For a while now I’ve had this idea of doing what I’ve taken to calling a “sound breakdown”. Essentially I want to take a piece and start off with regular sound design (ambience, action sound effects, etc.) to the best of my ability, and then gradually transition into vocal impressions of the sounds that would be playing (someone imitating a bird call, blowing into the mic to recreate wind) acapella sound design if you will. I want to then reduce it even further until it’s just someone saying “wind” or “bird call”, essentially reading the sound notations off of the script. It comes off as potentially quite humorous, there is a certain ridiculousness to having a serious scene permeated by the sound designer imitating a creaky house. However that’s not to say that this ‘acapella sound design’ can only be done in a comedic way. Take, for example, “the wind rises” The sound effects are done vocally
“trains, airplane engines and the like — done by mouths, not machines. “Originally Miyazaki wanted to have all the sound effects voiced, and he wanted to do them himself,” said Wexler. “They said ‘No, we need you to draw the film.”
Pond, S. (2013). “The Wind Rises” Director Hayao Miyazaki Goes Out in a Blaze of Controversy – and Beauty. [online] TheWrap. Available at: https://www.thewrap.com/oscarwrap-miyazaki-goes-blaze-controversy/ [Accessed 31 Jan. 2021].
This in no way devalues the emotional depth and message of this film, the main character sees planes as “beautiful dreams”, and so as he carries his love of planes from his dreams the sounds done by Koji Kasamatsu help only to emphasise this quality, it’s beautiful and only furthers the poignant moments of the film. This method of sound is not unique or original but I feel it is certainly undervalued. I found the acapella sound design process to be a lot more performative, (something which I have seeked out for a long time) I was moving in time, along with the other elements and voice actors, it felt almost like a non physical foley, the only analogy I could think of would be that of a choir, multiple elements all coming together to form a unified picture. It’s beautiful and I would love to explore it as a method in different contexts