[Leica] Sound on archive footage

["Johnny Deadman" <deadman@jukebox.demon.co.uk>]

> I've always had a question about "documentary" war footage - especially WWII
> naval battles. I'm always amazed at the wonderful sound effects that
> accompany these films. Screaming airplanes, deafening explosions,
> anti-aircraft fire, etc. It seems to me that this stuff was all shot with
> "silent" cameras, certainly not with microphones positioned to get the type
> of effects heard on the finished film.
>
> Obviously, the sound effects are added to a lot of this footage. How do
> others feel about this? Isn't adding an audio element just as ethically
> questionable as adding a visual element?

A large proportion news footage until as late as the early seventies and the
advent of videotape was shot silent. The sound effects on this stuff are
indeed added -- I have done it myself many times. Building a complex
battlefield sound layer is a long and rewarding process which may take
several days -- you have to add every shell burst and machine gun rattle
manually, plus engine noises, plane sounds, feet marching... plus filters
for distance, pitch shifting bits to avoid repetition... amazingly
intricate.

Another obvious example -- every time you see an atom bomb explode on TV you
will hear a perfectly synced earthshaking subsonic boom.

Oh really?

How far away do you think the camera is? How fast does sound travel?

I've done it myself. You take the biggest explosion you can find in the CD
library, and slow it down to half speed. Then add some more. Find some
thunder and do the same. Keep building it up.

That's what an atomic bomb sounds like. I think.


- --
Johnny Deadman

"There is no need for the writer to eat a whole sheep to be able to tell you
what mutton tastes like. It is enough if he eats a cutlet. But he should do
that" - Somerset Maugham