Directing the Documentary, 7th Edition

C H A P T E R 10

CAPTURING SOUND

The eye sees, but the ear imagines.¹ An imaginative soundscape conjures up its own emotively-loaded reality, and though the audience may not be conscious of this, it greatly affects them. Nevertheless, sound is the neglected step-sister in film and deserves to be placed first among production concerns because it’s so important to drama of all kinds. Mastering its basic principles will make shooting sound pleasurable, give you additional employment skills, and pay big dividends in your filmmaking.

In early life, beginning an apprenticeship at England’s Pinewood Studios, my guide to music and to the wider significance of sound was my blind friend Brian Neal, who was not connected with the film industry. He had ...