Audiences rarely notice good sound, but they immediately notice bad sound. Sound design covers everything you hear in a film apart from music: dialogue, effects, footsteps, wind, the hum of a room. It makes images feel real and directs attention.
The layers of film sound
- Dialogue: recorded on set and often re-recorded in a studio (ADR, automated dialogue replacement) when the original is noisy.
- Sound effects: explosions, doors, engines, often built from many layered recordings.
- Foley: everyday sounds like footsteps, clothing and props, performed live to picture by Foley artists. The name comes from Jack Foley, a pioneer at Universal Studios.
- Ambience: the background sound of a place, which makes a scene feel inhabited.
- Mixing: balancing all of these with music so the audience hears what matters.
Famous examples
Ben Burtt created many of the sounds of Star Wars (1977), including the lightsaber hum, from recordings of old projector motors and television interference. Walter Murch received the first credit as “sound designer” for Apocalypse Now (1979), which used surround sound to place the audience inside the war. In horror films, low-frequency sounds and sudden silences create anxiety before anything appears on screen.
How sound shapes perception
Sound can change the meaning of an image. The same shot of an empty corridor feels safe with birdsong and threatening with a distant metallic scrape. Sound also tells you what is off screen, expanding the world beyond the frame. Many filmmakers argue that sound accounts for half of the experience.
Technology
Surround sound, then immersive formats like Dolby Atmos, allow sounds to move around and above the audience. Home cinema systems and good headphones bring some of this experience into the living room.
Awards for sound
The Academy Awards long had separate categories for sound editing and sound mixing; since 2021, they have been combined into a single Best Sound award.
Sound and music work together; see how music serves the story. The order in which sounds and images are assembled is the editor’s work; read the art of editing.
