Designing a Fight
Designing a Fight
I really enjoy designing and editing sound for a handful of things in movies. Chase sequences (cars or space ships) for one. The other is hand-to-hand combat. The fight scene.
I don't understand the psychological implications of why seeing two people beat each other up is so compelling but, as long as filmmakers think YOU want to see that, I'll be excited to bring these sequences to life with sound.
And, lest it not be known, fight sequences (in movies anyway) cannot exist without sound. Because, well, there isn't much recorded during filming: the actors and stunt-persons learn to pull punches or lean out of the path of the swinging and punching, aided by clever camera angles resulting in...no useful sync sound to lean on. Further to the point, the actual sound of hitting the face or gut, even if it were recorded on set, isn't very dramatic. I know this because I've done it.
Yet Sound Designers have gotten away with murder (pun intended) for decades, amping up fight sequences with vegetable abuse, bone cracks, carcass thrashings and all manner of untoward sound to make the action seem bigger and more violent than it really is. Given how few people have ever gotten in a fight, what point of reference could an audience have for the authenticity of these sounds in the first place? One is as likely to hear birds twittering (a great cartoon cliche) when punched in the face as celery stalks snapping...but audiences seem to expect these noises. I wonder if bullies are disappointed after their first fist fight, wondering why it wasn't all crack and crunch and squish...like in the movies? Unless, of course, the fight involves an antagonist made out of something other than flesh and bone. I haven't done an alien fight scene yet.
Given it is up to the Sound Designer to fulfill these self-inflicted expectations, where does one begin building sound for a fight? There's not much new in the canon when it comes to creating on-screen violence with non-human hit sounds so how does one avoid the tropes?
So, the first few rules of Fight Club (editing):
Don’t land every punch.
Don’t sweeten hits with vegetables and other non-human sounds.
Keep whooshes to a minimum (unless its a superhero).
Use Dialog/ADR to carry the pain of a hit instead of a sound effect.
Don’t react to every hit.
Layer the hits in a bed of tightly cut cloth movement and foot scuffle.
Never use the same punch twice.
Less is more.
Develop an understanding of your movies aesthetic and ask how that translates to what one needs to add (or subtract). If its a superhero movie, maybe the big bone crunches and vegetable abuse sweeteners are a useful palette when sound needs to be larger than life. If it's a drama, perhaps little or no sweetening is necessary; the fight wants to say "look at how awkward and un-dramatic this is". In other words, understand the films aesthetic and let that inform the sounds to be recorded or utilized from library.
Watch the sequence several times to understand the fights internal dynamics. Where are the peaks and valleys dramatically and sonically? Where do you want to save your biggest hits for and where can you conserve? Restraint buys impact when it is needed.
Remember that perspective, the audiences AND the combatants, is hugely important. Think about the observer and the observed, the sensation of being in a fight. What the fighter hears is quite different than that of an observer of the fight. Gauge this when approaching the edit and build a suitable palette. In the upcoming film Dune, we have an important fight that takes place in a dream. We intentionally displaced sync as well as focused on tiny, inconsequential sounds (rather than the hits themselves) to change the reality of this fight with sound. There are no sounds of punches at all.
Build a palette of sound and stick with it, even if it's library sound. It’s confusing to the audience for the palette to change inexplicably because your dipping into the library as you go. Select these sounds in advance, before attempting to edit them to picture. If there is time, record fresh, new sounds that suit the sensibilities. Start with body and face hits…by doing them to yourself. It's surprisingly easy. Don’t hit your face, that hurts too much. (I've tried it) I’ve had great results pounding my thighs and calves and mic’ing really close. Take those sounds, of real flesh on flesh, and process them with simple slow-down and EQ techniques to make them a bigger (or smaller) than life (or not). Also try punching your shoulder and forearm. These are meaty parts of the body that add different textures of impact. Try the stomach, too; clothed and not clothed, depending on what the fighters are wearing.
What I’m advocating is recording fresh, authentic sounds where possible in lieu of cheesy library punches that will always stick out and sound fake. Such flagellation needn't be dreaded. You don’t even need to punch yourself that hard. Let the fader create the size and volume for you. I did a batch of self-inflicted punches for a movie called WARRIOR, a drama set against the backdrop of MMA and cage fighting. I return to that library often for organic and believable real hits for fight scenes. I got a few bruises from the recording sessions but, hey, what we won’t do for art, right?
Start the Edit. Build it by cutting like sounds in one continuous pass till the sequence is complete. Start with the face punches. Get to know the extent of your palette this way. Don't move from a punch, to a whoosh, to a body fall for one event and then move on the the next event in the time-line. Stick with the punches to get to know the material and know what to save or expend in the material. Once the punch pass is complete, move on to the next pass, maybe vocals. Rinse and repeat.
Your editing style can dramatically shape how the characters are perceived. If a character is the aggressor or the stronger of the two combatants, save the elements of your palette for that character that have greater sonic power or impact. If the fighter needs to evince precision (maybe a martial arts fighter) edit sounds for that character in tight sync with very abrupt heads and tails so that there is little overlap of sound, giving a staccato quality to the movement and impacts. Very small, short whooshes will accentuate the fighters training or precision, as if the arms are moving so fast they are displacing air. This is a sonic fight cliche: arms don't actually do this in real life and most whooshes in a fight are cartoonish and silly, but intelligently deployed, they can add needed character. Inversely, a street fighter might be sloppy, without that precision movement, and can bumble through a fight, landing or not landing hits but feeling dangerous with the addition of gutteral grunts and heavy cloth movements.
Notice that vocalizations are a vital component to the drama of a fight. They more quickly communicate who's winning or losing the fight than the loudness or quality of the punches. If ADR for these characters isn't possible, do it yourself. As it happens, the grunts, groans and exertions made when fighting are fairly generic. They contain little of the timbral characteristics that distinguish our voices from each other. Your "OOOF" when getting punched will sound pretty much like any other person your sex, size and weight. I've re-voiced entire fight scenes with my own voice either because I had no choice (no actors around) or because I could simply take my time to do a better job.
Once those vocalizations are in place, add a another ingredient; clothing movements and scuffle. A real fight is an amalgam of sounds that all must work together. One of the reasons most library sounds don't work well in fights is the lack of the necessary supporting layers that disguise their shortcomings. A cheesy punch sound can be parlayed by adding credible foot-scuffle on the appropriate surface (floor/boxing ring/grass or dirt) and accompanying it with clothing rustle and movement cut in fine sync with the action. One without the other creates a non-reality that draws attention to the unsupported sounds. Unless, of course, non-reality is useful.
Finally, Review the finished work as a whole, after having built it granularly, and tweak. Ask yourself "Does it work?" Did it achieve the goals you set out for yourself? Does it sound powerful? Does it sound pathetic? Does it sound gritty? Does it sound masterful? Does it fit the movies intent? Did it impress or underwhelm?
And, of course, the last rule of Fight Club (editing) is; there is no last rule.
Saturday, January 30, 2021