#foley

@centurygothicworld asked me to elaborate about sound design in Cat for Cash and unknowingly opened Pandora's Box, so I'll make a very basic summary of how sound works in cinema with BL/GL examples.

First of all, contrary to popular belief, the soundtrack is not just music, it's everything you hear in a footage from start to finish: dialogs, environment, music... How the sound is managed is based on numerous things such as artistic choices from the director, genre conventions, budget, target audience, etc.

A lot of people think sound design is done only in post production, and sometimes it is, but a lot of times the directors and screenwriters want to use sound as a tool for storytelling. And that is something that has to be specified in the pre production phase. For example in Japanese shows it's very common to use internal monologues, and those have to be written down for the actors to leave space in between dialogues.

Once in post production the sound must be added to the final cut. Sometimes, when a BL or GL has two versions, the "cut" and the "uncut", we can hear how the sound cuts abruptly, meaning the "cut" version was done after the sound design. Other times, like in the show ClaireBell, two different sound versions are made, that way the "cut" experience is more fluid.

So, how does the sound design work in cinema?

There are different layers to it:

1. Direct Soun

Raw audio tracks resulting from the recordings during the production phase. These tracks need to be polished and refined using numerous techniques (such as compression, equalization, and many others) to leave only what we need in the final cut. For example, erase unwanted background noises with noise gates and downward expanders using an spectrum analysis (FFT) as a guide.

This is a whole topic in itself and very technical so we're not expanding on it in this post.

Although this is the most technical part of the sound design, it can be used as an artistic resource too. For example in Ep. 3 [4/4] of Burnout Syndrome, when Jira goes to Pheem's apartment, there's a lot of background noise, wich is intentional and not the result of editor's bad work.

For the contrary, in episode 6 of Bad Buddy (min 27:37), when they're talking on the beach and the sound of the waves is so strong you can't even hear their conversation, that's bad work (no shame, it seems like the raw audio was very corrupted and it would be expensive and time consuming to fix).

2. Environments (Room Tone)

Tracks from all the locations in which the scenes were recorded that will be used as the "silent" base layer for the sound mix. In fantasy or sci-fi the environments are artificially post produced. For example in The Boy Next World, Cir spends episode 8 trapped in a liminal space. Because that place doesn't exist in real life, the team needs to come up with an idea for how it sounds like. In this case there's a lot of silence and a constant ticking clock. In Love for Love's Sake, Myung Ha falls in a dark space that sounds like water and bubbles, representing the way he took his life. They're not the best examples because the tracks are very simple but there are not many fantasy BL or GL with imaginary spaces.

3. ADR (Automatic Dialogue Replacement)

Dubbed voices can be needed because of bad sound recording, voice-overs (like the ones used in Cat for Cash for the cats) or genre conventions (like the Chinese dramas, which are almost always bubbed).

This is because the historical dramas are recorded in film sets like Hengdian with a lot of noise due to multiple series recording at the same time. After that it has become a genre conventions and the audience is used to dubbed dramas, so even the non historical dramas (like Revenged Love or A/B/O Desire) are dubbed as well. You can see a little bit of that in Ep. 6 of The Sparkle in Your Eye when the characters go to a studio and dub their own acting.

A lot of actors don't even dub themselves, like the famous Xiao Zhan and Wang Yibo, who interpreted Wei WuXian and Lan Zhan in The Untamed. They were dubbed by voice actors Lu Zhixing and Bian Jiang.

4. Foley

Studio recordings for incidental sounds (like steps when walking, doors opening and closing, objets being manipulated... anything really). I highly recommend watching Foley videos in YouTube because they're super funny.

Sound designers don't usually make those recordings, they just buy foley libraries or, in big budget productions, send the final cut to foley studios.

5. Special Sound Effects (EFX)

They can be separated into two categories:

- The artificial sounds used to simulate non natural sounds (like sci-fi and fantasy aspects: space ships, creatures...) which involve a lot of creativity. How does an alien sound like? How do we simulate the sound of giant angel wings? What about the naga in The Sign?

- The "loony toon" sounds. Exaggerated and cartoony sounds used to enhance movements or articulate circumstances. Let me tell you, Thai dramas use this A LOOOOT. For example in Cat for Cash we can hear the blinking when Tiger is trying to befriend Jiro. A very common sound in a lot of BL and GL are the bar chimes when something romantic occurs. One sound effect that I particularly like is the horses in MuTeLuv: Hi by my Luck because it gives us information about Err's feelings, given that he sees Mawin as a "dark horse", a strong competitor. Every time Err feels the tension of the competition or feels intimidated by Mawin, we can hear horses neighing.

