I suppose what I'm asking is how do I approach the idea of sound,
in my head? how do I plan for it? ... I just want to know how to think about sound.
The very first thing is to believe to the core of your soul that "Sound is half of the experience." Keep
reminding yourself that sound and vision are equal partners. Keep reminding yourself that sound
and picture are Siamese twins that will die if separated from each other.
You are thinking of sound too late in the process. Start thinking about sound when you are writing the
script. What are the characters hearing? How do they react to sonic stimuli? Why is the sonic stimuli
important to the characters. Why is it important to the plot? Why is it important to the story? Why is
it important to the "message" of the film?
Continue the above process while you are in preproduction. What sounds are important? When putting
together the shooting script and the shot list leave room for the sounds to happen. Leave room for the
characters to react to them. Then continue to reinforce the concept to yourself and your cast and crew
that the dialog is of key importance to the entire process, and that the DP and sound team are
EQUAL
PARTNERS in the filmmaking process. The dialog is the verbal interaction between the characters; it
lets the audience know what the characters are feeling and what they are thinking. It is the audience
that you must consider. The audience must effortlessly - repeat, EFFORTLESSLY - understand the dialog.
Just as you plan to control the visual environment with lighting you must also plan to (unobtrusively)
control the sonic environment. This means eliminating to the best of your budget and abilities any sounds
that may distract your audience. So when you scout your locations you must be aware of the locations
aural properties as well as being aware of the visual properties of the location. You don't want to be next
to an airport or a saw mill or a Hells Angels hangout. You need to know if you can turn off refrigerators,
TVs, telephones, computers and other technological devices that emit sounds and may be the cause of
EM and RF interference. You plan on bringing sound blankets, carpeting and other sound absorbent
materials. In conjunction with the wardrobe and props departments you plan on muting shoes,
dinnerware or whatever other costumes and props may cause unwanted noise. You instruct your crew
that they must remain COMPLETELY motionless and ABSOLUTELY SILENT when the camera is rolling.
You instruct your crew that they
must wear quiet clothing and footwear.
When you get on location you strictly follow all of the above. You reinforce the concept to yourself and your
cast and crew that the dialog is of key importance to the entire process. You expend the budget, time and
effort to sonically treat the location, wardrobe and props. You do your best to accommodate your sound team
so they have every opportunity to capture clean, intelligible dialog. You provide the time to your sound team
to capture room tones, dialog wilds, WIFO (Wild Foley) and wild effects; these are all important fodder for
audio post.
And every ten seconds you keep repeating to yourself that sound is an equal partner, that "Sound is half of
the experience," that clean intelligible dialog is supremely important to your audience. And also keep reminding
yourself that all of these efforts will make your audio post process much, much easier, much less expensive, and
that you will be able to enhance the sonic experience for the audience rather than correcting audio mistakes
that will detract from their suspension of belief. And also remind yourself that all this time, effort and expense
will make for a better product.