Richard Shannon will lead a session on audio drama, exploring both basic and advanced story telling techniques and conventions. The workshop will explore how the narrative voice can work in audio, the use of music and sound effects, location and ambisonic recording and the idea of montage scenes (double acoustic space).
With over 50 years experience as a location sound recordist in documentary and features, Ray Beckett is best known for his work with Ken Loach, Kathryn Bigelow and Merchant Ivory.
His aim in this session is to stress the importance to communicate the need for sound to be included in production planning from the earliest stages as an important part of the final viewer experience and not just as an 'addendum' to the image.Â
From 1998 to 2017, the BBC radio features producer Piers Plowright traditionally gave the opening talk at the biennial School of Sound international festivals celebrating the world of audio in its many forms. Seán Street shares extracts from these talks, as well as from Plowright’s radio oeuvre, and some personal recollections of their friendship. Found sound, music, the human voice, and - underlying everything - the silence of creative possibility: these were just some of the working tools of Piers Plowright. This will be an opportunity to revisit them, through the ears and voice of Plowright himself.
In Part 2, Steve gives a detailed explanation of current immersive sound recording techniques. And he proposes that the realist sound recordist’s role has an authorial voice and a creative agency connecting the storytelling skills in recording for single camera with the new opportunities afforded by the emerging technologies of immersive field sound recording.
Steve Whitford is uniquely placed as a documentary sound recordist who, after over 25 years of production experience, entered academia and created a body of insightful research exploring the role of sound recording. In the first of two parts, Whitford explores both the historical and conceptual background that informs location sound.
Having worked for over thirty years as a production sound recordist (sound mixer), Stuart Wilson has been nominated for seven Academy Awards and seven BAFTAs winning an Oscar and a Bafta for Best Sound for 1917. In this session, Stuart explores the creative and technical skills that make sound recording fundamental to understanding characters and stories.
Of the many differences between game development and film production, the presence of sound personnel as full-time employees on game teams from day-one presents clues and opportunities as to how involved in the creative process sound, dialogue, music and mix designers can be.
The presence of an active ‘player’ in the on-screen experience of video games adds additional complexity to decision-making within sound mixing and design.
Sound designer Tim Harrison, re-recording mixer Raoul Brand and director Peter Strickland will discuss their work on the film "Flux Gourmet" and beyond, with a focus on the interplay between analogue and digital approaches. The filmmakers will revisit the sound process of "Flux Gourmet", telling the stories behind key scenes – from melting hydrophones in miso soup, to the hunt for the perfect stomach rumble, whilst trying to maintain a sense of play through to the end of the final mix.
Exploring the notion of game software ‘development’, as opposed to film ‘production’, exposes some fundamental differences in the operation of sound within the process of getting ideas on screen.
These talks will focus on music in film and audiovisuals - as opposed to film music - which means they’re not only about original, composed scores, but also any kind of music present in a production. Through the two talks, we’ll explore the many functions music performs in an audiovisual work and how music interacts with the editing, establishing an interesting syntax between image and sound.
In the third part of her series on embodiment in sound, Huvenne and sound designer Larry Sider deconstruct the Institute Benjamenta soundtrack and the intriguing process of working between animation and live action.
Amie Siegel works variously across film, photography, performance, and sculpture, exposing and connecting multiple strata of meaning. The artist will discuss her unique approach to sound, music and the plasticity of the film medium, including recent works The Silence (2022), Asterisms (2021) and Winter (2013).
These talks will focus on music in film and audiovisuals - as opposed to film music - which means they’re not only about original, composed scores, but also any kind of music present in a production. Through the two talks, we’ll explore the many functions music performs in an audiovisual work and how music interacts with the editing, establishing an interesting syntax between image and sound.
In the third part of her series on embodiment in sound, Huvenne is joined by Belgian filmmaker Nathalie Teirlinck to focus on the necessity of integrating sound within scriptwriting, at the very beginning of a film's development. Using this type of creative strategy, sound as a dynamic movement and the superimposition of auditory and visual spaces become useful tools.
Due to the tragic events in the Middle East, both Rana and the School of Sound felt it best to reschedule her talk for a later date. Those who have purchased tickets will receive a refund and we’ll contact you with the new date.
Martine Huvenne and Belgian filmmaker Elias Grootaers explore embodied listening in documentary film. They consider how to work with sound and audiovisual composition within a phenomenological approach to documentary filmmaking in order to create a direct experience for the audience.
The Audiovisual Chord - In the first of a series, Huvenne sets out an approach to filmmaking as a composition of sound, music, speech and images. And within this approach, the embodied first person perspectives of both the listener/spectator and the creator each play crucial roles.
Having gained a worldwide reputation for his work composing games music (Harry Potter, RuneScape, Command and Conquer and more), BAFTA winner James Hannigan transitioned into television series and audio drama including Audible's The Sandman and Alien series. This reflective discussion centres on Hannigan's experiences in the various entertainment industries, exploring the distinct narrative demands, production methods, and audience responses across these diverse mediums.
The growing popularity of film music has intensified the desire of many composers to enter the world of film, tv and games music.
But how does a young person take the first steps to enter the profession? What skills do they need, what training should they seek, what attitudes should they develop to help them achieve this goal?
