One of the least
understood fields of expertise in either low-budget or
big-budget filmmaking is the area of sound design. Because
it is equally overlooked on both the high end and the
low end, we on the ultra low end can gain the most benefit
and even make our production quality superior to that
of current Hollywood by mastering it.
What
is sound design, you may ask? Sound design, to put it
in a nutshell, is orchestrating all the sound elements
that are not dialogue in your film. Often this doesn't
even include music, but focuses, rather, on sound effects,
ambience, and other forms of sound texture. Because audio
quality has been so limited for so long in theaters, many
producers simply wouldn't budget much money for the art
of sound design, figuring that it had to overlap with
the dialogue recorder or score composers roles. THX and
Dolby 7.1 and other high end sound options are now available,
but most films never come close to taking advantage of
their abilities because of how under-utilized sound design
is.
Mr.
Sonnenschein points out that if sound design were given
the same time as designing the lighting and cinematographical
look, huge amounts of money would be saved in the making
of films and the films themselves would be much more psychological.
As I read that, I thought of two excellent examples of
that: the gunshot in American Beauty and the rape
sequence in A Time to Kill. Both sequences would
have been costly to shoot and would have lost much of
their psychological impact if they had been shown rather
than heard!
Comprehension
Sound Design is foremost written to people who
are looking to get into it as a career or are the types
of directors that want to be responsible for all of the
signature essences of their film (known as 'auteurs').
Because it's designed for audio people, I wanted to review
this book and see how it relates to a director, especially
a low-budget director that needs to be aware of all of
these sorts of things because you're probably not going
to be able to afford a sound designer who can do all these
things at the type of budget most of us have to work at.
Mr.
Sonnenschein has worked all over the world honing his
craft of audio comprehension and design and, as such,
he starts a little out there for a lot of us. However,
once you get past the rather esoteric beginning, you'll
find the rest of the book is actually pretty easy to understand.
This does not mean that you'll be able to half-read this
and get most of the content. No, you will need to focus
on it. Even if you're an audio person by trade, Mr. Sonnenschein's
writing style is not the type that you will just absorb
like water, rather it is something you'll absorb slowly,
as you allow it to soak in.
The
tests and trials included in this book also do a nice
job to help you comprehend the ideas and see how astute
you are at paying attention to the sound canvas in your
own world.
