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What most people aren’t aware of is the fact that most sounds you hear in the movies aren’t actually recordings of the action that you see on screen. Whether it’s something as blatantly “wrong” as a tarmac tyre screech on a gravel road, or if it’s something much more subtle like the sound of water running from a bathroom tap , the truth is that nearly all of these sounds have been added to the picture in post production, rather than actually recorded there and then.

There are various reasons for this, but mostly it’s down to logistics and the technical challenges of recording sounds on a film set. You may see an actor walking into a small bathroom and turning on the water tap, but as far as the sound of that action goes, it’s actually easier and more straightforward for the film producer to obtain the sound of a water tap from a sound effects library and add that sound to the film in post production, than it would be to install complex sound recording systems and microphones in that small bathroom in order to record the sound from the tap when the actor actually turns it on. In order to get a good recording of that water tap on set you would need a microphone fairly close to the sink itself – without getting any of the microphone on screen, of course – and this is usually more of a challenge than it’s worth bothering with, since it’s so easy to just edit in that sound in post production.

In some cases, gaffes and mistakes are made when attempts have been made to record the sound on-set while the actors are acting out the scene. One example of this is this well known mistake from The X-Files when Mulder & Scully are accidentally joined on-screen by a Microphone boom operator. The movie enthusiasts’ website Internet Movie Database features thousands of this type of mistakes.

Relatively speaking, the water running from a tap sound isn’t even a very challenging sound to record on set. Perhaps you’ve seen films with the sounds of birds flapping their wings and flying away, or horses galloping on a field. Just imagine trying to get that just right while you’re also dealing with actors and actresses getting their lines right, the lighting, the cameras, the movements of characters and everything else. The last thing you need is for some guy to – at the same time as everything else is happening – trying to run after a flock of birds with a professional microphone equipment, mic no more than 2 ft away from the wings of the birds at any time – in order to get a good sound recording of that! Obviously, that would be a ridiculous task to even try for, when you can simply go to any good sound effects library, obtain the sounds that you need, and mix them into the film in post production.

Other examples would be the sounds of insect feet scampering which is nigh on impossible to get a good recording of, even if you have complete freedom of exactly where to place the microphones. As a movie director, you really don’t want to be dealing with that at the same time as you’re also worrying about other important factors such as actors’ lines, camera angles, lighting and everything else. Does your movie feature a scene with a train passing? The sound you hear is almost certainly recorded at a different location, or at the very least, at a different time – and not while you’re actually seeing the action or looking at the train passing on-screen. The loud noises and time sensitive nature of this event make it more sensible to go out to just record the sound of the train passing on the rails, not having to worry about actors, time of day, cameras or lighting. Then just add that sound to the film scene in post production.

Of course, these days we also have a lot of animated movies, such as “Shrek”, “Toy Story”, “Finding Nemo” and “How to Train a Dragon”, where all sound has to be designed from scratch and everything added in post production. There are no real actions, no real water taps, no real horses and no real trains, not even real footsteps, so the only way to get any sound on that is to dig into a good sound fx library, or record one yourself, and then painstakingly use those library sounds to try to recreate what each action would have sounded like, if they had actually happened. As a former full-time sound designer for video games, I’ve spent an incredible number of hours working on just this type of “sound faking” for animation.

So the next time you sit down to enjoy a film or a television show, even when everything seems completely real, perhaps you should ask yourself if those footstep sounds really are recorded then and there, or if they have been added in post production. Most likely, the latter.

For my next article I’m going to write about ADR sessions, where actors actually come into a voice recording studio after filming is completed, and mime to their own actions/characters on screen, in order to get a good/clean/perfect audio recording of the character on screen saying his line. But that’s for another time.

About the author: Bjorn Lynne is a musician, producer, sound recorder, sound designer and business owner from Norway. He has worked on a large number of video games, films, TV productions and other projects. Today he owns and manages his company Lynne Publishing AS which is a publisher of royalty free music and a vast sound effect downloads library. He also has his own page at IMDB.

