Sound Design (David Barker and Pacho Velez)

The lecture on contemporary sound design in documentary cinema, discussed about  foley, ambience, score and a fourth category David Barker and Pacho Velez explored, in documentaries. Barker and Velez began the lecture by showing a scene from a film. The setting of the scene takes place in a lab where persons are examining lobsters and stuffing them into boxes. The sound in the scene is mostly coming from the people doing this odd process. However, sound of tape being pulled and stripped is heard but no where to be found in the frame. Barker and Velez wanted to talk about this particular phenomenon. They mentioned that scores have been used for a long time to amplify emotion or convey abstract notions in fiction and nonfiction films. Now, sound designers and filmmakers are using sounds and sonic textures to get the same effects scores delivered in the past. Furthermore, Barker and Velez also talked about foley and ambiance and how they draw or pull attention away from the frame. They defined foley as natural sounds that occur in the scene, like footsteps or opening a door. Natural sounds that occur in the scene draw attention to what’s going on. On the contrary, ambient sounds pulls attention to what’s outside of the frame. 

I found the lecture interesting although I would have liked it if they explained the contrasting nature of foley and ambient sounds such as how one directs attentions to the frame and the other pulls away from the center of the frame. Before Barker and Velez discussed about the fourth category of sound in films and, showed us the scene where people were packing lobsters in to boxes, I thought the sound of tape being teared off was added to further establish the environment in the scene. I never thought of sound as an element that can be used to convey a theme or amplify emotions.