By Craig Polding

Firstly, I would like to define “Sound Designer.”  There are usually two ways that post production audio engineers define it.  Some say that it refers to those individuals that create unique sounds from various sources that would be used in a sci fi or horror film.  Ben Burtt, who created the vocal sounds of R2D2 and Wall-E, is an example of this.  The other definition is where a person is in charge of the overall feel of the sound of a film.  This could be such things as creating and adhering to transitional devices used in the film, designing a soundtrack that uses a certain frequency range for a character or location throughout a film and/or using reverb to create depth or give the feeling of a dreamlike state.  Walter Murch is one of the first sound designers and uses these techniques in films such as “THX-1138″, “Apocalypse Now” and “The English Patient.”  This latter definition is the one that I prefer to use to describe my work with filmmakers.  It’s usually a collaborative process but it’s my job to come up with the ideas.

Next off is the definition of MOS.  If you are not familiar with the term it is when a shot or even a scene is filmed with no sync sound.  The scene contains no dialogue but has on screen action that must be recreated in post.  This is where the fun begins.

For the film “In The Darkness,” produced by Mattoid Entertainment, I did the production sound mixing as well as the post sound effects and music.  There is a scene early in the movie where Detective Kilmer investigates an abandoned vehicle.  This is a perfect moment to create the soundtrack from scratch to hopefully enhance the mysteriousness and give an eeriness to the scene.  Let me explain what I mean…

During the shoot I took some time at our location to gather some sounds that I thought I would need not only for this particular scene but for the movie as a whole.  I recorded footsteps and branches breaking and even some dogs that happened to be barking in the distance.  Also, while shooting the tunnel scene, Jon Merchen (key grip extraordinaire) pointed out a whistling wind that was occurring a little ways off the set.  It was definitely a great wind sound cutting through the dead tree branches but there was too much going on on set to capture a good recording.  So, I used this as reference and back home in the studio I took a wind file from my library and blended it with a low frequency drone to get an organic desolate wind that also had definite creepiness to it.  Early in pre-production I had created some temp music that I thought would be appropriate for the film.  Andrew Robinson, the director, loved it and most of it actually went into the movie.  Now I have all of the elements to create this scene.

“In The Darkness” is in the horror/thriller genre so amping up the suspense relies heavily on sound.  For this scene I started with my recorded footsteps syncing them to picture and the desolate wind.  Music comes in developing the unsure as well as unnerving feeling.  These elements, although very simple, created the intense, quiet mood for the scene.  As the scene progresses the detective pries open the truck door (with some added metal hits and ronks – sound term used to describe metal stressing and bending) and rummages through the truck.  Here, some production track is used that contains breathing as well as the actor’s movement and rummaging which was enhanced with sound effects to make it sound more pronounced and realistic.  As Detective Kilmer discovers what has happened to this truck the music and sound design build and build to the end of the scene and then BAM a stinger transitions us into the next scene where a full on investigation is taking place.  A stinger?  What’s that you say?  A stinger is a sound element that accents the picture and is designed to heighten the scare with a jarring blend of whooshes and/or higher pitched sound effects.

Creating little moments like these is what makes post sound really satisfying for me.  That’s what MOS means to a sound designer.  Check out the scene.  You can watch the whole movie right here on this site. It will make you wonder what scenes were shot MOS the next time you watch your favorite blockbuster movie.

Craig Polding is a professional sound designer working in Hollywood. He has worked on several feature films including Andrew Robinson’s “April Showers” and “In The Darkness.”