, can never disappear. A fundamental law of physics tells us that Reproduced with permission of the copyright owner. Further reproduction prohibited without permission. 263 energy,, though it may change form, can be neither created nor destroyed. Neither mass nor energy nor work is ever lost. Similarly, technology and the effects of technology— by which I mean the aesthetics and stylistic practices that grow out of it— remain visible. Or in this case audible for those who listen and evaluate the nature of the film sound track. Though some mix practices seek effacement, the work of post production is at times purposefully self conscious of its own construction as a means of contributing to the sound spectacle or meaning production. If fact, the term sound design offers the conflation of the aims of effacement and spectacle. In classical discourse, sound codifies the "natural" and "real" sound object and this has been unified with the contemporary aim of design which codifies the constructed nature of the process. It is this paradox that science fiction filmmaking embraces and encourages. New sound technologies and formats such as multichannel, for instance, have become part of genre expectations in science fiction cinema. In terms of reading codes, new image-sound relations demonstrated by multichannel offer new visceral, emotional and thematic implications. As with the sound trailers discussed in the opening of this chapter, the employment of these new formats brings on the project of formal cinematic play, such as spectacle of movement, sound localization, and Reproduced with permission of the copyright owner. Further reproduction prohibited without permission. 2 64 others. But what specifically is the nature of this work in terms of the mix and what are the implications of it in terms of sound design? The Mix Process The actual production work on any mix is extensive, grueling and condensed within a short time frame. For Terminator 2: Judgment Day , the re-recording process began at Skywalker Sound in San Rafael California on May 23, 1992 and was completed on June 21, 1992.This intensive four week process involved a series of pre-dubs of nearly 2,000 units (or tracks) of dialogue, music and effects, which were folded down to create a six track master for the 7 0mm print of the film.^7 In general, utilizing the master 70mm print sound stems, various other format versions of a film are created from the Dolby Stereo optical prints to the television versions. This effectively saves money when it comes time for the film to play in alternative venues such as second run theaters, foreign theaters, or onboard commercial aircraft. As is the norm, the film utilized three mixers, Gary Rydstrom who dealt with effects and the overall sound design, Gary Summers who worked with the music, and Tom Johnson who mixed the dialogue. Utilizing pre-printed cue sheets like a sonic script, the mixers meticulously worked through each reel of the film and the voluminous sound Reproduced with permission of the copyright owner. Further reproduction prohibited without permission. 265 elements, summing the parts into the continuous channels of film sound. Though part of their job was to eradicate inconsistencies in recording quality and achieve the flow of dialogue and effects, they did not entirely erase the work of the mixed sound. Their conceit was to maintain the codes of "realism" for film sound as well as establish cinematic spectacle and sound objects of the fantastic. Rydstrom notes, Your first thought when you see a lot of special effects is that sound's job is to not only do something as fantastical as the visual, but also to make it real.18 In a science fiction context, Rydstrom brings into focus the balance of self effacement and spectacle. It is an approach he codifies as "hyper-realistic," adding "everything is big, and you can make it movie-sized." 19 Within this conceit, a balance must be struck to create the final sound design. The issue of image-sound credibility or the right "fit" comes into play. As previously discussed, what makes the sound credible is its adherence to past sound codes and physics of the imagery. For instance, spatial cues such as reverberation and reflections on footfalls of the Terminator (along with the clink of boot chains and squeaking of leather) serve as anchors to bind sound and image. Conversely, what makes the sound 'fantastical' or more than 'real' are the conceptual Reproduced with permission of the copyright owner. Further reproduction prohibited without permission. 266 applications of sounds, brought about through privilege, sound perspective, anthropomorphism, and spatial placement. Throughout the entire sound track of T2, many of the Foley sounds like the footfalls and leather squeaks are so cleanly recorded, detailed, and evocative that they seem to float over all of the other aspects of the diegesis. They fetishize the precision and mechanical nature of the Terminator. In general, the implications of mixing in the fantastic are sometimes emotional, sometimes intellectual but undoubtedly demand our attention. In this way, the effects simultaneously recall our sense memories of the familiar and transgress those memories evoking the mode of the fantastic. The Layers of Spectacle One of the functions of the mix is to create various layers of sound enunciation. Mixer and sound designer Walter Murch notes that he always works in "layers of three," presumably foreground, middle ground and b a c k g r o u n d . 20 (He, however, has since revised this to five layers in this age of multichannel) . It is the equivalent of deep staging in terms of mise-en-scene, yet brought to the level of sound. In T2, the final sequence plays in the steel mill which features multi-layered elements of dialogue, music and effects in the traditional hierarchy of film sound. The music carries the crash of the tanker Reproduced with permission of the copyright owner. Further reproduction prohibited without permission. 267 truck, the sound effects punctuate the impact, and the dialogue relays the critical and volatile nature of the crash and spill as a worker yells, "Get the hell out of here." Narratively, the combination offers a sonic landscape of the location, action and objects of narrative significance. This balance of elements, though, can shift radically to emphasize one element over another or all others. This is the nature of the mix— to focus and direct attention. When the Terminator (Arnold Schwarzenegger) shoots the T1000 which has been frozen by liquid nitrogen, the balance of sound changes radically. The ambient noises of the steel mill completely drop away, thus privileging the silence. The mix strategy carries through with this privilege and stresses only the firing of the gun and then the shattering of the T1000. The privilege becomes a spectacle of loud and soft. It plays on the physiology of the filmgoer by dipping sound levels and rebounding with a loud sound. This psycho acoustic effect heightens the perception of volume. Gary Rydstrom notes: "Dropping out sounds is a big element in making a sound hyperreal. The sound itself is important, but it's how you mix it and how you focus in on it [which makes the sounds 'bigger than life']."21 This same technique is utilized when the Schwarzenegger Terminator jumps his motorcycle off the LA aqueduct in pursuit of John Connor. The sound drops out, Reproduced with permission of the copyright owner. Further reproduction prohibited without permission. 268 emphasizing the spectacle of flight and then the impact. Thematically, the privileging of sound often offers metaphoric implications. Throughout the film, sounds of metal are associated with machines and mechanization. This sound sequence reveals the Terminator's mastery over the mechanical, specifically weaponry, vehicles, and the T1000 Terminator. It sets him in opposition to the humans in the film, Sarah Connor and her son, who seek to master emotion and save humanity from the machines. Ironically, it is only when the Terminator machine gains an understanding of emotion ("I know why you cry.") and sacrifices himself that the project of saving humanity can be achieved. Mixing in Metaphor Metaphoric implications are also overtly evident when mixing and editing practices call attention to sound through anthropomorphism. This technique of the fantastic common to animation in which the inanimate comes alive with human or animal qualities has been extended into the realm of sound. In the steel mill sequence of T2, the molten pit of metal comes alive with the screams and screeches of various animals when the T1000 falls in and can no longer hold its shape. These organic sounds are re-recorded with inorganic sounds of metal scraping against metal and liquid being splashed. The conflating or summing of these disparate elements questions the combination of the natural Reproduced with permission of the copyright owner. Further reproduction prohibited without permission. 269 and synthetic, which reaches into the thematic conflict within the film. The film constantly questions the implications of merging organic with the mechanical. This is one of the key anxieties of science fiction and in fact the modern technological society. Within this same scene, the mixers emphasize another spectacular aspect of contemporary blockbuster cinema, the availability of sound fields within the theater space. Within multichannel theaters, these fields are dominated by different speakers channels and positions, specifically left, center, right, right surround, left surround and subwoofer channel. In the shots of the molten metal pit, the screeches and particularly the splashing of the T1000 whip through the surround channels in a spectacle of sound movement and localization. On the reaction shots of Sarah on the scaffolding above, the surround sound falls away. The sound patterns alternate between a wide pattern of dispersion to a narrow one. Of this technique, Gary Rydstrom notes: "You can shift focus on a cut instantaneously and it has the effect of a Godard jump cut. There's something that shocks you and jumps you into the next s o u n d . "22 The attentiveness to movement and the surround channels calls attention to the work of mixing. The sequence is also important metaphorically. As the T1000 disintegrates wildly, it attempts to run through all the patterns it has sampled. It is an attempt by the machine to Reproduced with permission of the copyright owner. Further reproduction prohibited without permission. 270 be omnipresent as it had been throughout the narrative, but in the end, it is left only to dissipate into nothingness. This nothingness translates into the eradication of the future war, the nightmares of nuclear destruction. Place and time collapse and the future is once again uncertain. Identification: Subjectivity and Suture Within the conceits of mixing for spectacle, it is important to examine the implications for point of view and subjectivity. For example, throughout the narrative and the sound track, overt shifts in point of view occurred whenever the perspective of the film jumped into the Terminator's mind, which offered number crunching scans and overlays with accompanying computer and data processing sounds. These sequences offer a sonic point of view or as Rick Altman has termed them "point of audition."23 However, more subtle shifts can be found by examining mixing and recording patterns. In T2, one of the most significant sound facets is that of weaponry. Thematically, weaponry is aligned with the mechanistic and the fragility of humanity. For instance, Sarah Connor almost becomes a machine when she takes up weapons against computer designer Miles Dyson. The music sound track even plays the leitmotif previously reserved for the Terminator attacks. However, this scene represents a non-traditional method of mixing weapons fire Reproduced with permission of the copyright owner. Further reproduction prohibited without permission. 271 and a shift in sound subjectivity and subsequently the filmgoer's identification. Rather than emphasizing the actual firing of the weapons, the sound mixer emphasizes the impact of the bullet hits on objects. The hits are recorded in a pristine manner and in close perspective, shifting subjective emphasis from the weapon's fire to the results of the bullet impacts. This shift is especially evident when computer engineer Miles Dyson is shot. The visceral impact (accompanied by a slow motion shot) is overwhelming for viewers and the character of Sarah Connor, who realizes the moral implications of her actions and collapses before killing Dyson. A perceptual matching has occurred. Additionally, the shift in subjectivity reinforces a sound pattern which comments on human fragility in juxtaposition to the rigid and impenetrable nature of machines and metal. In other sequences in the film, the sound design emphasizes and even fetishizes the sounds of gunfire and projectiles as well as their impact. In these instances, the close microphone perspective offers a sonic point of view of the weaponry and their projectiles, with which the filmgoer is forced to identify. One instance occurs in the attack on the police at the Cyberdyne complex. The Terminator 101 utilizes a grenade launcher. The editors and mixers carefully break down the utilization of the armament from the loading of the shell, to the dry-fire noise, Reproduced with permission of the copyright owner. Further reproduction prohibited without permission. 