Ryan McMurray

I do sound for film and television. I make music. I make film. I enjoy running, playing football and eating chocolate. I'm a massive geek and I'm on every social network going, add me up.

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Filed in: buried film sound ryan reynolds sound design

Six Feet Undersound: Buried

Yes, my post title is a horrific play on words, but you should still go and watch Buried. If you haven’t heard of the film, it stars Ryan Reynolds in a coffin, for 90 minutes, with a mobile phone. Every frame of the film is set in the coffin, as Paul Conroy, buried alive, tries to discover who put him there and how he is going to get out. Once again, there are no spoilers here. Whether you have seen the film, or you haven’t, it’s safe to continue.

As mentioned in some of the favourable press regarding Buried, it’s all very Hitchcock. Victor Reyes does a great Bernard Herrman which is coupled with some crash zooms at intense moments to keep the tension high, whilst poor phone signal, a phone ringing and ringing and calls going repeatedly unanswered have never been more frustrating than when someones life is at risk. As Paul Conroy uses what little phone battery he has left to call various friends, emergency services and government workers, we are reminded constantly how we normally rely on body language and facial expressions, leaving Paul and the audience questioning who can be trusted and what the truth is. It is rare in cinema to experience a story from solely one perspective, but in Buried this is the case. We are uncomfortably (pun probably intended) stuck at one end of a phone line, once the call is ended, we lose touch with the person at the other end of the phone, we never see them. It’s Ryan Reynolds and a dozen faceless crackly voices. Annoying and brilliant!

There are also passages of the film that are pitch black - not a common experience in conventional cinema. The audience sees nothing, leaving us to rely solely on our ears to discover what is happening in the coffin. Throughout the entire film we are forced to trust our ears, when we spend our lives dependent on our eyes more than any other sense - It’s a completely new experience, which is gripping, frustrating and unsurprisingly very claustrophobic.

Ryan
www.ryanmcmurray.com

Filed in: camcorder cloverfield film sound jj abrams matt reeves sound design

The Cloverfield Perspective

If you live in the UK and you didn’t watch Cloverfield on Channel 4 a few weeks ago, you missed out. I love the Blair Witch inspired camcorder style and the fact it daringly portrays Manhattan in a state of panic less than a decade after New York was attacked on 11 September. I think this post is spoiler-free, so read on.

You know what else I love about Cloverfield? The sound (what a surprise). The style in which Cloverfield is presented allowed for some quite simple, yet satisfying uses of sound. The ‘camera-man’ in the film is Hud, who’s voice is sonically different to the other characters - his voice has a fuller frequency range which is technically accurate, but because Hud is also our narrator (since he has the camera) his clear close-miked voice benefits the audience - his voice cuts through the sound mix to allow us to hear ever nuance of his voice, even when whispering - through his narration we ‘see’ what is around him, when the camera can not. The only time we are sonically shown a glimpse of what is happening to the city outside of the main characters is when the military makes it’s first appearance and we hear nothing but gun-fire and engines rolling past the group. Perspective is used to keep what is happening in the city away from our ears to keep the focus on the group of friends, trying to make their way across the city. There are no cutaways of action happening elsewhere; gun-fire is often distant, and only when the action is in arms length of the camera do we feel it’s impact on the soundtrack. Despite there being a fair amount of action in Cloverfield, the sound is much more subtle throughout the film. It’s all about the perspective of this group of friends and the sound filling-out the image, with suggestion of what is happening outside the viewfinder of the camcorder.

Of course, if you really were stuck in a city with the military being attacked by a massive alien sea-monster, your crappy camcorder microphone would turn most sounds into clipped unrecognisable noise… but that wouldn’t be a very good film.

Matt Reeves is directing the remake of Let The Right One In, which I think is a silly idea. The original is absolutely amazing and I can’t remember there being an American remake of a foreign thriller, sci-fi or horror which I enjoyed more than an original.

Ryan

www.ryanmcmurray.com

Filed in: graduation leeds met leedsmetgrads sound design university

Graduation Ceremony


Listen!

So, I graduated MSc Sound Design, but I wouldn’t be the audio geek I know I am, if I didn’t record myself being presented with the scroll, would I? :)

Filed in: audio concrete electro-acoustic sonic art sound art sound design sound related

Evolution / Journalism

  

This is a sound art piece I made a few years ago at university. It was meant to be an electro-acoustic piece, but I made this instead. The theme is evolution.