The Sound and the Fury

Many promising film projects have been sunk, not because the idea was not developed or the filmmakers lacked skill, but because they did not take the time to properly consider the lighting and a sound aesthetics necessary to make the piece work. Whether they were in a hurry and just didn't take the time, or perhaps they just never considered these elements to be as important as the rest of the content, poor lighting and poor sound will be a detriment that will dog even the most ambitious projects.

Consider your world without one or the other of these elements. Without light, there are a great many hours of the day that we could not function. We might as well just head off to bed in the winter sometime after we finish our early bird special for dinner, and then sleep in until 8 the next morning. And if we cannot hear clearly, the most mundane tasks that involve communicating with others become so arduous and painful, we would just as soon withdraw from most things in life altogether. Of course there are those in the blind and deaf communities who cope with these challenges everyday, but not without a good deal of learning and some struggles along the way.

I think most of us who have good vision and hearing are thankful for these abilities, though we often take them for granted. But as we consider our audience, we should consider their reliance on these senses to comprehend and enjoy our films. And so it should go without saying that lighting and sound are cornerstones to any video or film project.

As we have discovered through our readings this semester, both elements are incredibly complex with all sorts of decisions to make, techniques to master and equipment to understand. We must consider aesthetics and formal properties of these elements, as well as the more pragmatic concerns of execution. What mics and lights should we use for a particular situation? How do we light out in the field, away from a power source? Is it possible to always set up proper lights and mics in situations where we are running and gunning, as we often say in the news business when we have to keep up with a very active subject. There is no perfect solution that will handle every situation that we face. That is why we must understand each aspect of the process so that we can make informed decisions in whatever circumstances we find ourselves shooting in.