The Last Wave

Ideas for the 'Apocalypse' scene in The Last Wave (Peter Weir, 1977)

• Stripped Back- Make everything seem 'underwater'. Very stripped away, perhaps just very exaggerated, muffled, slow windscreen wiper sounds, the rythmic thudding of these could almost sound like a super-slow heartbeat. The occasional exaggerated, gloopy bubble sound (milk blown thrown a thick straw?) when bubbles are seen. This approach could be coupled with a low, ominous hum as an atmos/soundtrack to add to the eiree mood.
• Dramatic- Again use the underwater muffledness for the wiper blades etc, but this time with a dramatic, ominous and melancholy soundtrack/score to fit the scenes of death. To increase the drama/tension mix in terrified screams and shouts of the dying, cars being hurled together by the waves, the crash of the water itself- but edit all of these sound so they seem echoey and distant (through Channel EQ) so they symbolise the echoes of the events that led to all these people being dead and floating underwater.
• Alternative- We see the protagonist listening to his car radio before he has the apocalyptic premonition. An alternative way to sound this piece could be to have a completely inappropriate, out of place track on this radio, for example a grand, sweeping classical overture, but of a tinny, poor car stereo quality. We would hear the radio crackle and die as water pours through it, but as soon as he looks up to find himself underwater surrounded by corpses the track could kick back in, at a far greater quality and volume than ever before. If the correct track was found, this juxtaposition could be highly effective.  Perhaps something Fur Elise by Beethoven, as the gently sweeping music could fit quite effectively with the seeming serenity of the underwater scene, yet be at odds with the obviously macabre content>

Randy Thom- Forrest Gump Sound Design

This video demonstrates the enormous amount of work that can go into production sound on a feature, and, sadly, how very good sound goes widely unnoticed by most audiences.  Though perhaps this is a hidden compliment, as audiences will certainyl notice when the sound design is poor, but fully suspend their disbelief and enter into the world of the if the sound is all encompassing and realistic.

Some of the useful issues Thom highlights are:

• The complete rebuilding of a scene for sound- the entire battle scene soudn is done is post, as the production sound was not of suitable quality. This involved a huge amount of work.
• Like Ric Viers, Thom mentions building of effects through layers of different sound (e.g. the mortar explosions with lots of varying explosions and impacts to 'sweeten'- layering for effect is something I will attempt in my sound assignments.
• The use of something entirely different to produce a 'Hollywood' accepted sound. Just liek every snake you see in a Hollywood picture will rattle, (regardless of whether or not its a rattlesnake) Thom mentions how the tracer shots in the battle are in fact richochet sounds but just 'sounded right'. Ric Viers alluides to this practice, with things like aiming down the gun barrel, gun movement and sheathing/unsheathing sounds- in reality, these actions make very different sounds to what film has led everyone to believe.

Tips and tricks:

• Every single ping-pong strike was recorded and edited to match perfectly in post. A positively mammoth task considering the length of the ping-pong scene. This is useful as it shows you can't get away with simplyk recording a single sound that is to be repeated and over again (e.g. gun fire, ping-pong hit, punches) as they will instantly seem flat and produced.
• Slow Motion- just because the visuals are in slow motion doesnt mean the sound has to be- in this case Thom seems to use 'micro-sounds' to bring the audience far closer into teh action as Forrest runs from the bullies. We normally cannot hear such sounds, so the temporary illusory bubble of this slow motion is enhacned with these seemingly extra-sensory sound effects. I would like to experiment with time, temporarility and pitch to bring deeper meanign to slow- motion or heavily POV scenes.

Lewton Bus

Lewton Bus is a sound design term that originated from Cat People, a film produced by Val Lewton in 1942. the film sets out to be deliberatly shocking and tense, which led to the coining of the term. essentially a 'Lewton Bus' is where a built moment of tension is purposefully shattered by a single startling moment, generally something entirely mundane. the example from cat people is the hiss of a panther at the end of a long, creeping track, which turns out to just be a bus pulling up (hence the name, Lewton Bus). This technique has since been widely used in the industry. Famous examples include the moment where the human head pops up out of the bottom of the boat in Jaws, and the scene where the tension is startlingly broekn by the cat leaping out from the control deck in Alien.

This technique is painfully simple, yet brilliantly effective, particulalry if the 'Lewton Bus' is held off for an uncomfortably long time, drawing the audience closer in anticipation of the tension release the know is coming.