“When it’s bad, you notice. When it’s great, you’re immersed.”
Frank Serafine is talking about sound design—and it’s something he talks about a lot. And as the the Academy Award-winning sound designer behind Tron, The Addams Family, and The Hunt for Red October (and Star Trek: The Motion Picture, The Lawnmower Man, and my favorite show as a kid Thunder in Paradise, and so, so many more), it’s something he knows a lot about too.
It’s why we were so pleased when Frank took a moment to sit down and chat sound design with us. Because sound design has the power to completely engross us in a scene it may not be something we often give a lot of thought to, which may be true at the editing bay, and well before.
It’s happened to all of us, we know our audio efforts could be stronger. We know that sound is half of what we see, and that it really steers our perception. But with so many elements to consider, with so many pressing delivery dates, and with a back log of edits that stretches to Christmas 2026, any notion of maximizing the audience’s auditory experience can quickly slip through the cracks.
But it doesn’t have to be so. Frank is a wealth of knowledge, and during our talk he shared a lot of insight into not only Hollywood-caliber sound, but had some great ideas for novices too.
Frank had a lot of great ideas for ways wedding, documentary, and small studio filmmakers can become better sound designers—starting right now.
Don’t just add the music track and think your sound is done. If you do, you’re cheating your audience of an even more believable experience.
1. Know in the Field
When you’re on the beach with a frolicking just-married couple or about to cover an incredible turning point in the main character of your documentary’s life, you might not even consider the impact of sound on your story until post.
This is a mistake.
Getting it right in the field—making sure you capture great audio well in advance of taking a seat at the editing bay is the first big jump in upping your sound design game. This boils down to capturing the audio of your characters and capturing the audio of the room (or not).
Frank had a number of tips, but in particular, stressed the importance of getting separate audio tracks for characters when shooting. This gives you way more to work with in post, and allows for stronger dialogue edits later.
“Use lavalier mics on each actor so that you have separation (of audio tracks), and the boom operator needs to be educated as to how to position the microphone. These are very important.”
Sometimes the boom mic picks up the sounds in the room, not just the characters. Sometimes you want that, sometimes you don’t (Frank usually doesn’t).
“A lot of times the mistake is made of not separating the audio tracks, and the actors are all bunched onto one channel. Then when it comes time to edit you have a big problem.”
Separation of tracks allows for isolation, and more precise dialogue editing in post.
“Also, understand what the noises are on set—and mitigate them. A lot of times you’ll be on a set (or in the field) and there will be an electricity hum coming from a transformer—something like that—blanket it.”
So in sum, “understand the acoustics of the room and position the mics as close as you can to the actors.”
Now, we aren’t Frank, and most of us will never work on films of the scale and scope that he does regularly. Sounds blankets are awesome to cover an electric hum, but that’s certainly not the reality if you’re shooting a wedding or documentary. But this is still incredibly valuable info, we just have to look at how to apply it.
If you’re a wedding or doc shooter, definitely work to get a mic on each of your main characters. In a wedding this mean the bride needs her own mic. Yep, that will be slightly uncomfortable for some of you to wire it under her dress and attach a recorder or transmitter to her leg, but the difference is massive.We started using mics for each of the main speakers in our weddings years ago and once you feel the difference, you won’t go back.
And more than just getting a mic on each person, be very conscious of your locations. While we often can’t use sound blankets, we often can switch locations, move slightly, or at the very least – position our mics to minimize the noise. A boom mic capturing somebody speaking that is also pointing towards that electric hum will sound way worse than angling it away from the hum.
And the third insight here is to also be very aware of the sounds in the field, not just to minimize them, but to also pick them up as needed. If you’re shooting a documentary scene or wedding outside in nature, it can add so much depth to take the time and capture the sounds of nature, as individually as possible, and then use those to add depth to your story.
