~ Sound mixing for film
What's the goal of sound in film?
The main goal of sound is to deliver an impactful experience. The more impactful and unique the sounding experience is, the more remarkable and appreciated.
~ Why is sound important in films?
Try watching a film that you enjoy, but this time muted.
The experience is gone, right?
It's no longer impactful neither remarkable.
Hearing is an inherent activity that we, humans, use daily. It has been developed along thousands of years, helping us surviving and thriving. Those emotions related to sounds are recorded in our brain.
A properly edited sound film will evoke impactful emotions. Great sound can make a great film standout even more, but poor sound can get you out of the flow, breaking the experience. Obviously, if the film is not that great, the sound can contribute for a better experience, but cannot compensate the film's problems.
~ The process of sound for film
Editing sound for film is more complicated and time consuming than what it seems.
The process is divided into two steps:
- technical
- creative
Although we are a sound post production studio, the importance of sound stars in the pre-production and production phase. If the recorded sound is not good, there are no magical fixes. You can improve it, but it won't be as good as if it was properly recorded. Don't rely on 'fix in post'. That won't grant you the best sonical recordings.
To be technically good, you have to know what sounds good, how it should sound, each tools are important to each job, how to handle the tools... It's not as easy as inserting a magical tool and let it do the job.
It's hand made and precise. There are automatic tools in the market, but those won't grant you the best results, it's more for marketing purposes and individuals that lack knowledge in the sound realm.
To be precise, you have to have knowledge, experience and proper equipment. Also, if you don't have good acoustics, you can have the best equipment, but you won't be able to hear properly. You can't / won't be confident in your decisions.
Creativity is also a very important skill in sound. It's a hard skill to teach, since it takes more time and focus to develop than the technical side.
~ Realism or over processed sound in films?
Realism can enhance the experience, over processed sound can break it.
Does that means that you can't have sounds 'out of this world'? Absolutely not, but if you rely too much on processing for achieving a desired sound, it'll sound over processed. It's better to try recreating that sound using 'real world' sounds, because of the real world acoustics and how we, humans, are used to interpret the sound in the world.
Over processed dialogues can make it sound worse and less intelligible. Also, in terms of audio fidelity, the more you process the sound, it usually diminish the fidelity of the audio, making it sound worse.
If you're looking for high-quality sound, precision and simplicity are the key! Might sound simple, but it's a time consuming task that needs a very specific type of skills.
~ What's the budget of post production sound for films?
That's very specific to the project needs, but for sound post production it usually depends on the desired services.
Depending on the desired services, the prices will change. Also, not all projects have big-budgets, but that doesn't mean they should sound bad.
Every project is unique and the budget will depend on it's needs.
If you're interested in a budget for a specific project, you can contact us at: contact@enhancingsound.com