If you wish to see, listen

Abstract

Editor Walter Murch coined the phrase ‘Sound Designer’ to describe the person working on film responsible for the soundtrack. Like a Director of Photography, the Sound Designer would have overall control from pre-production through to the final print, modernizing long-established but conservative approaches to sound editing. Currently, the role of sound designer has fragmented: a creator of synthesized sound effects, a composer who integrates effects with music, or a sound editor with higher aspirations. Film music, on the other hand, fuelled by merchandizing tie-ins and the convergence of film production, music sales and online offshoots, has changed dramatically. Film music now more readily integrates all forms of music and tends to reflect the use of music in other media. Meanwhile, sound in film remains, as it has for decades, a more or less technical exercise tacked on to the end of post-production. In this article, Sider explores shows how sound is virtually ignored within current film practice garnering, at best, 3 per cent of Hollywood budgets. He shows how an awareness of sound needs to be created for young film-makers, creating a paradigm in which sound and image ‘dance’ in a symbiotic relationship. Using examples from his own work, from feature films and documentaries, he presents a model for integrating sound more fully as a means of engaging with the picture rather than merely decorating it.