Introduction to Sound Software

06/01/09

In today’s lesson we were given a tutorial on sound using software from the James Bond movie Casino Royale. Using different backdrops and sequences from the film we were able to experiment with layering sound effects and levels of volume. For example, in one tutorial of layering sound, the backdrop was of the casino, some of the sound options were; the ambience of a bar (e.g. distant chatter, glasses clinking), the sound of poker chips being counted and tense music. With all of these effects I was able to try and re-construct the sound from the actual sequence. I found this difficult because the volume levels of sound were hard to get to a precise level so that it would sound realistic.
The next task was to place the different layers of sound to one minute sequence from the film. This was an action sequence so it had to include racing music, vocal effects and micro-effects such as running, footsteps, engine sounds etc. With this I was introduced to audio editing and the layout of the software is similar to Sound Pro which is the software that our class is to use when editing our thriller films.
Overall I found this task quite fun but also quite frustrating as it can take quite a long time to get all the effects and volumes of the sound perfect. This practise lesson on the software was very helpful as I have learnt a lot about how important sound is and that every minute sound is just as important as an instrumental over the sequence.