Sound Design: 6 Essential Tips for Cinematic Sounding Films

Sound design is an essential part of the filmmaking process. It can be a time consuming process and most of the professional films you see today have outsourced studios dedicated to just this element of filmmaking do the work. Not everyone’s budgets can account for this so here are the 6 essential things you need to know for cinematic sound design. 

Using Sound Effects

Sound effects are a critical component to creating cinematic sounding films. What sound effects do for our films is add realism to our visual content and set the mood for each moment within our story. There are a plethora of techniques for using sound effects but a couple of the most important are layering and using ambience.

Layering sound effects together is an easy way to make your films sound unique and original.  You can use layering to add more depth to your sound like adding transient sounds to match a visual such as footsteps. 

Using ambience sounds can make a sequence of shots feel more coherent with each other. If you are filming deep and close in a city filled with traffic, capturing what your characters hear immerses your audience within the scene. Using the sounds of gridlock traffic up close is a good starting point into doing that. 

Adding Background Music

Use background music to elevate the story you are trying to tell. Background music is used to evoke emotion especially in the absence of dialogue. It sets the mood of a scene and can be used to represent a character’s feelings and emotions. Background music is also a great tool to alert the audience of things unseen or unknown by your characters in the story. 

A good rule of thumb when sound designing is to score first. Setting up a foundation with the overall framework or rhythm of your sequences with music or other sound effects used for scoring purposes can allow for all the other elements of sound design to fall into place naturally. It ensures that every beat and impact hits where intended! 

If you have a scene with no background music, you can still score the scene with clever sound effects. Using repetition of sound effects can give the illusion of a score and keep a consistent theme within your piece. 

DIY and Foley

When you don’t have or can’t find the right sound to portray the certain emotion you want to portray, record Foley yourself during post-production or create sounds using custom plug-ins offered in your video editor or a DAW. Foley itself is a great way to add realism to the sound of your film.

You don’t have to be an expert to add custom foley into your projects. Try recording everyday sounds or sounds that peak your interest and enhance your work with truly one of a kind sound effects. 

Another way to DIY your sound design is to use effects and plug-ins to modify existing sounds. Pitch shifting a sound for example can be an effective way to change the mood of a sound. Generally, pitching sounds up will make them sound more serene, while pitching sounds down can make them sound more intense and terrifying. 

Dialogue

Dialogue is the main motivating factor that keeps audiences captivated in your films so it should be your top priority when sound designing. 

Keep your dialogue as clear as possible. Be mindful of background noise when recording dialogue and choose to record lines of dialogue in isolation from each other. It’s best to use post-production to your advantage in this case to stitch together pieces of dialogue with fades. This way, you have full control over every line spoken and can make the dialogue flow seamlessly.  

Another tip when working with spoken dialogue is to use an equalization plug-in to enhance the vocal frequencies. Many plug-ins tend to have presets built specifically for this!

Effects and Plug-ins

Modifying sounds with effects and plug-ins are an important part of sound design ‒ even if the intended outcome is subtle. Using techniques such as increasing the intensity of a sound, panning a sound from ear to ear, or adding reverb to a sound can enhance the sound of a film tremendously. All of these can be done by using effects and plug-ins!

A riser is a specific type of sound effect that builds intensity with sound. You can create a riser with a consistent tone just by starting with the volume low and then raising the volume exponentially. Doing this when leading up to a climactic moment in your film can be an easy way to fully immerse your audience and raise their heart rate.

Panning sounds such as foley or dialogue can be a good way to add depth to your films. Let's say a car is to drive past the frame from right to left. Using foley sounds of the car driving past adds to the realism of the sequence but if you also pan the shot accordingly to move the sound in 2D space from ear-to-ear, you can effectively increase the realism of the sound even more with minimal effort. 

Adding reverb to sound effects can alter the scale of the sound at a dramatic scale. Reverb increase the scale and distance of a sound. Use it wisely to add weight to your sound.