272 firing, movement through the air, impact and explosion. The sounds are recorded in close perspective, their fidelity is clear and resonant, and they carry above the fray of other soundtrack elements. Subsequently, filmgoers are sutured into the process via the auditory specificity and localization. The sonic point of view of the projectile is paramount in "selling" the effect. It is in the layers of detail that the spectacle achieves its visceral impact and suture. The specificity goes far beyond that of a simple gunshot (a familiar sound icon of the classical era). The implication is a deepening sense of connection to weaponry, as if it is a character within the diegesis rather than merely a prop. Weapons then become an extension of the Terminator machine and its destructive subjectivity, and the filmgoer is implicated in this position through the recording and mix processes. Conclusions There is no single answer to the paradox of the sound mix, partly because there is never a single mix of a film. The diversity of different venues and formats within the domestic market alone necessitates the creation of multiple sound tracks for the same film. The plenitude of sound trailers belies this point. For example, the current predominant digital formats alone include: Dolby Digital, DTS, and SDDS. Dolby Digital was developed by Dolby Reproduced with permission of the copyright owner. Further reproduction prohibited without permission. 2 73 Corporations and was introduced in 1992 with the release of Batman Returns. DTS (Digital Theater System) was developed in affiliation with Universal Studios and introduced with Jurassic Park (1993). The system features sound on disk (reminiscent of the first Warner Bros, sound-on-disk systems) linked to the picture via timecode. SDDS (Sony Dynamic Digital Sound) arrived in theaters in August of 1994. Each format requires different technical and aesthetic considerations to which the mixers must remain attentive. A mix for the SDDS format features two additional screen channels, which can be utilized independently of the other channels. Conversely if we take a step down from these digital formats, a Dolby Stereo optical print would not feature split surrounds but instead rely on a matrix to divide sound information between channels. In this instance, mixers would need to be aware of problems caused by sounds inadvertently thrown into the surrounds by the matrix. Such effects may have to be excised in the final mix. Thus the search for the definitive mix or the definitive version of a film, for that matter, is extremely elusive, and the mix paradox resonates throughout- If, however, the underlying techniques and principles of the mixing "work" are exposed (as was the goal in this analysis), the evaluation of the sound design is made much easier. Reproduced with permission of the copyright owner. Further reproduction prohibited without permission. 2 7 4 Finally, a case study of Terminator 2: Judgment Day concludes this section. This final evaluation deals with the overall planning and the patterns of this specific film sound track and how the final sound design emerges, drawing together issues of recording, editing, mixing, genre and reception. While T2 represents a relatively conservative sound design in terms of aesthetics, it does signal a new direction into the digital era. In this respect, the film provides an excellent cut off point for this study. With its innovative techniques and utilization of technology (advanced computer generated imagery, digital workstations, and digital recorders), T2 launched science fiction, sound design and cinema in a new direction, offering us a future of possibilities. Reproduced with permission of the copyright owner. Further reproduction prohibited without permission. chapter 11 2 7 5 Mixing Man and Machine in Terminator 2: Judgment Day FEATURE - T2, REEL 1: Freeway ambience, laughter of young girl, movement of chain swing, playground ambience, flash flare, explosion, metal creaking, desolate wind. Spotting notes such as these provide a detailed list of vital sounds needed to build the sound design of a film. The descriptions read like poetry and are referenced to a sound library or wants list. If a sound is unavailable, it is designed. If the sound quality is not right, it is processed, edited, and re-mixed. From the spotting notes, the motifs and metaphors of a sound track are explored by the sound designers before a single sound edit is made. The opening sequence of Terminator 2: Judgment Day (1991) establishes a number of sounds that will run throughout the films from rhythmic movement of metal to the desolate wind of Judgment Day. The goal of this final case study is to analyze the composite sound design of T2: Judgment Day and to explore integration and implications of the film's various sound components including the ambience, dialogue, music, Foley, and sound effects and their relationship to the codes and conventions of the science fiction genre. While the title of the film implies an allegory of Armageddon and a binary Reproduced with permission of the copyright owner. Further reproduction prohibited without permission. 2 7 6 conflict between man and machine, the narrative and the sound design support a more complex and transgressive project, which ultimately explores the interpenetration of man and machine and the resulting consequences. At the site of contact, metal and bone collide, gender differences collapse, language and data combine, and humanity and programming clash. The driving metaphor of the film is the cyborg, yet the allegorical implications of this metaphor are ambiguous. Ultimately, the film offers no future vision (Dystopian or utopian) for man or machine, only the sound of the open road and the notion that "there is no fate but what we (humans) make." Perhaps this is a vision of the human condition in a technological age. Ambience: The Kind of Judgment Day The opening sequence of T2 offers the most significant use of ambience in the film. After the flair of a nuclear explosion, the ambience of wind comes in, and the camera reveals a devastated city. The ambience is sweetened with the sound of sand and dust playing across various surfaces, metal, and bone. Contrast this with the prior sound effect of the young girl's laughter and the juxtaposition is telling. The future represented by the child's voice is wiped away by the impact of a man-made technology, a nuclear weapon. Sarah Connor (Linda Hamilton) in her voice over invokes the religious prophesy of "Judgment Day" to Reproduced with permission of the copyright owner. Further reproduction prohibited without permission. 277 describe the event. These are the sounds of Armageddon. Sobchack notes one important aspect of wind within the science fiction genre: ...the sound of natural forces which are usually out-shouted in modem life by man-made noise, natural forces like the wind. . .are made alien and threatening by the amplification and isolation of their sound on the track— crashing surf, screaming wind, both become aural icons, metaphors for extreme desolation.1 T2 offers a unique extension of this metaphor. In the opening sequence, the application of wind collapses both the natural and the man-made, which is one of the central projects of the film. In its production, the recordings of wind were sampled within a computer and "performed" off a Synclavier system and keyboard, offering the convergence of the organic and the technological.25 In terms of the narrative, the wind (the natural) is created by the shock wave of a nuclear weapon (the man-made) . The environment is charged with the ultimate mechanical device that uses nature (atoms) against itself. Later, the narrative traces this collapse in its entirety in Sarah's dream. In her dream sequence, the camera follows the blast wave through the city, across freeways and office parks to this same playground. Here, the ambient wind is transformed into an angelic choir of voices (again invoking the religious connotations). The blast of wind is so powerful it breaks Reproduced with permission of the copyright owner. Further reproduction prohibited without permission. 278 apart the children like "leaves" and with them the future of humanity. Throughout the film, the site of contact between the natural (generally human) and the man-made is a one of extreme violence. The ultimate violence denoted in this opening sonic movement is Armageddon, clearly a dystopian vision of the future. Or is it? Fredric Jameson in "Progress Versus Utopia; or, Can We Imagine the Future?" has argued that science fiction does not offer visions of utopia or dystopia, rather it offers "to defamiliarize and restructure our experience of our own present. "3 He notes that "such narratives have the social function of accustoming their readers to rapid innovation, of preparing our consciousness and our habits for the otherwise demoralizing impact of change itself."4 T2 certainly follows this conceit. This opening sequence is only a dream, an envisioned prophesy that Sarah Connor carries with her. Her prime motivation is to prevent this possible future by manipulating the present, yet her identity is almost lost as she nearly becomes the object of her scorn. Like a cyborg Terminator toting heavy weapons and clad in a synthetic armor, she almost kills Miles Dyson (played by Joe Morton), the inventor of Skynet. By the end of the film, it is ambiguous if she has in fact achieved her goal in altering the future timeline. Her dystopian vision has Reproduced with permission of the copyright owner. Further reproduction prohibited without permission. 279 been wiped away, yet no vision remains in its place, only the present and "the unknown future." The open road becomes a metaphor for the possibilities that lie ahead. Ironically, the director of the film did try to imagine (and even shot) a vision of a utopian future. It was meant to be a "bookend" to the opening sequence. The scene can be seen in the "Special Edition" of the film yet only as an addendum, following the film in the supplementary section. The scene is set in a playground in a futuristic Washington D.C. There is no wind, only the voices of children chattering and playing. Sarah Connor, 64, watches her son John Connor (now a Senator) push his young daughter on a swing set. In voice-over, Sarah tells her story: August 29, 1997 came and went. Nothing much happened. Michael Jackson turned forty. There was no Judgment Day. People went to work as they always do, laughed complained, watched TV, made love. I wanted to run through the streets yelling, to grab them all and say 'Everyday from this day on is a gift. ’ Instead, I got drunk. That was thirty years ago. But the dark future which never came still exists for me and it always will like the traces of a dream....John fights the war differently now than was foretold, here on the battlefield of the Senate. His weapons are common sense and hope...The legacy of hope was given to me by a Terminator because if a machine can learn the value of a human life, maybe we can too. The scene was cut and the end of the film revised. In this respect, another sequel (another future) remains a Reproduced with permission of the copyright owner. Further reproduction prohibited without permission. 280 possibility. In fact, the rights for such a vision have been procured by a major Hollywood studio and at this point, James Cameron is expected to write and produce (though not direct), and Arnold Schwarzenegger is expected to reprise his role, though Linda Hamilton may not. As with its predecessors, this new film will undoubtedly reveal more about the present than the future. Voice-Over and Dialogue: Authority, Mimicry and Intertextuality SARAH CONNOR (voice over) Skynet sent two Terminators back through time. Their mission— to destroy the leader of the human resistance-— John Connor, my son. The first Terminator was programmed to strike at me in the year 1984 before John was born. It failed. The second was set to strike at John himself, when he was still a child. As before, the resistance was able to send a lone warrior, a protector for John. It was just a question of which one would reach him first. Throughout T2, a voice-over by Sarah Connor provides backstory, enunciation and narrative authority to the various events within the diegesis. Voice-over in itself is not uncommon within the science fiction genre (or to Hollywood cinema); however, historically most voice-overs have been engendered as male. Noir cinema is rife with such examples. In her analysis of classical Hollywood cinema and the genre of film noir, Kaja Silverman notes that "a Reproduced with permission of the copyright owner. Further reproduction prohibited without permission. 