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!

T-Rex on youtube

Here's a little something i'm working on, it's a tutorial covering how i made the T-Rex effects test that's nearly at 3 million views on youtube! It's taking some time, but it'll be online at some point!

Here's the teaser trailer

Here's the effects test in action

Where to begin?

I get regular emails via my Youtube profile from people asking me where to start. They think they should get the greatest & latest equipment like Depth of Field adapters and then start making films.

I've said to all of them, as many film makers will no doubt also say, get any camera you can and as long as you can get that footage on a computer, you're good to go. Even if your camera can't connect to a computer you can still practice things like shot composition and review the footage on a TV.

When i started film making i used to make films every night! Nothing great, just a few minutes, say for example:

A guy knocks on the door of a house, the owner opens the door and gets punched in the face. He comes round to find the intruder robbing his house, so he decides to fight back.

This was an actual short film i made with a friend. No fancy editing software, all shots were shot in the order we needed them. Now with a computer, it's easier than ever to practice the essentials needed to make quality films.

Once you have learnt the basics you'll automatically start wanting more from your equipment like manual exposure (it's really unprofessional to have your footage get lighter or darker when you pan across a shot - locking the exposure stops this) and better image quality. Also, if you've already started making short films with what you have, it's easier to convince parents or partner that you need new equipment!!

Another great way to start is by watching a scene from a film, music video or trailer with no sound, it allows you to concentrate on the shots and edits more clearly and it really does work, try it!

More from me soon including video tutorials too.