Chapter 8

Sound Design

Sound design is the art of getting the right sound in the right place at the right time. This chapter concentrates on defining what the right sound is. The right place can be defined as placement of a sound into the correct track out of many possible tracks, an organizational skill exercised during editing that anticipates and strongly affects mixing. The right time defines the placement of sounds in a time line, often with a synchronous relationship to the picture or to other sound effects. The right place and time have to do with the details of editing and are covered in the next chapter.

One concept that filmmaking borrowed from theater is called mise en scene, defined as what the director puts into the scene. The scene ...

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