The Marriage Of Sound And Word
By Jack Perkins
A Fruitful Partnership
It has the potential to be a marriage made in heaven but the relationship between sound (be it an FX CD, actuality recorded in the field, or a carefully mixed sound bed) and the scripted word, can be an uneasy one. As in all good marriages, sound and word should exist together in harmony each supporting and enhancing the other, but this is not always the case.
A partnership of equals?
There is a tendency, especially in news and current affairs, to treat sound as the servant of the word. A piece opens with rushing water FX and is quickly faded under the script to allow the reporter to deliver facts about the flooded river and the threat it poses. Packages of this nature can be as short as 30 seconds, so it’s quite understandable that the message takes precedence and the role of sound is little more than introductory. But a longer piece may well allow sound to be more complementary. Here’s Amanda Strong on the banks of Wellington’s Hutt river reporting on a controversial move to draw off water from the river’s upper reaches.
Listen: Hutt River News Report
Download: MP3 (right click to save file)
In Amanda’s report, sound is working in tandem with the script. Sound and word are helping each other to communicate a picture rather than just conveying information. The sound also places Amanda on the riverbank and, of course, takes the listener there as well.
Words can explain and analyse, but sound can bypass the intellect and connect directly with the mind’s eye allowing each listener to create their own unique picture.
Section Contents
- 1 - The Marriage Of Sound And Word
- 2 - Sound Works Best With An ‘Open’ Script
- 3 - Beware Tautology
- 4 - The Imaginative Feature
- 5 - In Summary
Back to Main Menu