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milkweed pod
In the utter silence of a temple...a cicada's voice alone...penetrates the rocks. Matsuo Bashō (1644-1694)
 

Mixing Sound
Read it. Learn it. Do it.

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 “Wherever we are, what we hear is mostly noise. When we ignore it, it disturbs us. When we listen to it, we find it fascinating."

John Cage, “The Future of Music: Credo”
"Sound is not only language. Sound is everything. A picture can go without any images on the screen for some time—just sound. Or only with silent images. It depends on what you want to tell."
Jean-Luc Godard to UCLA film student Armando Ballester, interview, February 29, 1968.
top secret 1943 Imagine here the initial minute of a (nonexistent) World War Two era movie—call it Espionage!—beginning without images as Godard above suggests. The "movie" treats activity described in this actual file, declassified in 1995, that passed between agents of the US Army Signal Intelligence Service VENONA counter-intelligence program.

You Did It Then:  Try it yourself. Create your own version of the opening interior scene of Apocalypse Now, using a silent shot of a ceiling fan, a shot of a young man’s face, helicopter sounds, sound effects, a voice-over, and a room interior. Step-by-step instructions and the files you can use are in the image below.

ceiling fan apocalypse now

You Do It Now: Go back to your Voiceover movie… and re-mix the sound tracks. If you used a score, try a different one. If you gave Jack the voice over, take it away and give it now to Jill. Trust your ear. Trust your intuition.