Writing For Ears, not Eyes

So, one of the most basic tips you’ll ever get on screen writing is “Show me, don’t tell me.” It’s considered one of the most rudimentary of all techniques, because throwing the plot into the dialogue is a mistake only very inexperienced screen writers make.

However, what “show me, don’t tell me” doesn’t mean, is “everything in your movie has to be visual.” All it means is don’t solve your plot problems with dialogue like this… “Hello Don, we’ve never met before, but aren’t you the brilliant Nobel Prize winning scientist, who is the world’s greatest living authority on Phages” in a movie where the world is under threat from a rampant killer phage.

As someone who started out their writing career in Radio, I know all too well it’s possible create great visuals, with sound… in fact, I’ll go so far as to say it’s possible to create better visuals with sound that with pictures… because when you tell your story with sound, people use their imaginations, and it’s always going to be true, people will imagine a better image than we can create in camera.

If you want to test out this theory, listen to the original Radio series of “The Hitchhiker’s Guide to the Galaxy” and then watch the film… the radio series is just two million percent better.

Now, the fantastic thing about this, is great sound writing increases production values but actually is mind numbingly cheap.

Here are three areas I think any screen writer or film maker might consider at the script stage, in order to make full use of sound as a creative and evocative story telling tool:

SOUND AS LANDSCAPE

Instead of thinking of your locations as merely eye-candy, what do they add to the story as ear-candy? The soundscape of any film often cues the audience to what they are supposed to feel; an effect most often created by music… but, what if your location’s acoustic landscape also evoked the mood you’re trying to create?

Think for instance of the harsh, oppressive, industrial setting for the final act of Aliens… how much does the overpowering industrial noise, add to the vulnerability of the protagonist? She can’t see where the alien is… she also can’t hear it coming. Not only that, the metallic, industrial soundscape is oppressive in and of itself…

Now, it would have been possible to write that sequence in a completely different environment, one where it was deathly quiet… and there the distant scuttling sounds, would have helped to build tension… an environment so quiet, the terrified protagonist’s own heartbeat and breathing is magnified to unbelievable proportions.

To do this well, you need to understand two things about sound… one is that it’s relative, in that a sound is loud or soft relative to it’s environment… and two, in a pattern of repeating sounds, a new sound in a different frequency will pop into people’s consciousness… even if it’s at the same volume. (Think about this for a while… it’s a bit like depth of field in vision)

Either way… by picking an acoustic landscape with a particular feel, this automatically will start to effect how you tell the story. In a noisy environment, you can’t cue your actors to the presence of the bad guy, with a sound of a gun clip being changed.

SOUND AS METAPHOR

Sound in films is never a faithful recording of reality… sounds are used like a language, to convey meaning. So, for instance, in the Sergio Leone Spagetti Westerns, the gun fire sounds are not recordings of actual period pistols… they are the sounds the sound designer found most pleasing and most effective. Personally, I think they’re kind of musical, which would fit with Leone’s idea of Western as Opera.

More common than this, is the idea of cue sounds… for instance the sound of a crow being used to cue the idea of impending violent and supernatural death.

What I see more and more in TV production, is sound used as a transition element… the shot flashes to white, and you hear a whoosh… the transition has it’s own sound effect.

Some of these sound decisions are definitely post-production… but I’d ask you to consider whether you can’t use sound as a symbolic element. For instance, in my latest spec script the chimes of an ancient pocket watch is used in conjunction with a particular character. I do this so I can tell the audience she is present in a later scene, even where she can’t be seen.

SOUND AS THE WORLD”S GREATEST VISUAL EFFECTS

As I mentioned earlier, the audience’s imagination will create bigger, better, gorier and more spectacular than anything you can show them. The way to trigger their imagination is to provide visual hints… and then fill in the blanks with sound.

Try this as an experiment - film the following sequence:

A man duct taped to a chair is shown an axe… the killer swings the axe and cuts the man’s leg off.

Now, if you do this all in picture you’ll have to figure out how you’re going to create a false leg to chop off… how it’s going to react to the axe to get a believable effect and how the blood is going to spatter.

It’s not an easy set-up; it’ll take time and money; and, it’ll not look that great because the audience knows it’s only make-believe and will automatically try to figure out how you did it. All of which adds up to LESS horror.

Now, same sequence… except this time the killer shows the man the axe, swings it back… we then watch the man’s horrified reaction in close up… and the sound of an axe smashing into human flesh fills in the blanks. (An axe or hammer taken to a really big, firm melon is the sound you’re looking for… LOL)… now, in this case, the fear in the man’s eyes and the sound of the impact will cause the audience’s stomachs to turn… because their imaginations will fill in the blanks.

Many visual effects sequences can be achieved better with sound, than with pictures.

Basically, by thinking about how you write for the audience’s ears and imagination, you’ll find a new dimension to your screenplays and your films.

And, this article is just the start of the process… if I’ve wetted your appetite for sound design at the script level then you might want to read this article by Randy Thom… Hollywood’s Mr. Sound. Don’t be put off by the idea that it’s about sound design for film… just remember, like all elements of a movie the design starts with the script.

[sound design] [screen writing] [Randy Thom]