Evaluation

When initially looking at the possible clips, straight away I knew I wanted to do War of the Worlds. The very first thing I thought of was Walle[1]. When looking at it previously in my research I really thought how he changes pitch and rhythm would work well with the use in how the Probe slows down and speed up. As the Probe is constantly moving around I also liked this idea of always constantly changing pitch and sound within itself even without the use of pan and volume.

This is a short clip from Walle to show the sounds that inspired me for the Probe sounds.

Previous to this project I hadn’t took any in the musical elements of sound design as I am not a musical person but during our lessons we had been taught the basic of Logic and Garage Band. After a lot of attempts of trying to create the humming noise that I envisioned I used Garage band and recorded my own piano track of the rhythm that I wanted before manipulating it in Soundtrack Pro. I think that this sort of sound would work well in regard to engageing the audience as it has the familiar humming of a machine but then once it had been manipulated also gave it this more fluent feel to help bring it to life.

In Erick Aadahl says about how import the character sound design is important as each sound represents their personality.

‘In “Kung Fu Panda”, each character represents a different style of Kung Fu, represented by a sonic signature: Mantis is based on wood-instrument ratchets, with doppler zips as he flies; Tigress is based on swift vocals, tennis racket whooshes and precision jabs; Crane is based on feathers and wings; Monkey is based on swingy whooshes; Viper is based on snake rattles (made out of serrated air hisses), and villain Tai Lung is based on sheer brute force, contrasting Po’s rubbery-ness.’[2]

I think this works with all sound design. The visuals tell the viewer initially what they are to think and know about a character but then the sounds tell you subconsciously what exactly they are about. The sound wouldn’t be there unless it is to tell you something new and invoke a certain feeling in the viewer. I think this is the same with my project, I just don’t want to add sounds for the sack of it, I want each individual sound to represent something new, especially with the Probe. For example when they Probe moves away thinking that it has searched the house and not found any one but are in fact hiding right there then I wanted to show how the Probe would feel. I tried to do this with the use of manipulating the pitch. I thought that at that moment in which it spins around I would push up the pitch semitones as if it had made him jump like any person would if the thought nothing was there but then there was a sudden loud noise.

Another musical element that I hadn’t really appreciated prior to this module was how something so simple like some bass can add such a difference to the piece. When looking at films such as Drive[3]. you really notice how in some scene the music all you have to work off to get a sense of the emotion and atmosphere of the scene. I really think this is a good way of engaging with the audience on a more subconscious level so did thins in the intense part of the piece. When the Probe is approaching them and is within reach of them then these are the times I brought in the bass. This is to just subconsciously tell the viewer there is something uneasy here and should be worried.

When looking at any piece of work the Foley is the most obvious sound design to any audience. This is what helps bring life to the shot and gives the audience something that is familiar to go off of, especially if the film plays on this but manipulates them to create a sense of confusion or dream like state. This can be seen in films such as Lost Highway[4] during the scene at the house party when a mystery man in black confronts Fred. They have manipulated the sound through the use of EQ and completely took out all Foley sounds so that you are just left with the dialogue of the man and Fred. This is a good example in how we the audience would expect to hear things and you can completely change the whole sense and feel to a scene with the use of manipulating the sound so that they are not what you would expect. I think this is a very powerful tool in sound design but in such a short piece in War of the Worlds I don’t have a chance to play around with manipulation in this way. So when it comes to foley I think I have done a good job at recreating the sense of reality and replacing all the obvious Foley sounds that are present in this section.

Another main element in sound design is the atmos track of a room or location that holds the whole piece together. When in any location you have an atmos track that without the area would just feel empty. When it comes to sound design it is a very important part that helps fill in the gaps in the track. Especially for this piece, but in any you would use the atmos to create an overall feel to the location. This is a very subtle track that you wouldn’t normally pay attention to but on a subconscious level you do notice and take in and if it wasn’t there you would definitely notice. I think in my piece I have managed to get the right atmos track that relates to the rain outside and old house feel which just help to add another level and more depth to the piece.

One not so positive thing about my piece is I found it hard sorting my levels out. I Spent quite a few times redoing my level for the Probe as this is the main feature sound in this piece. I feel as though I have done this right but then all the other sounds then felt to be really quite in relation and I think I have wrongly increased the level of these. As they are trying to sneak around the house and stay undetected then I should have really stuck with my first initial levels when they were quieter. But I think that it is a bit too loud but in some way because the Probe is so loud and power full they have that much more freedom to make more sound when trying to run around.

The most tricking thing I found was try to decide on the sound for the rat, in reality you probably would hear the rat scurry along the floor but you see it and there want to hear something. This then meant I had to figure out what exactly I was to use for this. In the end I found the sound of a rat chewing and biting on some cardboard and I felt that this had the right sort of scratching sounds. I added this in a made sure my levels were low as then you could hear it but wasn’t too distracting. This along with pan I think worked well with creating a realistic rat sound.

I think overall I did a good job at creating a sound track that used Atmos, Foley and Musical elements that help tell the story, add tension and bring the movements to life. I think in regard to audience and their perspective it does work well in creating tension in the right part and making you feel very on edge as the Probe is so intense and powerful. I do think there is margin for more improvements especially with tightening up on the levels but overall it does that job and I am proud of what I have managed to do. At the start of the module I wouldn’t have had to confidence to experiment with manipulating sounds i would have just focused on my Foley and not really appreciate the use of music and atmos and how effective they really are.

[1] Walle. 2008. [Film] Directed by Andrew Stanton. USA: Disney Pixar

[2] Miguel Isaza . (2012). Erik Aadahl Special: Animation Sound Design [Exclusive Interview]. Available: http://designingsound.org/2010/03/erik-aadahl-special-animation-sound-design-exclusive-interview/. Last accessed 20.12.2012

[3] Drive. 2011. [Film] directed by Nicolas Winding Refn. USA: Bold films

[4] Lost Highway. 1997. [Film] Directed by David Lynch. USA: Ciby 2000

War of the Worlds - Edit Stage 4

After recording some sound effects I decided to strip back some of the sounds as I wasnt happy with how they worked. So this meant that I had to start building up the layer once again.

I went with the main sounds again and thought I would start of with my new recordings of foot steps and went through and lined all these up. Started with Tom cruise and decided that I wanted to make sure I lined these up and was happy. With the part when he is crawling backwards behind the sofa I had a very quite foot step to show his hand and to add more to the rustle that I plan on adding. I then went through and did the same proces to Racheals footstep. then when she spins round once running over to Tom I added in a skidding noise of the feet. I thought this worked well as wasnt too sure on how to do with that section but this seemed to work well.

