The Sound discipline

Sound: our very first sense as human beings. It is what makes us, make sense of the world. It is a path to our imagination, and a tool of conveying emotion. For some, it is 50% of the cinematic experience. But how do we divide the sound discipline? According to Bobette Buster (Making Waves 2019), it is divided as follows:

* ADR : Automated Dialogue Replacement. * SFX : Special Sound Effects. * Ambience : "bed of sound", what makes you feel you are really there. * Music : the direct connection to emotion.

Another aspect of the sound discipline is how it is divided in terms of professional roles and workflow. Who does what, what are their job responsibilities and, the sequence of work from person to person and department to department. The overlap between the different sound roles depends on the size budget and scope of the production, in smaller productions one person can do several of these job roles.

Graphic kindly provided by Stephen Rafter, Bournemouth University.

During filming, the production audio or production recording team members work as follows:

Boom operator: they capture the production sound by manoeuvring the boom mic. It is a very important job as the goal of every shoot is to get clear dialogue.

Production sound mixer: they monitor the quality of the sound whilst being recorded.

Sound technicians: a second level entry-job that comprises of cable management, connecting microphones.

Sound assistants, trainees or runners: entry-job, these people are general helpers that provide a helping hand on any task delegated to them.

After filming, the post-production team members work as follows:

Supervising sound editor: is a department head that oversees the entire post-production sound crew, they are responsible for the completion and quality of all sound editing.

Dialogue editor: after the filming and the sound recording on set, the dialogue editor will go through, meticulously cleaning the audio tracks.

Sound effects editor: they source, create or adapt other required sound effects.

ADR editor: their job is to solve problems regarding the actors' lines, they get the actor into the studio to re-record their lines in sync with the video.

Foley artist: they recreate sound effects that were hard, or even impossible, to capture during filming. They perform and record while watching the action on screen.

Backgrounds editor: background editors or ambience editors will "fill" gaps in the speech with room tones, otherwise known as ambiences. 

Music editor: they work closely with the picture editor and the composer to ensure that all music on film fits nicely together. Together with the director, they will make sure the composer understands the requirements for any original music needed, as well as editing any other pre-recorded music from other sources.

The final step is the final mix and it works as follows:

Re-recording mixer: once all the previously mentioned elements have been assembled they go to the re-recording mixer whose job is to balanced and mix down all the sound to a final format. They are highly-skilled engineers.

Bibliography:

Get in Media. Film and TV Careers [online]. Get in Media. Available from: http://getinmedia.com/industry/film-tv [Accessed 15/10/2020].

Making Waves, 2018. Directed by Midge Costin. US: Dogwoof.

Target Careers. Careers in Filmmaking: Sound Design, production and post-production [online]. Target Careers. Available from: https://targetcareers.co.uk/career-sectors/arts-and-creative/1014335-careers-in-filmmaking-sound-design-production-and-post-production [Accessed 15/10/2020].

Vargo, I., 2018. A Guide to the Different Roles in Audio Post-Production [online]. Pro Audio Files. Available from: https://theproaudiofiles.com/roles-in-audio-post-production/ [Accessed 15/10/2020].