Avid Editing, 6th Edition

6Sound

The Importance of Sound

Many people don’t realize just how important sound is to the success of a project. “It’s a visual medium” is the common wisdom handed down as gospel. Well, that’s only half right. In truth, stunning cinematography can be totally diminished by a poor-quality soundtrack. Indeed, good sound is critical to good filmmaking; it reaches into the subconscious and affects viewers in ways that picture simply can’t.

During the production process, the only sound you usually care about while shooting is the sync sound—the dialog or words spoken by the subjects. A good sound recordist works really hard not to record the ambient sounds—the traffic, people in the background, footsteps, etc. Yes, ambient sounds are vitally important ...