(Screen Grab)

To add a bit more texture and depth I went through a similar process to add in russtle noises to resemble the movement of their clothes and the sneak around. I started very subtly adding in the sounds to when Racheal crawls along. I think this works well as they would make some sounds as crawling along but nothing too loud and over powering.

(Screen Grab)

When the Probe was reversing out of the house I wanted to try and add something else to symbolise the difference of motion. I decided to just use the same sounds but increase the pitch so that it was slightly higher and different to the other sounds.

(Screen Grab)

I wanted to create more tension in the scene in which the probe encounters the mirror so decided i would add in a bass to help intensify this. I did this on soundtrack pro by inserting a soundwave at a low frequencey and then using the volume to gradually increase and decrease the volume. Therefore the first time the Probe would look around the mirror would be intesified then the second time when looks around the side of the mirror then it would intesify once again.

(Screen Grab)

I thought something was still missing and decided that I wanted to add something else to the probe when it is intense. In the end I decided to add in another layer of the Probe but increase the level of reverb so the original piano noise was alhmost unrecognisable. I think this worked well and helped just add a little something extra to the mix that wasnt anything distracting from the previous sounds but could tell was something else there underneath.

War of the Worlds - Edit Stage 3

During our seminar in which neil was going through the clips he said about War of the Worlds and I made these notes of ideas and things to think about:

• There are CU and MLS so will sound different
• They are hiding so don't want to be loud
• Floor - covered in dirt and leaves so will be crumbly
• Use Pan and Volume to make sure the prob moves
• Rat - scratchy
• The prob has a personality - flares, moves and constantly changes
• Snakey ??
• When gets closer to the mirror - crank volume up
• Boot - massive feature sound!
• Speed up and build tension then relief again
• Use a cellar as similar settings

So taking on these comments I went down into my old dark cellar and use this as the setting for my recording. I mainly focused on trying to get footsteps on the  dirt and used several types of shows to get the difference between Racheal's and Tom's.

War of the Worlds - Edit Stage 2

Editing today I thought I would just carry on from where I left off. I added in the clicking as the lights turn on the the front of the Robot eye. I did this by getting the sound of a clock and cutting it up and placing then each times the light flicks on then editing the EQ and Pitch of it before I was happy with it. I then went through and started adding in the breathe from Racheal when the camera is close up and you see the cob webs moving as she breathes. The breathing sounds I had were either too fast or too slow so decided to cut up the faster ones and place each section of a breathe each time I saw the cob web move direction. I think this little pause in the breathe at times is nice cos shows that she's trying not to be that heavy.

I also started building up on top of Tom cruises footsteps with Racheals i uses a similar footstep but changed the EQ so sounded different to Tom's. Once I had lined all these up I went to Save but being Soundtrack Pro it crashed and didn't. Went to find it again it was nowhere to be found so my afternoon of lining up sounds was wasted and had to start the process all over again.

I then went and started the process again lining up the clicks of lights and footsteps and breathing again, here is a screen shot of some more sounds I added since it crashed.

War of the Worlds - Edit Stage 1

I started editing the piece today and though I would play about trying to get the noise I wanted for the robot eye.

First of all I just started with the basic and created a waveform thinking id start with a basic noise. This was harder then I thought, I wanted the small and spaced out sound waves of the low frequency notes but the pitch of a higher one. I attempted to slow down a higher pitch tone, this didn't work, I tried changing the pitch of a low frequency tone but this also didn't give me the humming I wanted.

I thought I would move onto actual recording. I was going through the sound library trying to think of sounds that I could manipulate into the humming that I want. I came across a recording of a truck engine that had a rhythmic hum to it so decided this was a good starting point. So got the sound into Soundtrack Pro and started playing around with effects. I kept altering the Pitch of it, time stretching it to change the rhythm of it. I also applied EQ to it to cut out the higher and lower sounds trying to get the right sound. This was better then the waveform idea but still not what I wanted

Carrying on searching through sound for inspiration i thought about an actual hum from a fly or bug. Got a recording of a fly of the library to experiment with but like before everything i tried just didnt give me what I wanted and could picture in my head. I then went on to recording of a hover. This turned out to be the best so far. Like I had on the truck engine I altered the speed to slow it down a little, EQ to roll of the high and low tones and then played around with the Pitch. This seem to work the best so far. when listening to it a couple times I couldn't stop concentrating on the other noise still in the original hoover recording that I felt I was getting close but no where clear enough to use it.

Giving up on recordings I turned musical and went on Garage Band. Just opened a basic piano and played one single note gradually in creasing and decreasing the tempo. Imported this into Soundtrack Pro and adding the effect I tried in the previous sounds I found that this is what I wanted. I went through the clip changing the tempo of the notes so that when the Eye moves faster the tempo increase and then slows down when the eye does. I Then thought that not only change tempo but I was going to change the pitch of the note in relation to the speed of the eye. I felt that I would best do this with the use of creating points on the timeline and dragging to certain pitch changes as this way I could be accurate with when exactly I wanted it to change.

Like in my plan I played around with the use of pan and volume along with the tempo in order to try and create more dimension to the piece. I started with the volume and going through in creasing the level at times when the eye came closer to the camera and quieter when it moves away, as well as being quite when the camera focuses on the People. Following that i did a similar process with the panning, when the eye was left of scene I would make sure it was panned left and when right of screne it was paned to the right etc.

I thought my next step was to start adding in all the layers of the people. I thought I would just attacked in in order of how it happens on screen. so the first main actions of the people was Tom Cruise when he crawls back behind the arm of the sofa so used the recording of bare feet walking and added a slight echo to it which I think made it seem like the wood creaking slightly underneath him. 

War of the Worlds - Plan

Like I have done on the exercise I decided to break down the scene but the main sounds that I felt were important to help bring this scene to life. Here is the screen grabs and my noted on sounds:

• This shot start with the robot eye appearing and the lights turning on. For the sound of the eye I want an almost humming sort of sound the changed frequency in relation to the speed in which it is moving. I haven't figured out how Im going todo this but I know what I want it to sound like.
• The lights on the eyes turn on, I think for this i could just use the sound of a build flicking on like if you was to turn on big lights say in a hall you hear them warm up and ping on.

• I goes to the close up on the character Racheal you see cob webs of how heavy she is breathing. Obviously here I would make sure i have heavy breathing to show how scared she is. 

