Making Better Movies with Moviestorm Vol 3: Sound and Light

REALISTIC AMBIENCE
Technique
Create a scene with the sound as much like real life as possible.
For some types of movie, particularly 70s-style movies such as The French Connection, the sound design calls for the
scene to be depicted as realistically as possible, as if the film-maker simply captured all the on-set ambient noise. For
an outdoor scene, this means including all the traffic noises, airplanes, dogs, passers-by, and everything else. You
then mix the dialog down so that it appears to be at the right level compared to the background sound.
This is very different to a normal sound mix where the dialog is artificially made louder to make it easier to hear. As a
result, you may need to film the scene differently to make it comprehensible to viewers.
This scene is set in a busy street, with traffic noise and other urban sounds. In real life, it could be hard to hear
what the characters are saying, particularly when cars or trucks pass close by. In a longer shot, you might
expect to hear the background sounds, although it's not necessary. When you cut to the closer shot, you can
lower the volume of the background, as if you were standing closer to the characters, or you can keep it noisy
as if it were recorded in the street and add atmosphere.
Choose a scene in a busy location – either interior or exterior. Ideally, it should
be 1-2 minutes long, including 2 or more main characters and extras, and include
dialog.
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