2 8 1 complex system of displacements... locate the male voice as the point of apparent textual origin, while establishing the diegetic containment of the female voice."5 The voice over in T2 transgresses this project to some degree, establishing Sarah Connor outside the diegesis in some other space and time, indicated by the utilization of the past tense and the recording of the voice without geographic or temporal indicators of any kind. With the inclusion of the voice-over, Sarah's authority directs the point of view of the narrative and shapes the filmgoers' identification with her character. At the same time, however, her voice is rendered unstable as it is forced into containment throughout the film by technology. This instability once again recalls the use of voice-over in noir cinema. In the omitted ending of the film, the voice-over is discovered to be on tape, just as in the first film. Ostensibly Sarah is making the tapes for her son John so that he may understand her trials with the Terminators. This project, however, is subverted in the sequel. In the mental institution, Sarah is forced by the medical establishment to hear, see, and endlessly confess her dreams of Judgment Day on videotape. Her voice screeches into the theater as she screams into the microphone. The scene mixes irony and pathos as it mobilizes doubt about Sarah's sanity and questions her voice of authority by containing it within technology as Reproduced with permission of the copyright owner. Further reproduction prohibited without permission. 2 8 2 evidence against her. It is as if even she were being forced to disbelieve her own testimony. The voice becomes a form of sedation and rejection of truth, but there is subversion here. Dr. Silberman (Earl Boen) realizes it: "I think you're just telling me what I want to hear." Sarah' s voice as the authority is constantly in conflict with the machinery in the film. At one point, her voice is even stolen by the T1000 Terminator (played by Robert Patrick). Near the end of the film at the metal works, the T1000 impales Sarah in the shoulder and demands that she call to her son John. The T1000 intends to sample and utilize her voice to lure John to his death. Sarah refuses with a brave "Fuck You", yet the T1000 captures her voice regardless. The T1000 transforms into a copy of Sarah and calls out to John for help. John, however, recognizes that such a call is uncharacteristic of his mother and rejects her. The real Sarah then reclaims her voice by shooting the T1000 into submission. Ultimately, the film re-affirms Sarah's authority by establishing her outside the diegesis with the ending voice-over; thus her voice transgresses the narrative and in part the standard Hollywood practices of containment of the female voice, since we are unsure if this account is on tape or just an inner monologue. Mary Anne Doane notes that sound in classical Hollywood cinema "sustains a limited number of Reproduced with permission of the copyright owner. Further reproduction prohibited without permission. 283 relationships between voice and image."® Science Fiction in the era of sound design, however, allows for an ever expanding pallet of relationships between the voice and the image. Throughout T2, the Terminators are revealed to have the ability to mimic voices, which allows the filmmakers to collapse notions of identity, gender, and age while at the same time exploring intertextual play and self reflexivity about the image-sound connection in cinema. The most significant exploration of mimicry occurs during the phone conversation between John Connor and his foster parents. In one sense, the scene is self reflexive of the process of dialogue replacement as it deftly mismatches voices and character images. The moment of "hesitation" to borrow Todorov's term is powerful, yet the fusion of the image and sound by the cinematic technology overpowers the filmgoer into accepting it as authentic. On the level of narrative, telephones link the narrative spaces and contain the voices within the diegesis, yet serious play occurs on the level of the fantastic. Gender roles collapse as the T1000 Terminator samples the voice of John Connor's Foster Mother. In exaggerated motherly concern, she/he talks about making dinner. The unseen violence in this mimicry comes as the Terminator transforms its arm into a blade and impales John’s foster father, Todd. John senses something is not right and the T101 Terminator (Arnold Schwarzenegger) takes the phone. The Reproduced with permission of the copyright owner. Further reproduction prohibited without permission. 2 8 4 T101 samples John Connor's voice (collapsing the notion of age as well as identity). It represents a sound based confrontation in which the two Terminators duel by exchanging captured voice patterns. It is only an error in knowledge regarding the name of family dog that acts like a password that reveals the lack of authenticity and credibility of the TIOOO's voice. Thus, the level of play in the scene is multifaceted both at the level of narrative and the cinematic apparatus itself. Ultimately, this play offers a unique method to navigate the site of contact between man and machine, easing the violence of interpenetration. Essential to the science fiction genre is this sense of play, not only on the level of sound technique but also on the level of sound content. One final use of the voice relates to intertextual play of dialogue within the genre. The fact that T2 is a sequel to a highly successful and thus culturally recognized work perhaps assures a higher incidence of play. The two most significant examples are related to the first Terminator film. As John Connor and the T101 attempt to rescue Sarah Connor from the mental hospital in T2, the T101 holds out his hand to Sarah and says, "Come with me if you want to live." These are the same words spoken by Kyle Reese in the first Terminator film as he rescued Sarah from another T101 (again, played by Arnold Schwarzenegger). Thus, the line provides a Reproduced with permission of the copyright owner. Further reproduction prohibited without permission. 285 bitter-sweet irony for the character as well as the filmgoer. The dialogue recalls the love story between Kyle and Sarah, but at the same time, it invokes the horror of their plight to kill the first T101. The irony lies in the fact that the line is now spoken by another T101 Terminator, who looks exactly like the one that killed Reese and nearly killed Sarah. A purely comedic use of intertextual play in T2 comes when the T101 states: "I'll be back" and goes out to confront an army of police. The line again refers to the first Terminator film and the police station sequence in which the T101 smashes a car through the lobby to get to Sarah. In T2, nearly the same sequence is again played out. The terminator, however, does not kill a single police officer (as ordered by the young John Connor), but returns to Sarah and John riddled with bullet pocks and hanging flesh. The tag line plays on cultural identification of the dialogue with the Schwarzenegger persona and on genre expectations of mass destruction and conflict— ultimately, it indicates that even cyborg wit is a site of violent conflict. Music: Metal Rhythm and Heavy Metal Vivian Sobchack notes that music within classical science fiction cinema tends toward "the invisible" yet can vary in application, becoming "far more aggressive and Reproduced with permission of the copyright owner. Further reproduction prohibited without permission. 286 conceptually based than traditionally employed film music."7 As noted in the case study of 2001: A Space Odyssey, music within science fiction has played an ever increasing role in establishing the mood, meaning and dominant themes of genre films. Not surprisingly, the score for T2 is aggressively conceptual, recalling militaristic tempos and sparse variations. Gary Rydstrom notes: "I think the score in this movie works as the driving element that holds parts of the mix together. "8 it beats like a mechanical heart almost constantly throughout the film. The overall score by Brad Fiedel is rhythmically based, establishing leitmotifs based on metal percussion for the Terminators and wood for the humans like the police. These motifs foreshadow a character's appearance and underscore their actions. Throughout the film, the Terminators are associated with the specific musical rift of the ringing of heavy metal chimes. Synthesized melodies also underscore these tones. One instance of this musical configuration occurs when Miles Dyson looks at the metal arm of the Terminator in the vault at Cyberdyne. In this instance, the use of metal based sounds blurs the line between music and sound effects, yet the result serves to create a sonic signature for the Terminator (even when only part of the character is present). Thematically, the chimes could be thought of as funeral bells, signaling the possibility of death. Reproduced with permission of the copyright owner. Further reproduction prohibited without permission. 287 One important variation of the Terminator leitmotif occurs when Sarah Connor attempts to kill Miles Dyson in his home midway through the film. In a subtle commentary, the Terminator music underscores her action in the scene, sonically revealing that she has become like a Terminator. The music fades slowly and dramatically when she realizes she cannot kill Dyson, that he represents the humanity that she is fighting to preserve. The moment offers an important transgression, revealing that humanity and machine programming/ideology are part of the cyborg conflict. Remember it is John Connor who continually tells the Terminator, "You can't just kill people" and returns to the city to stop his mother from killing Dyson. He knows that it not the machines, but man who are the true Terminators. Of this classic science fiction dilemma, Stuart M. Kaminsky has noted: Humanity is truly the enemy of humans. It is almost always individuals who have brought the potential destruction of the future down upon their own heads. It is humans who are responsible for pollution and atomic warfare. It is persons who must overcome their own animal emotions and fears if they are to survive as social beings.® It is Sarah Connor who makes this same realization at the end of film in her voice-over (with no metal based sounds for underscoring). Reproduced with permission of the copyright owner. Further reproduction prohibited without permission. 28 8 In addition to the examples noted above, metal relates to other generic elements in the musical score of T2. Metal scrapes across piano wires and stringed instruments punctuate dramatic or unexpected moments (i.e. when the T1000 jumps onto a truck and pulls out the driver). These high pitched hits or sonic jolts are in part a convention of the horror genre assimilated by the science fiction genre. They evoke a leap in anxiety, fear and dread. The music in general creates an unsettling atmosphere, which like ambience is a prime generic concern of science fiction. As H.P. Lovecraft and others have noted, atmosphere is perhaps even more important than narrative within the genre of the fantastic. Within the blockbuster tradition, this adage holds firm even today. The motif of metal also plays an essential role in the soundtrack music of T2. Heavy Metal music from the band Guns and Roses is associated with John Connor as a rebellious youth. In particular, the song "You could be mine" can be heard on his boombox as he flees his foster home on his dirt bike with his friend. The lyrics of the song punctuate the underlying conflict of the film, specifically that outside forces are stalking the young John Connor. Thus it moves outside the diegesis to present a form of commentary. Yet the song is also anchored within the diegesis through inclusion of the boombox which appears within the scene. In this way, this song moves from source Reproduced with permission of the copyright owner. Further reproduction prohibited without permission. 289 to score with some ease. The associations and selection of the music also move well beyond the borders of the celluloid, however. Musical placement is constantly utilized within contemporary sound designs to position potential consumers, the youth market to see the film and more importantly purchase ancillary products such as CD's and video games, which provide an often greater revenue source. An example of music as mood comes earlier in the film. The twangy country music version of "Guitars, Cadillacs" by Dwight Yoakam creates the red-neck atmosphere for the biker bar in the opening act of the film. This music too evokes both the idea of score and source, as it is processed to localize its source of origin as a juke box. In terms of sonic blocking, it creates an amusing contrast to the image of Arnold Schwarzenegger walking through the bar completely naked. The most conceptual use of the soundtrack music in the film, however, comes when the T101 Terminator exits the biker bar. The camera frames the concrete steps of the bar as the T101 descends, now fully dressed in black biker leather. Simultaneously, the soundtrack blares with the song "Bad to the Bone" by George Thorcgood and The Destroyers. The music is privileged outside the diegesis and thus the nature of its placement is immediately suspect. A metaphoric interpretation is aggressively encouraged. The play is on two words— "bad" and "bone." Reproduced with permission of the copyright owner. Further reproduction prohibited without permission. 