Image Is Only 50% of a Movie

This is a very true fact of film making, the image is only 50% of the whole film, sound plays just as important role, imagine this scene in a horror film:

In a suspenseful part of the film, suddenly the lights go out plunging the characters & the viewer into total darkness, you then hear little footsteps and noises along with the dialogue of the characters who are terrified.

It's a very powerful scene, using just sound alone. You can NEVER have enough sound effects in your collection.

Record your own foley (this is sounds that everything makes around you - footsteps, keys, everything) and keep it on a dvd or 2 or you can buy some quality collections online if you have the budget.

Take a look at these 2 films of mine, both use foley extensively:

THE ROBBERY



In the robbery we used a cabbage and a bread knife to make the sounds when i was sawing the body up in the bathroom.

THIRTEEN



In Thirteen everything from the car door slamming to the water splashing in the sink was recorded afterwards and added to the sound in editing.

But why do this? Why not just use the recorded sound from the shoot?

It makes the life of the editor easier as it can be difficult finding quality sounds from recorded audio on set due to other noise in the scene etc, plus the mic should always be focussed at recording the best sounding dialogue and probably won't pick up other sounds very good.

REMEMBER: Sound can make or break a movie, especially a low budget movie, so give it your time and attention.

I'll be adding some videos of sound editing in practice in the coming weeks, keep checking back!