The ‘Truth of Sound’: Exploring the effects of an immersive location sound recording methodology within realist filmmaking

Abstract

The art of location-based sound recording specifically has been a neglected area of academic research. I seek to address this by drawing critical attention to the intricacies and skills involved in location sound recording within realist filmmaking – both scripted and unscripted. I show how this art continues to be central to the creative process of production, in driving the narrative and shaping the text’s influence, within the pro-filmic space. I hypothesize that the realist sound recordist’s role has an authorial voice and a creative agency. I seek to reimagine and develop an ontological redefinition of location sound recording by proposing that a reinvigoration of the realist genre – unscripted in particular – can be achieved by connecting the storytelling skills in recording for single camera with the new opportunities afforded by the emerging technologies of immersive field sound recording – ambisonics being a vital part of that development. I argue that deploying an ambisonics-centred location sound recording methodology, fused with the existing art of recording actuality sound will offer new creative opportunities for realist makers and audiences, now presented with an exciting ability to experience a sense of the geographical place and physical event that immersive audio delivers.