Kevin Crosby

Fall, 1993

Soundscaping

Editing is the process of creating a space in which reality is catered to

creative intent. A filmmaker attempts to reproduce in two dimensions what
is inherent to three-dimensional space. A film space encompasses
everything in, on and around the camera, governs which frame of film
borders another, and which sounds will fill that space. The space is a
combination of diegetic and off screen mis-en-scene as well as montage
effects and sound manipulation. A complete space is both a landscape and a
soundscape since both to add depth and realism to an otherwise two-
dimensional media.
The acoustics of a space help determine the realism of that space. An
inherent quality of real spaces is reverberation. "Natural reverberation is
produced by the reflections of sounds off surfaces. They disperse the sound,
enriching it by overlapping the sound with its reflections. This process colors
the sound to some extent, imparting a change in timbre."1 Reverberation aides
in depth perception, sound source localization, and gives details about the
size of a space. The realism of a space depends on auditory clues matching
visual cues.
The space in which the sound is replayed also colors the sound, and
sound editing techniques like postsynchronization and looping will also
impart their own acoustics. Much of this information is subliminal, but as
Professor Brian O'Blivion states in David Cronenberg's Videodrome, "The

1
Charles Dodge and Thomas A. Jerse, Computer Music (New York: Schirmer Books, 1985) 223.
television screen has become the retina of the mind's eye. Therefore, whatever
appears on the television screen emerges as raw experience for those who watch
it." Unlike film screens large enough to necessitate eye movements in order to
watch the whole image, televisions are small enough to allow the entire image to
be captured within a stare. With the mind so relaxed, subliminal impressions will
create imagery.
Nonsequential sequences can alter perception of time, nondiegetic inserts
can effect subjective perception of object relationships, and sound can create its
own space. A small space can appear larger if the reverberation time is long, and a
cavernous space shrinks by shortening the time between the arrival of the direct
sound and its first reflections and by increasing the number of echoes in a shorter
reverberation time. Reverberation can give a sense of emptiness, hollowness, or
openness. Max's auditory flashbacks have additional reverberation to give them a
distant feeling.
Reverberation also effects subjective perception of room size.
Cronenberg varies the physical, visual space independent of subjective,
auditory space in Videodrome:
Cut to shot of Videodrome broadcast of a black man having his genitalia prodded
with an electrified stick. Reverse angle shot to Harlan's work space: a myriad of
electronic equipment. Fans and motors hum along the noise floor while cries of pain
from Videodrome resonate within the room. We're standing behind a cathode ray tube
that tightly frames Max and Harlan into a two-shot in the upper half of the picture.
There is no door nor window nor ceiling in their space. We can't see the ceiling so we
imagine how low it might be, and only the back wall has any estimable size. When
Harlan moves laterally through the space, we track his
movement by panning about a point behind the cathode ray tube. There is very little
freedom of movement since either end of Harlan's space is bounded by another monitor.
"We never leave that room" prompts Max to Harlan concerning the Videodrome
broadcast. Their voices reflect coldly from the plaster walls of the small room. Max's
comment alludes to being trapped in a cell, and claustrophobia finally sets in when
Harlan informs Max that the Videodrome program originates from Pittsburgh and not
from halfway around the world in Malaysia.
Cut to an establishment shot of an office space with a side wall of glass panels, a
staircase entry, and a large transparent porthole. We're sitting in a corner barely able to
admire the architecture when Nicki's breathy, intimate voice tells us to "get professional
help." Visually, the space has expanded: people walk about, a ceiling slants down in the
upper right-hand corner and shadows barely fill recesses; but the illusion of Nicki's voice
next to our ear (even amongst the distant chatter of office workers) makes the space feel
small as Harlan's work room. We are then drawn to Nicki, and through the round
window we see her speaking.
Cut to Nicki's point of view. We see Max through part of the round window
while Nicki tells us that we're going insane. Her voice is practically inside our head and
there aren't enough visual clues to bound the space. There is only the one wall of glass
looking out to Max looking in. The space appears boundless, but the voice inside our
head creates the illusion that we're confined.
Cronenberg is able to create the illusion of decreasing subjective space
while increasing physical space by increasing the ratio of direct sound to reflected
sound while reducing the number of visual clues necessary to determine physical
dimensions. He overrides visual stimulus with auditory cues to fool the mind's
perception of space and distance. He uses this localization trick again to
personalize a message:
 Cut to Max snorting in response to Professor O'Blivion's Retina conjectures.
Reverse shot to Professor O'Blivion speaking from Max's television. The acoustics of
the television in the room have been established from previous speech. Professor
O'Blivion calls Max by name in a voice that sounds closer than before. After this
auditory jump, new the acoustic mode has been established and nonsynchronous music
begins. The effect is startling since the localization of the his voice alludes to coming
from within our head. The voice is too close.
Changing the localization cues of a sound can create the illusion that its
physical source is somewhere other than its visual source. The scene in which
Max hallucinates while wearing the helmet has reverberation characteristics such
that Nicki's footsteps crackle. Nicki's feet remain the physical sound source, but
the artificial reverberation displaces the source in subjective space. This works
well with the hallucinatory theme of the scene by locating the sound in an
artificial space.
Subtle changes in sound quality will also be detected. Sometimes these
changes manifest themselves during continuity editing. The scene in which Max
hallucinates that he strikes his personal assistant uses match on action of Nicki that
has a significantly quieter soundtrack than the surrounding film. This
inconsistency, while barely audible, creates a subliminal image of multiple spaces
within a single shot. Maintaining an invariant noise floor across cuts and adding
postsynchronous sound to the entire sequence can eliminate this discrepancy and
assure clean transitions between cuts.
Vocality has enormous impact on the viewer's subjective experience. Verbal
speech sounds can add color to a soundscape as well as trigger
subliminal responses from the viewer. Sounds can increase awareness levels,
flashback memories, or trigger psychomotor responses:
Cut to Barry Convex crumbling to pieces on stage. His blood flows in rivers
from his body as his innards chew outward. A microphone amplifies Barry's gut-
wrenching cries throughout the convention complex. His disembodied screams carry
with them the afterimage of his carnage.
Music announces an event or punctuates it. It can set a mood or place an
event in time. The mood-setting music of Videodrome lulls the viewer into a
relaxed, hypnotically sensitive state that allows subliminal imagery to be
effortlessly absorbed by the mind. The brain quickly habituates the music's
redundant drone so that it fades into the background. This helps to accent
changes in the soundscape. Sounds stand out against musical counterpoint.
Cut to Max's television image holding a gun to his head. The music crescendos a
final cadence. Max disrupts the silence with, "Long live the new flesh," and a single
gunshot thunders for seconds while the television explodes viscera. The gunshot decays
back into the music while auditory acuteness focuses on dripping water and Max's
zipper.
Reverse shot to Max looking at the remnants of his television image. He puts the
pistol to his head and pulls the trigger. The final explosion has no thunderous effect:
only the reverberant fade-to-silence of the pistol's percussion in the darkness of the
faded-out video image.
Visual and auditory cues interact with psychological patterns to create
realities that the filmmaker controls. Sound fills these pseudo realities with
auditory imagery that the brain translates into neural responses. Sound alters
depth perception, is capable of auditory hallucination, and creates a
backdrop upon which reality lies. Filmmakers use sound to enhance the details of
their space, and Videodrome succeeds in creating virtual spaces sculpted from
sound.