Post #2047281

2026-05-03 14:22 UTC

People often underestimate the power of soundscapes in TV and movies. And I am not talking about background music - I am talking about the actual soundscape built by the foley artists to portray a setting. The sounds of desert winds, the rustling of leaves, the swoosh of long grasses, or the dripping of water in a cave. We only really remember these when they are done wrong. A kookaburra in a South American rainforest, for example will pop any Australian&#39;s disbelief suspenders. Done right, it should just settle your mind into the setting, and be forgotten from the main memory. But there are a few that deeply stand out and stick with you. One in particular is the persistent and pervasive 50hz hum in #SerialExperimentsLaine . This hum fills the soundscape almost constantly. It fills the empty spaces, and underlays almost every scene. It is inescapable. And any time you hear that hum afterwards - from a ground loop in a sound system, or one inducted in a poorly shielded cable, or whatever, you are instantly transported back to the pastel dystopia of Laine. It is a masterclass in nonmusical earworming. #SoundScapes #MovieMaking #Anime #Movies

Replies (4)

@skribe@aus.social 2026-05-03 14:27

@rdm@aus.social Indeed. For the only film I've had funded by the AFC, I spent almost a third of the budget on the sound design. Took just under a week to create for a 7 minute film.

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@urbaer@aus.social 2026-05-03 15:13

@rdm@aus.social I remember the gum from those quite scenes in Neon Genesis too when they're just standing awkwardly outside under power lines and then it'll be punctuated with either train boom gates or cricket sounds. Adds to the moods a lot Or perhaps I'm just conflating Lain and Evangelion in my brain as I watched them back in the day at the same time

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@stonebear2@hachyderm.io 2026-05-03 15:48

@rdm@aus.social reminds me of the background hum ever-present on the Enterprise D.... or the thing that sold Scotty in Relics even though he didn't say anything, that decaying beep the viewscreen makes in the Enterprise No-Bl---y-A-B-C-*or*-D ....

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@anne_twain@theblower.au 2026-05-04 02:15

@rdm@aus.social Indeed. In a documentary featuring friends of mine, someone placed a background track of currawongs* for scenes shot in Adelaide and we all fell about laughing. No currawongs in South Australia. * a bird with a distinctive high pitched call that's common in the high country of Victoria. #Australia

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