2 9 0 "Bad" in this case is inverted and means good (The T101 is a protector for John Connor). "Bone" is also inverted and means metal (Again, the play is on the notion of cyborg). The stylistic of image and song works conceptually as musical spectacle re-defined within a science fiction context (much like the waltz scenes in 2001:A Space Odyssey). This can be thought of as a means of cinematic play, which is one of the pleasures of the science fiction genre. Sound Effects: Metal and the Fragility of the Human Body (Vincent LoBrutto:) One of the key sounds in Terminator 2 is metal. How did you create the wide range of metal sounds in the film? (Gary Rydstrom, Sound Designer:) We did a lot of banging on all sorts of metal. The archive building at Skywalker Ranch was still under construction— all the girders were exposed. We recorded banging on big long girders in various ways so they would really resonate. I mixed together different pitches of metal hits until they were matched and sounded like one metal hit. You would get the deep thud with a high ring- out. The primary sound effect motif in the film centers on metal. Metal squeaks, clangs, shatters and pounds throughout the sound design of the film. Metal provides an essential rhythm to the sound track and the narrative. In fact, the narrative even ends in a metal works. As with the Reproduced with permission of the copyright owner. Further reproduction prohibited without permission. 2 9 1 music, the sound effect of metal is directly associated with the Terminators. During the shoot-out at the Cyberdyne building, the T101 has his flesh tom away by bullets which ricochet off his metal endoskeleton. The T101 tears off his own arm using a metal rod (which is later used to impale him) . The T1000 is a liquid metal which absorbs the impact of bullets and re-seals itself. Later, he is frozen and a bullet shatters his body. As the motif recurs in association with the Terminators, metal sounds quickly become the metaphor for machines. Vivian Sobchack notes that machine sounds (metal) are "used in nearly all SF cinema and are generically resonant... akin to the sound of... squealing tires and gunshots in the gangster film." 1 1 - Metal and machine sounds are generic staples in science fiction sound design, yet metal is not only associated with machines in T2. It is also associated with the humans in the film. Sarah in particular shows her command over metal and the mechanical. In the hospital, she does pull ups on the metal bed frame, which creaks under her control. Her muscle pumped body is a demonstration of that control over time. Later, she picks a door lock with a paper clip and breaks off a key in a door. Within the motif of metal, humanity resides as well. Humanity is part of the machinery because humans have programmed the machines. Donna Haraway in "A Manifesto for Cyborgs" has argued that this is a consequence of living in a technological society that we Reproduced with permission of the copyright owner. Further reproduction prohibited without permission. 292 cannot escape and that such an interpenetration should be embraced in new mythology and daily existence.12 T2's narrative and sound design bear out this project but explore the site of contact as one of extreme violence. Throughout the film and the sound design, humanity is acted upon violently by metal. Metal can be associated with bullets, rockets, bombs and other weaponry in the film. For example, countless police are wounded in the gun play, other characters are impaled, and Sarah herself is shot as well as impaled by the T1000. These applications reveal the site of interpenetration between machine and man and are indicative of the primary project of the sound design of the film, which is the sonic exploration and exploitation of the fragility of the human body. This theme of interpenetration carries over from the initial Terminator film (1984). Constance Penley notes: Interpenetration of human and machine is seen most vividly. . .when Sarah is wounded in the thigh by a piece of exploding Terminator shrapnel. Leaving aside the rich history of sexual connotations of wounding in the thigh, part of a machine is literally incorporated into Sarah's b o d y . 13 The sound effects of T2 also reveal the intimate contact between metal and the human body. They explore how bones and flesh can crunch, burn, break, separate, and explode when acted upon by metal, from the Terminators to bullets. Examples of this project are evidenced in the Reproduced with permission of the copyright owner. Further reproduction prohibited without permission. 2 9 3 opening scenes of the film. In the biker bar, the T101 grabs a man's hand, crushes it, breaks his elbow, then pitches him onto a hot grill. The T101 also breaks the arm of another man and impales him with a knife to a pool table. The sounds work to create a sonic geography of human body, primarily the skeleton and connecting cartilage. The resulting sounds create anxiety and fear within the listening audience by revealing the fragility of the body. In the network television broadcast of the film, the majority of the images remained in the film, yet a number of sound effects were removed. This censorship supports the notion that sounds are sometimes more emotionally disturbing than images. The notion of body fragility is further explored in the scenes in which the T101 shoots at the kneecaps of the police at the hospital and the Cyberdyne complex. The sound quality of these bullet impacts implies a close microphone to subject distance, which creates the equivalent of an auditory close up. As Gary Rydstrom has noted, "It's more effective emotionally to realize how hard something is being hit by a bullet than it is to realize there's a gun being shot twenty yards a w a y . ''14 The emphasis then is no longer on the origin of the sound (the gun) but rather the effect (the impact of the gun's bullet). This is an inversion of the previous sound design ideology employed by Reproduced with permission of the copyright owner. Further reproduction prohibited without permission. 2 9 4 Westerns and other genres. Thus, even the mode of production supports the ideology of the cyborg conflict. Foley: Transforming Bodies The final component of sound for analysis in T2 is Foley. Foley sounds (footsteps, movement of clothes) provide pivotal sonic anchors to the body and unify the spaces in which a body moves. These sounds are recorded in synchronization with the picture by Foley Artists or walkers. If sound effects explore the fragility of the body, then Foley places and contains the body within specific spaces. One of the most significant uses of Foley in T2 (perhaps in recent cinema) occurs in the hospital sequence as the T1000 is walking down a hallway, scanning for Sarah. The Foley sounds reveal one of the most important science fiction themes— transformation. In this case, the sound design deals with transformations of forms, specifically, human and machine. In the beginning of the sequence, the T1000 has appropriated the form of a hospital guard (his footsteps echo off the walls) yet in mid-shot, the camera pans away and back again rapidly. In the lull of the movement, the Terminator transforms off-screen and returns to his original form- The power of the scene comes not in visual morphing technology, which is avoided through the camera move, but in the sound of the footsteps which alter mid-step, sweetened only by the sound of a midrange Reproduced with permission of the copyright owner. Further reproduction prohibited without permission. 2 9 5 chime, which has become a leitmotif of transformation as well. The single camera, long take of the scene and the unbroken rhythm of the footsteps privilege the sound and break the traditional image-sound hierarchy. The transformation occurs completely on the level of the auditory track and the footsteps become anchors in the tangible while pushing us into the realm of the fantastic, revealing a body that is both man (albeit in image only) and machine. Conclusions Ultimately, the sound design of any film is a product of the mixing of the various elements— ambience, music, dialogue, Foley and sound effects— as well as an amalgam of genre codes and considerations. Like a music score, it is a process of careful planning, orchestration, and conducting by the director and the sound supervisor or designer as well as the numerous individuals who edit, record and re record the sound elements. As is evident, the final mix of Terminator 2: Judgment Day plays heavily on music and the rhythms of metal. These rhythms beat and pulse like a human heart, which reiterates the shared condition of both the cyborg and the human in this technological age. Ultimately, sound design offers a unique site of analysis to explore this condition of human-machine interface and its relation to the science fiction genre and our imagined future. Just Reproduced with permission of the copyright owner. Further reproduction prohibited without permission. 29 6 as Sarah Conner notes, perhaps if we can learn something about the mechanisms that create and support these sounds tracks, we can learn something about ourselves as well. Reproduced with permission of the copyright owner. Further reproduction prohibited without permission. 297 EPILOGUE The science fiction genre often speculates about the future but always with the understanding— as Sarah Conner in T2 puts it: "That the future is not set." Change is always within reach because it is rooted in our actions within the present. While this study has attempted to look back at the emergence of sound design as a challenge to the adage and age of visual culture, it also offers an opportunity to look forward to possible future developments in sound discourse and criticism. It is my hope that this work, which combines issues of history, theory and practice, provides a useful model of analysis as it examines one genre, one national cinema, and one important segment of contemporary history. The opportunities for similar sound studies based on different cinemas, time periods, and premises are vast. Questions in particular arise as to how other national cinemas engage film sound practices and processes, and how these sound designs present different modes of construction, perceptual engagement, and understanding. In countries which rely entirely on post production dubbing, the creation of a sound design must be a speculative process indeed, since there is no guiding production sound recordings on which to "hang" the various sound layers. The Reproduced with permission of the copyright owner. Further reproduction prohibited without permission. 2 9 8 sound design is in effect a construction around which there is no scaffolding. Specific concerns must then be addressed: How does language function as a result? What are the implications of dubbing as related to ambiences, Foley and other effects? How do filmgoers deal with the "work" of cinema sound, when it is so apparent and overt? The answers to these questions would undoubtedly extend the reach of contemporary sound inquiry, and may expose deeper insights as to economic dominance of certain cinemas over others, particularly Hollywood cinema's dominance over other films within the world market. Additionally, from the premise of "Sound Design and Science Fiction," a new line of discourse could be opened to addressed how sound design functions and engages other genres? The action-adventure genre for instance is a dominant cinematic genre from Hollywood to Hong Kong. A similar study could ask: How does sound interpenetrate with the codes and conventions of the police action genre, which includes films like John Woo's The Killer (1989) and Hardbolled (1992)? While I have discussed briefly the utilization of the sounds of armaments in T2, more work can be done in terms of action films and genre expectations as related to these genre specific sounds. For instance, a comparison contrast between the sound iconography presented in a film from the Classical Hollywood era and the contemporary blockbuster era might prove extremely Reproduced with permission of the copyright owner. Further reproduction prohibited without permission. 2 9 9 enlightening, not just in terms of sound usage but in terms of presentation formats (mono to multichannel) as well. Lastly, fundamental changes that have occurred in film sound since the early 1990s with the introduction of digital work stations, portable digital recorders, and new computer software that can manipulate sounds down to the level of the particular wave formation. This new digital era rings in editing suites, dubbing stages, theaters and homes around the world. But what does it mean to be "All digital?" What are the differences between the digital and analog mediums, and how do these differences shape what we hear? Additionally, these innovations have signaled shifts in the mode of production and changes in the division of labor within the Hollywood film industry (and within other national cinemas to be sure). What does this mean to the film sound track? The implications of the transition to this new digital technology are as important as those around the transition to synchronized sound itself in the late 1920s. These changes, therefore, demand closer examination. With the promise of new lines of analysis, the sound practitioner and sound designer figures prominently within the process. For sound designers (present and future), there is much to be gained from this continued inquiry into film sound, specifically an inquiry that links history, theory, and practice. As I have detailed in this study, the Reproduced with permission of the copyright owner. Further reproduction prohibited without permission. 