ABSTRACT
The digital revolution has not exclusively revolved around the gathering, editing, and presentation of images alone. The past ten years has seen a veritable sea change in the tools and techniques of gathering, mixing, and replaying audio as well. There was a time when distribution on video or through broadcast TV meant that people would be listening to your fi lm on little 3-inch built-in speakers. Today American households are fast equipping their home theater units with super high fi delity, digital surround sound audio. What this means for the fi lmmaker is that the audience can hear everything! So we are compelled to create the best possible sound tracks possible to accompany our carefully composed and exposed images. The fi rst, and most important, step to this end is to gather the best possible sound in the fi eld during production. Unfortunately, production sound is often the “blind spot” for many fi lmmakers getting ready to shoot, especially those just starting out. All too often, a lot of time, money, and preparation goes into the production of the images, while inexperienced fi lmmakers begin to think seriously about sound only after they hear and try to work with the terrible audio they got during production. The production sound team, those people who record sound in the fi eld, are the unsung heroes of the fi lm world-when they do their job perfectly, no one notices them; when the sound is bad, they are cursed. They are sort of like shoelaces: when they do their job properly and keep our shoes on our feet, we don’t notice them, but when one breaks, we curse them. Good sound people are invaluable and the smart fi lmmaker understands that getting good sound in production means a stronger sound design in postproduction, more creative options in editing, and saving time and money. This is why good sound people work a lot and why I’ve devoted three chapters to the craft of sound recording in the fi eld.
