See With Your Ears: Spielberg And Sound Design

there are a few ways that you can build up tension in a movie scene through camera work through pacing and probably most commonly through music like the music you're hearing right now in this incredibly tense scene from Steven Spielberg's 2005 film Munich except there is no music in the scene what I'm getting ahead of myself let's back up we all know that movies have only two ways into your brain through your eyes and through your ears but if you've ever had the chance to edit a movie or a short film or even a small video

it quickly becomes apparent that when you're watching something these two senses are weirdly interconnected the visual side of film gets most of the attention because it's right in front of you and it's usually what you remember after a movie is over but in many ways the visuals are simply the face of the operation while the audio is actually the puppet master the one that really holds the power okay let me show you what I mean take a look at this scene right here [Applause] so what does Spielberg want you to pay attention to here these

people walking by and this car passing no it's not what Spielberg once it's what I want since that was the sound design I just made for that shot here's what the actual shot sounds like [Music] besides being infinitely better it's easy to notice how the sound really affects what you see and from what perspective you see it in my version the shot had an omniscient third person point of view in the real version as soon as the audio starts you're placed in a perspective the first thing you hear is a conversation from street level so

even though the long lens is fixed on Eric Bana you know the moment is taking place on the ground then to drive the point home you hear Daniel Craig singing the temptations and the vocal recording is close intimate even though you never go inside the car that's enough to put you there then the car that you're really supposed to pay attention to the black one parks and the sound of it parking jumps out and mechs just like you wouldn't hear Daniel Craig in that way from where the camera is you wouldn't hear the car that

clearly but the sound design picks these things out to tell a specific story still stays shut up the point here is that in film you really do see with your ears more than you think and sound doesn't mind that image gets the credit because a key to the power of sound design is its invisibility if dialogue sounds close then you are close to the person who's speaking it wherever they are my brothers would choose my papon my sister were both aimed okay so back to the sequence oh yeah forgot no music this four minute and

50 seconds scene is without music and almost entirely wordless how does Spielberg and legendary sound designer ben burtt who gave the world this how do they build the tension here well Burt does it by building a bed of constant noisy city ambience then singling out and stringing together like beads on a wire key noises that tell the story the background is that Eric Bana and his team are going to assassinate this man in his home by getting him to answer a phone that they've secretly had installed a bomb in the string of isolated plot sounds

goes like this the car with the assassins arrives the dialogue of the targets wife and especially young daughter then their car pulling away signaling it's safe to move forward then the coins and rotary phone that will make the call then the priming of the detonator and then wait what was that the first moment of trouble comes in sound up until now the isolated noises represent the steps of the plan going smoothly the truck passing by represents a break in that chain and a hitch in the plan at this point the ambience outside starts to take

on some strange qualities there's a high-pitched whine like a train stopping on top of everything and just like the moving truck blocks the assassins view the movers talking keeps them from hearing the daughter's car pull back up to the apartment she plays a key part in the scene so Burt isolates her again but not her voice this time her footsteps which continue indoors in the apartment the ambience is quiet and the really incredible thing about the scene is that Burt and Spielberg build the tension not by working towards a great crescendo of noise but by

gradually subtracting elements once the daughter is up here the danger can be signaled by a single sound effect the important elements have been set up so well by this point you could follow the rest of the scene without seeing it at all oh my I know allo the climax of this scene brilliantly is silence but it's a silence that works so well because it anticipates the noise of an explosion to come at this point the ambience has become really impressionistic and when it comes back in it has echo and reverb it's hurried footsteps in an

anxious siren the whole sound universe corresponds in a personal way to the assassins to their feelings and their nerves so it makes sense that when the final question is asked it's the sound design that answers Oh a on/off I'm not sure what they're doing in film school these days but if you have any interest in making movies at all you should attempt to make a scene like this no dialogue no music just camerawork and sound design once you've finished it watch the scene back but close your eyes wait and ask yourself what are your ears

see [Music] hey everybody thank you so much for watching and welcome to the first video of 2018 that is really exciting just finished my little recharge break over the new year which was wonderful and I'm ready for the marathon that will be this year as always I want every nerd writer video on 2018 to be an event for you guys I want it to be something that really really stands out in your subscription box and I'm gonna work very hard to make that happen for you guys oh I almost forgot new nerdwriter mugs super exciting

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