Focus on Telling a Story

Sound design as a whole is a tool filmmakers use to tell their story. It’s one thing to add matching sound effects to a sequence to simply add realism to your work, but it’s another thing to add sounds that portray the mood of the film purposefully throughout a sequence. So at the grand scale, always have sound design in mind before starting production. 

Try to look for the right sound effects, music, and foley that match the mood you are trying to portray. The feeling of your scene is what matters the most when it comes to cinema! An example of this is using powerful hits of sound (also known as an impact sound) to punctuate an impactful moment within your story.  

Conclusion

And those are 6 of the most important tips to keep in mind when sound designing cinematic films. Use sound effects, background music and ambience to marry your visuals with sounds that fit the mood you are going for. When in a bind, look to creating sounds yourself and using effects to enhance existing sounds. And lastly, always keep your dialogue clear and always prioritize what story you are trying to tell when choosing the perfect sounds for your film.

Written by Zeeshan Khamis

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How to Create a Video Storyboard

Sometimes, the process of producing a video can be intimidating. If you’ve clicked on this link, you’re probably a video creator of some sort whether it be live-action, animation, stop motion etc. and you want to elevate your video content. Well, you’ve come to the right place because I can guarantee you that creating a storyboard for your video is a key step in your overall process to producing your video with the highest quality. 

What is a Storyboard?

Now you may have created video content but have never heard of a storyboard. Storyboarding dates back all the way to the 1930s when Walt Disney developed the idea and was first created for the Disney short “The Three Little Pigs”. Storyboarding is a visual representation of how the story of your video will unfold, shot by shot. It is made up of ordered pictures or illustrations/drawings of what the shot is going to be. Underneath the visual representation, there is usually a description of the action, the type of shot and angle it is, and any dialogue from the script that is going to accompany the shot. 

The Different Kinds of Storyboards

Like most things in life, there are different approaches and kinds of storyboards that have been discovered and developed over the years. There are 3 different kinds, those being:

• Traditional storyboards

• Thumbnail storyboards

• Animated storyboards

Traditional Storyboards 

Traditional storyboards are various pencil or ink drawings that assist in visualising the story of a video before beginning to fim. They can be displayed sequentially in a sketchbook or hung up on a wall. This method allows you to be as detailed or simple as you want. 

Several traditional storyboards also have written notes under the drawings to describe what is happening in the scene. These notes can be in point form and brief. 

Thumbnail Storyboards 

The second type of storyboard is thumbnail storyboards. Like a thumbnail for a YouTube video, a thumbnail storyboard shows a representation of what the premise is. Thumbnail storyboards call for tiny sketches - the size of a postage stamp - that shows your shots in your video on pieces of paper. 

However, due to the miniscule size of these sketches, it leaves little room for detail. This version of storyboarding is beneficial for quickly outlining  your ideas before making a more detailed version of your storyboard using a method such as the traditional storyboard. 

Animated Storyboards

The world of technology is always evolving, making it possible to create things such as live animations helping to create animated storyboards. Animated storyboards have dialogue and music. They are composed of sketches strategically filmed to show timing, pacing and flow of a scene and it is much easier to get your story across. 

Why Should You Storyboard?

Have you ever watched a book-to-movie adaptation and was disappointed because it wasn’t what you pictured? I’m sure there are many cases like this. A storyboard helps you to share your vision with others and really help sell the story whether it is a campaign for a commercial to a big Hollywood film.You can then get feedback from others and make changes. They may help you to fill in gaps that were missing in the story so that everything that happens in your story flows with no loose ends. If just a storyboard can move people and connect the audience to the characters, imagine how the end product will be recieved!  By making a storyboard, it helps your pre-production process and helps you to remember what shots you need. By having the story all laid out before production begins, it saves a lot of time and energy and will make sure you are using your time efficiently. 

Creating a Storyboard

You may be thinking to yourself, “Wow, a new step to the process?” Don’t worry, it’s fairly simple. Storyboarding is fairly similar to a shot list. However, storyboards are laid out in a much more story-like manner.

