Sound of ringing in the ears

[Scott Selman]

Hey all,

Im sure we probably have some post mixers on here as well.  A director I'm working with in post right now asked us to build one of the "ringing in the ears" type of moments - that grows as the scene progresses and the actor loses sight of whats happening.

Whats a good way to approach this?  I thinking like a Saving Private Ryan on the beach - everything goes, kind of moment.

Thanks!

[Marc Wielage]

I've seen those done frequently in films, particularly war movies, after a big explosion: big bang, total silence, followed by about a 6kHz or 7kHz tone, and the real-world sounds diminished, muddy, and filled with reverb. The visuals go with it: edges of the picture slightly out of focus, vignetted, desaturated color. 

I would ask over on the Gearslutz Forum's post section -- there's some pretty heavyweight re-recording mixers there.

Edited July 23, 2015 by Marc Wielage

[dfisk]

This is a BIG thing in video games, especially first person shooters. I've dropped out everything, or muffled it heavily, and then quickly faded in a 6kHz or 7kHz tone (like Marc said), and then over time it slowly fades out as the rest of the sound fades back to normalcy, kinda like the person "coming to", as it were. 

[Scott Selman]

Thanks guys- exactly what I was looking for!!

[Philip Perkins]

The Sylvester Stallone film "Cop Land" does this really well, after the lead character has a gun go off right next to his ear.

phil p