Introduction

Sound design is an important aspect of films – sound in films can be captured naturally, or produced in-post by using sound effects or music using computers or Foley sound effects.

Wall-E

To find some examples of sound design in film and animation, the class watched a clip from the beginning of the movie Wall-E. Here is a list of some sounds I heard while watching the clip:

• Music
• Wall-E’s body moving (mechanical noises)
• The movie he is watching
• Music that Wall-E is playing
• Cockroach scuttling
• Buttons and switches clicking
• Objects moving in the scene – the objects and trinkets he is moving around and putting down and interacting with
• Wind howling
• Wall-E’s voice

Types of sound in films

There are three main aspects to the sound design in a film – Dialogue, Sound effects and Music.

Dialogue is the talking done by the characters in the film. This can take several forms:

• Characters that talk to each other on camera.

• ADR which is where characters that are talking in a scene cannot be heard because of other on-set sounds, and so their voice has to be re-recorded and dubbed over when editing.

• Voice Overs which are non-diegetic pieces of audio where dialogue is added in as narration in editing.

Sound effects are where sound is added to objects in a film in editing. This can be Foley sounds, which is where the sound of an object is re-created with other objects that makes a sound suited for the film. For example, the sound of a galloping horse’s hooves could be created with two coconut shells being hit together.

The soundtrack is the music in a film. This can be music that is diegetic or non-diegetic. Changing the music in a scene can change the way the audience sees things.

Sound Design is the sound that has been created and designed for a film. An atmosphere is created using different sounds and sound effects.

Conclusion

In conclusion, learning about sound design is useful for any filmmaker. Whether working in live action, animation or VFX, sound design is still an important piece of background knowledge to understand how films are made and their key elements.