Preliminary Exercise 14: Sound Case Study

 Introduction

"Sound Design is the alchemy that turns noise into art." - Walter Murch

To go more in depth of sound design, I wanted to dedicate this post about a great movie called Apocalypse Now. The cinematography, the direction, everything was top notch. Apocalypses Now portrays the horror and absurdity of War; The chaos and madness that follows behind it. This movie is about a U.S army officer in Vietnam trying to assassinate a Special Forces Colonel whos has gone completely mad. It also greatly portrays the journey of war and how, in the face of war, darkness and destructions descends. On the topic of sound, Walter Murch was the genius behind the sounds and effects of this movie. He did a great job trying to insert the true works of horror and war into this movie and it caused him to be nominated for the Academy award.

(Walter Murch 1943)

    One of the greatest sound designers of all time is Walter Murch. Walter Murch was born on July 12, 1943 in New York City, New York. His father is Walter Tandy Murch, who was a Canadian-born painter. Even as a young boy, Murch has taken a great interest to sound. He would usually experiment with sound recording, taping and layering the sounds to create a new combination. But now, he is considered, not only an American sound designer, but also a film editor, writer, and director. He has worked with countless movies, including 'THX 1138', 'Apocalypse Now' and 'American Graffiti'. He won three Academy Awards in 1974. (From nine nominations; he got six for picture editing and 3 for sound). Murch went to USC school of Cinematic arts to continue his studies.

    Murch was the first person to ever receive credit as a "Sound Designer," after his work on 'Apocalypse Now'. Then, he became the editor of "Apocalypse Now Redux." After his tremendous works, he wrote a book about being an editor, called "In the Blink of an Eye" which soon became really popular. People, such as Roger Ebert and David Thomson, grew a lot of respect for Walter Murch and his works. He has been called 'a suburb craftsman of modern film' and 'the most respected film editor and sound designer.'

(Apocalypse Now Redux- August 3, 2001 *Production Company: American Zoetrope*)

Work Cited

IMDb (no date) Walter Murch - Biography, IMDb. Available at: https://www.imdb.com/name/nm0004555/bio/?ref_=nm_ov_bio_sm (Accessed: 18 December 2023).

The top 10 famous sound designers of all time (2023) Musical Theatre. Available at: https://robsummers.co.uk/the-top-10-famous-sound-designers-of-all-time/ (Accessed: 18 December 2023).

Walter Murch (2023) Wikipedia. Available at: https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Walter_Murch (Accessed: 18 December 2023).