Post-Production Course Outline – Sound Design

1. Importance of sound in film

a. Sound as a subconscious and conscious element
b. Determines our positioning in the film
c. Sound “eases” us into a scene, or can be jarring and thrust us into or out of a
situation.
d. Can evoke nostalgia, fear, tension, suspense, etc.
e. Bad sound will alienate more than bad visuals.
f. “Missing” audio (e.g. sound effects or room tone) will make a scene feel incomplete.

2. Sound recording
a. Clean audio
b. Noise to signal ratio
i. Understanding “noise”
ii. Noise your microphone and cables make (innate electronic noise)
c. Room tone
d. Atmospheric sound
e. Choosing your microphone and understanding your limits
i. Lapel, boom, onboard DSLR, Zoom, phone, etc.
ii. Directionality/polarity: cardoid, hypercardoid, omnidirectional, figure 8, etc.
f. Understanding cables
i. XLR vs audio jack

3. Post-production sound (Practical)

a. Laying your sound down
i. Dialogue
ii. Atmospheric
iii. Sound effects/foley
iv. Room tone
b. Cleaning your sound
i. Denoise, dehum, de-ess
ii. EQ: lowcut, highpass
iii. Crossfade tracks
c. Mixing distance
i. Atmosphere in the background
ii. Dialogue in real-time
iii. Voice-overs in the foreground
iv. Music in the background/foreground (depending on scene)
v. Sound effects in the background/foreground (depending on scene)
d. Adding effects to your sound
i. Ethereal; Nostalgic; Suspenseful
ii. Slow motion sound; outer space
iii. Tinnitus
iv. Making sound for emotive effects, or non-literal spaces
e. Choosing your soundtrack
i. When to add sound and when to leave it as silence
ii. Short-form versus long-form soundtracks
iii. Making a cohesive soundtrack