300 movements of international cinema have provided a consistent and powerful influence on Hollywood cinema, both ideologically and pragmatically. "Sound Montage" was born as a result of influences from the French New Wave and international art cinema of the 1950s and 1960s. Formal and technological exchange is essential for the continued vibrancy of the cinematic medium world wide. As contemporary Hollywood cinema threatens to settle into predictable formulas in terms of narrative (some would argue it already has), filmmakers and sound designers need only look to other forms of cinematic expression around the world for inspiration and innovation. In these exchanges, the pallet of sound design can continue to expand, which in turn will enervate genres and transform reading codes. Unquestionable, sound design is increasing the immersive qualities of cinema, and for practitioners, the parameters and possibilities of that immersion are within the reach on the mixing board and workstation key board. Criticism, history and theory can offer powerful insights into the implications and impact of those possibilities. It is my hope that future sound studies (and theorists) will make it a point to reach out to sound designers and sound practitioners for understanding and input— only in this way can sound discourse emerge as a stronger and more represented line of inquiry within the field of cinema studies. Reproduced with permission of the copyright owner. Further reproduction prohibited without permission. 3 0 1 So if the future is not set, the present represents a critical pathway to possibilities. It is my hope that through the sonic speculations presented in this study and in future studies like it, sound design and science fiction (and cinema in general) will continue to evolve, explore and challenge us in motion picture theaters today and far into the future. The audience is listening. Reproduced with permission of the copyright owner. Further reproduction prohibited without permission. 302 ENDNOTES Introduction ^Michael Pye and Lynda Myles, The Movie Brats (New York: Holt, Rinehart and Winston, 1979). Pye and Myles list the "Brats" as Francis Ford Coppola, George Lucas, Brian DePalma, John Milius, Martin Scorsese, and Steven Spielberg. In retrospect, the list should also include Robert Altman, William Friedkin and John Carpenter among others. 2Thomas Schatz, "The New Hollywood," Film Theory Goes To The Movies, eds. Jim Collins, Hilary Radner, and Ava Preacher Collins (New York: Routledge, 1993) 8-36. 3Amy Lehr, "Sound in Film Theory: The Pattern of Attack and Neglect." Unpublished Masters Thesis, University of Southern California, 1985, 1. ^Rick Altman, ed., Cinema/Sound Yale French Studies 60 (1980) and Rick Altman, ed, Sound Theory Sound Practice (New York: Routledge, 1992). ^Mary Anne Doane, "The Voice in the Cinema: The Articulation of Body and Space," Cinema/Sound Yale French Studies 60 (1980) 33-50. 6Rick Altman, "Introduction: Cinema as Event," Sound Theory Sound Practice (New York: Routledge, 1992) 1-14. 7Kaja Silverman, The Acoustic Mirror— The Female Voice in Psychoanalysis and Cinema (Indianapolis: Indiana University Press, 1988). 3Amy Lawrence, Echo and Narcissus— Women's Voices in Classical Hollywood Cinema (Berkeley: University of California Press, 1991). ^John Belton, "1950's Magnetic Sound: The Frozen Revolution." Sound Theory Sound Practice (New York: Routledge, 1992) 154-167. l^Alan Williams, "Is Sound Recording Like a Language?", Cinema/Sound Yale French Studies 60 (1980), Michel Chion, "Wasted Words," Sound Theory Sound Practice Reproduced with permission of the copyright owner. Further reproduction prohibited without permission. 3 0 3 (New York: Routledge, 1992), and Elizabeth Weis, The Silent Scream (London: Associated University Presses, 1982). 1 ^-Vincent LoBrutto, Sound-On-Film: Interviews with Creators of Film Sound (Westport: Praeger, 1994). ■^waiter Murch, Lecture/Book Signing, Midnight Bookstore, Santa Monica, California, 28 January 1996. Gary Rydstrom, CNTV 241: Lecture, University of Southern California, Spring Semester, 1997. 13Tomlinson Holman, Sound for Film and Television, (Boston: Focal Press, 1997). ^4Website addresses and dates are listed throughout these entries. 15vivian Sobchack, Screening Space— The American Science Fiction Film (New York: Ungar Publishing Company, 1987). l^scott Bukatman, Terminal Identity: The Virtual Subject in Postmodern Science Fiction (Durham: Duke University Press, 1993). 17Donna Haraway, "A Manifesto for Cyborgs: Science, Technology, and Socialist Feminism in the 1980's," Socialist Review, 80 (1985) 65-107. l®Linda Williams, "Film Bodies: Gender, Genre and Excess," in Film Quarterly, Vol.44, No.4 (Summer 1991) 2- 13. l ^ T z v e t a n Todorov, The Fantastic: A Structural Approach to Literary Genre (Ithaca: Cornell Paperbacks, 1989) . 20Jerome Agel, ed.. The Making of Kubrick's 2001 (New York: The Agel Publishing Co., Inc., 1970) and Paul M. Sammon, Future Noir— The Making of Blade Runner (New York: HarperPrism, 1996). P a rti Chapter 1 1 Jordan Fox, ""Making Beaches Out of Grains of Sand," Cinefex, no. 3 (1980) 55. Reproduced with permission of the copyright owner. Further reproduction prohibited without permission. 3 0 4 ^Larry Blake, "The Evolution and Utilization of 7 0mm Six-Track Film Sound— Stereophonic Reproduction in Movie Theaters," Film Sound Today (Hollywood: Reveille, 1984), 28-29. Blake notes: "The most extensive use of surround channels was for Apocalypse Now, the first film to be released in the Dolby 70mm 'spiit-surround’ format. The split format utilizes the free high frequency information space about 500 Hz on tracks #2 and #4 of Dolby 70mm prints, in conjunction with information below 500 Hz on the standard surround information on track #6. This provides, in essence, a quadraphonic effect from a 7 0mm print, while retaining compatible playback with standard Dolby 70mm equipment." ^Vincent LoBrutto, Sound-On-Film: Interviews with Creators of Film Sound (Westport: Praeger, 1994) 91-92. 4Fox 52. ^David Chell, ed., Moviemakers at Work (Redmond: Microsoft Press, 1987) 107. ^Tomlinson Holman, Sound for Film and Television, (Boston: Focal Press, 1997) 172. ^Consent Decree Summary, USC Warner Bros. Archives. 3Memo from USC Warner Bros. Archives. ^THX Website (1997), http://www.THX.com. 10David Bordwell, Janet Staiger and Kristin Thompson, The Classical Hollywood Cinema (New York: Columbia University Press, 1985) 370. ^Thomas Schatz, "The New Hollywood," Film Theory Goes To The Movies, eds. Jim Collins, Hilary Radner, and Ava Preacher Collins (New York: Routledge, 1993) 15 12ibid. i3Leonard Quart and Albert Auster, American Film and Society since 1945 (New York: Praeger, 1991) 109. l^Kudelski S.A. Nagra Website (1997), http://www.nagra.com. Reproduced with permission of the copyright owner. Further reproduction prohibited without permission. 305 15Jeff Forlenza and Terri Stone, eds. Sound For Picture: An Inside Look at Audio Production for Film and Television (Emeryville: Mixbooks, 1993) 17. l^Michael Pye and Lynda Myles, The Movie Brats (New York: Holt, Rinehart and Winston, 1979) 54. 17pye and Myles 87. 18pye and Myles 58. ^Christopher h. Sterling and John M. Kittross, Stay- Tuned: A Concise History of American Broadcasting (Belmont: Waddsworth Publishing Company, 1978) 250. 2°sterling and Kittross 251. 21Ibid. 22sterling and Kittross 352 23John Belton, "1950's Magnetic Sound: The Frozen Revolution." Sound Theory Sound Practice (New York: Routledge, 1992) 164. 24Robert Palmer, Rock and Roll (New York: Harmony Books, 1995) 40. 25oerald Mast, A Short History of the Movies (Indianapolis: Bobbs-Merrll Company, 1981) 421. Chapter 2 1 Jerome Agel, ed. , The Making of Kubrick's 2001 (New York: The Agel Publishing Co., Inc., 1970) 367. 2percy A. Scholes, The Oxford Companion to Music (New York: Oxford University Press, 1938) 1005. 3Ibid. 4David Bordwell, Janet Staiger, and Kristin Thompson, The Classical Hollywood Cinema (New York: Columbia University Press, 1985) supplemental section, figure 12.16. 5Bordwell, Staiger, and Thompson 33-34. 6Ibid. Reproduced with permission of the copyright owner. Further reproduction prohibited without permission. 3 0 6 7Fred Karlin, Listening to Movies (New York: Schirmer Books, 1994) 67-84. 8Vivian Sobchack, Screening Space— The American Science Fiction Film (New York: Ungar Publishing Company, 1987) 212- 213. 9Vincent LoBrutto, Stanley Kubrick: A Biography (New York: Fine Books, 1997) 305. lORobert Townson, "The Odyssey of Alex North's 2001," Liner Notes from Alex North CD, 1. 1:LAgel 6-7. 12Agel 88. l^Liner Notes from Recording of 2001: A Space Odyssey. l4Michel Ciment, "The Odyssey of Stanley Kubrick: Part 3: Toward the Infinite— 2001," Focus On The Science Fiction Film, ed. William Johnson (Englewood Cliffs: Prentice-Hall, Inc., 1972) 137. l^Ciment 1 36. l^Ciment 138. l7Arthur C. Clarke, "Introduction" Hal's Legacy," Hal's Legacy— 2001 's Computer As Dream and Reality, ed. David G. Stork (Cambridege MA: MIT Press, 1997) xiv. Ibid. Part II Chapter 3 ^Vincent LoBrutto, Sound-On-Film: Interviews with Creators of Film Sound (Westport: Praeger, 1994) 84. ^Behrouz Saba, "Walter Murch,” Draft of Interview for Hollywood: The New Breed, USC Cinema-Television Library, Clipping Files, 11. •^Thomas Schatz, "The New Hollywood," Film Theory Goes To The Movies, eds. Jim Collins, Hilary Radner, and Ava Reproduced with permission of the copyright owner. Further reproduction prohibited without permission. 307 Preacher Collins (New York: Routledge, 1993) 15. Estimates for losses fall between the years 1969-1971 as estimated by Variety. ^Michael Pye and Lynda Myles, The Movie Brats (New York: Holt, Rinehart and Winston, 1979) 101. ^Dale Pollack, Skywalking: The Life and Films of George Lucas, the Creator of Star Wars (New York: Ballantine Books, 1983) 49. ^Peter Graham, "New Directions in French Cinema" in The Oxford History of World Cinema, ed. Geoffrey Nowell- Smith (New York: Oxford University Press, 1996) 576. Afinay Shrivastava, "Technical and Theoretical Analysis of Cinematic Sound," unpublished diss., University of Southern California, 1990, 182. 8j. Dudley Andrew, The Major Film Theories (New York: Oxford University Press, 1976) 53. 9Saba 11. l°Peter Wollen, "Godard and Counter Cinema: VENT D'EST," in Movies and Methods, Vol.II, ed. Bill Nichols (Berkeley: University of California Press, 1985) 508. L1Saba 12. 12Jordon Fox, "Walter Murch— Making Beaches Out of Grains of Sand," Cinefex, 3 (1980) 43. l^David Bordwell, Janet Staiger, and Kristin Thompson, The Classical Hollywood Cinema (New York: Columbia University Press, 1985) 372. l^Union Classifications Document, USC Warner Bros. Archives, 21. 15Jeff Forlenza and Terri Stone, eds. Sound For Picture: An Inside Look at Audio Production for Film and Television (Emeryville: Mixbooks, 1993) 13. I6Jordon Fox, "Walter Murch— Making Beaches Out of Grains of Sand," Cinefex, 3 (1980) 44. Reproduced with permission of the copyright owner. Further reproduction prohibited without permission. 3 08 17Press Kit Production Notes for THX 1138, USC Cinema- Television Library, Clipping Files, 3. l^Lobrutto 84. 19Fox 43. 2°Transcripts from lecture for USC Cinema 498, dated 11-15-82, USC Cinema-Television Library, Clipping files. 21LoBrutto 8 5. Chapter 4 1LoBrutto 85. ^Warner Bros. did re-release the film following the success of Star tVars, but again, the film failed to reach its audience. It has, however, become a cult classic on laser disk and video as well as the revival house circuit, particularly in France. 3THX 1138 Pressbook, 6. 4THX 1138 Pressbook, 9. 5Transcripts from USC Cinema Course 498, USC Cinema- Television, Clipping Files. 6Craig W. Anderson, Science Fiction of the Seventies (North Carolina: McFarland & Company, Inc.) 25. 7Scott Bukatman, Terminal Identity: The Virtual Subject in Postmodern Science Fiction (Durham: Duke University Press, 1993) 3. 8THX 1138 Pressbook. 9THX 1138 Pressbook. 10Vivian Sobchack, Screening Space— The American Science Fiction Film (New York: Ungar, 1991) 196. Upollack 102. 12ibid. Reproduced with permission of the copyright owner. Further reproduction prohibited without permission. 3 0 9 13LoBrutto 86. Part II! C hapter 5 Ivincent LoBrutto, Sound-On -Film: Interviews with Creators of Film Sound (Westport: Praeger, 1994) 142. ^Christian Metz, L ' ENONCIATION IMPERSONNELLE, OU LE SITE DU FILM (IMPERSONAL ENUNCIATION, OR THE SITE OF FILM) (Paris: Meridiens Klincksieck, 1991) 161. ^Walter Murch, Lecture/Book Signing for In the Blink of an Eye, Midnight Bookstore, Santa Monica, California, 28 January 1996. ^Bela Belazs, Theory of the Film: Character and Growth of a New Art (New York: Dover, 1970) 216. ^Alan Williams, "Is Sound Recording Like a Language?" Cinema/Sound Yale French Studies 60 (1980) 52. ^Tomlinson Holman, "Sound for Pictures," Reprint for USC Sound Department (Boston: Focal Press, 1992) 3. 