Contact

Contemporary Traces of the Modern Soundtrack

Developed for RMIT Media Arts

Dolby/Surround time-line

1938 – Academy Curve – limitations in frequencies for film mixing
1945 – Radio Luxomberg magnetic tape recorders
1966 – Dolby-A noise reduction – encoding/decoding for magnetic tape

1971 – A CLOCKWORK ORANGE
1973 – Stereo Variable Density Area – applying NR & stereo to film technologies
1975 – TOMMY – 4-track stereo optical soundtrack
1979 – APOCALYPSE NOW – CP2000 spatialization decoder for quadraphonic

1984 – Hi-Fi Digital Audio – VHS/Beta home entertainment systems
1985 – DS4-2-4 – spatial simulator for film mixdowns
1985 – Dolby discrete multi-channel surround sound (4.1)
1985 – LucasFilm THX Sound System
1987 – Dolby SR noise reduction

1992 – Dolby Digital (5.1)

Randy Thom profile

Sound Designer – live action

1990 – WILD AT HEART
1994 – FORREST GUMP
1996 – MARS ATTACKS!
1997 – MIMIC
1997 – CONTACT
1997 – STARSHIP TROOPERS
2000 – WHAT LIES BENEATH
2000 – CAST AWAY
2005 – WAR OF THE WORLDS
2010 – PERCY JACKSON & THE LIGHTNING THIEF

Sound Designer – CGI animation

1999 – THE IRON GIANT
2001 – FINAL FANTASY – SPIRITS WITHIN
2001 – OSMOSIS JONES
2004 – POLAR EXPRESS
2006 – ICE AGE – THE MELTDOWN
2007 – THE SIMPSONS MOVIE
2007 – BEOWULF
2008 – BOLT
2008 – HORTON HEARS A WHO
2009 – A CHRISTMAS CAROL

Close analysis

1. Opening interplanetary journey – audiovisual inversion of time/space trajectory

2. Ellie as a child scanning/searching/listening – the astromoner vs. the archaeologist

3. Ellie as an adult experiencing first contact through spectral analyser – headphone space externalised into the auditorium space

4. Ellie’s control of the Grande Array observatory dishes – controllng giant ears

5. The sensory extensions of Ellie’s sense of self: (a) the voice of her father’s guidance; (b) the ears of her blind assistant; (c) the eyes of her priest/lover Palmer

6. The spatial extensions of Ellie’s place in the world: (a) the objective sound of the real world; (b) the objective sound of the extraterrestrial world; (c) Ellie’s subjective sound of the real world; (b) Ellie’s interpreted/imagined sound of the extraterrestrial world.

7. The sensory realignment of Ellie inside the capsule – vibration/stasis, noise/silence, time-moving/time-still

8. Ellie on ‘the beach’ – her imagined reconstruction of her past

9. Ellie in court – her word versus visual proof; the doubt of her contact vs. her experience of contact

10. Jodie Foster’s vocal performance – a barometer of her sense of self in her various spaces (real, unreal, experience, unjustified)

11. Musical quiteness and Ellie’s interior experiences

Text © Philip Brophy.