Check out Jess & Brian’s wedding that we shot a few years ago in Ireland. Note for the vows and the first meeting the sound quality that comes from having a mic on each of them. In this, Jess as a small mp3 recorder with a lav mic all hidden underneath her dress. Another neat insight is that there first meeting location was going to be next to a waterfall (i.e. pretty and SO loud). The waterfall was also way more public and so we looked for a more private location that would also be better for telling their story.
[vimeo video_id=”66854617″ width=”640″ height=”360″ title=”Yes” byline=”No” portrait=”No” autoplay=”No” loop=”No” color=”ff9933″]The first step toward better sound design is getting it right when you’re shooting. Try to have a mic on each of your main audio sources, be aware of the noises in your environment, and pick up any important sounds separately while in the field.
Clean and isolated audio now allows for more amazing sound design later.
2. Know Where to Start
Once production wraps and you enter post it’s time to assemble the sound experience that will leave your audience completely absorbed, and this requires more than music and clean audio.
To recreate believability and really drop your audience into the scene, you’ll want to add sound or enrich sound that’s already there. But where do you start?
Frank recommends starting with sound libraries before venturing into creating your own sound, and he had a number of insights into the history of sound libraries, and why some are better than others.
He notes that there are sounds you can get in libraries that you can’t get anywhere else, so for that reason he heads there first before trying to recreate sound in a controlled environment.
Which sound libraries should you look to first?
He mentioned three sound libraries specifically. The first was his own, Serafine Collection Sound Effects Library, because as he mentioned, the sounds were recorded from a sound editor’s approach, and take into account distance and echo, among other details.
The second was Sound Ideas, one of the largest repositories of sound effects in the world. And the third was Sound Snap.
“Say you’re a wedding videographer and you just need a background bird effect you might not want to go out and spend the money on a sound effects collection. There’s a company called Sound Snap that is subscription based. You can go in and pull sounds very cheaply—a couple dollars—and just join for a certain amount a month. They have a very large collection—some of my stuff is in that collection.”
For us, we spent years without even considering adding in extra sounds. We’d either use what was there, or we’d remove it, but the idea of adding in extra sounds to create depth wasn’t on our radar. But for the past few years every single project has sounds coming in that were recorded separately or from a sound library.
We actually checked out Sound Snap based on our interview with Frank and just signed up for a yearly subscription, unlimited sounds, at $250. For us, that’s amazing deal as well could easily spend $100-200 on a project if we really add depth to the picture through sound. Though we just dove in this week, the site has been a huge resource and we’ve been using a ton of sounds. For transparency, we have no connection to Sound Snap, we just heard of them through Frank.
Check out this piece we just launched for Freefly, one that we called Stay Curious. Now, it’s pretty cool if you know that almost every sound in this piece came out of a library or was recorded in our studio. Goose spent literally days building out nothing but the sound design. But it adds so much to the experience.
[vimeo video_id=”124556378″ width=”640″ height=”360″ title=”Yes” byline=”No” portrait=”No” autoplay=”No” loop=”No” color=”ff9933″]We can spend so much time perfecting our lighting, getting the best camera, a kick-ass slider – yet we pay 1% of the attention to our sound. Don’t let that be you. Commit to giving your sound as much attention as your picture.
3. Know what’s out there
Just as microphones and recording devices have advanced considerably over the decades, so too have the available sound tools in post. There are a host of new tools on the market, and they’re making sound correction much, much simpler.
The times have certainly changed. Here’s Frank talking about what sound editing was like when he first started in Hollywood nearly 40 years ago.
Now a number of platforms make the life of a sound designer considerably easier, and Frank shared a few that he likes to use.
Frank describes a few programs, including SpectraLayers by Sony and iZotope, that allow sound designers to remove previously stubborn audio issues.
“Sometimes I’ll have a perfect take on a scene, but I’ll get a mic bump. It used to be that you couldn’t EQ out a mic bump—the technology wasn’t available to us…It was either shelving EQ, or 13-band EQ, or fat EQ—whatever you could to try to EQ out that mic bump.
