Unsung Heroes in Sound Design
There is more than one way to skin a cat and that goes for sound design too, although, thankfully we’ve never had that as a brief. The bombastic, loud FX moments are clear to hear/ see, but it’s the smaller, more detailed sounds that can often go unnoticed unless they’re not there at all.
The unsung heroes, that are easily missed, is simple foley and is just as powerful and important to a story as any other element. Cloth, feet, hand pats etc., in quiet scenes are what bring it to life, as without or with the wrong ones, it can remove the suspension of disbelief. Use the right ones and they melt into the scene as if they’ve always lived there.
Making sure the sound you use is the right one involves making sure you have the right materials, surfaces, room and microphones to record with. It’s not always as easy as it seems and requires seeking out materials in places like car boot sales and antique shops.
We mostly start our mix with cleaned dialogue, then we build everything else you see/ hear around it, giving us complete control of the soundscape. This allows us to increase or decrease any element. For Cars Ireland (The Public House) all the foley is crucial as the film is very quiet and the character has very little movement, so without the cloth it wouldn’t seem real, or you mind will tell you something is wrong. This is an example in its simplest form.
AIB’s green mortgages campaign for Droga5 Dublin involved a lot of foley to get the sounds we needed. We have extensive SFX libraries, but often we need to record to capture the sound we see visually. For example, in the opening scene we have a person running in wellies, however, we couldn’t find the flop of the air movement inside the wellington on any library, so we decided to record. We recorded the running element of the sole on the ground and then another layer holding the welly and flapping the leg part like an accordian to get that squelchy whomp we needed. We added a little grit and those three elements created the sound we heard in our heads. We used a mixture of rain textures to create the scene and with the feet, cloth and foley mixed in. The sum of all parts is a believable soundscape that marries to picture and you have nothing to question. The same goes for the plastic sheet flapping – finding the right sheet/ material and getting it dry and then a splash of water outside as separate element, should we need to increase or decrease the volume of any element upon review.
Recording SFX in studio brings the highest fidelity to the production, so when there’s time available, we always prioritise it. On Very, for Boys and Girls, we recorded almost everything in studio, from all the box sounds, whooshes (cords and rope), boots, bike chains, glockenspiel, pencil, boots, toys and bells. It was a lot of fun (everyone says that, but it’s true).
These small elements make up the sum of all parts and help bring the sound and picture to life. The best comment to hear from the room is ‘the microphones really pick up a lot on set’. That’s when you know you’ve accomplished your goal.
