Sound Persons Journal

What role does the director play throughout the production?

The sound person is concerned with the recording, manipulation and reproduction of
sound. Having taking on the role I had used a recording studio in order to record my
score notes which had been on the piano I then edited any parts of the piece which
had been played in a wrong key and polished the overall score. As the majority of our
production had used sound in some form, I had ensured that the dialogue was
polished and had therefore used sound from the microphone as opposed to sound
from the SLR as it was much clearer and di not pick up on the static sound of the
general atmosphere.
Why did I decide to take on the role?
I decided to take on the role, as it was a challenge for me considering I had not
played the role of the sound person before despite having been involved in many
other media production over the past 4 years. I decided that due to the fact that our
short film was to have a lot of sound, both diegetic and non-diegetic it would be an
important role to ensure that the sound was perfected and polished. It required
having a good and ear and precision to be able to perfect the audio and this had
taken time and I thoroughly enjoyed the challenge.
What did the role involve?
The role involved editing on the same software as the editor, gathering score notes
fitting ones and also, making the sound from the dialogue sound of very high
quality. It also involved working closely with the director and the editor ensuring that
the sound meets the directors needs and ensuring the editor also agrees with all
chosen sound.
Did I encounter any problems whilst fulfilling the role?
It was extremely tough having to match up all of the sound from the footage that had
been recorded, as they were both on two different devices, this therefore required a
lot of time and effort. It was also difficult as sometimes, it was found that sound may

have not been recording and would therefore need to re-filmed as well as rerecorded. Also, finding the right score for the production had proven to be extremely
tough as there did not seem to be much available which led to me having to go and
find someone that was willing to go to a recording studio in order to record score.
What has taking on this role taught me?
Taking on this role has improved my editing skills as it required editing and has also
improved my sense of patience. The role really did require a lot of patience as it took
an awful long time to find the right sound for the right footage. It also improved my
teamwork skills as I had to work closely with the director and the editor.