• On sweeping shot you start of on the eye then sweep round and follow Tom Cruise as he crawls back behind the sofa. Here I would make sure I layer it up with the sound of his clothes moving as he moves and the subtle noise as he lifts and places his hands. 
• I always was to try and play around so that when the eye turns around the end of the sofa to look into the camera intensify the humming and play around with the different pitch levels on it. 

• When the rat runs across screen I plan to layer up sounds of rustling sounds as obviously can record a rat running across an old wooden floor. 
• I al so want to heighten the pitch when the rat appears, almost as if it make the eye jump helping bring him to life. kinda of almost like Walle would make a high pitch noise. 

• When Racheal runs acrooss to Tom's arms I will have to match up her foot prints before he spins around and holds her still. I think I will just play around with normal foot prints syncing them up and trying to make them a bit quieter as she would have been trying to be quiet.
• The eye appears from into the frame on the right hand side before leaving on the left to i think this could be a good place to pan the humming creating some more dimension.

• They move a mirror into the view of the eye and hide behind it. I will have to make sur ei include sounds of picking up and placing the mirror down.
• I think here, especially when the camera is held with the eye on the right of the frame and them on the left, to have them heavy breathing and might see what its like with a heart beat or something. but I think I could play around here with music also. 

• Here I will have to make sure i have the noise of her foot falling out but I want to make sure this is quite a loud as would be intense in relation to the quite of the rest of the house. 
• With the noise of the robot I will also want to do something similar like when the rat runs out with the use of pitch and speed of the humming.

• When the eye goes around the back of the mirror I want to build up the tension here as you think they are there and are going to get caught, could try this with the use of a low level frequency building up or some sort of music.
• I'd like to also try and make the humming seem a little disappointed here as if the eye thought he had found them. Not too sure how i could go about this yet but think it will take a bit of playing around to find a way.

• When the eye is going out the house I will try and carry on the disappointed hum continue and have a similar noise as the lights made when they turned on to have when they turn off.

Comments on Edit

During the presentation I made these comments about what was being said:

• Found the shake of the spray can a bit of putting as was too loud so should have brought the level down a bit.
• music was a good choice as created an low pulsing but may have been improved if built up to where the car was, either has finale of music when drove off or bring up the level of engine for the finale. 
• The atmos was a good level and brought it together.
• Liked the fact I played around with Atmos, Foley and Music.

Overall I was pleased with my outcome. looking at other peoples, especially those that had some Hanna Bi too, made me realise the things i missed out and how i could improve mine. I think the fact I had watched it over and over I don't notice these little things as focusing on sounds i'm trying to edit. For the fact that sound wasn't my first choice and swapped over I did really enjoy doing this exercise and found it a lot of help when looking at other peoples work now. 

Editing Hana Bi

I thought it would be easier to edit it through adding in the most distinctive pieces first, such as the main actions like walking, spray painting and wriping the paper off the car.

Therefore I started at the beginning with the foot steps. Luckily the speed in which you hear the footsteps in exactly how it was so it was only lining up the first step and the rest just feel into place. To add some dimension to the sound i altered the volume so that as he walks away from the camera you hear the foot steps slowly get quieter before he stops. I then went through the entire clip and each time he moves around and therefore taking a step I added a step of sound. Then when he walks around the car il not only altered the sound I panned it to the right when he walks of screen then comes back central when he appears back in shot. These are all the green colour tracks.

Next I decided to tackle the car. Previously at college I had a similar project where we had a van wheel spin off and drive around so it didn't take me too long to piece together these sounds. I used a mixture of track to build up several sounds before I felt it sounds realistic enough. I first had the engine starting, then had a sound of a car on a dirt road and a car pulling up to get the sounds of the car reversing out of the garage and skidding stop. I would have wanted to use a sound of an actual car reversing cos it sounds different to a car driving forward but didn't have a car at my disposal so thought this would do. I then added the sound of a car wheel spinning off. I found in the library a sound of a car doing this and it drives of into the distance nicely so when i added this is fitted well so just faded out the other sounds and just had this as i drove off. These sounds are all the ... colour tracks.

I then thought I would start on the difficult scenes decorating the car. I started with the shaking of the can first as I thought this would be easier. It took a while to add them all in as there was a few quick ones in between the sprays, but I cut up the track into smaller shakes to place in each gap where he shacked the can and it seemed to work nicely. I then had to attempt to add the sound of the actual spray. first of all I used the sound of a deodorant can and i took me ages cos the spray sound I was editing was was shorter then the length of time he sprays. I tried repeating and overlaying the track so lengthen it but could here where it repeated itself and was very off putting. In the end I used the sound of hairspray can as this was more of a continuous spray sound that could be looped several times and flowed a lot better. I then went along and added this in every time I saw the spray can start and stop. These are all the red tracks.

Next was the news paper. I had several track of moving paper, ripping it and screwing it up and it wasnt till i spent ages layering and layering it it made it sort of fit. I took ages to try and match up each time he would touch the paper have a subtle rustling noise, then he would rip it so have that. Then he would screw it up and throw it on the floor so would try and match this as best I could. I then added in sounds of the tape ripping. Like the spray sounds it wasn't as long as the action on screen was so I used time stretch to try and make it longer but if it was stretched too much and turned a bit tinny so its still a bit shorter then is it on screen but it was the best I could do. Each effect I tried to get rid of the tin-ness seemed to make it sound worse so decided to stay with a shorter sound. I also added in the sound of the plastic as he pulls it off the car. in the end i used a sound that was suppose to sound like clothing but to me sounds a lot more like plastic so when added it worked well. I overlapped it so had two tracks of it one a gentle rustle of plastic and the other the sound of him pulling then screwing it up into a ball. These are all the grey tracks.

Thought it would be best to try and add some of the smaller subtle sounds to add a bit more to the piece, such as when he puts his jacket and hat down and fiddles around with the lights on the roof. For the coat and hat I used a sound of a flag and cut out a small flap of the flag. This worked well with the action on screen and think it was just enough sound to make the actions seem more realistic rather then try and add more sound to it and over crowd it. For the sound of the roof I used a track that was suppose to sound like packing boxes but I thought it worked well as was just noises or rummaging around and this could work as you cant exactly see what he was doing. I just doubled this up with two separate parts of the sound bite to build up a bit more then a flat sound. These are the ... colour tracks.

