ABSTRACT
Whether the project is a documentary that will be tracklaid and mixed in one studio session, or a feature that will have a complex tracklay carried out by a team of editors, the main aim of the sound fx editor is to create an audio landscape which draws the audience into the ‘reality’ created by the director and out of the environment in which they are actually viewing the film. Sound effects have a number of other functions within the soundtrack:
Sound effects can create the illusion of reality. Silent archive footage in a war documentary will be perceived differently with the addition of a few sound fx of machine-gun fire and explosions. A studio set will be less likely to be perceived as a set if the ‘world outside’ is suggested by street noise, children playing, etc., and the interior is suggested by room tones, fridge hums, etc.
Sound effects can create the illusion of continuity. The fact that a scene is made up of a number of discontinuous shots edited together will be disguised by continuous atmosphere tracks laid over the length of the scene, which the audience will then perceive as a ‘whole’.
Sound effects can create the illusion of spatial depth. Effects that are recorded with the appropriate natural perspective can suggest distance from foreground action – distant gunfire has a very different acoustic to close gunfire.
Sound effects can create the illusion of space. Effects can be panned left/right or mixed in stereo/surround, creating the illusion of three-dimensional sounds, which is more akin to how sound is heard in reality.
Offscreen action can be ‘told’ by sound effects rather than being actually shown. The classic example of this is the offscreen car crash – sometimes a result of budget limitations rather than the desire to avoid being too literal!
Sound effects can help fix problem areas in the dialogue track. For example, a fridge hum tracklaid over a kitchen scene may help mask an otherwise noticeable lighting hum, as they are both of a similar frequency.
167Any visual stunts, such as breaking glass, need to be tracklaid using the appropriate effect, and the ‘prop’ effect removed.
Sound effects can assist in setting mood – for example, rain instead of birdsong on an interior scene.
Sound effects, together with music, provide the ‘dynamic’ elements of a mix. Put simply, loud sounds are most dramatically effective when juxtaposed with quiet moments in the soundtrack, and vice versa.