The process of creating a storyboard can be as simple or elaborate as you want to make it. Before storyboarding was first developed, animator Webb Smith was credited by Disney for the idea of drawing out scenes on separate sheets of paper, pinning them up on a bulletin board to create a sequence of a story, thus creating the first ever storyboard

Storyboards can be very simple and you don’t have to be an artist to create a storyboard. You can make one as simple as drawing stick figures using a professional program. The choice is up to you and your ability level. Choose what suits you. 

There are many different methods of storyboarding. 

You can use:

• Sketches with descriptions

• Google slides

  • Insert pictures into a slide with  bullet-point descriptions 

• Google docs

  • Create a table and insert pictures into the columns

  • Make sure you number the pictures accordingly

  • Underneath the pictures, add descriptions 

• Celtx

• Storyboarder (It’s paid but a great option for artists)

  • Draw in depth illustrations of the shot to clearly visualise the story with 6 different drawing tools

  • Enter dialogue and action underneath the panel. You can also include the timing information and shot type

These are just some of the many options to create a storyboard. 

Not all storyboards have to be created from sketches or drawings. You can also go to your filming locations with your actors and take pictures that will help visually represent the shot and action. In my opinion, taking pictures of the shot is much more efficient as you will have a clear, visual representation of the shot and angle you will need when it comes to production time. Since  it is harder within illustrations to create 3D depth, a photo will help you to understand exactly what your vision is, along with the description that will be provided under each picture in your storyboard. 

Do you know what you want your video to accomplish? What is the purpose for the video and what is the message you want to get across? What feelings are you trying to evoke in the audience? Make sure this is clear and set goals for your video. If you are getting feedback from others that your idea is evoking the emotions you wanted, you know you are on track. 

To create a storyboard, you first want to break down your script into actions as you will need to describe the action of each shot when you storyboard. You want to draw/import images that will move the action along. Too many images can be overwhelming and you will waste time that could be spent on other details. On the other hand, too little images will make your storyboard hard for people to understand. Know the right amount. 

Then, you will want to make multiple blank panels and number them in order.  There are many storyboarding outlines online or you can create your own. 

Next you will want to write up a description that includes the action, the type of shot and angle and dialogue that will accompany the shot. 

You don’t have to stop there! You can make multiple storyboards and revise and edit through the process. 

All storyboards should include:

• The project name 

  • Even if you don’t have one, create a working title and you can rename this later

• The scene number

  • Numbering scenes is important so you don’t get the order of your story mixed up

• Page number

Conclusion

There you have it! This is everything you need to know about storyboarding and how to create your very own video storyboard. You now know what a storyboard is, the different types of storyboards, why you should storyboard and how to create a storyboard. Do you think this will help you to improve your video production? Let us know in the comments below!

Written by Amy Anstett

If you need further help creating your own marketing videos, we offer video production services that will help you elevate your brand!

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7 Top Video Trends You Should Use for Marketing

It’s no secret when someone tells you that video marketing is the best type of marketing there is out there. They’re not only attention-grabbing, but very easy content to consume to the average watcher and if you can tell a story, then even better - this way it gets them hooked to the very end (and watch times are very important). 

But how do you know which way is actually the best way to showcase your product or service? Keep on scrolling to find out.

1. Social Media

There are 2 types of videos that go hand-in-hand with Social Media video trends:

• Ephemeral - temporary videos only available to the viewer for a 24-hour period. Social media platforms that make use of this particular style are Snapchat, and Facebook and Instagram stories.
  
  Due to the its limited time frame of accessibility, it makes this trend super effective as it can be very engaging (especially if you put a poll or quiz) and can in fact, be very addicting to the average social media user.

• Vertical - these types of videos have a higher completion watch rate compared to any other type of videos. In fact, 90% of people are more likely to complete a video that is vertical than one that is horizontal and has become a widespread format most, if not all social media gurus use.