Through out the whole piece I added the ambience track of a wind. in one of the shots you can see the big fabric doors moving in the wind and on the last shot you see trees moving so this implies it is a windy day. In the interior shots I turned the track down as it would obviously be quieter but as the fabric doors were still open a fraction you would be able to hear it still. and then when it switched to an exterior shot I increased the volume slightly. I really liked this as in the last shot when the car drives of and can no longer hear the engine you can just hear the ambience of the tress and wind still and I really liked this. This track I coloured blue.

To try and bring the piece together and make it flow I decided to add in a music track. As I am completely useless as being creative, especially when I comes to composing music I decided to use a track from Free Music Archive. I found the track ... and thought this worked well but didn't like it when i got to the singing part. so i cut up and looped the intro stages where there was just a simple beat. I thought this would work to just keep up a rhythm to the piece as visually it was very boring as just shows a man painting his car.

I think that there are both strong and weak elements to this piece. I like how I have synced up the sound of the spray paint, which did take ages, but then think I should have worked more on the paper and added more tracks to build up more layers to it to make it seem more then it was.

Laura Moses

I came across this journal by Laura Moses and thought this segment sums up the use and importance of the sound in relation to image really nicely. She writes about how sound is used to enhance the visuals and is just as important the the image. The sound track needs to be effective enough to become multi-sensory but not distract from the image. If you was to replace every sound in the frame in certain shots then this could be overwhelming as everyday life noise is far to dense at times. 

Here is the full extract:

Sound design is the process of planning and creating a sound treatment that will enhance the storytelling of a film. Effective sound design improves a film withoutbeing overbearing or calling attention to itself.

Walter Murch coined the term sound design after creating the sound treatment for Apocalypse Now--a film that, along with Star Wars, forever changed the approachto sound editing in filmmaking. By incorporating simple aspects of the craft into our films, we can enhance our productions to better connect with consumers,which will result in more bookings and will increase the value of our product.

"Sound is NOT there to 'help' the visuals. That's kindergarten filmmaking. Anyone who says that film is a visual medium is being foolish and naive."--Randy Thorn,sound designer (Harry Potter, Forrest Gump, Eragon)

The elements of sound are dialogue, music, and effects. The category of sound that is sorely underutilized in our industry is effects. Think about music videos. Thepurpose of a music video is to sell a track of music. Therefore, the music is primary, with all else being secondary. We, on the other hand, are attempting to tell astory, and music plays only one small part in accomplishing that goal.

Ambient sound is the natural background sound of any given environment. Ambience creates atmosphere and establishes a setting. It serves to set the mood andtone of a scene. If a couple is walking on the beach and ambient sound of the surf is captured and placed strategically in the film, the oceanic atmosphere will beheightened. The setting will then become multisensory.

"Sound is a heart thing."--Alan Splet, sound designer (best-known for his work with David Lynch) Sound speaks to the emotions, not the intellect. Its power, thoughoften subliminal, can be extremely profound. There's a scene in As Good as It Gets where Jack Nicholson and Helen Hunt are having dinner at a restaurant. Theambient track consists of the murmur of background conversations and the faint clinking of glasses and silverware. As their conversation becomes more intimate, theambient sound is faded down, bringing the audience into this revelatory, private moment.

In wedding films, ambient sound of the bridesmaids laughing softly as the bride is dressing sets a tone of happiness and excitement. Clients will often be unaware ofthis type of sound treatment on a conscious level. However, they will connect with it emotionally. And affecting your prospective clients emotionally, through yourclips, is vital to selling your product.

The term "room tone" refers to the sound in an empty room. No room is truly silent, and each has its own distinct sound. In the making of motion pictures, roomtone is recorded and used behind dialogue to smooth out cuts and provide a consistent sound bed when, for example, the director's voice is edited out.

Event filmmakers can use room tone to improve the quality of just about everything we film. Pockets of dead air in a production are a silent killer. Prerecorded roomtone will erase the jarring effects of dead air when sniffles or other unwanted sounds are edited out. Additionally, you can fade up room tone (or ambient sound atan outdoor wedding) as a lead-in (and out) to sound bites in stylized productions. This will reduce the jarring effect of going from a music only track to livecaptured sound.

Another key element of effective sound design is walla, a studio-captured mumbling (or buzz) of background voices. Walla adds atmosphere and a sense of reality.The genesis of the word goes back to the days of old radio shows. To create the sound of a crowd in the background, players would assemble and recite "walla"repeatedly to simulate conversation without any discernible words. Nowadays, Automatic Dialogue Replacement (ADR) groups record actual backgroundconversations for films.

If you're unable to capture clean sound on location for a cocktail hour, simply add a track of walla along with your music track. It will enhance the effervescentatmosphere of friends and family being together; plus, with the music, it helps smooth out the cuts.

Prerecorded sound effects provide realism. Sounds such as birds singing, crickets chirping, and waves crashing all serve to take a wedding film from visual tovisceral. The number of sound effects that can substantially enhance concept video productions is limitless. Sounddogs.com (http://sounddogs.com) has everysound effect imaginable.

The significance of a moment can be conveyed through the employment of hyper-real sound--sound that's exaggerated to convey a message. An example is thebreaking of the glass at a Jewish wedding where the sound can end up more of a whisper than a roar. By raising the level of the sound beyond what one wouldexperience in reality, the magnitude and significance of the act are emphasized.

Our brains naturally tune into the sounds that are pertinent to us and background the rest. We tune out sounds such as footsteps. Exaggerating these sounds keepsthem from being overlooked. As sound editors, it's up to us to decide which sounds we want to be the focus of attention for our audience.

Attempting to re-createthe actual soundtrack of life would be distracting because it can be too densely loaded with noises. The trick is to use sound to make a point rather thanoverwhelming viewers with a cacophony of competing noises.

"Unveil the truth by embracing the false."--Laura Moses

By thinking creatively and using sound effects to reveal the truth within our stories, we can touch the hearts and souls of our audience.

By Laura Moses

Source by Event DV; Jan/Feb 2010, Vol. 23 Issue 1, p37

Interview with Erik Aadahl

Reading through this interview with Erik Aadahl it really made me think about sound and how it not abuot just creating the sound of doing something but the character behind it, creating a musical element through actions and sound effects. Each character, whether it be in animation or not, will have a certain character and this can be heightened through the use of sound. Like Aadahl says about how in Kung Fu Panda "each character represents a different style of Kung Fu, represented by a sonic signature: Mantis is based on wood-instrument ratchets, with doppler zips as he flies; Tigress is based on swift vocals, tennis racket whooshes and precision jabs; Crane is based on feathers and wings; Monkey is based on swingy whooshes; Viper is based on snake rattles (made out of serrated air hisses), and villain Tai Lung is based on sheer brute force, contrasting Po’s rubbery-ness."

