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Post Production Sound

Most film productions today, including movies, television shows, documentaries, and corporate video presentations, employ the use of sound to enhance the visual images presented on screen. Many highly skilled technicians and artists are used to generate sounds to set the mood, toy with the emotions of the viewer, and make the film more believable on a number of levels.

Post production sound can be divided into three categories – dialog, score, and sound effects. Different sound tracks are recorded at various times during the production process and they are mixed together in the editing stage after filming. Very special attention must be paid to sound elements during the editing phase to avoid bad timing, distractions, and a poor quality presentation.

Most sound work is done in the post production stage, after filming is complete. The exception here is dialog, which is often recorded during filming although there is sometimes the need for post production sound editing, too. All dialog is recorded on one track with voices only. All other sounds, recorded on different tracks, will be added later.

The score of the movie is adjusted in the post production sound editing and mixing stages. Orchestral music composed and recorded for a specific production is preferred although previously recorded materials are sometimes used. Popular music can add an element of timeliness to the production but this timeliness quickly becomes dated, often making the movie seem stale after time.

Movie producers enhance the mood, pace, and period of time portrayed in the movie with the use of the musical score. The actual recording of the score may happen before or during filming but the music is actually matched to the visual images, frame by frame, in the post production sound editing stage.

While the dialog tells the story and the score sets the emotional tone and establishes the pace of the production, it's the sound effects that make the rest of it all a little more believable. The everyday sounds that would be found in a setting portrayed in the movie are added to the movie in the post production sound editing and mixing stages. A foley artist does this work.

This part of the post production sound effects is named after Jack Foley, a pioneer in the film industry who was instrumental in adding sound to early “talkies” during the transition from silent movies. The foley artist reveals so much drama that a movie wouldn't have nearly the impact without them. Foley artists give us the sound of breaking glass, footsteps running away into the dark, the punching thuds of a fist fight, the unsheathing of a sword, the squealing wheels and brakes of a car chase scene, and a romantic kiss between lovers.

Post production sound effects, score, and dialog mixing and editing are a vital part of the production process. The entire procedure may take as long as a year after filming before release of the production. It's this post production sound work that makes modern movies so much more enjoyable than the earliest, silent movies.