Hello All,
My name is Sandra Sweeney. I'm an Associate Professor in Ecology and Environmental Studies. I've always been very avid film-goer. And, at present, I'm trying to do some research on ecology/nature in films. By this I don't mean films about nature. Nothing like National Geopgraphic or animal documentaries. Just normal everyday conventional films. Two points in particular are of interest for my research. The first is animal sounds, so I guess this question is addressed more to the "sound people". Often when I have been at a film I have realized that the bird sound or frog sound etc. that I hear in the film is out of context for the place. For example, I might hear a European owl in a film taking place in the United States. Or, the sound of the birds chirping in a park are ecologically an inappropriate mix, eg. the species just wouldn't be together. Or, species from the Eastern United States are in a film taking place in the Western United States. So, I was wondering if someone could tell me what the process is for putting the nature sounds into films. Is it possible to buy "animal sounds" or "night sounds" or "birds chirping in park sounds"? If it is possible to buy the sounds already pre-mixed how does that work? Where and how does one find this? Are there list servers somewhere for this? If it is possible to do this, does it work with any algorithm of frequency, sort of like Google, where the sound that is most often downloaded is the first selection offered for the next download? Or, does the film maker/ sound person do it independently for each film? Is there a film journal where I could read about this? Any and all information on this subject, any articles, any links, etc. would be very much appreciated. I'm a technomoron so information must be really clear.

The second question I'm interested in is a bit more difficult to get at. I'm researching the use of flowers, particularly the giving of flowers by men to women. This is a quite involved project on evolutionary protocols and processes that I'm trying to validate using film representation. At this stage what I really need is about twenty films (minimum number for statistical analysis) from let's say 1950 onward where at some point in the film a man gives a woman flowers. If anyone could help me put together that list so I could try and get the films I'd really appreciate it.

Thanks so much.
Sandra Sweeney

Fascinating research!

I can tell you that the sound effects are typically purchases separately and mixed by the sound designer, or recorded specially for the film. Studios also have vast sound libraries, of pre-exisiting sounds, to choose from. It is not unusual for an ambient background track to be used in a pre-mixed form, although I would assume that such a track is recorded on location somewhere, and not modified too much.

A good website to check out if you want to see how sound effects are purchased is sounddogs.com.