Here is the full interview:

Erik Aadahl has worked in animated films such as “Kung Fu Panda”, “Monsters vs Aliens”, and currently in “Shrek: Forever After”. Here is an interview I had with him, talking about his work on that kind of films.

DS: Animation is not a genre and the way to deal with sound in animation films is different from the way you work with sound in a typical film, but there’s one thing: you have to create a whole world starting from computer animated graphics. Do you find something special in animated films? Any difference you find compared with the rest of films?

EA: Animators are extremely detail oriented, and compared to other filmmakers can be much more detailed in their notes.

In sound, like animation, we start with a completely blank canvas. Actors’ dialogue is typically ADR, so the production track is exceptionally clean. This helps our sounds live clearly and precisely in the track.

Beyond clarity, animation is a very fun medium. You get a little more latitude with what is believable. Starting with “Kung Fu Panda”, and continuing with “Monsters vs. Alien”s and “Shrek: Forever After,” we’ve tried to stretch the boundary of the believable.

For “Kung Fu Panda”, the challenge was to keep things whimsical. Our first instinct was to go “big and bold”, which is what our directors John Stevenson and Mark Osborne had asked for. But after playing a first pass of bad guy Tai Lung’s prison escape to Dreamworks Animation studio head Jeffrey Katzenberg, we learned that we were definitely working in a different medium, with different acceptable decibel and violence thresholds. “Panda”, which was aimed at family audiences, challenged us to find ways to make the track interesting without being an assault; to make things dynamic and exciting, but also pleasant, playful and easy on the ear.

So for “Panda” making things musical became our central strategy. This is not new to the Kung Fu genre. Kung Fu films are all about rhythms, beats and hyper-expressive, often musical and tonal sounds. Sound effects editor P.K. Hooker put together a collection of Kung Fu movies, from classics like “Iron Monkey” to newer films like “Hero” and “House of Flying Daggers.” What these films all have in common are intricate rhythms, where punches sound like percussion, most impacts have a WHOOSH leading into them, and the sound effects are often indistinguishable from music.

In “Monsters vs. Aliens”, we felt we could be more comic. The movie is a spoof on monster and sci-fi films from the ’50s, which is fun because we could pay homage to classic vintage-type sound effects, playing on clichés with a wink to our film sound history. This was the film that led to our first theremin experiments, which we elaborated on in Transformers 2.

I think my favorite thing, looking back, in “MvA” was one sound challenge we gave ourselves. When we designed Galaxar’s giant space ship, the principle for making the sound effects was to make every sound using our mouths only. Almost everything in the ship, from the space hatches to the hover bike to Galaxar’s laser gun was recorded vocally and then processed (or not). This sort of thing would be a lot harder to pull off in a live action film.

DS: How is the work with the directors and the animation crew? What is their interest to sound in the pre and production process?

1. Animation is not a genre and the way to deal with sound in animation films is different from the way you work with sound in a typical film, but there’s one thing: you have to create a whole world, just seeing computer animated graphics. Do you find something special in animation films? Any difference you find compared with the rest of films?

Animators are extremely detail oriented, and compared to other filmmakers can be much more detailed in their notes.

In sound, like animation, we start with a completely blank canvas. Actors’ dialogue is typically ADR, so the production track is exceptionally clean. This helps our sounds live clearly and precisely in the track.

Beyond clarity, animation is a very fun medium. You get a little more latitude with what is believable. Starting with “Kung Fu Panda”, and continuing with “Monsters vs. Alien”s and “Shrek: Forever After,” we’ve tried to stretch the boundary of the believable.

For “Kung Fu Panda”, the challenge was to keep things whimsical. Our first instinct was to go “big and bold”, which is what our directors John Stevenson and Mark Osborne had asked for. But after playing a first pass of bad guy Tai Lung’s prison escape to Dreamworks Animation studio head Jeffrey Katzenberg, we learned that we were definitely working in a different medium, with different acceptable decibel and violence thresholds. “Panda”, which was aimed at family audiences, challenged us to find ways to make the track interesting without being an assault; to make things dynamic and exciting, but also pleasant, playful and easy on the ear.

So for “Panda” making things musical became our central strategy. This is not new to the Kung Fu genre. Kung Fu films are all about rhythms, beats and hyper-expressive, often musical and tonal sounds. Sound effects editor P.K. Hooker put together a collection of Kung Fu movies, from classics like “Iron Monkey” to newer films like “Hero” and “House of Flying Daggers.” What these films all have in common are intricate rhythms, where punches sound like percussion, most impacts have a WHOOSH leading into them, and the sound effects are often indistinguishable from music.

In “Monsters vs. Aliens”, we felt we could be more comic. The movie is a spoof on monster and sci-fi films from the ’50s, which is fun because we could pay homage to classic vintage-type sound effects, playing on clichés with a wink to our film sound history. This was the film that led to our first theremin experiments, which we elaborated on in Transformers 2.

I think my favorite thing, looking back, in “MvA” was one sound challenge we gave ourselves. When we designed Galaxar’s giant space ship, the principle for making the sound effects was to make every sound using our mouths only. Almost everything in the ship, from the space hatches to the hover bike to Galaxar’s laser gun was recorded vocally and then processed (or not). This sort of thing would be a lot harder to pull off in a live action film.

2. How is it to work with the directors and the animation crew? Are they interested in sound in the pre and production process?

I think most people in animation are very aware of how important sound is to bring the picture to life. That’s why so much work is put into sound on these films very early. In fact, it’s the first thing they do. All the actors’ voices are recorded first, and animators then spend years animating to those vocal performances. Similarly with sound effects, years before we start on the film, the picture editorial crew puts together an intricate temp effects track. Over time, as shots go from storyboard through animation and lighting, the picture slowly catches up to the temp sound track. Then we jump in with our sounds.

We could see how energized the “Panda” team became when we first started sending fresh sounds; that in itself became an inspiration to us.

We sent picture editor Clare Knight FX mixes as often as we could, getting notes and evolving the track so that by the time we got to pre-mixing, everything had been heard and approved by the filmmakers.

We also got a longer schedule on “Monsters vs. Aliens”, but one comment we got in the early days from directors Conrad Vernon and Rob Letterman was: “It doesn’t sound big enough”. We realized the problem: our sounds were being monitored on stereo speakers in the editorial room, often dialed down to play against the dialogue and temp music. So we thought we’d better get a full 5.1 presentation with a bunch of scenes temp mixed in the ProTools to squash the “size issue”. With a sub channel the size complaints stopped.

