The sound sheet

Decide why the film sounds the way it does before anything is generated.

The music, sound and mix sheet:

• The sound idea for the film, opened by the question "why does this film sound the way it does?", or "none: a clean, real world". Write where the quietest and the loudest moments sit (the contrast map) [proven].

• Per scene: ambience, key effects, product sounds, silences, at least one off-screen layer where it helps, and one "listen" line: what the audience hears that the frame doesn't show, and whether a character reacts to it. A call to prayer and other culturally specific sounds go through the cultural check (see The brief and research → Culture).

• Music: role, genre and era, instruments, the tempo range in beats per minute (BPM), vocals, energy curve, sync points, qualities from references plus one or two opposites, and an avoid list. This becomes the music brief, and the music is made with Suno (decided) (see Music → The music brief).

• Lines: language, dialect, voice, placement. Mix priority per scene.

On the client page: one page in plain words, 70 words or fewer, with the energy curve drawn across the story strip. Never tracks you won't use. The sound idea becomes the page's first sentence where there is one.

How the sound is built later: Sound design and mix → Three layers and the order of the sound work.

Why: sound designers at the top of commercials ask to be involved at the script and write sound into treatments. Honda's The Other Side gave two worlds two soundscapes on one shared bed.

Sources

• Randy Thom (filmsound.org); Walter Murch (Transom Review); Factory (A Sound Effect; British Arrows); String and Tins (LBB); ENVY (LBB).