“Now through these programs you can ‘photoshop’ your problems, in a way.
“Mic bumps were impossible to take out before, now I can take them out. You look at the dynamics of the histogram, which is a new waveform technology. It’s basically a color representation of the dynamics of the audio. So you visually look at the colors, say for instance a mic bump is purple, then you go and use the brush tool to basically brush it out. Like photoshop.
“All of this is very, very new technology.
“This is great for smaller projects on a smaller budgets especially. Generally smaller budgets don’t allow for what we call looping, which is taking the actor back in to re-record.”
These new platforms offer a more affordable, straightforward, and time-sensitive option to clean up messy audio, in a really accessible and user-friendly way.
We don’t have any experience with any of these, and often when it comes to advanced mixing and mastering, we send out our files to somebody who lives in that world. Costs vary from about $25-50/hr for their time, but they can totally dial in your sounds, and many can help build out your sound design. Why few are local, you can export an OMF from Premiere or Final Cut, and that gives them all the layers and handles, so they can dial things in, add sounds, and send back a mastered version. We have a couple great folks we use all the time – if you’d like to hire somebody to help you with sound design or mixing, email us and we are happy to share our contacts.
Another big part of handling sound in post is simply just staying organized. Develop a track structure so that you put your narration or voice over on one tracks, your characters are on another couple tracks, your sound effects or ambiance on others, and then you have a few for soundtrack. This may seem tedious as you are starting out, but it is a HUGE habit to develop and make it much easier to bring in a sound designer and to add to your own sound design in an efficient way. It’s the worst when you delete something thinking it was background noise only to realize 15 minutes later it was a critical line of dialogue. And a sound design won’t want to touch your project if you are organized in a way that they can understand and dive in.
Check out some of the options for sound design in post. There are some awesome new options available, and even Premiere’s offering has a lot of potential. Consider bringing in a sound designer to help finish your projects – it can be more affordable than you think. And always, always, try to keep your sounds organized in post.
4. Know what it takes
There are steps you can start taking right now—isolate your audio to put your characters on different tracks, take advantage of the incredible amount of sound effects already available, and explore what options you have for gear—but know that good sound design takes time.
It can be tough to see something with awesome sound design and then look at your editor and see a line of visuals with no sounds and wonder where you start.
Realize that a lot of different elements make up sound design, and for this reason Frank sees sound design as a lot like music and himself as a composer.
“I approach sound design in the same way as a composer would approach orchestrating a full orchestral score. A lot of elements go into creating a particular sound, so it may take dozens of elements that go into making just one effect—not to mention the mixing of levels that goes in between them all.”
And according to Frank, there are two big things that go into strong sound design: experimentation and experience.
So be inspired by what you’re hearing, what you’re not hearing, and what you want to hear. And know that when you’re playing around with different sounds—that’s experimenting, and it’s a big part of the transition into better sound design. And out of that experimentation comes experience.
Often as we dive into a piece, we’ll try out a bunch of things before we find what works. It would be rather shocking to imagine going with your first edit of a video, just running with the shots in the first way they came together. Sound is exactly the same. You need to try things out, see what works, and be willing to put in the time to iterate and keep making it better. If you give yourself the same amount of revisions on the sound side as you do on the visuals, you’ll get incredible results.
Just get in there and try, experiment, play around. Then share it, watch it again, and make it better.
[tweetthis twitter_handles=”@stillmotion” url=”http://bit.ly/1dBeGRf”]An Oscar-Winning Sound Designer Shares 4 Killer Tips Worth Listening To[/tweetthis]
It was a pleasure chatting with Frank Serafine, and if you’d like to take advantage of his wisdom to not just consider sound design, but to take it to another level, you might have the chance. Frank’s currently on a national tour, Sound Advice, of day-long workshops in which he’ll cover sound recording, sound editing, sound effects, sound mixing, sound design, and more.
