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Every sound you hear when watching a movie or television has been put in place deliberately, for a specific reason. As viewers we often assume all sound is recorded during shooting, unless it's a dubbed foreign film where the lips don't match the voices! In reality, sound is collected both at the Production stage, which is during the actual filming, and at the Post-Production stage, which occurs after the filming is complete. Sometimes the sound effects are recorded out in the field; sometimes they are created from scratch; and sometimes they are a composite of several sounds which have nothing to do with the object on screen that they will ultimately end up representing. Dialogue and sound effects are carefully chosen to tell the story, and then meticulously mixed to deliver high-quality sound, whether in the theatre or your living room.
A Niche for Creativity
As you begin your career in audio, you will quickly discover that every career follows a progression: once you learn the ropes you gradually earn more responsibility, landing assignments which require increasing creativity on your part. Film and television sound is no exception.
Production Sound
New graduates entering the field of film and television production sound might initially find themselves operating a boom microphone and working directly with the camera people. This role requires a constant balance between finding the best position for the microphone and staying out of the visual shot.
When capturing audio during a shoot, it can either be recorded directly into the camera, or recorded to digital audio tape or hard disk with the ability to synchronize the audio to picture at a later time. Just which of these scenarios are used in practice depends on the overall production budget.
Finally, when playback is required during a production shoot, an audio operator performs this role.
Post-Production Sound
New employees in film and television post-production often find themselves in the transfer and duplication room, learning the standards and practices specific to the studio and its associated industry. Sometimes these individuals will also record dialogue or voice-overs on the side. Often this person is the very last to see a TV production before it goes to air.
After mastering these tasks, the next step is typically to edit sound effects and dialogue. Depending on budget, this role can be filled by as few as one or two people, to an entire team of professional editors!
The Science of Collecting Sound
Perhaps one of the most exciting areas of film and television post-production is sound effects. Sound effects can be drawn from a diverse number of sources, from sound libraries, to electronically synthesized sound, to actual live field recordings captured from locations all around the world. The creativity required for this role is well-understood by 1990 OIART graduate Rob Nokes, a Supervising Sound Editor who can often be found in the most remote parts of the world, microphone in hand, collecting sound effects for his films. On the bonus disc of the Disney feature film "Miracle", Rob reveals some of the tricks of the trade, such as inserting microphones into the hockey players' skates and using a dumbbell to represent a dropping puck, because a real puck doesn't make a big enough sound hitting the ice!
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