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The Drawing – Two young brothers are forced to navigate their complex relationship when they are left home alone

Adán – In the wake of a school shooting, Miguel Correos leaves his home in Ecuador to search for his childhood friend in New York City.

www.saltboxfilms.com

Q. Some filmmakers wait until the final hour to begin considering post-production sound. Did you plan ahead regarding sound design and audio sweetening or did you consider the audio aspect early on? Were there any pros or cons related to your timeline of post-production sound?

A. On my last two shorts, Adán and The Drawing, I had two very different approaches to post sound and music. On Adán there was a piece of piano music that served an important structural purpose in the script. I had written the script with this piece in mind so I knew that the rest of the music in the film would have work with it. At one point in the film, a pianist is seen performing the music and it required significant planning to make sure that the shots of her would have the correct timing with the music. As a result I was listening to the piece over and over and thinking a lot about the music in the film well before I got to set.

For The Drawing, which is a much more naturalistic film, I wasn’t sure that there would be any music at all. I figured that sound design would be important, (in certain scenes possibly taking the place of music), so I had my eye out for potential sound designers early in the planning process. I didn’t look for a composer until I had a rough cut and it became clear that a few moments of music would help the film emotionally.

Adán wound up with a complex score that includes 5 fairly lengthy cues and the music helps propel the story along. At the same time, the sound design is very simple. In The Drawing, conversely, there are three brief cues that simply heighten the emotion of their moments, while the sound design is quite complex. I think both approaches were appropriate for the films, and I was happy with the final results.

Q. How did you handle audio sweetening, mixing, and mastering? (hired a sound designer, found someone to work for free, did it yourself)

A. On Adán I hired a sound designer who did it for very little money, but we were working off of SoundTrack Pro on his laptop. This worked fine because the sound design was simple, but it wouldn’t have worked for something more complex. For The Drawing, I hired Julienne Guffain who works at Hobo Audio, and we were able to use their mixing suite. This gave me a lot more control over the mix as well as a better sense of what the final product would sound like.

Q. How did you handle securing sound effects to use in your film/s? Did you use a sound effects library (CDs or downloads?), a foley artist, or did you create your own?

A. For Adán the sound designer had some effects, and we grabbed what we needed from online or wherever we could. For The Drawing, Julienne and I made a list of the effects and tones we needed, and I went back to location and recorded them myself.

Q. How did you secure music for your film/s? (Royalty-free or stock music, volunteer musician or composer, paid a professional composer to create a unique score for your film)

A. I hired Thomas Derenzo as the composer for Adán. It was a significant expense considering the size of my budget, but he gave the film the professional quality score it needed. It was also a straight forward process. Thomas and I talked about the score early on, he sent me initial tracks, I sent back notes, and he delivered the final score. For the piece of classical music I mentioned earlier, the woman who plays the piece in the film, Isabelle O’Connell, made an original recording for me to use in the film.

My approach to music on The Drawing, as you can probably guess by this point, was completely different. One of the producers, Erik Sorensen, is an electronic musician, and he volunteered to put something together for the film. He’d never done a score before, so we went through many revisions of his cues, but he was happy to do it for free and I think the final score works very well. One thing that was helpful was to have him send a separate track for each instrument so the sound designer and I could manipulate the music.

Q. Were there any pros or cons to your method of finding music for your film and would you do anything different next time?

A. I’m repeating myself a bit here, but I would say my biggest lesson is that it’s critical to suit your approach to music and sound design to the film.

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“Taking The …’ was entered as part of the Virgin Media Shorts competition. Go to http://www.virginmediashorts.co.uk/films/entry/342074/taking-the to comment and for more information. To view the full version (it’s been slightly trimmed for the Virgin competition) got to: http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=9OReHuLIJX4 and also visit Fatbaby Films

Q. Some filmmakers wait until the final hour to begin considering post-production sound.  Did you plan ahead regarding sound design and audio sweetening or did you consider the audio aspect early on?  Were there any pros or cons related to your timeline of post-production sound?

