Intro to Sound Design (Lesson and Quiz)

PowerPoint

The Rundown:

Just like the rest of video production, most people take sound in videos for granted. Hopefully by now you have seen how all other aspects of video making taking time, technique, and skill. Sound design is no different, and the way sound is made in films and videos alike might just surprise you.

Throughout this lesson, you will learn about the five sound types in sound design and how they contribute to a full video experience. Along the way, answer the questions attached to this quiz to show me the things you are learning.

The Instruction:

Question 1: In your experience, what is the purpose and roll of sound in videos and film? Watch the following scene from "A Quiet Place" and then answer this question in the quiz.

Sound transports us into the world of the video in so many different ways... Hopefully you identified a few yourself, but consider how sound helped you understand environment, perspective, mood, and more in that previous clip. Truthfully, many video makers claim that sound is a whopping 70% of your experience watching a video. By the end of this lesson, I hope you can see the various ways sound impacts your visual and video experience.

One matter to keep in mind when considering audio is all the little sounds you never realized were placed there intentionally.

Question 2: In the following clip from Top Gun: Maverick, name five different sounds you hear in this next clip, and take a guess at how some of them were recorded.

Beyond the obvious sounds, such as dialogue and music, hopefully you recognized some small, quick sounds that increased the quality of the scene. Overlooked, simple sounds are often what takes a scene like this from boring to engaging and gripping. Whichever ones you noticed, though, they likely fit into one of the following five categories of video sounds:

• Dialogue
• Music
• Sound Effects
• Foley
• Ambient Noises

For the rest of the lesson, we'll be exploring each of these five categories in depth.

Question 3: If you could do it again, how would you improve your music video?

Foley:

Watch the following video for Question 4: What is Foley?
(Note: You only need to watch up to the first 5 minutes or so).

Among everything that we teach in sound, foley always surprises students the most to learn about. When you see a dog walking in a film, have you ever thought even remotely that the sounds coming from their paws were not actually filmed on set, but were (in reality) some video maker with paperclips on their fingers recording their hands tapping on the ground?

Either way.. one principle in video making that is always consistent is that natural does not mean more realistic. To make a film or video more realistic, we get more "fake" to engage the audience and make them think what they are experience is as it really happened when filmed. Wild..

With all of this in mind, watch the following opening scene from Dunkirk and answer

Question 5: How many of the sounds in the following clip do you think are real? (i.e. shot on set)

https://youtu.be/c7DHbaY54YQ 

Sound Effects:

Sound effects is nice and easy to explain... they are sounds we insert into the film in post-production to imitate sounds that should be on set.
But wait, isn't that the same as foley? Yes, it is - save for foley is more specific.

Sound effects refers to trying to imitate a category of noises, and they can be man made or computer generated. Foley is recorded by a person in an effort to immitate a specific sound on screen. So foley is really just a type of sound effect, as shown below:

Music:

Music is an obvious sound we we use music, but let's consider how choosing the right music is important to creating your video or film.
After watching the following clip, answer Question 6: Why do you think it’s important to select the right music for your clip?

I've heard some students say a clip "doesn't feel right" unless the right music is used, but ask yourself: why is that?
When we create the mood of something, through music, your brain uses that music and mood to determine what is happening inside of a scene. Just by changing the music, you can lead yourself or the audience to think something completely different about what is happening. Perhaps you saw that in the clips just above.

As a note, whatever music you do decide to use, you need to have permission to use it. Otherwise, you can either break the law (by trying to make money on somebody else's copyrighted music, or by playing it where it doesn't have permission to be played), or you can be copyright striked on YouTube/other social media (the exact penalties depend on the artist who owns the original media).

The safest way to use legal music is to have rights to use it. There are three ways to do this:

• Pay for the music (e.g. Epidemic Sound, the website we used for the Make it Epic, is licensed to Riverton High School by us paying a subscription to them).
• Use copyright-free music (found on websites such as bensound.com, or found by doing a google search).
• Use copyright music in a legal way. In our case, as a school, the things you make for just school assignments are covered by "Fair Use" laws, meaning we can use copyright materials in specific and limited circumstances (such as when we made music videos for class just last unit).
• Own the rights to music, such as recording or writing your own music.

Question 7: What are the four ways you can legally use music in your videos?

Ambient Sound:

Ambient sounds are the sounds belonging to a room or environment. Think rustling leaves in the woods, keyboards typing in an office, the wind blowing on a hill, etc. Ambient sounds tie together all other sounds in our video and help you feel that the sound design is consistent and accurate.

Watch the following video and answer Question 8: What different ambient noises do you hear? And how does the ambient noise change throughout the clip?

In your opinion, how do ambient sounds help even cheesy films, such as the office? Whatever your response, it's important to record even just the room for a solid minute when creating sound designs. It will really help sell your visuals and video.

Dialogue:

Dialogue is our last and most obvious sound...

Clearly, you can't have a character or subject speak to the camera without it, but consider just how much difference it makes to have quality dialogue.

The following video is an old, old SilverScreen episode.... and we're glad we're past those days. Watch it and respond to Question 9: Why does having quality dialogue (as in recorded and edited to sound good) matter? What happens to your message and audience when your dialogue sounds bad? (You only need to watch the first two minutes or so of this video).

Summary:

In conclusion, creating good sound takes a lot more work than just filming something. It takes time, equipment, and a whole lot of effort to do it well. There's a reason "best sound design" is a category in the emmy's. You, too, will now be required to record, edit, and produce quality audio in your films.

See your upcoming "Audio Project" to see what you'll be required to do next.