This week, we focused on sound production on film and their importance in telling a story and how they affect the audience’s watching experience.

The food scene I chose to discuss is from a documentary series that I’ve been watching and I really enjoyed, which is “Street Food” by David Gelb on Netflix. I chose the Japan episode featuring Toyo, specifically the part where he was in action.

In the scene, when Toyo is using the blow torch to sear the tuna, the sound was amplified to just incite that feeling of excitement from the viewers. De Jong et al. (2011) explained that this technique of amplifying small and often “insignificant sound” is frequently used to grab the attention of the listeners. The transition timing of the background music coming in was also really well-timed and great choice of music which matches really well with the Japanese theme and fast-paced beats cue for an exciting moment, playing an important role of aiding the whole visual experience.

Regarding my own documentary in the end, I hope to do a few things on the audio. In terms of the interview, I aim for clear vocals so people can really hear what they are saying. I think it’s really important for it to be really seamless because it will be the main method of telling the story. I would also record ambience noise to implement in the video to fill in the gaps of the talking, but also just to have for some visual observation scenes. Lastly, as I’ve pointed out in the scene above, small sounds are very important. I plan to record sounds that will be great to amplify, for example ding of a bell, the knife chopping food on a cutting board, music sound inside the store, coins falling down the donation box, etc.

Lastly, I’m not so sure if the recording will go as well as I plan or imagine it to be, but I hope to play around and experiment on site and hopefully get the materials good enough to aid the visual aspect of the film. With that being said, I will have a chat with the techies and see what equipment would be best to record the sounds I needed for the project. Also, as Brockett quoted (as cited in De Jong et al. 2011, pg. 293) “[t]he better job you do with the sound during video and audio editing, the less the audience will notice it”, I hope to edit the sounds and blend them into the movie as seamless and as natural as possible so not to make the audience notice it.

De Jong, W, Rothwell, J & Knudsen, E 2011, Creative Documentary : Theory and Practice, Routledge, ProQuest Ebook Central database.