A. There were a few particular sounds I knew I would need i.e. punches and atmosphere for the room, but apart from that my focus was on the story and scenario unfolding. I had however been discussing the needs of the film sonically with my Soundman/designer Claus Zingler. Right up till shoot and during editing he was suggesting both music and sound effects to me. During the edit he would send me clips he proposed to use and I would approve/reject them.

Q. How did you handle audio sweetening, mixing, and mastering?  (hired a sound designer, found someone to work for free, did it yourself)

A. Claus handled all the sound design. Once the initial cut was made I sent it over to him and let him do to it what he saw fit. He would send me back works in progress and I would decide what I liked and what I didn’t till we hit upon the right formula

Q. Were there any pros or cons related to your strategy for audio sweetening, mixing, and mastering?

A. I trust Claus completely, it’s always best to trust your sound guy as they tend to know more about sound than you do lol. I thought it best to leave him to do a cut rather than dissect each shot at a time. Although we were sending things back and forth (Claus is in Munich, I’m in the UK) thanks to the various file sharing sites and programs it was easy enough.
Obviously waiting for each cut to be done then approved etc took time but probably no more than being in the same studio and having to go in everyday around whoever’s schedule.

Q. How did you handle securing sound effects to use in your film/s?  Did you use a sound effects library (CDs or downloads?), a foley artist, or did you create your own?

A. We took all our sound effects and music clips from a royalty free website. Claus also had his own library of music and sound effects (as any sound guy worth his salt has).

Q. Did you encounter any difficulties or set-backs with your choice of securing sound effects? (ie “foley artist wasn’t good enough,” “Sfx CDs too expensive”).  Or, did you find your choice of securing sound effects perfectly suitable?

A. Not really. I had discussed with Claus what I wanted and after approving/rejecting his suggestions found he had hit upon the perfect collection of music and sound effects. They truly gave the characters (including the room as a ‘character’ in it’s own right) their identies.

Q. How did you secure music for your film/s?  (Royalty-free or stock music, volunteer musician or composer, paid a professional composer to create a unique score for your film)

A. (See Question 4)

Q. Were there any pros or cons to your method of finding music for your film and would you do anything different next time?

A. The pros, I suppose, are that it’s free. The cons would be that, where the music was concerned, with it being free the quality is not always of the utmost. Though there are some little gems out there. Next time I might try to obtain royalties or seek out up and coming artists willing to submit their work for free to gain exposure.

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Laika looks out into the vastness of space.

Q.  Some filmmakers wait until the final hour to begin considering post-production sound.  Did you plan ahead regarding sound design and audio sweetening or did you consider the audio aspect early on?  Were there any pros or cons related to your timeline of post-production sound?

A. For my graduation film ‘Laika’, which I made during my studies at the National Film and Television School, sound design was extremely important and had to work on a number of levels. The main character of the film, Laika, was a dog and had no dialogue so sound design was used to push forward and communicate her thoughts and emotions with the audience. It also had to create the atmosphere of outer space, weightlessness and growing tension.

As we began working on the script I had already started to think about the sound design for the film and in what way it should be used. Once the script was finished I teamed up with a sound designer Roger Low and a film composer Paul Lambert, both students from NFTS, and we began working out the structure of the sound design.

The film runs on two parallel levels, Laika’s adventure in space and the memories of her life back on Earth. We decided to use mainly music in the flashback moments to emphasize the emotional journey that she went through and we also used it towards the end of the film where we needed to build tension. Everywhere else we used just sound effects.

As the production continued and we began editing the finished film, Roger and Paul started working on specific sounds effects and music cues. It was very beneficial to have rough tracks ready as we were editing, because it helped us with the pacing and timing of the film.