And because we’re so glad to be part of your journey to be a better filmmaker we’ve arranged to give away one seat on Frank’s tour at workshop near you!
If you’d like to win a day with Frank honing your sound skills let us know in the comments by answering this one question:
What’s your single biggest struggle with sound?
It’s a shorter contest, so let us know your answers by Tuesday, May 5 at 11:59 PST.
So appreciate everyone’s comments. We’ve reached out to the person who snagged the free spot on Frank’s tour, but there’s still an opportunity for you to learn Frank in person! Use the discount code SATSTM20 to save $20 off the final price before May 10. Thanks again everyone!
Cheers,
Mary
PS — Record scratches. Mary? Who’s Mary? I’m Mary, a writer here at Stillmotion. I haven’t had a chance to introduce myself with a post–that’s coming–because I wanted to share Frank’s sound smarts with you first. So enjoy! And you’ll hear from me again soon.
I primarily shoot documentaries and so I don’t have much control over location sound. HVAC systems and fluorescent lighting are common obstacles. I’m also often running both camera and sound and it is difficult to be framing and shooting while also keeping an eye on sound levels and listening with a critical ear.
Use iZotope RX 4 to be able to take out that unwanted noise in a jiff.
Realism. I have learned to avoid locations that are noisy or sound bad and to make sure the mic is close but even when I get good clean audio it doesn’t always feel authentic to me. Can the mic be too close? Perhaps there’s not enough ambient noise like the whir of my hard drive fan right now? I’m always looking to learn!
Love the quote at the top of the article. “When it’s bad, you notice. When it’s great, you’re immersed.” Thanks!
Hey Phil,
It takes time. The paradox is getting sound so isolated and clean in the field, yet then adding the ‘noise’, depth, and environment that you fought against back in in post so it does feel authentic.
P.
Funny how making great things usually requires a lot of time. Slowing down and taking that time is a downfall of mine.
FYI, I was at Storytelling With Heart in Philly and applying those principles really helped improve the my work! Best workshop I’ve attended so far! Thanks!
“Realism” is a tough one to describe. I’m the technical director for Frank’s tour. I can assure you that in the Sound Advice course, we tell you EXACTLY how to create realism to keep your audience’s subconscious asleep via immersion so you can lead them where you want to go with your story and message. Having the right elements in place is key, but having them mixed correctly is also key.
Recording audio on warehouse floor with a lot of noise is always a challenge. If the talent has a hard time hearing themselves they tend to almost shout thinking they need to be louder for the mic.
Ya the warehouse floor problem sure is a rough one. We almost always end up building those entire environments in post.
P.
Sometimes putting earplugs in talent’s ears has them either get louder or softer depending on how they’re directed. Also, you can always use iZotope RX 4 to take out the unwanted noise. Experiment with your talent on this and see if you have a different result. You can also use tissue paper. Lastly, don’t be afraid to use in-ear monitors between actors wirelessly to insure they can hear each other, and hide the wires/mics/ear pieces in wardrobe et al.
Awesome! Thanks Mark. Great stuff.
Also, if you want see Frank in person, check out if he’s coming to a spot near you … http://bit.ly/1EhL5Sp and use the discount code SATSTM20 to knock $20 off, thanks! Oh, and the code expires May 10.
My struggle with sound is found in my ability to use it in a natural way that enhances the story I’m trying to create. Similar to this post, I pay little attention to sound, but looking back on the films I have created, I’m now realizing how much more “depth” the videos would have if I made a more conscious effort is sound design.
Absolutely Jason – something a lot of us go through at one point or another.
P.
I can never thank you guys at Stillmotion and the Story and Heart Academy for everything you all do. It’s increased the quality of my work tremendously and makes up for the lack of formal training. I hope you guys keep doing things like cause I’m sure there are others that are just thankful.
