The second way sound effects are created is in the sound design suite. A sound designer creates ambient sounds, like a bullet “whiz-by” or a robot morphing. The designer manipulates organic and generic sounds by equalizing, changing pitch, slowing down, speeding up, layering or reversing the sounds. Action and sci-fi films are filled with unusual, unique sounds created by a sound designer.
The other most common way to capture and create sounds is on the foley stage. Originally intended to create the sound effects in real time to match the picture, such as footsteps, prop and actor movements, the foley stage today is treated much like a sound design suite. Any number of specific sounds can be created by the foley artist, such as pounding horse hooves or vocalizations like monster roars or dogs growling. Sounds created on the foley stage are also recorded and stored in SPE’s extensive sound library.
More than anything, sound effects require imagination on the part of the filmmakers and suspension of belief by you, the audience. A sound supervisor may add a thunderclap to the sound of a wave crashing to make the audience jump at the dramatic effect. Movies can contain layers of sound that not only match the visuals you see on screen, but in some cases go beyond. Sound elements might be added that extend outside the audience’s sight line, such as a car alarm, birds in the background, or a police siren. You may not see these things, but if they accentuate the drama on the screen, then the sound team has succeeded.
