There is no fun in watching a movie without the right sound effects. Sound adds to the quality of the film and helps the audience remain engaged, but this is one aspect of filmmaking that is often overlooked. Much time and effort give you the fitting soundtrack to your favorite movie.
On average, depending on the film’s complexity and the sound’s quality, a forty-minute film can take up to 160-240 hours of work on the sound design alone. Of course, the longer the project, the more time it will take. Advertisements and video games usually take up less time than a movie.
The sound design process is divided into three categories, preproduction planning, during production, and post-production sound design; all these aspects require their own time. Once the production is done, some extra time is taken to add changes or tweaks.
If you want to learn more about the details of sound design and the exact time it consumes, keep reading ahead.
What Does Sound Design Include?
To understand why sound design takes so long, it’s important to understand the nature of the job.
Sound designing is the practice of creating audio for film, video games, advertisements, music, and other media platforms. It encompasses a range of tasks: recording, auditing, mixing, sampling, editing, and tweaking sounds.
What Do Sound Designers Do?
They are part of the planning process of the project’s sound design. They add not only the background music but also voice-overs and ambient sounds. Foley sounds to make action scenes more realistic, and audio sounds to create noises that don’t exist in real life also fall under a sound designer’s domain.
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What Factors Impact The Amount Of Time Required?
Not all projects consume the same amount of time. Working on a two-hour long film would take 480 hours of work on the sound alone; much less time is needed for a 2-minute ad. For better audio quality, the designers may have to work for longer.
After the project is complete, some time is given for editing and making changes. The more changes that are required, the more time it takes.
What Are The Stages Of Sound Design?
The sound design generally has three main phases, each requiring separate time and attention.
Pre-production To Plan The Sound
This practice generally takes 2-3 weeks, and during this time, the sound designer manager works with the director to plan out the sounds that are to be included in the movie.
During Production, Sound Designers Remain On Set
This time period isn’t as taxing for the sound designers; they only set up the playback equipment and train the soundboard operator if the need arises.
The Majority Of The Work Happens in Post Production
This is where the crux of the work happens. This takes the majority of the time and requires long hours of work. Here the sound designing teams work to record, edit and include the sounds in the project.
In Conclusion
Sound Designers are present throughout the entire project. Their involvement is imperative to the project. The amount of time they take depends on the audio quality, the project’s length, and the changes made after it’s done. Either way, a job requires a significant amount of time and attention.