One of the sequences we chose to present was Susan’s (a.k.a. Ginormica’s) arrival to Area 51, where she slowly learns that she’s trapped in a monster prison. This turned out to be our favorite sequence. The entire bit relies on sound design, with no music for the first few minutes, cuing Susan to explore her mysterious new home. We pitched the idea of playing sound effects only. Perhaps by luck, or maybe by design, we avoided going the music-driven and traditional route.

3. How does the sound help to improve the character design on films such as “Monsters vs Aliens” and “Kung Fu-Panda”?

4. In “Monsters vs Aliens” Ginormica has to sound “big”, Insectosaurus is a beast-insect, or in Kung-Fu Panda you have the little master mantis and the beast Tai Lung. What were your thoughts about the sound of these characters when you saw it on the sketches and then in the animated sequences?

[ I'm combining questions #3 & 4]

I think character design is one of the most important parts of our job. We are literally doing a performance for a character, the same way an actor would.

Po the Panda’s style of fighting is using his rolly-polly body weight to deflect and bounce an attacker’s power right back at them. So for this, we played with “boing” sounds. Supervising sound editor Ethan Van der Ryn built a “gut-bucket,” basically an iron bucket with a tensioned string that we could pluck and bend notes with. I did a design pass on these recordings, making escalating magnitudes of bouncy deflection as Po’s skills developed.

In “Kung Fu Panda”, each character represents a different style of Kung Fu, represented by a sonic signature: Mantis is based on wood-instrument ratchets, with doppler zips as he flies; Tigress is based on swift vocals, tennis racket whooshes and precision jabs; Crane is based on feathers and wings; Monkey is based on swingy whooshes; Viper is based on snake rattles (made out of serrated air hisses),  and villain Tai Lung is based on sheer brute force, contrasting Po’s rubbery-ness.

Making sounds for characters in “Monsters vs. Aliens” was pretty similar. Our heroes, Susan (the 50 foot woman), B.O.B. (the blob), Link (the swamp thing), Dr. Cockroach, and Insectosaurus (the giant furry bug)  all have their own individual soundscapes.

Susan has thunderous feet, designed by sound effects editor John Marquis.

Bob has gloopy blob sounds, created with our mouths, suction cups and latex stretching recorded by sound effects editor P.K. Hooker. Link is all about flippers and gurgling water (my throat was raw after this session). The Doctor is all about the sci-fi mad scientist inventions surrounding him. And Insectosaurus, voiced completely with sound design, is a cute version of the classic giant monster Godzilla, created with metal wails, a pig and a kazoo. The filmmakers mentioned “Godzilla’s” vocal as being created by a sharp metal screech, and wanted to achieve that feel.

5. Do you have some filed recording stories on the sound of those films?

When we started recording for “Panda”, we tried to get into the spirit of the genre. It seemed the classic Kung Fu “whoosh” and “punch” could be a starting point. We spent some days on the Hawks Stage at 20th Century Fox when its DFC mixing console’s system software was being upgraded, an used the space to do a complete “whoosh” recording set.

Foley stages are sometimes a little small when recording things on long tethers swooshing around the room. The Hawks Stage is a big space and has an exceptionally low noise floor.

One of the the first things we recorded in there was a jagged piece of metal that we attached to twine and began furiously swinging past the microphone. The slicing sound it made whipping though the air was fantastic. As I checked my recorder meter, I heard a SNAP! and looked up to see the jagged piece of metal, no longer attached to the twine, hurtling through the air.

My heart skipped a beat as I contemplated the damage that jagged metal piece could do to the extremely expensive and newly-installed silver screen in the mixing theater.

It missed.

whew.

We continued to record anything swing-able, from bamboo sticks, to pool cues, wood flutes and spatulas. I think we have around a hundred different varieties of whooshes from that session. Certainly one of the weirdest was a suggestion of sound effects editor Paul Pirola: 30 feet of bungee cord stretched and released across the stage. That sound became Po the Panda’s slow and relaxed whoosh.

We also recorded a bunch of Chinese instruments for “Panda” that later became character sounds: wood blocks, Tibetan chimes, a ringing bowl and gong.

At one point, John Stevenson requested a “sloshing of noodle soup” in Po’s belly as he moved. To attempt this sound, Ethan Van der Ryn wrapped a Sparkletts water bottle in thick cloth, and we recorded those sloshes with varying amounts of liquid. Dan O’Connell also contributed some water balloon gurgles and squishes to the mix. We kept these elements on their own pre-dub to dial in as needed.

We also had some fun recording crowds. Two hundred Dreamworks animators volunteered themselves on “Panda” and “MvA” to perform big exterior crowd sounds; sceaming and cheering for a whole variety of situations. At Dreamworks Animation studios in Glendale there’s a lovely courtyard with a massive fountain that was shut off and surrounded with hoards of sleep and UV-deprived animators that were ready to seriously release some steam.

6. And what about foley?

Working with Dan O’Connell, John Cucci and James Ashwill at “One Step Up” Foley is always a pleasure. The team is so creative and fast; they just nail it. On each of the three films we spent several days each recording “Wild Foley,” big sets of sounds that fit into the effects palette we need. For “Panda” we recorded punches, which we designed into Kung Fu smacks, and bells, swords and knives, snake slithers, whooshes and whip cracks, mystical chimes and anything pertinent we could think of.

We also spent this time establishing personalities for all the character’s textures and footsteps.

For every film, we typically shoot “cloth tracks” that for animation is especially important. It gives movement and life to a scene, subtle movements of the characters that is critical to create intimacy when a production track is absent. On these animated films, our cloth track is a dizzying melée of cloth, silk, nylon, fur, feathers, hair and any texture required.

For “Monsters vs. Aliens”, Dan gave us tons of great foley material. We did extensive sets of metal screeches, metal slides, air hatch releases, weapon action, and coiled spring twangs and zangs. The more I do this, the more I realize that there is no difference between sound effects and music … both tell a story, it’s just the instruments that vary.

7. There are a lot of intense fight scenes on Kung-Fu Panda. How were the sound design decisions there?

It’s all about the rhythms. Bottom line. Period. Whoosh and punch. I think of the punches like musical beats, like a drummer drumming. We pick the rhythm: musical and expressive.