We surely appreciate that. And we are just getting started, lots of exciting stuff coming your way this year
P.
Another perk, use the discount code SATSTM20 to sign up for Frank’s tour ( http://bit.ly/1EhL5Sp ) for $20 off. Have fun. PS – Code expires May 10.
We talk about the three best uses for sound in the course, and enhancing the story with audio is DEFINITELY covered in spades. Frank and I hope to see you there in one of our classes!
Great piece, would love to learn more from Mr. Serafine! My biggest struggle with audio is getting clean+reliable capture without dropping thousands on a SoundDevices+LectroSonics rig. I’ve had Sennheisser packs drop out during vows, Olympus digital recorders/mic connection dropout, Tascam recorder die 10 minutes into recording. Blah. Sometimes I think the only reliable solution for event audio is 1) wireless pack, 2) digital recorder 3) digital recorder on house audio. 4) hire an audio pro to get this perfect every time.
yep,definitely feel you on that one. It can be hard to find something rock solid all the time. Lectrosonics and Sound Devices has always seem to stand out for us, but Sennheiser is the workhorse.
P.
Well, hiring a pro audio guy is the best choice of course. But if you can’t afford one, then spending what money you have on a good recording device and even renting mics is the next best thing. Zoom H6 is very affordable and records 6 individual tracks, totally portable and super easy to use. Get the appropriate Sony UWP analoge transmitter system for $750 or so, and you’re into a SUPER pro set up for roughly $1k.
Also, if you sign up for Frank’s course be sure to use the discount code SATSTM20 to get $20 off. Here’s a quick link: http://bit.ly/1EhL5Sp Heads up, code expires May 10.
My biggest audio challenge is making foley sounds blend with the location audio… whether it’s too quiet, too loud, doesn’t have the right ambience/reverb, or it’s just my brain tricking me that it’s not close enough to sound convincing.
That is surely a nuanced skill. Sometimes a slight echo, some grit, or noise is all it takes to tuck it into the sound bed rather than have it sit on top.
P.
Most of the time, the critical decision is to do foley for the ENTIRE picture. Since you’re set up to do it here-and-there, why not just do the whole thing? Then there’s no mixing decision problem at all, and all of the foley sounds clean and you have ultimate control. Sometimes, because of the phasing issues associated with how many people record audio into their field records (IOW doing it wrongly), it’s impossible to mix NAT with Foley without significant loss of time and wasted effort. If you’re SURE you’re doing the appropriate protocols to record your on set sound, and it still isn’t working, then consider recording your foley with the same lavalier or hypercardioide that you recorded the DX with at the same distance. This usually puts your sound in foley very close to the DX sounds and blends much better.
If you want to learn about this from Frank in person, use the discount code SATSTM20 to sign up and get $20–if you sign up before May 20. Link: http://bit.ly/1EhL5Sp Thanks!
adding overall depth and interest to the piece….also even after getting clean sound in production but making it better in post can be a struggle sometimes
Hi. I’m the technical director for Frank’s tour. One of the easiest ways to add depth to a mix is to take into account the loudness contour of how the brain responds to sound. Your brain is ALWAYS lying to you about what it’s hearing, and to take that into account with EQ and compression is key to creating depth and power in a mix. Without taking this into account, mixes sound stale, harsh and generally DIY.
Alright, the kind folks at MZED sent us over a discount code for Frank’s Sound Advice tour. Head here: (http://bit.ly/1EhL5Sp) and use the discount code SATSTM20 to knock $20 off the final price. Heads up, it expires May 10! Thanks.
Single biggest struggle with sound is not knowing enough about it. As filmmakers we pride ourselves to be visual storytellers and yet sound will make or break such story by allowing us to suspend disbelief or prevent us from being fully immersed and captivated. Unlike the 5 senses we utilize as humans (sight, hear, touch, taste and smell) we can only experience the first two on the big and small screen (sight & hearing) and both are equally important to say the least.
