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| Drawn in the mid-nineties. New sound effects added for this blog post. |
Years ago, a famous film critic (who would probably not want this blog to turn up on a Google search of his name) remarked that the fighting sound effects in a certain Hong Kong martial arts movie sounded like 'someone swatting a sofa with a ping pong paddle'.
I was reminded of that as I was watching a catfight promo clip from some producer the other day, and one fighter landed a right hook on the other. It was accompanied by a thunderous "THWAK!" from some SFX library. It completely destroyed the illusion.
Those TV/movie sound effects work in a context where there's music under the action, and where all the other sound effects, from squealing tires to guns going off, are exaggerated as well. But when you've got two women ostensibly fighting in a quiet motel room somewhere, those action movie sound effects are 'way over the top.
I saw another video where SFX were repeatedly inserted a good 50 frames ahead of where they should have been. The editor would have been better off to have left them out altogether.
X Club Wrestling is still kind of my gold standard right now for female fight videos. Their fighting SFX sound as if they recorded them themselves – they're more like sharp but soft smacks than huge whacks. They're utterly convincing and, if you like that kind of catfighting, immensely sexy.
BAM! POP! POW! Not a fan of the sfx in comics are you Sir? I'm torn, it helps with the narrative but, the bubbles obscure the art. We the reader aren't given the choice.
ReplyDeleteLet us all be thankful that the sound effects in W's work isnt influenced by the tv show Batman starring Adam West. BAM! BIFF! SLUMP!
ReplyDeleteThe the thing about sfx is that most small time productions either don't have the equipment or the know-how to capture their own sounds. For good quality sfx you need something that is design specifically for sound capture. A regular video camera can only do so much, but if that's all you have it can work. As for using per-existing sfx one runs into issues of rights. Yes even sfx are generally not free to use and the ones that are, are usually rather bad. So I do give small productions a break now and then, unless they just go way over the top with it. It's best to add it and turn the audio levels way down on it so it does not sound so out of place. A lot of times you get really loud sounds that don't fit due to the editor being less then experienced. Anyways sorry to rant ^_^ I'm a film/multi media major. As for the art, which is what lead me to this post in the first place, must say I love it. So one sided, those are usually my favorites. Four breasts strikes to the seemingly helpless blond, very hot stuff.
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