Up the Yangtze

I watched "Up the Yangtze" tonight and the very first thing I noticed was how they didn't remove all of the natural sounds.

We learned in class that the filmmaker wants to focus solely on the actors voices so that the audience does not get distracted by any other noises. However, in the first few minutes of the film, we can hear the wind rustling the leaves of the plants clearly. And I loved being able to hear that. I assume that because the film is a documentary, it would capture any and all sounds. This makes me wonder — are all documentaries the same? I would guess they would be, but is there ever a case where the shots are set so that only the actors voices are heard and the rest of the sound is minimized?

I realize though, after hearing the natural sounds, how much I loved them. It didn't distract me in the least. It made the whole story feel real, more so than any blockbuster film does.

Funny, how that works. Wouldn't all filmmakers want their stories to feel real?

Musicals

Musicals are my favorite genre of film. I could pop a musical into my DVD player and watch it over and over again, never tiring from listening to the songs being performed. Of the hundreds of times I've seen musicals, I never once thought of all the work that goes into making sure the audio track is synced with the movement of the actors' lips during singing scenes — until I watched a behind the scenes feature on the Glee DVD.

Before I knew any better, I assumed voices were recorded while filming and those were what was used in the final piece, no ifs, ands or buts. However, on one of the behind the scenes clips from the Glee DVD, one of the actresses is talking about how they have to record the songs in a studio prior to filming, and then sing along with the recording so that the movement of the lips match the song.

Who knew?

Definitely not me. A lip-syncher in a crowd of actual singers stands out like a a candle in a pitch black room. They're always so easily spotted. I guess that's why they actually sing along with their recorded voices during taping. Does it ever happen that the producers like the live version better than the recorded version and use that instead? I wonder.

I think a big part of it is that I never realized that voices that are recorded can be muted out so that replacement voices can be added in. It makes perfect sense that they do all of this. Nobody wants to watch a movie where the singing is off-key or where you can hear voices but the mouths aren't moving. It's interesting how much I've learning so far. And I never stop learning. There's always something new.

Instrumental vs. Vocal Music

Ever since the start of my movie soundtrack class, I've done some thinking about the challenges a composer must face when trying to compose the soundtrack for a film. My professor explained to the class how composers are given a short amount of time to create the soundtrack after the film is complete. I've heard some incredible soundtracks in my life and it occurred to me that most movies are composed of either instrumental music or vocal music.

This made me wonder: how does a composer decide in such a short amount of time whether he or she wants to create a soundtrack based on instrumental music or on vocal music? Do composers usually stick to either one kind or the other? I imagine they do — in my mind I think of movies as either being made up of purely instrumental sounds or music with lyrics. What makes a film, then, or a specific scene, worthy of instrumental music or what makes one worthy of vocal music? Is vocal music more modern? No, it doesn't seem to be that way. Many modern movies use instrumental music. Is instrumental music used in films where the director wants to reach his or her audience through their emotions without the possibility of them listening too closely to the words? I'm not sure, but I sure would love to understand more about the process.

On another note, I've also been wondering when a scene in a film, or a film as a whole, merits an original song or score. Why is it that some films simply use music that's already been recorded and produced when others get music specially recorded for the film? Does it depend on the genre of the film? Is it the director who wants a new recording to be used at the climax in order to convey the exact emotion he or she wants? Or is it the composer who decides based on the amount of time he or she has, his or her ability and his or her interpretation of the scene?

So many questions. I hope to be able to learn more about the process and understand why films are made up of different scores, instrumental or vocal; original or not.