The Lean Forward Moment: Create Compelling Stories for Film, TV, and the Web

Chapter Ten. Sound

	Each environment has its own signature. Sound tells a story: You make choices about what you’re hearing, where to look, how you want to feel about what’s going on.
	--STEPHEN HOPKINS, FILM AND TELEVISION DIRECTOR

The use of sound is rarely noticed by audiences unless it is very loud or very striking (we will talk about one such case in The Godfather later in this chapter). Most people notice Ben Burtt’s sounds for the weapons or the alien voices in Star Wars, yet very few notice the differences between the ambiences on the different planets, or how a Rebel city’s sounds are different from those in the inhabited areas on the Empire’s ...