The film sound designer serves and enhances that fantasy or hyper-reality that is your film which exists in its own universe, and a big part of that universe is complex and multi-dimensional sound.
By Glen Berry, Edited by Stavros C. Stavrides
IMPORTANT CONCEPTS
- Sound Effects Add Richness and Detail
- Ambience is Key to the Effects Track
- Sound Effects Have Many Sources
Two Approaches to Film Sound Design
The sound designer is responsible for creating a rich and layered audio experience to accompany the picture, dialogue, narration and music tracks in a movie.
Two different extremes could define a moviemaker’s approach to sound design:
- Use the ‘production track’ (audio ALL recorded on location within the scene) for as many sounds as possible – ambiance, doors opening or closing, the rustling of clothes, and only add sound effects where needed.
- Use only the dialogue from the production track, and replace everything else. Every single other sound is created and/or sourced in post-production.
Of these two options, which approach should you take?
If you’re strapped for cash or time, go for the first option and do your best. However, for greater control and creative freedom, opt for number two.
Strive to only use the dialogue track from production and replace as many other sounds as possible.
You will need the production track for reference to get an idea of what happened in production and when.
The sound designer is also an artist whose great joy is in designing a ‘soundscape’ of fiction; to create a fantasy world that owes nothing to the world outside of it.
The story exists in its own universe, and a big part of that universe is complex and multi-dimensional sound.
This article is drawn from the “Sound” chapter in Cyber Film School’s
Multi-Touch Filmmaking Textbook
Types of Effects
When beginning this task, the sound designer can utilize a variety of different effects to realize the multi-dimensional fabric of the sound effects track. These different types of effects can be described as
- Ambient Sound (Ambience)
- Foley Effects
- Wild Sound
- Hard Effects
- Designed Effects
Ambience
Ambient, or background effects, are one of the most critical in making a scene believable.
The objective of the location sound team is to record a clean dialogue track, devoid of noise. However, all spaces have some kind of sound, the unique signature that describes the character of a space.
A cafeteria’s ambience might contain low-level conversation, clinking silverware, dishes clattering, and beeps of a cash register. A construction site may feature the sounds of heavy machinery, an occasional shout, hammering, and feet crunching on gravel.
A space without ambient sound is going to sound odd and artificial. It’s often a dead giveaway of a low-budget film.
All spaces have ambience, give your space some ambience. The moviemaker would be well advised to remember that the ambience you record on set will rarely work for the sound designer.
You need the sound of the space itself (the ambiance known as “room tone”) to effectively master dialogue. If the existing room tone prom the production track in inadequate, you will need to find or create your own room tone.
Foley Effects
Foley sound effects are created as the ‘secondary’ sounds made by actors, like the rustling of clothes, footsteps, or a kiss.
These effects are created in post-production by recording sounds in a studio while watching the scene and synchronizing the live effect during the playback of the picture. The Foley Artist ‘performs’ each sound using a creative array of everyday objects.
The artist can recreate footsteps on various surfaces, kiss his or her own hand to mimic an on-screen kiss, stab a watermelon with a knife for a gruesome murder scene, ruffle clothes that accompany an actor’s movement, slam a door, all in sync with playback of the picture, all in sync to movements on the screen.
Although at first, this may sound like too much time and effort for the struggling indie filmmaker to include in the project, it is not that difficult to do.
Not only will it add a great deal to the sound effects track, thus the overall quality of the film, but it’s also a lot of fun – one of the most enjoyable in the film business!
Foley recording can be done in any reasonably sound-proof space with limited materials and lots of imagination.
Getting two people in a room and even making one pass through the movie to recreate even an occasional sound seen on the screen, will add to the realism and depth of the soundtrack.
Wild Effects
A wild effect is a sound that is not recorded in sync with the picture. It can appear from a source that is off-screen or onscreen. We call it ‘wild’ because at the time the effect is recorded, it is not necessarily synchronized to any picture.
The sound recordist is recording the effect ‘grabbing it wild’, to be later placed into the track in post-production by the sound effects editor.
Wild sounds are often important additions to the primary action that the audience sees onscreen and can provide information or perspective to off-screen events.
For example, the primary onscreen action shows a bank robber pulling a weapon. We hear an off-screen voice shouting, “He’s got a gun!” The sound comes from off-screen, presumably from a bank teller or customer. It is wild because there is no sync to the onscreen source.
Wild sounds can be recorded in production or during post-production and can be anything required by the production: an engine idling, the buzzing of a mercury vapor light, or an anchor dropping into the water.
A location sound recordist should be aware of wild sound opportunities while on location, and keep a list. Then after consulting with the Assistant Director or Director, find time to grab wild sounds between takes or at any opportunity.
Hard Effects
Hard effects are the most common, especially with easy access to vast libraries of pre-recorded effects.
These effects are usually difficult to access or costly to record on our own; machine gun fire, a fighter jet take off, thunder. These are hard effects.
Going to a shooting range with a variety of weapons and recording the firing of each would be time-consuming and expensive.
Thunder can be cheap to record, but waiting for a storm, and assuring it’s the right type…not so easy. Web search, download, fee if applicable, and you’re done.
Designed Effects
Design effects are ones that must be synthesized in post-production and do not exist in real life. The sound of a monster being born is not something that exists in nature, so it must be created.
Likewise, the sound of a spaceship or the sound a character hears when under the influence of a psychotropic drug.
Design effects can also be used for metaphorical or emotional effect, like a foreboding low-frequency rumble to mark the arrival of an unwelcome visitor.
SUMMARY
- The sound designer will create a rich, multi-layered audio experience around the image and engage the audience on a completely different level.
- The goal of location dialogue is to get all ‘signal’ (the audio source) and no noise (extraneous ambient sounds). We prefer to record the ambience separately, then add it back in a controllable way, separate from the dialogue track, so we can mix them in a natural way.
- Sound effects can come from many sources, many of which may not exist in nature. A talented Sound Designer will use their imagination to create or find sounds with a wide range of objects and tools that may have no relation to the image on the screen.
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POST-PRODUCTION SOUND WORKFLOW
The steps and roles of the post-production process