Amazing Alejandro. And to build on that, since most filmmakers focus on the visuals the most, there is also incredible opportunity to stand out by putting more focus on audio and creating depth there.
P.
Totally. I’m starting to see it more and more as layers. Just like in a good script the story and characters have many layers, so does sound (room tone, folly, SFX, score, ADR, post enhancement, etc). And just like a good story all these elements must work in unison and seamlessly to render depth. Therefore not taking the necessary measures to record pristine audio on set is the recipe for disaster for everything that follows.
Come to the course. Frank will have you up and running with knowledge which you can’t get anywhere – and your productions will IMMEDIATELY be better – a lot better – for it. It’s an investment which you can’t afford not to make.
I think I’m going to follow your advice and attend. I’m sure the content will be incredible and inspiring with lots of insider tips. Thank you Mark!
My biggest struggle is actually including sound in the creative process. In the past, I’ve done foley from scratch (quite fun) and used libraries, but lately I’ve relied on the music and not given sound serious thought. I want to do better design, but I’ve not always made room for doing so. I am also much more comfortable with the visuals of a story than the audio side.
As I’m starting to get back into filmmaking, I want to give more thought to the soundscape of my works, creating something that enriches the story I’m telling, and helps it to become greater than the sum of its parts.
Absolutely. I’d love to build out a post process workflow that has checkpoints for sound so that filmmakers get that reminder to stop and ‘listen’ before moving on.
P.
Each of the three aspects of audio post production has a specific job. Music doesn’t do “covering over immersion” very well at all. It’s job lies elsewhere – as does DX. Come to the course if you at all can. Frank will have you completely comfortable with $50 million audio production that you can apply to your productions RIGHT now.
The single biggest struggle has been post production monitoring. Ever room, speakers, and outboard equipment makes mixing such an unique experience every time. What might sound great at the studio, may not sound up-to-par at home and vice versa. How to produce a mix that equally sounds great…..EVERYWHERE.
The cool, and challenging part of this as well, is that our ears respond to different frequencies at different volumes. So we are more sensitive to some frequencies at certain volumes, and that will change as the intensity of sound does. So, when you get super serious, you also need to consider where it will be playing, the room size, acoustics, and intensity.
A quick read that shows how this works
http://hyperphysics.phy-astr.gsu.edu/hbase/sound/earcrv.html
P.
First thing to start with is good speakers. JBL LSR 03 5″ speakers are the best value I’ve seen. ESI also has great 5″ speakers. Then insure that your position is good with respect to the dolby standard. Then, insure that you’ve killed all primary reflections by going around your studio (or having someone else do this) with a mirror. If, in the mirror, you can see your tweeters, you’ve got a STRONG primary reflection. Put something there to diffract or diffuse the sound. At that point, you’ve got a pretty good home-studio situation that should get your mixes within the 10% zone. Bass issues from your LFE channel will be the tricky bit, and insure that you have a good sub that can go down to 40Hz with ease.
Lastly, insure you’ve got a HORRIBLE pair of speakers to A/B your mixes into stereo on. This way you’ll know what the least common denominator is for your audience (usually a laptop speaker system), and you’ll get your mixes into universal shape in no time.
My biggest struggle is often room noise. I can boom in as close as frame allows, but, on many locations, it’s still not enough to get nice tight dialog. Omni lavs tend to be more roomy and rarely sound as good as the boom.
I would LOVE to go to this seminar. Thanks for the primer. Please pick me for the contest. Thanks!
Hey Brandon,
That was a solid plug to be chosen 🙂
We’ll pick at random from everybody who put our a thoughtful answer. Thanks for sharing,
P.
Use a denoiser like iZtope RX to clean noise out before editing. Almost like a telecine. Then, you’ll always have clean audio. You can also use CEDAR if you can find a place to rent one – or shell out the $5k+ for one. Then you can be less concerned about audio noise and more about capturing performances. Of course, insure that your equipment is professional grade and has a VERY low noise flow. Cheap or consumer stuff notoriously has a high noise floor.
