In order to achieve effective sound design in film we'll look at several different factors. First, as a sound designer you'll want to study and analyze the script to get a sense of each scene's character or what sounds might be called for. Does the scene indicate it's at a crowded bus stop? A stadium? Are there any verbal cues in the script that indicate the tone of the scene? Such as “The room was painted a bloody red color”, or “RAINDROPS are the only sound on the wet pavement.” If dialogue and scene headers indicate a negative or dreary atmosphere, this will inevitably direct your choice of music, and what sound elements to emphasize and which not to. For example in “No Country For Old Men,” The Josh Brolin character has gotten hold of a stash of money. In the scene in which he hides out at a motel, and attempts to recover where he hid the money in an air vent, tension is built by emphasizing the scraping noise and pulling sounds of the briefcase as he slides it out of the air vent. Assuredly, if they made the choice to use all the sounds in the atmosphere, we'd here much more than this scraping sound. We'd hear cars rushing by outside, room tone, the buzz of the air vent, and so forth. But the director opted for a hyper realistic sound design for this scene to direct our attention and also to build dramatic tension. The director also achieves tension building when we see Brolin's antagonist slowly walking by outside. We hear the close perspective beeping of his tracking device, mixed with the thuds of his boots moving. Little or no traffic or background noise is heard in this part of the scene. The hyper realistic choice was made to isolate sound elements, to direct focus, shape the narrative, and build tension. Sound can also be used in a non-realistic manner to emphasize a surreal state of mind, or a flashback sequence. In “The Bourne Ultimatum” Matt Damon's character Jason Bourne has sudden and erratic flashbacks of traumatic events from his past. As he struggles to remember who he was before he lost his memory, we see flashbacks to his initiation into a government experiment. In the flashback sequences, we hear exaggerated bass heavy room tones, humming noises, and a reverb like effect on the dialogue of the characters speaking. This is to create that dream like confused quality that the Damon character is feeling so intensely. In order to make effective choices as a sound designer like these examples mentioned, it's important to meet with the film's director and discuss his or her vision for the project. What overall theme or message do they want to convey? It's also a good idea to draw up a sound map, detailing what types of sounds need to be produced or enhanced based on a thorough script reading. As a sound designer you may discover that a lot of Foley sounds need to be added in postproduction. You may also want to record background sounds and music on separate tracks if and when the film is dubbed into another language to preserve the original sounds of the film as much as possible. Overall sound design is of major importance in a film, as bad sound can be noticed right away from the viewer's perspective and add an amateur feel to an otherwise great production. Essential elements are collaboration, communication, and an overall thorough understanding of the script and intentions of all creatively involved. BM
