Magnum Blog / Magnum In Motion: The importance of sound

Magnum In Motion: The importance of sound

This is the second part of a multi-part article series about the work of Magnum's multimedia department. The first part of this series is entitled "The philosophy behind the story". Bjarke Myrthu, the executive editor of Magnum In Motion, grants us a view behind the scenes and shows us how the Magnum In Motion team brings life to static photographs on the web. The first question when we decide to make a Magnum In Motion essay is what kind of images we have, and how they could be edited. But right after this we ask ourselves about the sound. While Magnum is all about the images, sound is actually a very important part of what we do at Magnum In Motion. If you are asking yourself why, just try and turn off the volume the next time you are watching a good movie. Even if there is no dialogue, audio plays a huge role in setting the mood and driving the story, even in driving the visuals. Two stories that are identical visually can be completely different if the sound tracks are different. And when I talk about sound I also mean the exclusion of sound. Silence can be just as important as noise can be. Tools like Soundslides, iView and iPhoto have made it very easy to put together a slideshow of images and add a piece of music or other audio behind the images. While this kind of slideshow does change the experience of the photographic story, it does not really make use of sound as a powerful driver of the story. If you want to create an experience that is a powerful alternative to books, exhibitions and good magazine photography, you have to work on creating an entire soundscape that blends in with the visuals and creates a rhythm between images and sound. One way to do this is to very literally make the photographs appear and change to the beat of the sound. Thomas Dworzak's story about the medical teams in Iraq is an example of a project where we worked this way. The blend of TV-shots and photographs from the field somehow seemed to work well with an abrupt and very rhythmic edit of sound and visuals. Another way is to use the sound as a more subtle driver, that sets the mood under the visuals. This can be a very powerful way to increase and decrease the tension in the storyline and drive the viewer through the narrative. This is common knowledge in the world of filmmaking, but somehow we tend to forget it in the world of photography. An example for this would be Larry Towell's "Land and Identity" which was one of the first Magnum In Motion productions. Screenshot from the Magnum In Motion essay "Libera Me" by Alex Majoli Using sound as a mood-setter and tension-maker, was how we approached Alex Majoli's "Libera Me" essay, that we recently published. But before we found the final method we went through a lot of experimentation. We started out by interviewing Majoli, which is something we do with a lot of photographers when we help them create an essay. It often make sense, because the Magnum photographers usually create very personal projects, with a personal voice - so what we do is simply to extend this voice and give it an actual form that reaches beyond the photographs. However this also proves a serious challenge, because adding interview or voice over easily ends up taking away from the experience of the images instead of adding something extra to the story. A photograph can be a magic catalyst for feelings and emotions, but if it is explained too much the magic disappears.

scott lucas

I thought the music and counting done by the Khmer boxers in Jon Vink's story worked very well. And in the forceable evictions photo story also by Jon Vink the Khmer voices etc transported me to the scene and had an impact on a very visceral level.

John Vink

Thanks... The feedback is very much appreciated... The sophisticated treatment of sound like Bjarke's team is working on is extremely interesting (the Magnum InMotion laboratory IS kicking our butts with every new release) but a lot can be achieved with very little equipment, limited technical knowledge (although I would welcome some improvements in sound quality in both my stories), and minimal manpower. Khmer Boxing took me a little more than a day to put together (Garageband and iMovie) and Terre Rouge three days. And it was FUN to do.

Lea Arnold

Very interesting, thanks bjarke. I love towell's land and identity essay. I think it's one of the most powerful magnum in motion essays together with chernobyl legacy. And to be honest, i much prefered the way you added sound to every single image than to how you create single chapters now. The ability to navigate in a chapter get's lost when there is one large file that needs to load first. Maybe you can think about that again. How do you see that?

Helkin René Diaz

I think this is the future for all the photojournalist, make the mix between the cinematographic language and the photographic language. This is a excellent example !!

Bjarke

Lea, thanks for your comment. I share your thoughts about the navigation of the story. We are working on a way to improve this, so you will be able to jump from image to image but still have the flow of one long streaming file. However we choose to live with this tradeoff for a while, in order to gain some more flexibility for the way we can edit the story.

Bjarke

Scott, I am really happy that you think John Vink did a good job with his essay. At MIM we are mediators trying to facilitate a new kind of storytelling - but my dream is that more Magnum photographers will start working like John - recording a bit of audio and putting it together in iMovie or GarageBand (or any other software), and then we just do the final touches. In the end most great online stories are a blend of visual, audio, graphic and technical skills which is very hard for one person to do. But I think in a lot of cases the photographer could take it a long way. John is a great proof of this.

aishling

Hi guys,

was really blown away by the Majoli piece thought it was really great would like to see more pieces like it. Pauls voice recognisable immediatly. I thought the audio worked really well, If only they built cameras with microphones attached then if would be easier to convince the photographers to record the sound.

best,
Aishling
xx

steven

hey bjarke,

i would be quite interested in the nerdy technical details of how its best to make multimedia slideshows.

i had a similar vision many years ago, but couldnt really figure it out. so i ve been dwelling on the problem myself for a while now... how to make it interactive... use flash editor to layout or finalcut...etc.

if theres anything you can share please do so!

regards
steve