My single biggest struggle is just the knowledge gap. I’m still fairly new to the film world and have, up to this point, focused on everything story. Like most I’ve relied on others for audio help. An audio seminar would shorten that gap and would be a game changer for me.
Sweet Adam. We’ve asked the MZed team for a discount code, so if you don’t end up winning the spot, we’ll send that to everybody who submits an answer here as well.
P.
Thanks Patrick, you’re the best!
You definitely want to come to the course. By 7:30pm Frank will have you inspired to move forward in a way that will change how you make sound and your films forever.
You have my attention Mark, I’ll do my best to make it. Thanks!
Finding the balance between the natural, on location sound and getting too crazy with over producing the sound in post.
There’s no such thing as “getting too crazy” with over producing the sound in post. There’s only not being able to mix into the right place either in frequency, panorama, or reverb – not to mention volume. You can have 100 sounds in a scene for ambience all mixed perfectly, and it’ll still feel fine. The issue is almost always mixing, never the amount of sounds.
Coming from a still world, I am just learning to “hear” things. It’s amazing what our ears and/or brains choose to focus on and omit. Sometimes I walk around with a mic and headphones, just to listen and to hear how mics hear. My wife thinks it’s a hot look… jk.
At the Storytelling workshop, it became apparent to me and then I saw Adam Epstein’s timeline, with all of the sound tracks added in and thought, I had better get on it! So, I actually NEED this! Thanks for all that you guys do and your continuing efforts to educate! Ya’ll are pretty awesome!
Hi. Mark Lewis, technical director of the sound advice tour. That’s a great idea!
My challenge is getting audio that sounds like it is being recorded in the environment with out drowning out the voice with the environmental sounds.
Hi. Mark Edward Lewis, technical director of Frank’s tour. Mixing is everything. You can have the right sounds, but if the ambiences, foley and other sounds are too loud, you’ll wake up the audience – and disallow the despelling of disbelief. But if they’re too soft, you might as well have not put them in at all. You’ll know when you have them at the right level and equalization when the scene just “pops.” When your mind tunes out the ambiences, that’s the right level. When you forget they’re there, you’re really close. The purpose of sfx is immersion and to the extent an audience isn’t immersed is to the extent that they’re not in the right place. You find yourself forgetting about them, you’ve got it right. The DX shouldn’t even be an issue if you’ve got them mixed down. Start with a “very low” volume for them.
Great to see a wedding again on Stillmotion’s blog!
Choosing the right selection of sounds which will allow the scene to pop, and immerse my viewers…. Also, the delicacies of mic placement continually fascinate me.
I’m curious how to most efficiently and effectively isolate one sound without it sounding hollow or reflective and then how building and texturing the sound bed with those sounds can be mixed for the greatest influence. Are there certain sounds or qualities of sounds that resonate more with an audience? If so why? I’m interested in the emotional and psychological impacts sound can have.
Very nice article. I create things visually with my eyes open. I think that my biggest struggle with sound is that I haven’t (yet) learned to think and create in the audio space with my eyes closed. We need to do both. I’m looking forward to growing in this area.
Thanks for the comments, Chris. If you want to check out Frank’s Sound Advice tour, head here (http://bit.ly/1EhL5Sp) and use the code SATSTM20 to knock $20 off the price. Enjoy!
Great read! Biggest struggle in sound… knowing when to leave it out! Quoting Claude Debussy, “Music is the space between the notes.” — does sound design follow this rule too?! : ) -George
My biggest challenge in being new to video coming from a still background was not really knowing where to start. I just attended the Sound Advice tour and the biggest thing I learned was I have A LOT to learn! Mark inspired me to really dive into learning more about mixing. (Frank was under the weather)