What in detail is the sound designer responsible for in film?
I’m a young director and i’m pretty much familiar with what sound design is, what i’m wondering is pretty much where does the editor’s job end and sound designer’s begin… i mean is the sound designer responsible for syncing dialogue / adding sound effects etc? Or does that person just fix sound levels and clean up noise? I looked around online to find a detailed description of that job but couldn’t find much what i’m looking for.
If anyone could give me a detailed breakdown of that the job of a sound designer consists of i’d really appreciate it. Serious answers only please.
I am a Sound Designer myself, though new to the profession – Just finished doing my debut feature film. Even though this is my profession, it is quite hard to draw a distinct line to explain our role in the making of a film.
I’d say a Sound Designer is like a director, but a person who direct just the audio of the film. If we consider post production to consist of three different wings, it would be Editing, Music Scoring and Sound Design. Ideally, Composer and Sound Designer should be involved right from the pre-production stage. Sound Editors rarely read the script of a film, but as a Sound Designer, it is highly recommended that you read the script before you even take a look at the film. Again, there is no hard rule and I realy dont know how many follow this.
Trying to be more specific to the quesion asked here, Sound Editors cuts away, and makes sure all the provided sounds are in Sync. But where did these sounds come from ? It is the job of a Sound Designer to decide what all sounds should be recorded on location, what kind of pattern should be followed during Foley, and in short, direct the whole audio team -perhaps not the dialogue editors and mixers.
As a Sound Designer, this person will be present during the final mix, when the Mixing Engineer mix down various sub mixes. This include sub mix for FX, sub mix for Foley, sub mix for Atmosphere, and Sub mix for dialogues.
Coming back to the question again, No, the Sound Designer is not really responsible for Syncing Dialogues. The Dialogue editor is responsible for this. But a Sound Designer is responsible for adding Sound Effects. and more importantly, he decides when Silence should be used, which no one else might do, and no one would mind suggesting!
This is the ideal role of a sound designer. But from my personal experience and from what I have seen in the industry – A Sound Designer does pretty much everything related with sound if required. On location recording using a boom, editing sounds, cleaning up sounds, foley, mixing, and what not !
In general terms, a sound designer creates an "auditory style" for a film… much like an art director creates a specific visual style or mood for a film.
The best example of sound design in film I can think of would be the Star Wars series. The sound of laser pistols had to be invented since laser pistols don’t exist. Sound engineers recorded all kinds of things until they came up with a sound that fit. This sound was then altered in pitch and tone to corespond to the size of laser being fired.
This process of recording, combining and altering natural sounds was repeated for virtually everything in the Star Wars films… the sound of a space ship, light sabers and even Darth Vaders ominous breathing. All of these sounds had to be invented or designed by sound engineers.
If I’m correct, the sound used to represent a laser pistol being fired was actually the sound of a hammer striking a thick steel cable. Interesting!
Unfortunately, most sound design in film is far less interesting than I’ve described. Most of what we hear in film… other than music or dialog… is considered backround noise and largely unappreciated by film-going audiences. Fortunately, it’s an incredibly interesting and creative profession.
The title of sound designer… as sometimes credited in films… is actually sound engineering. If you’re looking to study film making, sound engineering would be included in film production ciricullum. Hope this answer helps.
References :
I am a Sound Designer myself, though new to the profession – Just finished doing my debut feature film. Even though this is my profession, it is quite hard to draw a distinct line to explain our role in the making of a film.
I’d say a Sound Designer is like a director, but a person who direct just the audio of the film. If we consider post production to consist of three different wings, it would be Editing, Music Scoring and Sound Design. Ideally, Composer and Sound Designer should be involved right from the pre-production stage. Sound Editors rarely read the script of a film, but as a Sound Designer, it is highly recommended that you read the script before you even take a look at the film. Again, there is no hard rule and I realy dont know how many follow this.
Trying to be more specific to the quesion asked here, Sound Editors cuts away, and makes sure all the provided sounds are in Sync. But where did these sounds come from ? It is the job of a Sound Designer to decide what all sounds should be recorded on location, what kind of pattern should be followed during Foley, and in short, direct the whole audio team -perhaps not the dialogue editors and mixers.
As a Sound Designer, this person will be present during the final mix, when the Mixing Engineer mix down various sub mixes. This include sub mix for FX, sub mix for Foley, sub mix for Atmosphere, and Sub mix for dialogues.
Coming back to the question again, No, the Sound Designer is not really responsible for Syncing Dialogues. The Dialogue editor is responsible for this. But a Sound Designer is responsible for adding Sound Effects. and more importantly, he decides when Silence should be used, which no one else might do, and no one would mind suggesting!
This is the ideal role of a sound designer. But from my personal experience and from what I have seen in the industry – A Sound Designer does pretty much everything related with sound if required. On location recording using a boom, editing sounds, cleaning up sounds, foley, mixing, and what not !
References :