In a recent Sound Studies and Aural Cultures class, we watched the first 20 minutes of ‘Full Metal Jacket’, Stanley Kubrick’s analysis of the effects of the Vietnam War on soldiers as they begin to get ready for deployment.

In watching the beginning of this film I was shocked to realize a major shift that was created through the introduction of the score, and this realization caused me to purchase and rewatch the entire film as soon as I arrived home that evening. The introduction of the film starts with the new soldiers receiving buzz cuts alongside the song ‘Hello Vietnam’, after this, there is no included music for the following 26 minutes of the film, up until the point Private Leonard is assaulted as a result of his subpar effort and ability during training. This has an intense psychological effect on him eventually leading to his own suicide, and this downfall and shift in the film is introduced to the audience through the addition of suspenseful music in the film. Contrary to the relatively humorous and offensive dialogue that occupied the sound space of the film prior.

This change inspired the second music cue in my Element 1 submission for Sound for Screen, inciting suspense through the addition of dissonant music.

I was unable to book the composition and foley studios for this project, and initially, I was hesitant to record because I thought the quality of the foley for this project would be affected by the volatility of the sonic environment that makes up my current house. However, in the comfort and proximity of my own space, I was able to create a vast and detailed collection of sounds for this clip, and the ones that inspired me the most were the ones thought of last minute.

Early on in this project, I realized the immense detail that goes into creating foley for film and the intense specificity, time, and patience it requires. Initially, I was hesitant in re-recording audio for an already released film. There were certain parts of me that thought any work I would contribute would somehow be unoriginal, as the film is already its own entity. In spite of this, actually placing emphasis on the detail and quality of my own composition and foley performances for this project was an amazing exercise and exploration into the world of foley and sonic construction to environment-specific scenes and situations.

In my score and sound design for the clip from ‘No Country for Old Men,’ I am expanding on the Coen brothers’ approach to utilizing proximity and sound as a theme throughout the film. While the film does not have a score, there is an emphasis on silence as well as observation through sound.

I currently have a rough mix of the foley sounds and themes I am using in my soundtrack for the scene I have chosen. The two musical themes in my composition are very different in tonality. Theme No. 1 follows a structured progression and melody, however, places an emphasis on dissonant rhythmic qualities. Theme No. 2 is a prolonged drone for which I recorded saxophone across different timbres and in different positions from the Sennheiser 418 microphone I was using. Playing two octaves of g with slightly different embouchure styles in order to get different tones, the second piece is my approach to creating dissonance and tension through tone and volatility.

My foley was all recorded live in my bedroom using a variety of props and miking techniques. The session quickly grew to roughly 50 different stereo and mono tracks and in organizing them I found that balancing and including and excluding certain sounds is an entire creative process, as well as deciding between tones and objects to use.

I used a series of guerilla foley recording techniques as well as in-studio techniques. Recording cars tailored to the scene was a difficult process, especially getting single-car takes that matched the low rumbling of a Chevrolet Impala. I used a Sennheiser 418 stereo 5 pin microphone for the majority of the recordings but for the outside ambience and other guerrilla foley (i.e. cars), I used a stereo zoom h6 microphone.

One of the most challenging aspects of my recording was the timing, and estimating the different weights and toe placement of recording steps in my room. I used carpet, tile, and a large Moog subsequent 25 tour case to record the variety of materials pictured in the scene I chose. Another challenging aspect of this recording process was the recreation of a motel vent. I used the Sennheiser 418 and recorded a boom pole hitting the vent above my stove in order to get the metallic clanging in the motel air ducts.

Tape was another sound object that was important to me in recording foely for this project. I used a very direct miking position while recording the duct tape being used in this scene. The two themes followed and emphasized throughout my composition of this soundtrack include proximity and tension, focusing on recognizable sounds that depict closeness and both fear and hostility. Another object I used in the recording is a pair of Red Wing boots I own; both for footsteps and the part of the scene where Anton Chugah removes his boots before attempting to murder Llewelyn Moss in the motel room. The Senehiser 418 has a great frequency response and in recording the shoes I was able to capture a very clean leathery sound.

I have finished my first working mix of the main and introductory theme for my composition for a scene in the film ‘No Country for Old Men’.

The motif I am following for this work is proximity. In expanding on the directors’ intentions of causing the audience to be aware and listening throughout the film in long silent stretches, I am composing music around the idea of an almost eery and itchy collage of sound depicting tension and suspense. I want the audience to be thrown by my score. I want the audience to feel as if they are the protagonist, not as if they are watching the protagonist.

For the first theme, I wrote an electric guitar part, that resembles a low repetitive drone. Almost blues-like and almost dragging. Suspenseful but recognizable. I plugged my guitar directly into my UAD Arrow interface and used a Strymon Tape delay effects pedal and a Hudson electronics console preamp effects pedal with it to achieve my desired tone. Over this I layered an ambient guitar track; playing with harmony and string buzz. I also improvised a bass track on a Moog Subsequent 25 synthesizer and a cello drone on a digital mellotron synthesizer. I plugged the mellotron into a warm audio octave fuzz pedal for some extra hair as well.

The percussion was also important to me for this first theme, so I recorded a shaker track (large beans used inside) and I also recorded myself tapping a poorly homemade contact microphone to use as a low kick drum track. In a separate session, I recorded a series of brush strokes using two jazz-style drum brushes on a variety of surfaces to create a poly-rhythmic and dissonant-rhythmic track to blend in with the main theme. This picks up in the scene as Anton Chigurh approaches the motel where Llewelene is hiding out.

For microphones, I tracked the percussion with a Shure SM57 and a Sennheiser MKH 418.

In preparation to begin gathering both guerilla and studio foley recordings for the scene I am recreating the soundtrack for in the film ‘No Country for Old Men’, I have made a list of sounds I need to collect or replicate or imitate in order to structure and represent the tonality of the environment of the scene. The two main components in the foley are ambient sounds and sound objects (i.e. duct tape around hangers and the beep of the tracker).

My perspective around both the sound design and composition for this film scene is driven by the initial perspective of the Coen brothers, which was to create a sense of proximity throughout the film without the ‘barrier’ of music blocking the audience from immersing themselves into the story. In striving to recognize but develop this perspective in my own way I will focus on the sound objects that make up the resonating aspects of the foley for the scene I have chosen. I will also compose ambience and a musical theme to represent the growing tension throughout the scene.

In an effort to practice what I had learned in an in class exercise on tape loops for Sound for Screen, I recorded and created a 4.8 second loop of one of my favorite song introductions, ‘The Ocean’ by Led Zeppeling. In the introduction of the studio recording and live recordings of this piece John Bonham, the bands drummer, recites ‘we’ve done four already but now we’re steady and then they went 1,2,3,4’ in order to count off the intro tempo of the song. The purpose of this was in recording this piece, the band was having initial trouble syncing up the slight polyrhythms that occurs throughout the duration of the song, and in an attempt at humor, Bonham shouted that phrase which was then picked up by an overhead drum microphone and released with the album ‘Houses of the Holy’.

This tape loop is a minor tribute of mine to the band.