Unless you’re a professional, and your production company pays a union crew, you shouldn’t bother trying to create a movie or video with top-notch production value.
As outlined in this post, picture can suck. Special effects can suck. (They’re actually funnier when they’re bad.)
However, there’s one place where good production value matters, even if you’re an amateur: on your soundtrack.
Audiences will tolerate crappy picture all day. South Park is living proof that extremely crude images are an acceptable norm.
But crappy sound? Unacceptable.
George Lucas learned this lesson on Star Wars. When he screened the first movie for his colleagues before he had dubbed the voices, put in sound effects, or added music, they didn’t think much of it. When Darth Vader walked through the corridors of the Tantive IV, they could hear the wooden planks of the set clattering under his feet. His voice was that of nonthreatening bit-player David Prowse, sounding like he was talking through a plastic cup.
Everyone giggled at the movie and felt sorry for poor George.
But when he added John Williams’ epic score, James Earl Jones’ menacing voice, and Darth Vader’s creepy breathing device, everyone paid attention—everyone.
He realized sound is more than 50 percent of the experience.
Notice the phenomenon on low-budget TV shows and documentaries. They often use grainy, low-res footage from phones, security cameras, and worse. But we don’t care—we don’t even notice. We forgive it all if the sound is good. If there’s a stereo music bed or a slick narrator recorded on a good mic, we’re good.
The best part about good sound is that it’s a lot cheaper than good picture. Almost anyone can afford a decent mic, a few sound effects, and some royalty-free music.
Sound matters. Do it right.
Bookmarking this in case my own sci fi screenplay somehow ends up getting produced!
You're absolutely right. Good sound is one of my must-haves when I do videos or podcasts. Having only one lung after a medical disaster, when I do videos or my podcast, I tend to take heavy breaths after a sentence or two. I edit those breaths out and it's fine. It's also fun to pay attention to good foley sound editing when watching movies and shows. It's a real art.