Listen to the amount of sound effects there are in such a short period of time in this clip from We Are :

6. Music 

It can be pre-existing music : like the musical soundtrack in I Will Knock You with songs from the 80's and 90's; original music for the show : like KeiYaku: Dangerous Partner's music soundtrack by ノグチリョウ an amazing album if you ask me; or a mix of both : like the covers in My School President.

The application of that music can be diegetic or non diegetic. 

- Diegetic music is the one inserted in the fictional world. Meaning the characters can listen to the music, like when they're using headphones, listening to the radio, attending a party, etc. 

- Non diegetic music is the one only the viewer can hear. Serves the purpose of creating an immersive atmosphere for the viewer that leads them towards certain emotions. Like when someone is crying and there's sad music. 

- It can also change from one to another in many different ways like in MuTeLuv: Hello, is this luck? Ep. 2 [1/4] (min. 10:20) being ambiguous and a mix of both ; in Shine Ep. 3 (min. 26:33) being diegetic first and non diegetic when the scene changes but the music continues ; or Moonlight Chicken Ep. 7 [4/4] (min. 9:45) when Kaipa is singing in his mother's funeral and the sound slowly transitions to non diegetic. 

Do you remember when I said sound is sometimes part of the storytelling? Well, non diegetic music can emotionally accompany the scene, but it also can give us information that is not visually on the screen, like a character having bad intentions or something apparently normal going wrong. An example of this would be the sister scene in Ep. 1 (4:56) of Runaway. Even if the scene is apparently just Van going to Win's room, the music tells us something is wrong.

It can also contradict visual information (soundtrack dissonance), like fight scenes with calm classical music or death scenes with cheerful music. The closest thing I've found in BL or GL is Ep. 14 of Not Me (min. 3:46), when the music conveys hope and deep emotions but the scene is rather chaotic. I'm sure there are more and maybe clearer examples of this but I don't remember, sorry.

Music can be something that ads artistic value and make the production stand out. The director may have a very specific vision for their work, making the whole project cohesive and unique.

It can be done in exquisite ways like the musical soundtrack of Not Me whose songs have hopeful titles. People don't usually notice those little things but the show team put effort into every detail. The show talks about inequality, but it also seeks a better future society. It wanted to inspire people to revolution, activism and fight for their rights. So of course the songs have such titles.

A movie I particularly like for it's music choices is The Portrait of a Lady on Fire, which has only two songs played two times (and both diegetic) in the whole movie. So even NOT adding music is an artistic choice, and a very impactful one in this case. The absence of sound is just as important as the presence of it.

The same way silence plays an important factor in the first episode of GelBoys, when Fou4Mod has been broken up with but can't get in the mood for crying because he's in a public place. We as an audience hear the sound of the mall around him and feel the embarrassment and awkwardness of the situation with him.

But we cannot make art in a vacuum. Our work is not innocuous, it exists in a context: genre conventions, similar previous works, country, industry, sociopolitical state of the world in this time and place, nineteenth century music-feelings codes (which still apply today), etc.

For example, in horror movies, there's a well known use of tense music before a jump scare. When the music goes to silence and the viewer relaxes... BAM the jump scare occurs. That's a universal code for a jump scare and doing it differently might have a negative response on the audience.

If the work is participating in the pre established codes or going against them is an artistic choice. Braking viewers expectations is common and it makes the show way more interesting, but adding a lot of "out of place" sounds, especially if there's no consistency, can be distracting and messy.

So then, why didn't I like the sound design in Cat for Cash' s first episode?

Well, it's not that deep really. It's not an awful sound design, but it isn't particularly good either. My main problem is that the music stands out too much.

Even if the sound design has a loooot of work behind, ultimately it's bound to be ignored, invisible, forgotten. It guides your attention through the scene, it expands information, it creates an atmosphere, but you're not supposed to pay attention to it.

In Cat for Cash a lot of the non diegetic music seems to accompany the visual information. The goal of the music is creating an emotional environment fitted for the scene. But the music changes fast and abruptly making it imposible for you to ignore it, plus some songs don't match the vibe that much and it's unsettling. And, in general, there is too much music. Thailand is the horror vacui of music and sound effects fr.

At first I liked it because the sound tells us basic information, like Tiger being a scary person but going soft for the cats, the Cat Cafe being a lighthearted place or Lynx being a tidy and organized person. It still had too many sudden mood changes for my personal taste, but it was in line with these type of shows.

But as the episode goes on, the music starts getting worse. I think the serious topics like death and grief clash with the romcom style and they couldn't manage it in a satisfying way. It alternates between moods and songs all the time, making it difficult to concentrate in the scene. Plus the cat sounds are super fake but I expected it so is ok-ish.

I checked in with M Gewehr, who did sound design and music composition on the Pilot. Here's what they had to say about it: "The foliage and cloth and stuff was from a sound library but the violin sounds were my grandfather's violin from the 20s that i was very carefully getting painful sounds out of."

Foley's full first name is Folicia.

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