Use of sound

In films, short and feature length, sound is a crucial factor, it's what sets the tone for the piece and creates tension and feelings. Often in big budge movies directors work directly with composers to produce music & sound design that integrates perfectly with the imagery on the screen. With big productions, composers and orchestras can often ask for a seven figue salary to capture the mood of piece perfectly, this though is extremely different to how short films chose their sound. With short films the director will need to think of all kinds of creative ideas to get the music they want.

Stian Hafstad is a young Norwegian filmmaker. As a student he directed the much acclaimed award winning shorts, ‘Nemesis’ (2008) and ‘Liten Penis’ (2009).
"Getting the music right is everything. The right soundtrack can make or break your film. I have no idea how many hours I've spent in recent years listening through music samples. But it's all worth it. The feeling you get when the music works with your scene is just amazing."

So how does a student filmmaker go about choosing music for a scene?
"9 out of 10 times I have a clear idea beforehand what kind of music I want. I usually hear music inside my head when I read/write a script so I go out searching for something similar. However there are of course limitations, especially when you have a close to nothing budget. This doesn't mean you can't get good music, it just means you have to spend a lot of time searching."

Furthermore, the use of sound doesn't just cover the soundtrack used, it also covers diagetic sounds and speech. Speech is crucial in my short film, after having my teacher read through my intial first draft of my script, it had made me realise that there is too much dialogue and that a lot of what I'mn trying to portray through the characters can be put across by facial expression and body language. Therefore speech is an important factor in short films as having too much in such a short space of time can make the piece appear rushed and too full. Diagetic sound is also very important in my piece as I am aiming to make it seem as realistic as possible, this means that it all has to sound very real as if it is just happening at the point of filming. So I have to make sure that all the sounds in my piece are picked up upon, especially at the very end with the dropping of the penny by the stranger. Other factors in diagetic sounds I need to focus on include the noises around the house and the shop, i feel that because my main character is supposed to be acting in a fragile state, all the small noises about the house and outside should be loud and overplayed such as the tweeting of the birds.