Most first-time filmmakers underestimate the power of sound in their films.

The same person will fret for hours over the exact hue of an actor’s skin tone, then completely skip essential parts of sound in their film.

This is a massive mistake.

This week we’re talking everything sound. I’ll show you why it’s the secret to stand out from other indie films.

We’ll cover:

• Why you need to prioritize sound
• Directing sound - what your role as the director is in the sound design process
• The sound essentials that will make your movie sound spectacular

Let’s roll.

Why you need to make your film sound incredible

What would you rather have: world-class cinematography and amateur sound, or the other way around?

I know you want to say cinematography. I see you. Cinematography is sexy, it’s cool. You can spend your entire life watching Youtube videos about how sexy and cool cinematography is.

But you’re wrong.

See, I used to be like you. I thought sound sucked. It was boring. Not sexy. Not cool.

Then by a stroke of fate, and a good portion of my own stubbornness, I ended up specializing in sound my last year of college.

It changed how I viewed filmmaking and opened up a whole new toolkit for me as a director.

Bad sound kills way more low-budget films than bad cinematography.

If you can hear the dialogue clearly, follow what’s going on, and get emotionally invested because of great sound work, you forgive some bad cinematography.

A film that sounds bad will make for a bad viewing experience. It’s distracting, amateurish, and takes the viewer out of the story.

Luckily, it’s fixable.

As long as you have well-recorded dialogue, you can elevate the rest of your soundscape in post-production.

You can change moods, heighten story elements, and elevate visuals with the use of sound.

Fixing bad cinematography is much harder and more expensive.

Once you learn how to wield the tools of post-production sound, you have the power to fix scenes that aren’t working, alter performances, and even change the plot.

If I have one piece of advice for you as a director it’s: Don’t sleep on sound!

Directing sound

Just like we talked about last week when discussing music and directing composers, talking sound can be intimidating and foreign to a lot of directors.

Sound is like the ugly stepchild of film production. We ignore it until we realize how vital it is to our films.

The good news is, the recipe for being a director is the same as for working with a composer: Everything starts with story (yeah, I’m repeating myself.)

Good sound editors, designers and mixers know how to take your story elements and make them better. You need to guide them in the right direction.

I’m a strong believer in having at least a passing knowledge of every field of the filmmaking process. For sound, you don’t need to know all the bells and whistles, but you need an understanding of what’s possible and what’s not.

Involve your sound team early so they can suggest sound fixes to picture problems. When you include them in the process you can save money, headaches, and get brand new ideas for how to conquer challenges.

The second skill you need to practice is the art of listening. You already know subconsciously how a movie is supposed to sound, but listening to an unfinished mix takes practice. It’s a lot like learning to watch a rough cut.

Being a great listener makes you much more valuable to the sound team.

Listen in the right environment. Listen in more than one environment (headphones, speakers, TV) whatever you have available. Try mimicking the way your audience will experience the film.

In the sound editing phase, a lot of your job is to make sure that everything you want a sound for in the film is covered. You’ll decide the balance of the elements later in the mix.

In the editing phase, you want to ask: do we have a sound for this, and does it sound right?

In the mixing phase, you want to ask: is the sound we’re hearing the most important for the story? Are the elements balanced correctly?

Both are fun and can add a lot to the film, but when it all comes together in the mix, the film really starts to sing.

The sound essentials that will make your movie sound spectacular

On Wild Boys, we were fortunate enough to have Mark Camperell from Empty Sea Audio take on the project. He’s an incredible sound editor and designer and I had the pleasure of working in the same office as him while he designed sound effects for shows like CW’s “The Flash.”

With his guidance and skills we got an incredible sounding film.

If you’re new to working with a sound team as a director, I want to share which parts of the process made the biggest difference to us.

Dialogue Editing

Clear dialogue that sounds professional is priority numero uno. Shitty audio is a dead giveaway for low-budget films.

We prioritized sound during production, but because so much of our film was shot in a forest, there were a lot of unavoidable elements that made it into our recordings.

Mark and his team cleaned up our dialogue and it made such a huge difference. Every line is audible, and that makes it easy for the audience to follow the story.

They saved 98% of our dialogue and the dubbing we had to do after the fact was minimal.

Speaking of re-recording dialogue. Another tool directors often like to use in regards to dialogue is ADR - re-recording or adding lines that weren’t originally in the film.

Adding new lines lets you fix lines that don’t work, clarify the story, or take the story in a different direction, without the need to reshoot. It can be very useful, but don't overdo it.

Foley

When you edit dialogue and clean it up, you end up removing a lot of the bits and pieces that make a film sound realistic. Like clothes rustling, backpacks squeaking, or footsteps.

This is where Foley comes in.

Foley is the sounds made by characters or props in a scene that are specifically recorded for the film. You could do most of what foley does with stock sound effects, but it’s almost impossible to match the sync quality you get when you do bespoke recordings.

I loved listening to the Foley come into our mix.

It made everything so much more vibrant and tactile. It’s pure sound magic.

Another reason you might want to do a full foley pass on your film is what’s called an M&E mix. Music and effects. It’s basically everything in your movie except dialogue. This mix is used when dubbing the film to a different language, and most distributors will want it as a deliverable.

Sound effects and sound design

Or what everyone thinks sound editing is. Sound effects can be anything from a door slamming to the soft background noise of the forest.

They’re essential to both telling the story and setting the mood for a scene.

The key to sound effects is to find the right sound. You’ll quickly learn that a door slam is not any door slam. You need the one that sounds and feels right.

As the director you need to be able to listen for what’s right and what’s not.

When it comes to sound design, it’s kind of a strange category that sometimes crosses over with sound effects and sometimes crosses over with music.

Sound design is great for adding tension to a scene or building suspense. It’s often not 100% realistic, but can be very effective. As a director consider trying sound design elements to nudge the audience’s emotional response to a beat.

If you can develop an understanding of these elements and can talk story with your sound team, you’re well on your way to being a director who can make your film sound great.

And cut!

That does it for this week. Here are the key takeaways I want you to bring with you into your directing career from today:

• Prioritize sound
• Don’t be afraid to talk to your sound team; discuss story, and involve them early to get their input.
• Get a grasp of the basics of what’s possible in sound editing and sound design, and learn to become a great listener.

As always, thanks for reading.