7John Belton, "Technology and Aesthetics of Film Sound," Film Theory and Criticism, eds. Gerald Mast, Marshall Cohen, Leo Braudy (New York: Oxford University Press, 1992) 326. ^Jeff Forlenza and Terri Stone, eds. Sound For Picture: An Inside Look at Audio Production for Film and Television (Emeryville: Mixbooks, 1993) 5. ^Tzvetan Todorov, The Fantastic: A Structural Approach to Literary Genre (Ithaca: Cornell Paperbacks, 1989) 26. l°Larry Blake, Film Sound Today (Hollywood: Reveille, 1984) 35. ^Kudelski S.A. Nagra Website (1997), http: / /www. nagra. com. l^Dale Pollack, Skywalking: The Life and Films of George Lucas, the Creator of Star Wars (New York: Ballantine Books, 1983) 195-96. Reproduced with permission of the copyright owner. Further reproduction prohibited without permission. 310 • * - 3Alan Arnold, "Once upon a Galaxy: A Journal of the Making of The Empire Strikes Back," University of Southern California, Clipping Files 256. l^LoBrutto 88 15Blake 35 ^Arnold 256. 17Pollack 196. 18Belton 326. 19Arnold 255. 20LoBrutto 142. 2^LoBrutto 143-144. 22Ibid. 23Blake 35. 24Forlenza and Stone 4. 25Lecture by John Haeny, Todd AO Glen Glen, Los Angeles, CNTV 554:Advanced Sound Seminar at University of Southern California, 1996. 28LoBrutto 139. 27Metz 161. Chapter 6 ^John F. Allen, "Dolby: 30 Years of Sound Ideas," Boxoffice June 1995: 22. 2Dolby Website (1996) http://www.dolby.com/index.html. Dolby Chronology indicates: "Dolby Stereo optical soundtrack format introduced at Society of Motion Picture and Television Engineers (SMPTE) convention in Toronto using specially re-mixed section of Stardust. Advantages include performance comparable to older 35 mm magnetic process at considerably less cost to producers, distributors, exhibitors." Reproduced with permission of the copyright owner. Further reproduction prohibited without permission. 311 3Dolby Website (1996). 4Ray Green, "Noises Off: Celebrating 30 Years of Sound Ideas with Ray Dolby of Dolby Laboratories," Boxoffice, June 1995: 20-23. ^John Belton, "1950's Magnetic Sound: The Frozen Revolution." Sound Theory Sound Practice (New York: Routledge, 1992). ^Mary Anne Doane, "The Voice in the Cinema: The Articulation of Body and Space," Cinema/Sound Yale French Studies 60 (1980) 35. ^Doane 35. 8John Belton, "Technology and Aesthetics of Film Sound," Film Sound, eds. Elisabeth Weis and John Belton (New York: Columbia University Press, 1985) 63. 9 John Belton, "1950's Magnetic Sound: The Frozen Revolution," Sound Theory Sound Practice, ed. Rick Altman (New York: Routledge, 1992) 158. lOjerome Agel, ed., The Making of Kubrick's 2001 (New York: The Agel Publishing Co., Inc., 1970) 300. •^Vincent LoBrutto, Sound-On-Film: Interviews with Creators of Film Sound (Westport, CT: Praeger, 1994) 86. i^Tzvetan Todorov, The Fantastic: A Structural Approach to Literary Genre (Ithaca: Cornell Paperbacks, 1989) 26. Todorov notes that the "hesitation between two possibilities" leads to the fantastic. 13Agel 328. 14Vivian Sobchack, Screening Space— The American Science Fiction Film (New York: Ungar, 1991) 228. l^Sobchack 25 5. l^Tom Gunning, "The Cinema of Attraction: Early Film, Its Spectator and the Avant-Garde," Wide Angle 8.3-4 (1986) 70. •^Sobchack 282. Reproduced with permission of the copyright owner. Further reproduction prohibited without permission. 3 1 2 l^Laxry Blake, Film Sound Today (Hollywood: Reveille, 1984) 5. Mixer Bill Varney offers his strategies on mixing in Dolby Stereo format. 19Sobchack 218. ParTIV Chapter 7 •^•Michael Seymour, "Out-of-this-World Production Design," in American Cinematographer, August 1979, 804. "Something like Star Wars, which is a very beautiful and complex piece of design, was, we felt, more cosmetic....We were trying to approach our subject [ALIEN] in a much more workaday way." ^Linda Williams, "Film Bodies: Gender, Genre and Excess," in Film Quarterly, Vol.44, No.4 (Summer 1991) 3. 3Tony Thomas, Film Score: The Art and Craft of Movie Music (Burbank: Riverwood, 1991) 96. 4Thomas 93. ^Williams 3. Altman is specifically talking about melodrama, which Williams expands to include the horror genre. 6Thomas 95. 7Tzvetan Todorov, The Fantastic: A Structural Approach to Literary Genre (Ithaca: Cornell Paperbacks, 1989) 27. 3Robin Wood, Hollywood from Vietnam to Reagan (New York: Columbia University Press, 1986) 46. 9Marsha Kinder and Beverle Houston, "Seeing is Believing: The Exorcist and Don’t Look Now," in American Horrors: Essays on the Modern American Horror Film (Chicago: University of Illinois Press, 1987) 47. Silence also exemplifies Father Merrin as a character in general. "He's the archetypal silent man; we recognize him from genres like the western... .Instead of talking, he acts. As Merrin says in the last line of the opening sequence: 'There's something I must do.'" This sets him in contrast with the other priest, Father Karrin, in the film. Reproduced with permission of the copyright owner. Further reproduction prohibited without permission. 31 3 10Bashkar Sarkar, "Sound Bites: Fragments on Cinema, Sound, Subjectivity," in Spectator Vol. 17, No. 2 (Spring/Summer 1997) 30. ^Williams 5. 12<j«odorov 34-35. l^Susan Sontag, "Imagination of Disaster," in Against Interpretation and Other Essays (New York: Octagon Books, 1986) 218. 14Williams 4. Williams specifically targets this perceptual matching as associated with the female body. This model though easily extends to the male body within "creature" films such as American Werewolf in London (1981) or Wolf (1994), in which the male protagonists transform in a spectacle of excess (and hair). l^Robert L. Mott, Sound Effects: Radio, TV, and Film (Stoneham: Focal Press, 1990) 192. 16Mott 192. John Belton, "Technology and Aesthetics of Film Sound," Film Theory and Criticism (New York: Oxford University Press, 1992) 325-326. l^Donna Haraway, "A Manifesto for Cyborgs: Science, Technology and Socialist Feminism in the 1980s," in Socialist Review, Vol. 15, No. 2 (March-April 1985) 68. l^Ibid. 20Sarkar 28. 21Sarkar 21. Chapter 8 ^There are currently plans for a fifth installment to the series as yet untitled. 2Marvin M. Kerner, The Art of the Sound Effects Editor (Boston: Focal Press, 1989) 11. Reproduced with permission of the copyright owner. Further reproduction prohibited without permission. 314 8 Amy Lawrence, Echo and Narcissus— Women's Voices in Classical Hollywood Cinema (Berkeley: University of California Press, 1991) 20. ^Lawrence 21. 5Recently, texts like Tomlinson Holman's Sound for Film and Television (Focal Press, 1997) have included CDs as appendices. This trend will undoubtedly continue and expand to the inclusion of interactive formats such as CD ROMs or DVDs. 8Alan Williams, "Is Sound Recording Like a Language?" Cinema/Sound Yale French Studies 60 (1980) 58. ^Nigel Andrews and Harlan Kennedy, "Space Gothic," American Film (March 197 9) 22. 8Ridley Scott, "The Filming of 'ALIEN'," in American Cinematographer, August 1979, 810. ^Greenberg 93. Greenberg 94. HGreenberg 96. l^Greenberg 97. 13Harvey R. Greenberg, M.D., "Reimagining the Gargoyle: Psychoanalytical Notes on Alien," Camera Obscura - A Journal of Feminism and Film Theory (1986) 100. l^Linda Williams, "Film Bodies: Gender, Genre and Excess," in Film Quarterly, Vol.44, No.4 (Summer 1991) 4. l^Linda Williams 5. i6Kaja Silverman, The Acoustic Mirror— The Female Voice in Psychoanalysis and Cinema (Indianapolis: Indiana University Press, 1988) 45. l^Annette Kuhn, "Invading Bodies," Sight and Sound (July 1992) 9. 18Ibid. Reproduced with permission of the copyright owner. Further reproduction prohibited without permission. 315 Part V Chapter 9 Ipaul M. Sammon, Future Noir— The Making of Blade Runner (New York: HarperPrism, 1996) and Retrofitting Blade Runner: Issues in Ridley Scott's Blade Runner and Philip K. Dick's Do Androids Dream of Electric Sheep? (Bowling Green: Bowling Green State University Popular Press, 1991). ^Sammon 294. ^Sammon 270. 4Kaja Silverman, The Acoustic Mirror— The Female Voice in Psychoanalysis and Cinema (Indianapolis: Indiana University Press, 1988) 52. ^Sammon 296. 6Sammon 388. 7Ibid. 8John Belton, "Technology and Aesthetics of Film Sound," Film Theory and Criticism (New York: Oxford University Press, 1992) 328. ^Lecture by John Haeny, Todd AO Glen Glen, Los Angeles, CNTV 554: Advanced Sound Seminar at University of Southern California, 1996. 10Silverman 45. ^Silverman 44. 12silverman 45. 13Marleen Barr, "Metahuman 'Kipple' Or, Do Male Movie Makers Dream of Electric Women?: Speciesim and Sexism in Retrofitting Blade Runner: Issues in Ridley Scott's Blade Runner and Philip K. Dick's Do Androids Dream of Electric Sheep? (Bowling Green: Bowling Green State University Popular Press, 1991) 27. l^Celeste Olalquiaga, Megalopolis (Minneapolis: University Minnesota Press, 1994) 11. Reproduced with permission of the copyright owner. Further reproduction prohibited without permission. 316 15Forest Pyle, "Making Cyborgs, Making Humans: Of Terminators and Blade Runners," Film Theory goes to the Movies (New York: Routledge, 1993) 228. l^David Tobenkin, "Rereleasing 'Blade Runner’ proved to be a smart move," Minneapolis Star Tribune 29 September 1992. l^Scott Bukatman, Terminal Identity: The Virtual Subject in Postmodern Science Fiction (Durham: Duke University Press, 1993) 132. l^Bukatman 132-133. Part V I C hapter 10 ^-This tag line references The Simpson ' s THX trailer commissioned by Lucasfilm. ^Mary Anne Doane, "Ideology and the Practice of Sound Editing and Mixing," Film Sound, eds. Elisabeth Weis and John Belton (New York: Columbia University Press, 1985) 55. ^In Marvin M. Kerner's The Art of the Sound Effects Editor (Boston: Focal Press, 1989) 12, the equation drawn for creating a specific sound effect is "1 Effect = Illusion + Mood." The codification of sound as "magic" is equally utilized to de-emphasize sound processes and practices. ^Doane 55. The voice, however, does counter this sense of aural mystery. 5Doane 58. 8Doane 54-55. 7Tomlinson Holman, Sound for Film and Television, (Boston: Focal Press, 1997) 38. 8Ibid. ^Doane 56. Vincent LoBrutto, Sound-On-Film: Interviews with Creators of Film Sound (Westport: Praeger, 1994) 234-235. Reproduced with permission of the copyright owner. Further reproduction prohibited without permission. 317 H-Holman 44. l^Jeff Forlenza and Terri Stone, eds. Sound For Picture: An Inside Look at Audio Production for Film and Television (Emeryville: Mixbooks, 1993) 35. l^Forlenza and Stone 34. 14Forlenza and Stone 34. John Belton, "Technology and Aesthetics of Film Sound," Film Sound, eds. Elisabeth Weis and John Belton (New York: Columbia University Press, 1985) 63 l^Forlenza and Stone 30. 17Ibid. l8Forlenza and Stone 31. 19Ibid. 20walter Murch, Lecture/Book Signing, Midnight Bookstore, Santa Monica, California, 28 January 1996. 2iLoBrutto 233. 22Lc>Brutto 234. 23Rick Altman, "Sound Space" in Sound Theory Sound Practice (New York: Routledge, 1992) 61. Chapter 11 ^Vivian Sobchack, Screening Space— The American Science Fiction Film (New York: Ungar, 1991) 218. ^Forlenza and Stone 33. ^Fredric Jameson in "Progress Versus Utopia; or, Can We Imagine the Future?" 151. 4Ibid. Reproduced with permission of the copyright owner. Further reproduction prohibited without permission. 318 ^Kaja Silverman, The Acoustic Mirror— The Female Voice in Psychoanalysis and Cinema (Indianapolis: Indiana University Press, 1988) 45. 6Mary Ann Doane, "The Voice in the Cinema: The Articulation of Body and Space," Cinema/Sound Yale French Studies 60 (1980) 34. 7Sobchack 215. ^Forlenza and Stone 33. 9Stuart M. Kaminsky, American Film Genres (Chicago: Nelson-Hall, 1985) 130. lOvincent LoBrutto, Sound-On-Film: Interviews with Creators of Film Sound (Westport: Praeger, 1994) 234. H-Sobchack 219. l^Donna Haraway, "A Manifesto for Cyborgs: Science, Technology, and Socialist Feminism in the 1980's," Socialist Review, 80 (1985) 65-107. l^Penley, Constance, "Time Travel, Primal Scene and Critical Dystopia" in Alien Zone: Cultural Theory and Contemporary Science Fiction Cinema, ed. Annette Kuhn (New York: Verso, 1990) 119. 14LoBrutto 237. Reproduced with permission of the copyright owner. Further reproduction prohibited without permission. 319 FILMOGRAPHY 2001: A Space Odyssey (1968) Produced and directed by Stanley Kubrick, Screenplay by Stanley Kubrick and Arthur C. Clarke, based on the short story "The Sentinel" by Arthur C. Clarke, Cinematographer, Geoffrey Unsworth, John Alcott, Editor, Ray Lovejoy, Production designer, Tony Masters, Harry Lange, Ernest Archer, Art director, John Hoesli, Special effects, Stanley Kubrick, Wally Veevers, Douglas Trumbull, Con Pederson, Tom Howard, Colin J. Cantwell, Bryan Loftus, Frederick Martin, Bruce Logan, David Osborne, John Jack Malick, Sound Editor, Winson Ryder, Sound Supervisor, A.W. Watkins, Sound Mixer, H.L. Bird, Chief Dubbing Mixer, J.B. Smith, Music, Aram Khatchaturian, Gyorgy Ligti, Johann Strauss, Jr., Richard Strauss. Cast: Keir Dullea (as David Bowman), Gary Lockwood (Frank Poole), William Sylvester (Dr. Heywood Floyd), Douglas Rain (Voice of HAL). Alien (1979) Produced by Gordon Carroll, David Giler, Walter Hill, Directed by Ridley Scott, Screenplay by Dan O’Bannon, based on a story by Dan O ’Bannon and Ronald Shusett, Cinematographer, Derek Vanlint, Editor, Terry Rawlings, Peter Weatherley, Composer, Jerry Goldsmith, Production designer, Michael Seymour, Set designer, Ian Whittaker, Special effects, Carlo Rambaldi, Bernard Lodge, Costumes, John Mollo, H.R. Giger, Roger Dicken, Sound Editor, Jim Shields, Dialogue Editor, Bryan Tiling, Production Sound Mixer, Derek Leather, Re-Recording Mixer, Bill Rowe, Re- Recording Assistant, Ray Merrin, Music Editor, Bob Hathaway. Cast: Tom Skerritt (Dallas), Sigourney Weaver (Ripley), Veronica Cartwright (Lambert), Harry Dean Stanton (Brett), John Hurt (Kane), Ian Holm (Ash), Yaphet Kotto (Parker), Voice of Mother, Helen Horton. Blade Runner (1982) Produced by Michael Deeley, Directed by Ridley Scott, Screenplay by Hampton Fancherm, David Peoples, based on the story "Do Androids Dream of Electric Sheep?" by Philip K. Dick, Cinematographer, Jordan Cronenweth, Editor, Terry Rawlings, Composer, Vangelis, Art director, David L. Reproduced with permission of the copyright owner. Further reproduction prohibited without permission. 