Sound Design & Foley thesis

Question

Hi everyone! I'm an italian Electronic Music student and I'm about to start writing my final thesis for the course. Sound design & foley are a new subject for me, they do not teach me anything about that but I am fascinated by the whole thing. I wanna know more about this and make this the topic of my thesis.

I've got 2 request/questions for you guys:

1) I need books on the subject - what do you suggest to buy? I'm already reading The Sound Effects Bible by R. Rivers which is cool, pretty pratical approach and easy to understand (but I'm also searching for something more technical and scientific, if exist)

2) Do you know about school/master/course about sound design and foley in EU or AUSTRALIA?

Thank you all for your time, Matteo

Answer 1

1) I need books on the subject - what do you suggest to buy? I'm already reading The Sound Effects Bible by R. Rivers which is cool, pretty pratical approach and easy to understand (but I'm also searching for something more technical and scientific, if exist)

I think David Sonnenschein's "Sound Design: The Expressive Power of Music, Voice and Sound Effects in Cinema" is one of the most approachable (meaning, not overly theoretical or detached from the practice and reality) and informative books on the practice of and reasons for "sound design" as it's performed for film, which I think many would agree is the "mother medium" for the essence of what this "sound storytelling" called "sound design" is about.

There are other books that go into "specifics" such as sound effects recording, like the Viers book you mention, but I think it's not really on the same page as what I would consider "sound design" (the art and practice of explaining a piece of art e.g. film in sound) to be about. Because for that, all specific techniques are just "slaves" to the overall task and vision and the techniques are entirely free form (Seriously. You can basically do anything you want, you can record anything you want, put any sound anywhere you want. That's why it's "art". As long as it makes sense to a viewer/listener and portrays what's intended.). Maybe you see it differently and are looking for something different for your thesis?

I don't know what you're looking for, if you're looking for "technical and scientific" information, because those are two terms whose connection to "sound design" I don't really understand. Care to elaborate?

2) Do you know about school/master/course about sound design and foley in EU or AUSTRALIA?

Loads, thus I would suggest doing a Google search and seeing the sites and courses by yourself.

Answer 2

check out http://thefoleydiaries.wordpress.com/ a great source of foley info

Answer 3

For #1: 'The Foley Grail' by Vanessa Theme-Ament

Answer 4

Hi Matteo,

You could contact your future colleague Matteo Milani http://usoproject.blogspot.nl/p/about.html Maybe he knows more books/courses in your area or nearby, he seems very knowledgable.

Concerning books on sound design and or foley, here is a list of some classics posted by misazam:

http://designingsound.org/2009/06/sound-design-essentials-books/

Regarding courses: i studied sound design in the Netherlands. You can go to: www.filmacademie.nl (more difficult to get in) or were I went: http://www.hku.nl/web/English/English/HKUUtrechtSchoolOfTheArts/Faculties/FacultyOfArtMediaTechnology.htm

Good luck!

Arnoud

Answer 5

Ciao Matteo,

Regarding books, the one that Stavrosound mentioned is good. You can find a lot of resources online nowadays, one great blog is designingsound.org another one is http://www.musicofsound.co.nz/blog/ Tim is the writer of the latter one, and you can find a lot of informations like this http://www.musicofsound.co.nz/blog/sound-design-book-list or http://www.musicofsound.co.nz/blog/career-advice-part-1

Now, that's the theory, and theory outside Italy. I'm a sound editor based in Rome and the reality, in italy, especially in the last few years, couldn't be more different than what you will read online. It's super fascinating, exciting, interesting and fun world, don't get me wrong, but today the italian film industry is really behind a lot of other countries in this field.

As you wrote there isn't any school that teaches sound fx editing or foley or even sound editing. Il Centro Sperimentale di Cinematografia (in Rome) http://www.snc.it/ (that should be the most prestigious cinema school in italy) doesn't even mention sound fx or foley in the sound course description http://www.snc.it/context.jsp?ID_LINK=103&area=7

They only mention "Realizzazione della colonna internazionale" that is (for our english reader) the M&E Track. That's it... That's all a Sound Fx Editor should do, for them... Unbelievable! (this make me so sad...)

My advise: read a lot and experiment (sound kits are very cheap now, and pro tools is on the cheap side too) and get in touch with professionals (online or in real life); if you want to study, go abroad, and if you want to work in Italy, move to Rome.

If you have any other more specific question, just write me.

Ciao

Davide

Matteo Boscolo *Davide, I've got troubles with my account I'm sorry for the late response Anyway I'm attending conservatory (: