MovieChat Forums > Grand Prix (1966) Discussion > Hollywood + sound effects...

Hollywood + sound effects...

posted 18 years ago by snoreflottado
2 replies | jump to latest

Film sound is so important. Yes? Especicially in car race flicks. Most times the editors (?), directors (?), I don't know who's responsible, get it correct.

And then there are the times when engine noise has the car accelerating hard but it is just about to turn into a corner or the car has exited a corner & the revs drop. Also when Stoddart pits at Zandvoort, the camera is car mounted looking forward and the engine revved 6 times - but note there is no reaction from the blaring tacho, centre screen...
'
These sound boo-boos also happened in 'Le Mans'. And 'Bullitt'.

Didn't directors have professional race crews to view the 'rushes' then inform on potentially embarressing mistakes?

[–] dfm1981 18 years ago

Frankenheimer said (in the Speedvision interviews) that the sounds were recorded in the actual cars, in fact some of the Ferrari sounds were recorded when Enzo Ferrari made Frankenheimer drive the actual F1 car and it had a tape recorder in it while he was driving it. Also he said that Richie Ginther and Phil Hill drove a car around Riverside but shifting and accelerating like at Monte Carlo to record the sounds and also to film the foot movements used in the movie (they removed the top of the bodywork to mount a camera above the pedals).

[–] Rozz 18 years ago

True that the sights and sounds are both quite authentic as described Frankenheimer in the interview. Where things go awry, as pointed out by the original poster, is in the synchronization of the sights and sounds. End result is sound of car revving like hell while accompanying visual of tachometer shows it holding steady instead of jumping in time with the sounds you are hearing. A relatively minor thing overall, but the sort of thing that irritates the crap out of people who know better. I know where he's coming from. I have a real 1997 Harley-Davidson motorcycle and 1/10 scale diecast model that replicates it when it was in its stock form in every detail except one: the speedo on the model indicates it's going about 60mph when it's sitting still! If it had a model rider on it and could be set up to look like it's running down the highway that would be just grand. As is it's a glaring flaw to anyone who knows what to look for.