For the final track laying we were given three weeks, during which the final music score was composed and recorded. Because of the time limitations the final sound had to be mixed before we actually finished all the shots, which created a few problems in the edit but with some hard work from my editor Marianne Kuopanportti we managed to finish the film on time.

Q.  How did you handle audio sweetening, mixing, and mastering?  (hired a sound designer, found someone to work for free, did it yourself)

A. The way the NFTS works is through collaborations with other departments including editing, sound design, composing etc. During the pre-production stage the directors pitch their project to the other departments and then team up. We were given one week to do the final mixing at the NFTS, as it has its own dubbing theatre. Paul mixed the music and Roger mixed the final film.

Q.  Were there any pros or cons related to your strategy for audio sweetening, mixing, and mastering?

A. All the post-production departments at the NFTS work on several films during the year which sometimes means that there isn’t enough time left for each project however I was very fortunate to have on board a very professional and hard working team that managed to work under pressure and create amazing results.

Q.  How did you handle securing sound effects to use in your film/s? Did you use a sound effects library (CDs or downloads?), a foley artist, or did you create your own?

A. Roger Low (Sound Designer on Laika): The main source of sounds was the NFTS sound library as well as other recordings – some new and some existing. Selected sounds were chosen based on their emotive and physical quality. Most of these sounds would then be spliced into shorter samples, some lasting a few hundred milliseconds, and reassembled with other short samples to create effects specific for the Laika world. This approach also allowed control for accents, dips and start-to-end behaviour within any of the sound effects, especially when specific bits of animation needed to be fine-tuned. For the movements of the main character, I experimented with a variety of fabrics. I also listened to past recordings and found a foley recording which I made a year before the production of Laika started. That recording had a wide variety of performances, and after a quick test edit, I thought that the texture was perfect for Laika.

Avgousta Zourelidi Filmography

‘Laika’ (2010)
Laika is a re-imaging of the true story about the first dog in space and what may have happened to her on her momentous journey.

Festivals: 13th Shanghai International Film Festival, 18th Curtas Vila do Conde

‘On/Off’ (2008)
A humorous take on the effects of OCD (Obsessive Compulsive Disorder) in the everyday life situations of a young woman.

Festivals: International Short Film Festival Hamburg, Sopot Film Festival, Animadrid, Exposures, Balkanima,One Minute Film & Video Festival Aarau, OfestivalOn, 10. up-and-coming Int. Film Festival Hannover, Festival du Court Metrage de Neufchateau, 3rd Future Film Festival BFI, HolfirthFilm Festival ,Reel Islington Festival
Sreened at: BBC BIG SCREENS, Odder’s Mini Cine, SpeechMotion

‘Dog’s Day Afternoon’ (2008)
A story about a Dog, an Old Lady and some… Donuts.

Festivals: Rushes Soho Short Film Festival, Eksjo Animation Festival, Reel Islington Festival
Screened at: Female Lens, Takes

Avgousta Zourelidi Portfolio
Avgousta Zourelidi Blog
Avgousta Zourelidi Films

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Q.  Some filmmakers wait until the final hour to begin considering post-production sound.  Did you plan ahead regarding sound design and audio sweetening or did you consider the audio aspect early on?  Were there any pros or cons related to your timeline of post-production sound?

A. I didn’t think too much about audio design or sweetening upfront, but I totally value getting the best, cleanest possible location sound. That’s the foundation of your audio. So I hired a brilliant sound recordist and chose my location very carefully. We had 5 cast members around a large table and they were all individually radio mic’ed. Left to my own devices I’d have thought about trying to double boom this set up, but my sound recordist rode all five mic channels live (his fingers were a blur!) and he did an amazing job. All tracks were laid to a hard drive, and in the offline I could access a “master guide” which was all the channels as a continuous track. I could also then use the time of day timecode from that master guide, to find and use all the individual actor channels.