Most people consume their online content through mobile devices, and thus, video marketing is adjusting accordingly to follow the trend alongside short and quick-to-the-point videos across all social media platforms.

Vertical videos is in and are definitely the way to go.

2. Live

Live videos became extremely popular due to the authenticity and naturalness of the entire video, as well as its connection to social media platforms. You are able to go live on Facebook, Instagram, YouTube and TikTok.

While it can be used as a means to simply share something, it is also a cheaper alternative to running live shows especially with things turning that into the world of online since everything’s being done remotely.

However, while doing a live may seem as easy as clicking the ‘start’ button, to stand out (due to its growing nature), to put some work into the presentation to stand out from the rest.

3. Interactive

Out of all of the video trends, interactive video is the one that is most likely to grow even more traction than it already has. It allows for the viewer to directly interact with what is going on in the video, truly immersing them into the world created in the video.

Brands such as IKEA, Amazon, YouTube and Instagram have created interactive videos or more known as shoppable videos where you can shop while you watch.

On the other hand, you can also include polls or quizzes, or even reactions to your videos and live streams to add that interactive aspect with your audience especially depending on the platform.

Regardless of how you choose to make your video an interactive one, it is one of the best ways to engage people in the story you want to tell as you immerse them into another reality.

4. Personalized

Is literally as the name suggests: videos personalized and curated to a specific person. It could even be you! It typically includes the person’s name, email address, profile picture, pretty much anything that directly addresses the person and their interests. 

Personalized videos are so successful because it makes the customer feel valued and important and in turn, they’ll share what they receive to others (and this way you get free marketing!). 

And due to the increase in available insights and data to its users on social media, all the better to strategically market future products and services to its audience, catering to previous and loyal customers while also attracting new ones and increasing engagement. 

5. Animation

Who doesn’t love a good animated video? No matter the age, race or gender animated films are always a classic favourite.

Animated videos became of the utmost importance when in 2020, it was hard to shoot any real footage. Not to mention, being able to create them remotely allowed for businesses to close the gap in the lack of in-person meetings while still delivering their messages in a creative way, specifically in two methods:

• Fluid Animation - similar to that of the motion of water, fluid animation is made up of persistent movement and is rather simple to create. All you need are a few layers and one mask, and soon enough you’ll get people interested in what it is that you have to offer.

• Collage Animation - consists of a mix of photographs and illustrations whereas the animator cuts out parts of an image and combines them to create an animation with what they’ve gathered, making them stand out from the crowd.

6. Searchable

Allowing your video to be ‘searchable’ and ensuring that your SEO is performing at its best is what will make your video marketing strategy effective especially as YouTube, one of the biggest video streaming platforms.

Some tips on how to optimize your SEOs:

• Use keywords in the title and descriptions

• Create eye-catching and original thumbnail images

• Include tags, keywords that are trending and relate to your video

• And don’t forget to include subtitles and closed captions for those who prefer reading

7. Internal Communications

Internal Video Communications are typically used to onboard new employees via training/orientation shifts as a way to increase engagement, collaboration, and communication and will only continue to grow especially in 2021.

It is easily one of the best ways for people to learn as they are watching something on-screen, listening and thinking. It’s not a widely-used teaching strategy simply due to the fact of needing to plan, record, and edit the video and printing out a document, and doing a presentation.

However, more and more people are using it because of how 2021 has turned into whereas this is the most similar way to creating face-to-face and more personal interactions. Soon enough, this will be the norm of how to train new and onboarding employees.

CONCLUSION

So there you have it, the top 7 video trends for the year 2021, from vertical videos posted on social media, to live, interactive, and even training videos! It’s no doubt that video marketing is the smartest and easiest way to get an audience interested in what you have to offer. Which trend are you going to try next? Let us know!

Written by Tina Phong

If you need further help creating your own marketing videos, we offer video production services that will help you elevate your brand!

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