320 Snyder, Set designer, Lawrence G. Paul, Special effects, Douglas Trumbull, Sound Mixer, Bud Alper, Sound Editor, Peter Pennell, Dialogue Editor, Michael Hopkins, Assistant Sound Editor, Joe Gallagher, Assistant Dialogue Editor, Peter Baldock, Chief Dubbing Mixer, Graham V. Hartstone, Gerry Humphries. Cast: Harrison Ford (Deckard), Rutger Hauer (Roy Batty), Sean Young (Rachael), Edward James Olmos (Gaff) , M. Emmet Walsh (Bryant), Daryl Hannah (Pris), William Sanderson (Sebastian), Brion James (Leon), Joseph Turkel (Tyrell), Joanna Cassidy (Zhora). Blade Runner: The Director's Cut (1992) Produced by Michael Deeley, Directed by Ridley Scott, Screenplay by Hampton Fancherm, David Peoples, based on the story "Do Androids Dream of Electric Sheep?" by Philip K. Dick, Cinematographer, Jordan Cronenweth, Editor, Terry Rawlings, Composer, Vangelis, Art director, David L. Snyder, Set designer, Lawrence G. Paul, Special effects, Douglas Trumbull, Sound Mixer, Bud Alper, Sound Editor, Peter Pennell, Dialogue Editor, Michael Hopkins, Assistant Sound Editor, Joe Gallagher, Assistant Dialogue Editor, Peter Baldock, Chief Dubbing Mixer, Graham V. Hartstone, Gerry Humphries. Cast: Harrison Ford (Deckard), Rutger Hauer (Roy Batty), Sean Young (Rachael), Edward James Olmos (Gaff), M. Emmet Walsh (Bryant), Daryl Hannah (Pris), William Sanderson (Sebastian), Brion James (Leon), Joseph Turkel (Tyrell), Joanna Cassidy (Zhora). This version includes additional footage, removal of "happy ending" and removal of Deckard's voice over. Star Wars (1977) Produced by Gary Kurtz, Directed by George Lucas, Screenplay by George Lucas, Cinematographer, Gilbert Taylor, Editor, Paul Hirsch, Marcia Lucas, Richard Chew, Composer, John Williams, Production designer, Jonathan Barry, Art director, Norman Reynolds, Leslie Dilley, Set designer, Roger Christian, Special effects, Rick Baker, John Dykstra, Production Sound Mixer, Derek Ball, Supervising Sound Editor, Sam Shaw, Special Dialogue and Sound Effects, Ben Burtt, Sound Editors, Robert R. Routledge, Gordon Davidson, Gene Corso, Re-recording mixers, Don MacDougall, Bob Minkler, Ray West, Robert Litt, Mike Minkler, Lester Fresholtz, Richard Portman. Reproduced with permission of the copyright owner. Further reproduction prohibited without permission. 3 2 1 Cast: Mark Hamill (Luke Skywalker), Harrison Ford (Han Solo), Carrie Fisher (Princess Leia), Peter Cushing (Grand Moff Tarkin), Alec Guinness (Ben "Obi-Wan" Kenobi), Anthony Daniels (C3P0), Kenny Baker (R2D2), Peter Mayhew (Chewbacca), David Prowse (Darth Vader), James Earl Jones (Voice of Vader). Terminator 2: Judgment Day (1991) Produced by James Cameron, Directed by James Cameron, Screenplay by James Cameron, William Wisher, Cinematographer, Adam Greenberg, Editor, Conrad Buff, Mark Goldblatt, Richard A. Harris, Composer, Brad Fiedel, Production designer, Joseph Nemec, III, Art director, Joseph P. Lucky, Set designer, John M. Dwyer, Special effects, Stan Winston, Dennis Muren, Post Production Sound Services Provided by Skywalker Sound, Sound Designer, Gary Rydstrom, Re-Recording Mixers, Tom Johnson, Gary Rydstrom, Gary Summers, Sound Supervisor, Gloria A. Borders. Cast: Arnold Schwarzenegger (Terminator), Linda Hamilton (Sarah Connor), Robert Patrick (T-1000), Edward Furlong (John Connor), Earl Boen (Dr. Silberman), Joe Morton (Miles Dyson). Terminator 2: Judgement Day— Special Edition Produced by James Cameron, Directed by James Cameron, Screenplay by James Cameron, William Wisher, Cinematographer, Adam Greenberg, Editor, Conrad Buff, Mark Goldblatt, Richard A. Harris, Composer, Brad Fiedel, Production designer, Joseph Nemec, III, Art director, Joseph P. Lucky, Set designer, John M. Dwyer, Special effects, Stan Winston, Dennis Muren, Post Production Sound Services Provided by Skywalker Sound, Sound Designer, Gary Rydstrom, Re-Recording Mixers, Tom Johnson, Gary Rydstrom, Gary Summers, Sound Supervisor, Gloria A. Borders. Cast: Arnold Schwarzenegger (Terminator), Linda Hamilton (Sarah Connor), Robert Patrick (T-1000), Edward Furlong (John Connor), Earl Boen (Dr. Silberman), Joe Morton (Miles Dyson). This version includes extra footage and the alternative ending for the film. THX—1138 (1971) Produced by Lawrence Sturhahn, Directed by George Lucas, Screenplay by George Lucas, Walter Murch, Cinematographer, David Myers, Albert Kihn, Editor, George Lucas, Sound Reproduced with permission of the copyright owner. Further reproduction prohibited without permission. 322 Montages, Walter Murch, Composer Lalo Schifrin, Art director, Michael Haller, Stunts John Ward, Duffy Hamilton, Costumes, Donald Longhurst. Cast: Robert Duvall (THX 1138), Donald Pleasence (SEN 5241), Don Pedro Colley (SRT), Maggie McOmie (LUH 3417), Ian Wolfe (PTO), Sid Haig (NCH), Marshall Efron (TWA), John Pearce (DWY), Johnny Weissmuller, Jr.Robert Feero (Chrome Robots), James Wheaton (Voice of OMM) . Reproduced with permission of the copyright owner. Further reproduction prohibited without permission. 323 SELECTED BIBLIOGRAPHY Agel, Jerome, ed. The Making of Kubrick's 2001. New York: Signet, 1970. Alkin, Glyn. Sound Recording and Reproduction. Oxford: Focal Press, 1991. Allen, Robert C. and Gomery, Douglas. Film History: Theory and Practice. New York: Alfred A. Knopf, 1985. Altman, Rick. ed. Cinema/Sound. Yale French Studies 60 (1980). Altman, Rick. "Deep-Focus Sound: Citizen Kane and the Radio Aesthetic. " In Quarterly Review of Film and Video, December 1994. Altman, Rick. ed. Sound Theory Sound Practice. New York: Routledge, 1992. Anderson, Craig W. Science Fiction Films of the Seventies. Jefferson: McFarland & Company, Inc., 1985. Baudry, Jean-Louis. "Ideological Effects of the Basic Cinematographic Apparatus." In Film Theory and Criticism. Ed. Gerald Mast, Marshall Cohen, and Leo Braudy. New York: Oxford University Press, 1992. Baxter, John. Science Fiction in the Cinema. New York: The Paperback Library, 1970. Bazin, Andre. What is Cinema, Vol.l. Trans. Hugh Gray. Berkeley: University of California Press, 1972- Biskin, Peter. Seeing is Believing: How Hollywood Taught Us to Stop Worrying and Love the Fifties. New York: Pantheon Books, 1983. Blake, Larry- Film Sound Today. Hollywood: Reveille, 1984. Bordwell, David, Janet Staiger, and Kristin Thompson. The Classical Hollywood Cinema— Film Style and Mode of Production to 1960. New York: Columbia University Press, 1985. Reproduced with permission of the copyright owner. Further reproduction prohibited without permission. 3 2 4 Borwick, John- Microphones— Technology and Technique. Boston: Focal Press, 1990. Bova, Ben. THX 1138. New York: Warner Books, 1978. Brosnan, John. Future Tense: The Cinema of Science Fiction. New York: St. Martin's Press, 1978. Bruno, Giuliana. "Ramble City: Postmodernism and Blade Funner." In Alien Zone: Cultural Theory and Contemporary Science Fiction. New York: Verso, 1990, 183-195 Bukatman, Scott. Terminal Identity: The Virtual Subject in Post-Modern Science Fiction. Durham and London: Duke University Press, 1993. Carr, Robert E. and Hayes, R.M. "70mm" and "Special Sound Processes." In Wide Screen Movies— A History and Filmography of Wide Gauge Filmmaking. North Carolina: McFarland and Company, Inc., 1988. Chell, David, ed. Moviemakers at Work. Redmond: Microsoft Press, 1987. Clarke, Arthur C. 2001: A Space Odyssey. New York: Signet, 1968. Clarke, Arthur C. The Sentinel. New York: Berkley Books, 1986. Delany, Samuel R. "Generic Protocols: Science Fiction and Mundane." In Formations of Fantasy. Ed. Victor Burgin, James Donald and Cora Kaplan. New York: Methuen & Co. Ltd., 1986. Dick, Philip K. Do Androids Dream of Electric Sheep? New York: Ballantine Books, 1987. Doane, Mary Ann. "The Voice in the Cinema: The Articulation of Body and Space." In Cinema/Sound. Yale French Studies 60 (1980), 33-50. Doane, Mary Ann. "Ideology and the Practice of Sound Editing and Mixing," In Film Sound, eds. Elisabeth Weis and John Belton (New York: Columbia University Press, 1985) 55-62. Eisenstein, Sergei. 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"The Cinema of Attractions: Early Film, Its Spectator and the Avant Garde." In Early Cinema: Space, Frame, Narrative. Ed. Thomas Elsaesser with Adam Barker. London: British Film Institute, 1986, 56-62. Haraway, Donna. "A Manifesto for Cyborgs: Science, Technology, and Socialist Feminism in the 1980's." In Socialist Review, 80, (1985), 65-107. Holman, Tomlinson. "Post Production Systems and Editing,” in Blair Benson, ed., In Audio Engineering Handbook, New York: McGraw-Hill Book Company, 1988. Holman, Tomlinson. Sound for Film and Television, Boston: Focal Press, 1997. Jameson, Fredric. "Progress Versus Utopia; or, Can We Imagine the Future?" In Science-Fiction Studies, 9 (1982), 147-159. Johnson, William, ed. Focus on The Science Fiction Film. Englewood Cliffs: Prentice-Hall, Inc., 1972. Kaminsky, Stuart M. American Film Genres. Chicago: Nelson- Hall, 1985. Karlin, Fred. Listening to Movies. New York: Schirmer Books, 1994. Reproduced with permission of the copyright owner. Further reproduction prohibited without permission. 326 Kearney, Mary Celeste, ed. The University of Southern California Journal of Film and Television Criticism— Spectator: Audio Visual Media, Spring/Summer 1997, Vol. 17, No. 2. Kerner, Marvin M. The Art of the Sound Effects Editor. London: Focal Press, 1989. Kinder, Marsha and Beverle Huston, "Seeing is Believing: The Exorcist and Don't Look Now. " In American Horrors: Essays on the Modern American Horror Film. Chicago: University of Illinois Press, 1987. King, Stephen. Danse Macabre. New York: Everest House, 1981. Kuhn, Annette, ed. Alien Zone: Cultural Theory and Contemporary Science Fiction. New York: Verso, 1990. Kuhn, Annette. "Invading Bodies." In Sight and Sound, July 1992, 8-10. Landon, Brooks. The Aesthetics of Ambivalence: Rethinking Science Fiction Film in the Age of Electronic (Re)Production Westport: Greenwood Press, 1992. Lawrence, Amy. Echo and Narcissus. Berkeley: University of California Press, Ltd., 1991. Lehr, Amy. "Sound in Film Theory: The Pattern of Attack and Neglect." Masters Thesis from University of Southern California, 1985, LoBrutto, Vincent. Sound-On-Film: Interviews with Creators of Film Sound. Westport: Praeger, 1994. LoBrutto, Vincent. Stanley Kubrick— A Biography. New York: Donald I. Fine Books, 1997. Mast, Gerald and Marshall Cohen, ed. Film Theory and Criticism. New York: Oxford University Press, 1979. Metz, Christian. "Aural Objects." In Cinema/Sound. Yale French Studies, 60 (1980), 24-32. Michelson, Annette, ed. Kino Eye: The Writings of Dziga Vertov. Berkeley: University of California Press, 1984. Mott, Robert L. Sound Effects: Radio, TV, and Film. Reproduced with permission of the copyright owner. Further reproduction prohibited without permission. 3 2 7 Stoneham: Focal Press, 1990. Neale, Steve. Cinema and Technology— Image, Sound, Colour. Bloomington: Indiana University Press, 1985. Neale, Steve. "'You've Got To Be Fucking Kidding1' Knowledge, Belief, and Judgment in Science Fiction." In Alien Zone: Cultural Theory and Contemporary Science Fiction Cinema, ed. Annette Kuhn. New York: Verso, 1990, 160-168. Nisbett, Alec. The Use of Microphones. 3rd ed. Boston: Focal Press, 1989. Palmer, Robert. Rock and Roll. New York: Harmony Books, 1995. Paye, Michael and Myles, Lynda. The Movie Brats. New York: Holt, Rinehart, and Winston, 1979. Penley, Constance, Elisabeth Lyon, Lynn Spigel, and Janet Bergstrom, ed. Close Encounters: Film, Feminism and Science Fiction. Minneapolis: University of Minnesota Press, 1991. Penley, Constance. "Time Travel, Primal Scene, and the Critical Dystopia." In Alien Zone: Cultural Theory and Contemporary Science Fiction Cinema, ed. Annette Kuhn. New York: Verso Books, 1990, 116-127. Pollack, Dale. Skywalking: The Life and Films of George Lucas, the Creator of Star Wars. New York: Ballantine Books, 1983. Pyle, Forest. "Making Cyborgs, Making Humans: Of Terminators and Blade Runners." In Film Theory goes to the Movies. New York: Routledge, 1993. Quart, Leonard and Auster, Albert, eds. American Film and Society since 1945. New York: Praeger, 1991.. Sammon, Paul M. Future Noir— The Making of Blade Runner. New York: Harper Paperbacks, 1996. Schatz, Thomas. "The New Hollywood." In Film Theory goes to the Movies. New York: Routledge, 1993. Shay, Don. "Blade Runner - 2020 Foresight." Cinefex, 9 (1982), 4-71. Shay, Don. "Creating an Alien Ambience." Cinefex, 1 Reproduced with permission of the copyright owner. Further reproduction prohibited without permission. 