The classic “Kung Fu” SMACK! was a sound that took a while to figure out. Both Dan O’Connell and I suffered some bruises smacking a variety of objects into our legs. Interestingly, the sound that reminded me the most of the classic Kung Fu WHACK! wound up being a slowed down chopstick impact.

8. In Kung Fu Panda the story is in China, in a very cultural valley, and in “Monsters vs Aliens” you have earth, monsters, space and sci-fi stuff. Two different perspectives but the same things to deal with: time and space. How was the sound design approach to give believability to the historical time and the space?

We’ve heard from some Chinese fans that our sounds were very authentic — a lot of this may have been accidental luck, because realism was secondary for us in these films.

We did pay deference to certain cultural sounds. We recorded a bronze singing bowl, ancient prayer bells and chinese gongs for sounds for Master Oogway’s mystical sonic palette. Shifu was much more authoritarian in his sounds, precise and quick whip slashes. We used a slicing spatula for a lot of his movements.

But when it came to “MvA,” there was little connection to reality. The sound for Galaxar’s spaceship was a Didgeridoo.

9. Every DreamWorks animated film has a lot of funny scenes and unexpected dose of laughter. There’s a way you treat the sound to enhance these comedy moments?

Comic timing is a lot of it. With “Panda,” I think the filmmakers wanted to treat the genre with respect, but still be playful. In their storytelling, they timed the scenes out for certain beats, certain realizations and moments. I think it’s important to think of sound “in the moment”, a constant “river of tao” experience that helps tell the story in an unfolding, visceral, and emotional way.

With “Monsters vs. Aliens”, we played our sounds more hyper-real, more neon. I love listening to the old Hanna Barbera collection of sound effects. The sounds are pretty low-fi and gnarly, but also very fundamental and expressive. From the Dreamworks logo on, we tried to capture that spirit.

When it comes to comedy, it works a lot like music does: if you time it to follow a certain rhythm, it’s funnier. Try it.

10. One of may favorite characters on “Monsters vs Aliens” is Bob. I think you did a great sound design job on it (and had a lot of fun, I guess). How was the sound of Bob created?

BOB was lots of fun. P.K. did a bunch of recording sets using pudding and jello, and actually got sick after eating too much while recording. After the session, there was pudding splattered all over the canvas tarp we had protecting the carpet. Listening to those recordings still makes me nauseous.

P.K. also found some big sheets of latex off the internet. To this day we’re not sure about the true business of the supplier. Those sounds wound up being used for BOB’s stretchy and elastic components.

The core design elements used for BOB were made using our mouths; suction pops, juicy lip smacks, wet tongue wiggles. BOB’s eye movements were exclusively mouth sounds and tongue clicks. For his arms and body, I layered these mouth sounds with our latex and foley toilet plunger sounds. Depending on the moment, we’d adjust the proportions of mouth to latex or plunger, and that combo of sounds was basically the sound of BOB.

EA: I think most people in animation are very aware of how important sound is to bring the picture to life. That’s why so much work is put into sound on these films very early. In fact, it’s the first thing they do. All the actors’ voices are recorded first, and animators then spend years animating to those vocal performances. Similarly with sound effects, years before we start on the film, the picture editorial crew puts together an intricate temp effects track. Over time, as shots go from storyboard through animation and lighting, the picture slowly catches up to the temp sound track. Then we jump in with our sounds.

We could see how energized the “Panda” team became when we first started sending fresh sounds; that in itself became an inspiration to us.

We sent picture editor Clare Knight FX mixes as often as we could, getting notes and evolving the track so that by the time we got to pre-mixing, everything had been heard and approved by the filmmakers.

We also got a longer schedule on “Monsters vs. Aliens”, but one comment we got in the early days from directors Conrad Vernon and Rob Letterman was: “It doesn’t sound big enough”. We realized the problem: our sounds were being monitored on stereo speakers in the editorial room, often dialed down to play against the dialogue and temp music. So we thought we’d better get a full 5.1 presentation with a bunch of scenes temp mixed in the ProTools to squash the “size issue”. With a sub channel the size complaints stopped.

One of the sequences we chose to present was Susan’s (a.k.a. Ginormica’s) arrival to Area 51, where she slowly learns that she’s trapped in a monster prison. This turned out to be our favorite sequence. The entire bit relies on sound design, with no music for the first few minutes, cuing Susan to explore her mysterious new home. We pitched the idea of playing sound effects only. Perhaps by luck, or maybe by design, we avoided going the music-driven and traditional route.

DS: In “Monsters vs Aliens” Ginormica has to sound “big”, Insectosaurus is a beast-insect, or in Kung-Fu Panda you have the little master mantis and the beast Tai Lung. What were your thoughts about the sound of these characters when you saw it on the sketches and then in the animated sequences? How does the sound help to improve the character design on those films?

EA: I think character design is one of the most important parts of our job. We are literally doing a performance for a character, the same way an actor would.

Po the Panda’s style of fighting is using his rolly-polly body weight to deflect and bounce an attacker’s power right back at them. So for this, we played with “boing” sounds. Supervising sound editor Ethan Van der Ryn built a “gut-bucket,” basically an iron bucket with a tensioned string that we could pluck and bend notes with. I did a design pass on these recordings, making escalating magnitudes of bouncy deflection as Po’s skills developed.

In “Kung Fu Panda”, each character represents a different style of Kung Fu, represented by a sonic signature: Mantis is based on wood-instrument ratchets, with doppler zips as he flies; Tigress is based on swift vocals, tennis racket whooshes and precision jabs; Crane is based on feathers and wings; Monkey is based on swingy whooshes; Viper is based on snake rattles (made out of serrated air hisses), and villain Tai Lung is based on sheer brute force, contrasting Po’s rubbery-ness.

Making sounds for characters in “Monsters vs. Aliens” was pretty similar. Our heroes, Susan (the 50 foot woman), B.O.B. (the blob), Link (the swamp thing), Dr. Cockroach, and Insectosaurus (the giant furry bug) all have their own individual soundscapes.

Susan has thunderous feet, designed by sound effects editor John Marquis.

Bob has gloopy blob sounds, created with our mouths, suction cups and latex stretching recorded by sound effects editor P.K. Hooker. Link is all about flippers and gurgling water (my throat was raw after this session). The Doctor is all about the sci-fi mad scientist inventions surrounding him. And Insectosaurus, voiced completely with sound design, is a cute version of the classic giant monster Godzilla, created with metal wails, a pig and a kazoo. The filmmakers mentioned “Godzilla’s” vocal as being created by a sharp metal screech, and wanted to achieve that feel.