Q.  How did you handle audio sweetening, mixing, and mastering?  (hired a sound designer, found someone to work for free, did it yourself)

A. I’m a director/editor, but I’ve always thought I’d be totally happy being a mad sound designer in the Skip Lievsay mould [‘Barton Fink’ ‘The Big Lebowski’ ‘Goodfellas’ ‘No Country For old Men’ etc], so I worked hard in the offline adding sound effects. I’ve had 10 years in documentaries where you spend all your time trying to get rid of extraneous sound, and now with drama you spent time trying to add sounds in to build a convincing or compelling world. Especially as the radio mics job was to get the vocal clean and exclude any other sound. Once I’d track laid, I went into a post facility, Bubble TV [London] and let them polish what I’d done. I have the kit to do a lot of audio work myself, but when it comes to frequency “notching” and compression, I always find, if budget allows, it’s better to let the pros do it.

Q.  Were there any pros or cons related to your strategy for audio sweetening, mixing, and mastering?

A. I’m pretty happy. I didn’t get any big shocks. I got clean bedrock location sound. I added fx. I pushed an eight minute film through mixing and sweetening in two hours which was what my budget allowed. Because we weren’t “fixing” problems, we could focus on the small “creative” decisions – “Can we find a better leather chair creak?”  “How loud is a splash relative to other sounds?” etc… The little details that make a film, and especially a comedy work.

Q.  How did you handle securing sound effects to use in your film/s? Did you use a sound effects library (CDs or downloads?), a foley artist, or did you create your own?

A. I belong to some online fx libraries so I pulled a few things in from there, but I love doing foley, so I was holed up for a while in my bathroom [my quietest room] recording splash sounds, grinding up biscuits etc. There are more ways than ever now for the offline to become a totally rich sound environment.

Q.  Did you encounter any difficulties or set-backs with your choice of securing sound effects? (ie “foley artist wasn’t good enough,” “Sfx CDs too expensive”).  Or, did you find your choice of securing sound effects perfectly suitable?

A. With foley you have to be experimental and dogged. All the tiny details make a huge difference to the sound and things don’t always sound to the mic as they do to the ear! Some things I recorded and put them into the offline, didn’t work at all, so I had to go back again and get more imaginative.

Q.  How did you secure music for your film/s?  (Royalty-free or stock music, volunteer musician or composer, paid a professional composer to create a unique score for your film)

A. I had edited a small promo film for a jazz group and I approached Jimmy Cannon, the singer/drummer [in the classic Phil Collins mode!] and persuaded him to do a score for me. I had imagined a simple sax and piano score that would take about a week to get together. In the end Jimmy not only worked on the music [on and off] for three months, but he also ended up taking a major role in the film!

Q.  Were there any pros or cons to your method of finding music for your film and would you do anything different next time?

A. Jimmy and his composing partner, Sean Hargreaves were the most painstaking, fastidious people I’d ever met. They totally sculpted the score frame by frame. I tried to sit in with them as much as possible, so we could discuss ideas and find a consensus. Initially I was hugely frustrated. Sometimes we’d only get abut 30 seconds of screentime covered in a day. But after a few days you have a style and character themes that you can start to repeat and vary motifs and make some headway. But their level of detail meant I ended up with something that works like an old ‘Tom and Jerry’s score, wrapping itself around every little nuance of the character and the comedy. These guys play jazz live for a living, so they pulled in some friends on bass, sax etc. I never knew you could spend four hours mic’ing up a drumkit! And I got an even bigger shock when I got feature film composer, Michael Edwards [‘The Frontline’ ‘Layer Cake’ ‘Whalerider’] in to help me with the music mix. He was “side-chaining” and effecting the attack etc on snare mics, compressing every little nuance of the sound from drum, bass etc… It totally opened my eyes and ears to what is involved in excellent music production. In terms of the overall film, I always think there are no set rules for what music works with comedies. Some comedies are played like dramas and it’s the situation, the context that creates the laughs, so sometimes you want “straight” dramatic music, sometimes you want to point up some in your face comic aspect of the action. I think I got a bit of both, but it’s the attention to detail that definitely makes it a funnier film.

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