Jonathan Foulston

The Role of the Sound Designer

When David Lynch spoke with Home Theater Buyers Guide in 1998, he stated that sound
sometimes overplays the visual which highlights just how fundamental sound is in film. However,
sound is often overshadowed by beautiful cinematography in contemporary films and I find this
quite disheartening. Now, in the present day, the sound department are actively involved in working
hard to stand out and prevail against impressive visuals and notable acting.
Francis Ford Coppola first coined the term sound designer in 1979 in reference to Walter Murch
during the production of Apocalypse Now and he described the sound designer as an individual who
is ultimately responsible for all aspects of a films audio track, from the dialoguesound effects
recording, re-recording and the final mix of the final track. When I recently spoke to Johnnie Burn,
the sound designer of 2013s Under The Skin and this years The Lobster, he said that a sound
designer also explores the emotional and narrative opportunities be it from script stage, during
shoot andin post-production. He added that he also considers how music is used in the film during
these stages of production and works cooperatively alongside the composer.
Sound is one of the most powerful tools that filmmakers can utilise in order to provoke emotion and
enhance a visual narrative. Many films owe their success to their sound design however there is a
huge divide between the visual and sound departments in the film industry. Sound designers work
tirelessly with a refined ear, day and night, building an audio soundscape to match what is seen on
screen yet their time and effort is underappreciated in comparison to the visuals of a film. When
speaking to Johnnie Burn, I learnt that his involvement in Under The Skin took five years to reach
completion from discussing the film with Jonathan Glazer, the director, in 2008 to finishing sound
mixing in April of 2013. Bearing this enthusiasm and determination in mind, it pleases me that Under
The Skin is remembered for its sound rather than its visual material. Im glad that Johnnies hard
work paid off in the end as sound is disregarded far too frequently by contemporary consumers of
film.
Although I hate to bring money into the equation, I think the divide between departments is
illustrated clearly through the yearly wage gap of a cinematographer and sound designer during
their employment with a motion picture production company. A cinematographer roughly earns a
salary of 34,086 per year whereas a sound designers wage averages around 16,560 a year. This
gap in payments emphasises the lack of appreciation that sound designers, and the sound
department in general, are received with and I find it disappointing how they are not adequately
paid to compensate for their strenuous efforts and time. After hearing how hard Johnnie Burn
worked on Under The Skin and The Lobster, it is saddening that he will not have been paid as much
as the cinematographer of each film regardless of the praise he received on his sound work
although he was nominated for a British Independent Film award for UTS.
As both films were independently distributed through Film4 and the BFI, the budgets would have
been smaller than that of a multimedia conglomerates and this limitation would have meant that
Burn would have been paid upfront less than the average wage for his efforts. However, this
limitation would have allowed him to be more creative and experimental in his approach to sound.
Burn let me know that, during Under The Skins post production, Glazer would not accept anything
that sounded like anything he had heard before so he was given a massive amount of time to
record two thousand hours of raw sound footage and experiment with different sound editing
techniques. I also learnt that Burns main focus when approaching the sound capturing process was
not faking anything. He said that all foley and dialogue was recorded in situ, in a forest, in the van
or in an alien environment that [they] made. I really admire this genuine approach in sound as

Jonathan Foulston
sound designers working for big blockbuster films would have reams of stock SFX to choose from
rather than recording sound effects themselves and using them. It can be argued that working on an
independent film inspires more creativity as a limited budget means that sounds need to be sourced
and recorded and experimentation stands out from professional yet safe SFX in film.
I also find it worrying how there have been little technological advances in sound equipment yet
there is always new camera equipment in development every year. Sound technology was pushed
forward dramatically after the Second World War but unfortunately there hasnt been many huge
advances since. I think it is unfair that cinematographers get to explore different equipment
throughout their career but sound designers and recordists have to rely on the same mundane
boom mics, software and mixers. It feels as if the film industry today is insistent on reaching full
visual potential but continues to disregard elevating their films soundscapes and I sincerely hope
that there are developments in audio technology within the next ten years as, if I decide to start a
career in the sound department, I will want to experiment with as many new technologies as
possible to develop my understanding of sound.
In conclusion, I feel that sound designers are not met with as much praise as they deserve; especially
those, like Johnnie Burn, who work hard to excel in their field and beyond the limitations of a small
budget. I have learnt about the main responsibilities of a sound designer through research into the
field and my interview with Burn. Undertaking this research has helped me understand the role of a
sound designer a lot more than I previously did and allowed me to gain valuable insight into the way
in which practitioners currently work in the industry. I am glad that I contacted Johnnie as he
provided me with an abundance of useful information to take into consideration in the future and
even some that is relevant to BA1a. Sound designing is something that I would love to do again in
future projects and potentially work towards building a career in.

Bibliography:
Reeves, A. (2014) A Brief History of Sound Design. Available at:
http://beakstreetbugle.com/articles/view/297/a-brief-history-of-sound-design (Accessed: 09
November 2015).
Under The Skin: Sound Design (2014) Available at: http://www.film4.com/specialfeatures/interviews/under-the-skin-sound-design (Accessed: 09 November 2015). In-line Citation:
(Under The Skin: Sound Design, 2014).
Sound Designer - Average Salary (2009) Available at: http://www.mysalary.co.uk/averagesalary/Sound_Designer_27262 (Accessed: 09 November 2015).
Huds, D. (2011) The Salary of a Cinematographer | eHow UK. Available at:
http://www.ehow.co.uk/info_8315534_salary-cinematographer.html (Accessed: 09 November
2015).
Cable, M. (1998) The Monster Meets Filmmaker David Lynch, Home Theatre Buyers Guide.