DS:  One of may favorite characters on “Monsters vs Aliens” is Bob. Great and funny sound design on it. I think you had a lot of fun, I guess). How was the sound of “Bob” created?

EA: BOB was lots of fun. P.K. did a bunch of recording sets using pudding and jello, and actually got sick after eating too much while recording. After the session, there was pudding splattered all over the canvas tarp we had protecting the carpet. Listening to those recordings still makes me nauseous.

P.K. also found some big sheets of latex off the internet. To this day we’re not sure about the true business of the supplier. Those sounds wound up being used for BOB’s stretchy and elastic components.

The core design elements used for BOB were made using our mouths; suction pops, juicy lip smacks, wet tongue wiggles. BOB’s eye movements were exclusively mouth sounds and tongue clicks. For his arms and body, I layered these mouth sounds with our latex and foley toilet plunger sounds. Depending on the moment, we’d adjust the proportions of mouth to latex or plunger, and that combo of sounds was basically the sound of BOB.

DS: Do you have some filed recording stories on the sound of those films?

EA: When we started recording for “Panda”, we tried to get into the spirit of the genre. It seemed the classic Kung Fu “whoosh” and “punch” could be a starting point. We spent some days on the Hawks Stage at 20th Century Fox when its DFC mixing console’s system software was being upgraded, an used the space to do a complete “whoosh” recording set.

Foley stages are sometimes a little small when recording things on long tethers swooshing around the room. The Hawks Stage is a big space and has an exceptionally low noise floor.

One of the the first things we recorded in there was a jagged piece of metal that we attached to twine and began furiously swinging past the microphone. The slicing sound it made whipping though the air was fantastic. As I checked my recorder meter, I heard a SNAP! and looked up to see the jagged piece of metal, no longer attached to the twine, hurtling through the air.

My heart skipped a beat as I contemplated the damage that jagged metal piece could do to the extremely expensive and newly-installed silver screen in the mixing theater.

It missed.

whew.

We continued to record anything swing-able, from bamboo sticks, to pool cues, wood flutes and spatulas. I think we have around a hundred different varieties of whooshes from that session. Certainly one of the weirdest was a suggestion of sound effects editor Paul Pirola: 30 feet of bungee cord stretched and released across the stage. That sound became Po the Panda’s slow and relaxed whoosh.

We also recorded a bunch of Chinese instruments for “Panda” that later became character sounds: wood blocks, Tibetan chimes, a ringing bowl and gong.

At one point, John Stevenson requested a “sloshing of noodle soup” in Po’s belly as he moved. To attempt this sound, Ethan Van der Ryn wrapped a Sparkletts water bottle in thick cloth, and we recorded those sloshes with varying amounts of liquid. Dan O’Connell also contributed some water balloon gurgles and squishes to the mix. We kept these elements on their own pre-dub to dial in as needed.

We also had some fun recording crowds. Two hundred Dreamworks animators volunteered themselves on “Panda” and “MvA” to perform big exterior crowd sounds; sceaming and cheering for a whole variety of situations. At Dreamworks Animation studios in Glendale there’s a lovely courtyard with a massive fountain that was shut off and surrounded with hoards of sleep and UV-deprived animators that were ready to seriously release some steam.

DS: And what about foley?

EA: Working with Dan O’Connell, John Cucci and James Ashwill at “One Step Up” Foley is always a pleasure. The team is so creative and fast; they just nail it. On each of the three films we spent several days each recording “Wild Foley,” big sets of sounds that fit into the effects palette we need. For “Panda” we recorded punches, which we designed into Kung Fu smacks, and bells, swords and knives, snake slithers, whooshes and whip cracks, mystical chimes and anything pertinent we could think of.

We also spent this time establishing personalities for all the character’s textures and footsteps.

For every film, we typically shoot “cloth tracks” that for animation is especially important. It gives movement and life to a scene, subtle movements of the characters that is critical to create intimacy when a production track is absent. On these animated films, our cloth track is a dizzying melée of cloth, silk, nylon, fur, feathers, hair and any texture required.

For “Monsters vs. Aliens”, Dan gave us tons of great foley material. We did extensive sets of metal screeches, metal slides, air hatch releases, weapon action, and coiled spring twangs and zangs. The more I do this, the more I realize that there is no difference between sound effects and music … both tell a story, it’s just the instruments that vary.

DS: There are a lot of intense fight scenes on Kung-Fu Panda. How were the sound design decisions there?

EA: It’s all about the rhythms. Bottom line. Period. Whoosh and punch. I think of the punches like musical beats, like a drummer drumming. We pick the rhythm: musical and expressive.

The classic “Kung Fu” SMACK! was a sound that took a while to figure out. Both Dan O’Connell and I suffered some bruises smacking a variety of objects into our legs. Interestingly, the sound that reminded me the most of the classic Kung Fu WHACK! wound up being a slowed down chopstick impact.

DS: In Kung Fu Panda the story is in China, in a very cultural valley, and in “Monsters vs Aliens” you have earth, monsters, space and sci-fi stuff. Two different perspectives but the same things to deal with: time and space. How was the sound design approach to give believability to the historical time and the space?

EA: We’ve heard from some Chinese fans that our sounds were very authentic — a lot of this may have been accidental luck, because realism was secondary for us in these films.

We did pay deference to certain cultural sounds. We recorded a bronze singing bowl, ancient prayer bells and chinese gongs for sounds for Master Oogway’s mystical sonic palette. Shifu was much more authoritarian in his sounds, precise and quick whip slashes. We used a slicing spatula for a lot of his movements.

But when it came to “MvA,” there was little connection to reality. The sound for Galaxar’s spaceship was a Didgeridoo.

DS: Every DreamWorks animated film has a lot of funny scenes and unexpected dose of laughter. There’s a way you treat the sound to enhance these comic moments?

EA: Comic timing is a lot of it. With “Panda,” I think the filmmakers wanted to treat the genre with respect, but still be playful. In their storytelling, they timed the scenes out for certain beats, certain realizations and moments. I think it’s important to think of sound “in the moment”, a constant “river of tao” experience that helps tell the story in an unfolding, visceral, and emotional way.

With “Monsters vs. Aliens”, we played our sounds more hyper-real, more neon. I love listening to the old Hanna Barbera collection of sound effects. The sounds are pretty low-fi and gnarly, but also very fundamental and expressive. From the Dreamworks logo on, we tried to capture that spirit.

When it comes to comedy, it works a lot like music does: if you time it to follow a certain rhythm, it’s funnier. Try it.

From Designing Sounds