Sound Design

The lesson is: Listen for the sound that works, not necessarily looking for an “authentic” source… and have fun with your discoveries!

One of the most surprising audiovisual phenomenon allows the audience to believe that whatever sound is synchronized to the image is the sound being emitted by that image.

To avoid the feeling that the voice perspective doesn’t fit with the image perspective, place the microphone at a distance similar to where it would be placed during the production recording

and secondarily that the quality of the voice and accompanying ambience should not be distracting from the intention of the scene.

The most important point to accomplish in recording and editing the dialogue is to make sure that the voices are understood

Ambient sounds can also be considered in this division, especially when they are not creating a reaction in the characters, but rather setting a general mood

Any of the above sounds might also fall into the category of musical sounds if they become dissociated from the diegesis and turn into a kind of sensorial or emotional element independent from the characters’ space-time reality within the story

I have denoted concrete sounds as those that appear to be connected with the image

What do these graphics reveal for the sound design? As the basic dramatic elements are put into opposition, we can visualize a kind of emotional scoring of the entire film.

Now with this understanding of the deeper resonating elements of the script, you can look for patterns that will give you clues for building the sound design structure. Take a piece of paper and draw a line down the middle in the long direction. Mark points along the line representing the significant plot points, moments of transition and heightened conflict. If there are certain repeated elements or scenes that are important to the story, give them some graphic symbol where they appear along the chronological line you have drawn