The Importance of Sound

In this business it isn’t always what the viewers see so much as what they believe they see. An actor swinging a punch at another actor’s face will deliberately miss, knowing that a sound effect of knuckles striking flesh will be dubbed on to the sound-track.

Manipulated sound plays a most important part in special effects, and the effects designer should consider its use when planning a sequence.

The restaurant

Picture a scene in a restaurant where two people are dining. What the viewer sees is a table appointed with silver cutlery and elegant candles. A waiter enters, hands the pair a menu and, later, takes their order. We know that we’re in a busy restaurant because, although we see only this bit of it, we can hear a hubbub of conversation and a clatter of knives and forks; from across the unseen room a woman laughs.

But this restaurant doesn’t exist. Outside the frame there is nothing but studio. We have been purposely misled.

Obviously no director would be happy to record a long sequence in such a small set, but for a brief establishing shot it would serve perfectly well. The designer, assisted by sound, would have created an entire restaurant in a few square feet.

The battle

In the same fashion we can create a battle scene. This, too, can be quite small – a fox-hole sheltering a couple of soldiers. The occasional flare or nearby explosion illuminates the scene as the two men keep their heads down. The sounds of battle are all around. We hear the whine of a passing shell and the rat-tat-tat of a far-off machine-gun. Suddenly there is a flash, brighter than all the rest, accompanied by a frightening bang. The soldiers press themselves into the ground as earth and stones ricochet into the fox-hole. Seconds later smoke drifts across the picture. The tension is almost unbearable as we share the plight of the unfortunate men trapped in that small space.

But what actually happened? Apart from the occasional flashing of the electrician’s scissors*, a short use of the smoke machine and the few handfuls of peat flung into the set, our battle existed entirely on audio tape.

*. A scissor-like device holding two carbon rods which is used to create a brilliant electric arc (page 176).