Loading...

How can music and sound effects help tell your story?

Sound and music have been making movies more immersive since 1927's The Jazz Singer, and will be vital to your adaptation's overall success. Sometimes, a clip doesn't even make sense without sound, such as this example of a man playing an exotic instrument:

Other times, you'll be providing your own soundtrack. Often, a director will erase all the sound on some footage, and replace it in post production with studio-quality alternatives. This gives them a lot more control over how everything will sound, and how to mix together all the audio elements (dialogue, soundtrack music, and sound effects) for the best result.

For example, this clip of an ambulance has an original soundtrack that was captured at the scene. But there's a lot of background noise, and it's hard to separate the siren sound from the engine sound. But if we delete the original soundtrack and replace it with professionally-created sound effects, we get much cleaner, high quality sound that's easier to control. If you have headphones, notice how the siren sound pans from left to right as the ambulance drives by in the second clip. This effect would be harder to do with the original sound recorded at the scene.

Download PDF Transcript (opens in new window)

[AMBULANCE SIREN WAILING]

[AMBULANCE SIREN WAILING]

EMTs in route

As you work out your storyboard, think of places where sound effects could go that would add meaning, interest, and audio artistry to your adaptation.