Realistic Homes - Sound

Sound and music can add the finishing touches to a film or television series, and can give the piece a great deal of believability and realism. Our everyday lives are filled with an abundance of sounds that many of us tend to take for granted - birds chirping, leaves rustling, car engines running and horns honking, radios playing music or ads for restaurants, cafes and other food media. How often do we actively listen to the sounds in our own neighborhoods? How often do we even notice them? The answers to these questions are, of course, different for everyone, but for the sound designer of any film project, it is essential to pay attention to the sounds of the city, town or countryside that you plan on recreating in your film.

Knowing the location and setting of the story is essential to finding the perfect sounds to add to the piece. Obviously, there will be different ambient sounds in a farm house versus one of the upscale Erin homes. Knowing the neighborhood that you are trying to recreate on screen is crucial to the success of the sound mixers.

Sound in films generally falls into two broad categories - sound effects (including those ambient sounds that we take for granted), and music. These two are then further divided into diegetic and non-diegetic sound. Diegetic sound is defined as that which the characters can hear and which is supposed to be within the imagined world of the set, such as a character's car radio that they sing along with, or the chiming of their door bell in their downtown Brewery lofts. These are sounds that belong inside the world of the story. Non-diegetic sound (also called commentary sound) is that which is added in post-production, and the source of the sound is neither on screen nor within the story. This includes such sounds as the music that plays at the opening or closing credits, or instrumental music (called mood music) that is playing during an intense or pivotal moment. The characters cannot hear these sounds - they are there simply to heighten the emotion of the audience.

The right piece of music can metaphorically leave words on walls - it can paint the film with emotion, underscore the action and reinforce the feelings of characters and audiences alike. The fact that the Academy awards an Oscar each year to the best song within a film shows just how important this element of sound can be to a film.

Many of the most memorable moments in film are what they are thanks to the music that was chosen for that scene. Would the Central Park scene from Rocky, when he runs up the steps and throws his fists up in celebration, be the same without that famous piece of music? Would Jaws have been as terrifying if the shark's approach wasn't accompanied by those ominous two notes, played over and over at a quickening pace? Clearly the music that is added in post production, as well as the mixing of the sound using flanger, effects reverb or echo, adds a great deal to the film, and a good sound mixer can produce any mood through the mixing and editing of the sound track.