(32) Sound Planning

How Might Sound Be Used in Your Short Film? 
Sound is often overlooked in the production of a film, despite it being one of the most important cinematic elements. Danny Boyle says that '70, 80 percent of a movie is sound'. Good sound design often goes unnoticed because it isn't as obvious as the visual aspects of cinema, after all, good sound design is natural.

Good sound design makes or breaks a film. Bad cinematography/acting/production design can be made up for, but audio is something that most professionals state must be gotten right.

A film renowned for its incredible sound design is 'Fight Club'. As revolutionary as it was realistic, director David Fincher shocked audiences with his realistically disgusting fight sound effects:

I will spend a lot of time focusing on my sound design during both the production stages and the post-production stages. I want to use my sound design to create a realistic environment through the use of ambience and foley sounds that match the action onscreen. By incorporating realistic sound design, the audiences are able to immerse themselves in the film better because it looks, sounds and feels more real.

I also want to choose my non-diegetic sound to appropriately heighten the mood of each scene, particularly the more emotional scenes. This may be restricting, however, as I will have to only use royalty free music. This being said, I will dedicate plenty of time to finding the best music I can. My preferred method is to find the music before filming the scenes as I can fit the scene to the fluctuations of the music appropriately. This is a good method because, in the industry, original scores are often produced to best suit each scene. I don't have the privilege of a composer to do so so I will opt to alter my scene around the music I choose to use. Music I would prefer to use is ambient/cinematic music that is more traditional than modern, as this will suit the simplistic style of my film. Furthermore, I don't want dramatic scores that distract the viewer from the scene. This means I will opt out of using soundtrack music with lyrics.

How Will You Create Your Sound?
Diegetic Sound
Firstly, what is diegetic sound? Diegetic sound refers to the sound that is real within the film. Sound that characters are able to hear and can be pinpointed to a source inside the film world, the diegetic sound often matches the action onscreen.

Obviously, I will try my best to record good quality diegetic sound. To do so I will only focus on recording my actors' voices. By doing so, I can ensure the quality is efficient rather than having to focus on recording the sound effects as diegetic sound as well. To ensure the quality of my dialogue, I will hopefully acquire a microphone that will effectively pick up the voices of my actors while reducing unwanted or static noise. My resources are somewhat limited, however, and if I cannot acquire a microphone to record the dialogue I will resort to dubbing the audio in post-production by having the actors re-record their lines at a later date. This will be effective as I can make sure there is no wind or static noise in the audio recordings. However, it is inconvenient, lengthens the production process and also may be difficult for the actors to effectively sync their lines. This is why I would prefer to perfect the audio on set.

Foley Sound
Foley sound is sound that is created after the production of a film and added later. Foley sound can be both diegetic and non-diegetic, though it is most commonly used for sound effects. Foley sounds are usually imitations of sounds, for example, a common technique for impact sound effects is snapping celery to recreate the sound. Sound effects can be created by layering different sounds too, the most famous example of this is in 'Jurassic Park', where the roar of the infamous T-Rex is created by layering multiple animal noises, including lions, whales and tigers.

In my film, I am opting not to record any of my sound effects on set as I want to dedicate my audio recording to dialogue to ensure it is of a good enough quality. This means that my sound effects will have to be foley. To do this, I will experiment with producing different sounds with various objects to see if I can recreate certain noises. I will record the audio and layer them together (if necessary) and then sync them to my footage. Noises that I will need to recreate is the sound of footsteps on various terrains, impact noises, fire crackling, general ambience and so on (further details on the script images). These can be done by recreating the actual sources they come from (eg. fire), or by creating substitutes.

Objects I will experiment with is heavy/hard shoes impacting against different terrains (eg. gravel/dry and crispy vegetation etc.), different household objects impacting against different surfaces to create impact noises, experimenting with the textures of food (eg. vegetables) and so on. I will keep experimenting and testing the audio in sync with my footage to see which audio clips work best.

Non-Diegetic
The only non-diegetic sound I will likely require for my film is music. As I have a low budget I can only use royalty-free music. To find the appropriate music for my film I will search on various audio/music/video platforms, such as YouTube, Soundcloud and websites that specialise in royalty free music such as Bensound.

Other options I have considered is having music scored for me. I may ask music-oriented people to play around with my footage and to compose a piece that effectively captures the mood and emotion of each scene. This may be difficult for them (particularly as I only know amateur musicians who don't specialise in film scores and have different styles to what I had in mind) and it will definitely lengthen the production stage of my film as I will have to wait for them to compose. Furthermore, this is a risky option as it means I have to rely on someone else to use up their time for me, if they are particularly busy then it might take them a long time, time I don't have to wait for a score.

The style of music/non-diegetic sound I want is generally soft, ambient and cinematic, however, the styles may change scene by scene. I will describe the kind of music I imagined per scene (if it has any music to accompany it):

Prologue

This is the only scene I envisioned with a non-diegetic sound that isn't music. This scene I imagined having a high-pitched humming/ringing sound that gradually grew to an overwhelming level until it is abruptly cut off by the scene transition. The sound, to me, captures the character's overwhelming emotion at this point in the story, as it is just after Bleedingheart's death. This is the sound I intend to use:

Town Crier

No music will be used in this scene, however, I intend to incorporate the sound of a ringing bell to match the action on screen (diegetic sound). 

The Preacher

N/A (no music/non-diegetic sound)

Bleedingheart

At the end of this scene, the music will begin that belongs to the scene after. This is a J-Cut. The music will be rather tense which will juxtapose the happy tones of the current scene. This is called contrapuntal sound. 

Terror

The music that is playing will be tense and dramatic but have an air of spirituality to it. This will effectively capture the raw emotion of the scene while also matching the beauty of the shots (the colour of the smoke and powder paints). This is the music I initially had in mind for this scene, however, it is obviously copyrighted as it is from 'Life of Pi', so I will likely be unable to use it: 

The Tyrant

If I am to use music in this scene, I will want something that strikes fear and captures the brutality of this scene. Something orchestral, particularly cello based will best suit this scene in my opinion. This is the music that I am most inspired by for this scene, though given its copyrighted nature I, again, will probably be unable to use it for my film. 

Hope is Gone

There are two options for this scene, as it is arguably the most emotional scene in the film. The first is to use the music from the previous scene have them fluidly transition into each other through the music. The second is to use more emotional than tense music, that has uplifting tones. Using inspiring music for emotional scenes is a common technique, mostly used by Disney Pixar because it has the ability to create nostalgia along with the sadness of the scene, intensifying the viewer's catharsis. Furthermore, sad music is often overly dramatic and cliche and, therefore, can't be taken seriously. This is the music that I like best for option 2 for this scene, however, once again, it only represents what is ideal and not what will be used, as it is copyrighted:

Consumed

This scene will utilise silence to maximise the effect of the scene, as the silence symbolises reflection and also allows the audience to reflect. 

An Act of Hate

This music will be chaotic and tense, utilising mainly percussion instruments. The style I would like would be almost fast-paced tribal music. This makes the action in the scene happening become a blur. This is the music I feel represents what is ideal, though it cannot be used as it is copyrighted:

A New Preacher is Born

N/A (no music)

All of the music I have selected so far is copyrighted, so I will likely have to find copyright-free alternatives. However, the music I have provided represents the kind of music/mood I want to use in order to effectively capture the emotion and mood of each scene. 

Sound in my Script

I have annotated my script, documenting where and how I'll use the specific sound techniques listed above.

Key
Pink Highlighter: Foley sound
Green Highlighter: Diegetic sound
Yellow Highlighter: Non-diegetic sound