ambience

09:18 Jun 29, 2018 

At Mohamed Hosni: I was unable to post the entire link in the comment box. Please see here.

Environment Descriptions (Where and When)
Scene headings such as, EXT. EMPTY BATTLEFIELD - NIGHT may seem too "visual" for a radio drama, but they are very important to quickly and easily establish the setting for actors, composers, sound effects artists, sound designers, engineers and directors. Without this brief description, everybody must try to figure out the setting and time of day based upon dialogue or sound effects cues. The listener may never hear these scene headings in your drama, so some writers think it's unnecessary. However, when this information is missing in the script, it must be supplied verbally in meetings and rehearsal--sometimes repeatedly. When I've scored or created sound effects for scripts missing the scene headings, I've had a hard time determining where a scene takes place. Don't make anybody have to guess the setting. They could guess wrong and thus misinterpret your drama. Save time and trouble by describing the setting here--and make it brief.
http://www.ruyasonic.com/wrt_cues.htm

08:51 Jun 27, 2018 

Hi Charles, nice reference about the use of "ambiance"! I read Birdsong a few years ago, yes, grim and very good. :-)

08:48 Jun 27, 2018 

Because I read the question: "Je vais faire UN SON seul".

08:33 Jun 27, 2018 

Originally it was a "film documentary" - that makes a difference!

08:12 Jun 27, 2018 

Not for nothing does "shell-hole" rhyme with "hell-hole". I happen to be reading Sebastian Faulks's First World War novel Birdsong at the moment: grim, but recommended.

08:05 Jun 27, 2018 

Thanks: very interesting to know that. Given what WWI accounts say about shell-holes, often full of water or mud (people sometimes fell off the duckboards they put over them and drowned in the mud before they could be pulled out), and much used to take cover from enemy fire, you might have some slurpy, sloshy sounds and a lot of gunfire, I suppose.

Actually it seems to be true that "ambiance" does often mean "ambiance sonore". The Trésor has a nice quotation from Cocteau:

"1. CIN., RADIO et TÉLÉV.
a) "Atmosphère de la réalisation ou de la projection d'un film." (Giraud 1956). Ambiance sonore. "Ensemble des bruitages créant l'illusion de la réalité." (Voyenne 1967) [...]
ce que les cinéastes appellent, dans l'atroce vocabulaire moderne « l'ambiance ». C'est le « mixage », le mélange des voix humaines, des cris d'animaux, du vent dans les feuilles, de la mer et de l'orchestre qui les accompagnent. J. Cocteau, Le Foyer des artistes, 1947 p. 196."
http://www.cnrtl.fr/definition/ambiance

07:48 Jun 27, 2018 

Thank you for all your efforts. Yes, apparently it is a radio play, so I think it has to be sound effects.

02:43 Jun 27, 2018 

But shell holes could be pretty big — big enough to shelter from enemy fire. The following is from the account of a British private at the Battle of the Somme in 1916. I'll omit the horrific details:

"I crawled into a shell-hole into which another colleague of mine had also crawled. [...] We had not long to wait before a shell burst on the edge of our hole; it killed my colleague and injured me [...]"
http://spartacus-educational.com/FWWshellfire.htm

German machine gunners sometime shot from shell holes.

Here are some Canadian soldiers in a shell hole in 1918:
https://www.warmuseum.ca/firstworldwar/objects-and-photos/ph...

02:31 Jun 27, 2018 

I can't see how a shell hole could be evoked by a sound effect, except possibly the sloshing of water as a Tommy washed in one:
http://digital.nls.uk/first-world-war-official-photographs/a...

"Trou d'obus" is a hole in the ground left by an exploding shell; it can't refer to the explosion itself. They're a constant feature of descriptions of the First World War and were often filled with water.

23:10 Jun 26, 2018 

Why do you say "It has to be "sound effect"?
It does not - it can just as easily refer to the lighting, the backdrop, or any other "effect" used to give the illusion of action taking place somewhere specific (like a bomb crater).

21:19 Jun 26, 2018 

Thanks Philippa, I think I am starting to see the light.

20:03 Jun 26, 2018 

It has to be "sound effect", but maybe in this particular case referring to the sound of a shell making a hole (so possibly exploding?). Or the sounds you'd have in the shell hole?
I had to answer as funnily enough am also translating a screenplay and came up against almost exactly the same issue! ;-)

19:58 Jun 26, 2018 

not quite sure how setting would fit in with shell hole!
You see all the other "ambiances" seemed to refer to the sound of nature, marketplace sound effects, forest sound effects with birdsong,...

whereas "Ambiance : trou d’obus….."????


whereas