328 (1980), 34-71. Shay, Don and Jody Duncan. T2: The Making’ of Terminator 2: Judgment Day. New York: Bantam. Spectra Book, 1991. Shrivastava, Vinay. "Technical and Theoretical Analysis of Cinematic Sound." Unpublished Dissertation University of Southern California, 1990. Silverman, Kaja. The Acoustic Mirror: The Female Voice in Psychoanalysis and Cinema. Bloomington: Indiana University Press, 1988. Sobchack, Vivian. Screening Space: The American Science Fiction Film. New York: Ungar Publishing Company, 1991. Sontag, Susan. "The Imagination of Disaster." In Against Interpretation and Other Essays. New York: Octagon Books, 1986. Sterling, Christopher H. and Kittross, John M. Stay Tuned: A Concise History of American Broadcasting. Belmont: Waddsworth Publishing Company, 1978. Telotte, J.P. Replications— A Robotic History of the Science Fiction Film. Chicago: University of Illinois Press, 1995. Thomas, Tony. Film Score— The Art & Craft of Movie Music. Burbank: Riverwood Press, 1991. Todorov, Tzvetan. The Fantastic: A Structural Approach to Literary Genre. Ithaca: Cornell Paperbacks, 1989. Turnbull, Robert B. Radio and Television Sound Effects. New York: Rinehart & Company, Inc., 1951. Weis, Elizabeth and John Belton, eds. Film Sound: Theory and Practice. New York: Columbia University Press, 1985. Weis, Elizabeth. The Silent Scream: Alfred Hitchcock's Sound Tracks. New Jersey: Fairleigh Dickinson University Press, 1982. Whittington, William. "Audio Arabesque: New Sound Technologies and Techniques for Film, Television, and PCs: An Interview cf Tomlinson," in University of Southern California Journal of Film and Television Reproduced with permission of the copyright owner. Further reproduction prohibited without permission. 329 Criticism, SPECTATOR, AUDIOvisual Media, Vol. 17, No. 2 (Spring/Summer 1997) 110-117. Whittington, WLlliam. "Surround Sound and Science Fiction," in University of Southern California Journal of Film and Television Criticism, SPECTATOR, AUDIOvisual Media, VoL. 17, No.2 (Spring/Summer 1997) 102-109. Whittington, William. "Home Theater: Mastering the Exhibition Experience," in University of Southern California Journal of Film and Television Criticism, SPECTATOR, Vol. 18, No.2 (Spring/Summer 1998) 76-83. Williams, Allen. "Is Sound Recording Like a Language?" in Cinema/Sound. Yale French Studies, 60 (1980), 51-66. Wollen, Peter. "Godard and Counter Cinema: VENT D'EST." in Movies and Methods, Vol. II, ed. Bill Nichols. Berkeley: University of California Press, 1985, 500- 508. Wood, Robin. Hollywood from Vietnam to Reagan. New York: Columbia University Press, 1986. Reproduced with permission of the copyright owner. Further reproduction prohibited without permission. 330 GLOSSARY Automated Dialogue Replacement (ADR): A system, for replacing production dialogue, which may be unusable or may require varied dramatic emphasis. Performers view projected images and try to match vocal qualities and synchronization. Ambience: Also Backgrounds. Layers of background noises forming environmental aspects such as a busy street or waves on a beach. The equivalent of a sonic long shot, establishing a sense of place. Backgrounds: See Ambience. Bass: Low frequency signals. Boom: A device which allows a microphone to be extended or lowered into scene or toward what is being recorded. Boom Channel: Refers to low frequency signal sent to bass speakers. Boom Operator: A sound technician who operates and directs the overhead boom and microphone. Channel: A stream of the sound signal into a speaker, processing device or mixing apparatus, for example. Reproduced with permission of the copyright owner. Further reproduction prohibited without permission. 331 Cue Sheetz A formalized layout of the various sound elements annotated according to footage count, quality of recording and track location. This layout is used by a mixer to coordinate the blending of final sound track. Diegesis: The world of the film story, which includes the reach of both the image and sound. Importantly, sound effects within the surround channels expand the diegesis beyond the two dimensional screen. Diegetic sound: Dialogue, music or sound effects which occur within the story world. Dialogue: Shorthand for the dialogue track, which includes spoken sounds on the set or stage. Dialogue also refers to words spoken by actors within the scene. Dialogue Smoothing: A process by which voice or dialogue tracks are constructed with ambience or presence handles in a check board pattern on separate tracks thus providing crucial overlap between elements, offering a seamless continuity of dialogue. Digital: A process by which a sound is converted into a series of numerical measurements, establishing a digital code, which is usually a binary pattern of ones and zeros. Reproduced with permission of the copyright owner. Further reproduction prohibited without permission. 332 Dolby: A corporation, founded by Ray Dolby in 1965, best known for creating a family of noise reduction technology. Dolby also often refers as short hand for different Dolby products, such as Dolby Stereo or Dolby Digital. Dolby Digital'. An AC-3 format of sound encoding developed to offer discrete multi-channel sound signals to the theater speakers. Also used in consumer electronics. Dolby Stereo: A cost effective optical process which involves the utilization of two areas of sound encoding on motion picture film. The two areas are encoded and decoded using a processing matrix to create four (4) channels of film sound signal— left, center, right and surrounds. Doppler Shiftz The perceived rise and fall in frequency of a sound source as it passes a listener at a single point. DTS (Digital Theater System): A discrete multi-channel digital format developed by Universal and Amblin Entertainment, which premiered with the release of Jurassic Park (1993). Sound is encoded on CD-ROM and linked to picture with timecode. DMEz Dialogue, Music, and Effects (D, M, and E). Reproduced with permission of the copyright owner. Further reproduction prohibited without permission. 333 Dubbing: See Mixing. Dubbing may also refer to the replacement of character voices for foreign language releases of films. Dynamic Range: The range between the loudest and quietest sound a medium can produce. Equalization: The reconfiguration of the sound signal to emphasize or de—emphasize or remove specific qualities. Filtering: The process by which certain frequencies or range of frequencies can be removed from the audio s ignal. Flanging: Placing two identical sounds significantly out of synchronization to create mechanized or special effect. Foley: The term given to those effects created on a sound stage in synchronization with the picture. Named after Universal Sound Effects editor Jack Foley. Foley Artist: An individual who creates the detailed sounds such as footsteps and body movements in synchronization with the projected image. Format: In terms of the sound track, format refers to the presentation medium in which the sound track is Reproduced with permission of the copyright owner. Further reproduction prohibited without permission. 334 presented. For example, Dolby Digital is a 5.1 discrete digital format. Levelz Refers to the volume of a sound signal. Library: An collection of sound effects often organized under specific categories such as explosions, body hits, rumbles. Localizationz Determining the placement or direction of a sound in space. Loopingz See ADR. Maskingz A condition in which one sound may cover another and render it inaudible or unintelligible. For instance, a low frequency rumble may mask mid-range frequency dialogue. MIDI: Stands for Musical Instrument Digital Interface. It represents a system of standards for linking musical instruments and computers and sound processing devices. Midrange: Refers to frequencies between 200 Hz and 2,000 Hz. Dialogue generally falls within this frequency range. Mixingz The process by which the various elements of the sound track are blended or re-recorded to create the Reproduced with permission of the copyright owner. Further reproduction prohibited without permission. 335 overall sound track. Traditionally, this process involves three individuals, each dealing with a specific area— dialogue, music and effects. The lead individual is often the dialogue mixer. Also Dubbing. MOSz A scene shot without sound. Nondiegetic sound: Dialogue, music or sound effects which occur outside diegetic space. For instance, the score of the film, which remains outside the narrative world, yet participates in its construction. Off Mike: Refers to a sound object (usually a voice) which is not within a microphone' s pick-up pattern. Omni-directional Microphone: A microphone which has a wide pickup pattern to cover sounds from the entire recording area. On Mike: Refers to a sound object which is within a microphone’s pick up pattern. Optical: A type of encoding and decoding of sound on to film using a special optical head, resulting in narrow bands at the edge of celluloid. Pan: The manipulation of a sound in space, usually in a lateral direction. An effect usually achieved through Reproduced with permission of the copyright owner. Further reproduction prohibited without permission. 336 the use of a pan pot, but can also be a result of recording. Perspective z Refers to recording perspective or the perceived distance between sound object and the recording device. Pickup Pattern: A term which refers to the shape of the collection perimeters for a particular microphone. For example, a microphone can be omnidirectional, collecting in a wide, undiscriminating pattern. Production Recordist: The individual who captures the sound during location and stage work on a film production. Production Track: The recordings made during the production of the film. The production track generally provides the guide for post production sound work. Quadraphonic: A four channel system of sound reproduction offering immersive quality to the sound environment. Sampling: To retrieve a portion of another sound or piece of music and integrate into a new construction. SDDSz Stands for Sony Dynamic Digital Sound. A multi channel digital format (8 channels) developed by the Sony Corporation and implemented in theaters beginning in 1994. Reproduced with permission of the copyright owner. Further reproduction prohibited without permission. 337 Spotting: A detailed analysis of the specific sound needs for the film to create an integrated sound design, covering sound effects, Foley, ambiences, and music. Stem: One or a collection of channels that all represent a single finished strand of sound like dialogue, music or effects. Stereo: A two channel configuration of a sound. Supervising Sound Editor: Manager who reads script, book, property and spots the film with the director. Supervising Sound Effects Editor will delegate responsibilities and be the liaison between the sound crew and the producers and director. Timbre: The individual quality of a sound. THX: Stands for Tomlinson Holman experiment. A system of performance standards for sound reproduction which match the standards established during the original mixing process. Developed by Tomlinson Holman for Lucasfilm. Time Code: The electronic equivalent of film sprockets. A process by which captured film images are kept in synchronization with separately recorded sound. Reproduced with permission of the copyright owner. Further reproduction prohibited without permission. 338 Track: A linear grouping of sound objects, such as dialogue, music or effects. Voice-Over: Refers to representations of the voice which run over the image track. Wild Line: A line of dialogue recorded and placed with no visible synchronization to the character. Wireless microphone: A small microphone or body microphone with separate power source and without physical connection to the recording device. This type of microphone often limits sound perspective. end transmission Reproduced with permission of the copyright owner. Further reproduction prohibited without permission. IMAGE EVALUATION TEST TARGET (Q A -3 ) ✓ /, V- 1 .0 l.l I£ 12.8 US t i i lii l±* u; Li U° h &i II 2.2 1 2.0 1 . 8 1 . 2 5 1 . 4 150m m A P P L I E D ^ IM /4 G E . In c j s s s 1653 East Main Street Rochester. NY 14609 USA j a r ^ Phone: 716/462-0300 — — Fax: 716/288-5989 0 1993. Applied Image. Inc.. All Rights Reserved Reproduced with permission of the copyright owner. Further reproduction prohibited without permission.

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Creator Whittington, William Brian (author)

Core Title Sound design and science fiction

Degree Doctor of Philosophy

Degree Program Cinema-Television Critical Studies

Publisher University of Southern California (original), University of Southern California. Libraries (digital)

Tag cinema,history, modern,mass communications,OAI-PMH Harvest

Language English

Contributor Digitized by ProQuest (provenance)

Permanent Link (DOI) https://doi.org/10.25549/usctheses-c17-589334

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Access Conditions The author retains rights to his/her dissertation, thesis or other graduate work according to U.S. copyright law. Electronic access is being provided by the USC Libraries in agreement with the au...

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