What is it about?
Today's freer, sound for moving-picture practitioners have the ability to influence sound design through their engagement in at least three different creative scenarios, each of which meaningfully contribute and influence the final tonality and texture of a modern soundtrack: through location sound recording for single camera set-ups, as used extensively in feature film or television drama production; by audio mixing an Outside Broadcast at, for example, a major live sporting event; or in an audio post-production environment, where pre-recorded sound requires editing and mixing to specific guidelines, before the final soundtrack is delivered for screening or transmission.
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Why is it important?
The good news for moving-picture content Producers is that effective, eloquent and expressive sound design is not inextricably linked to how much they end up paying for an acceptable soundtrack. Instead, huge returns on investment of production money occur when sound practitioners at all stages of the production process receive a creative commitment from Directors and Producers who are willing to intellectually invest at least as much thought in their soundtrack, as they do in their pictures.
Perspectives
Whilst in pursuit of shaping the soundtrack, the Sound Designer often needs his work and methodology to be better understood by both his paymasters and fellow professionals. Therefore, it is my hope that whilst my concept of a ‘Sound Areas’ framework proves useful as a template for other Sound Designers, as they go about planning, track-laying and building a soundtrack for mixing, it will also be of benefit to them as they explain their sound design rationale and convey a sense of structure to those professionals, or academics, who are not necessarily expert practitioners in Sound. Ultimately, holistic, 'organic and free-range' sound design allows practitioners to move creatively between different sectors of sound production, whilst understanding the need for a ‘sound hand’ to be maintained on the metaphorical tiller, as they figuratively help steer a soundtrack to its destination: from concept through to completion, navigating as they go with the aid of the four Sound Areas proposed here; and by evoking emotion through utilizing the fullest scope of a soundtrack, it might also mean that good Sound Design is less dependent on - and Re-recording Mixers less reliant on - the intangible magic of a Hogwart’s Sorting Hat.
Dr. Neil Hillman
University of York
Read the Original
This page is a summary of: Organic and free range sound design, The New Soundtrack, September 2014, Edinburgh University Press,
DOI: 10.3366/sound.2014.0058.
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