By Kenneth L. Johnson
Sound is storytelling. It guides viewers emotion, units rhythm and shapes how a story lands, typically earlier than viewers even notice it. Over the previous twenty years as a supervising sound designer, I’ve discovered that each alternative in publish, regardless of how small, has the facility to raise — or diminish — a narrative. From historic dramas like John Adams to Netflix’s Perpetually and Kevin Hart’s animated comedy Lil Kev, I’ve had the privilege of exploring how sound defines tone, id and viewers expertise.
Ken Johnson
Navigating Hollywood With Function
Once I first entered the business, I used to be regularly the one Black skilled within the room. Delicate biases, systemic obstacles and tokenism had been a part of the on a regular basis terrain. These experiences may have been discouraging, however they grew to become classes in resilience. Each footstep I layered, each ambient monitor I crafted and each combine I finalized was a chance to show that ability and creativity transcend notion.
One key takeaway I share with youthful engineers is that this: Presence issues, however so does intention. Don’t simply observe the workflow; observe, query and perceive why each inventive choice exists. Sound doesn’t merely accompany visuals; it shapes how viewers interpret them. Approaching your craft with intentionality ensures that your work carries each technical precision and narrative weight.
Mentorship as a Technical Compass
Mentorship has been essential in my growth, each by way of profession steerage and technical and inventive development. I’ve discovered invaluable classes from business veterans like Victor Ray Ennis, Mark Stoeckinger and Scott Hecker, together with about workflow effectivity, dialogue modifying, ADR, Foley, sign routing and delicate mixing selections that may remodel a scene. Mentorship is greater than a hand-holding train; it’s about educating the craft in context — how your sound interacts with image, music and story.
Ken Johnson mentored White Corridor Arts Academy founder Tanisha Corridor and college students of the Academy’s Soundworks program.
I encourage rising professionals to actively search mentors who problem them, query assumptions and push them to refine each their craft and their judgment. And while you’re ready to information others, pay it ahead. This ripple impact strengthens each people and the business.
The Craft Behind the Sound
Sound design is the place expertise meets artistry. Each choice, regardless of how minute, impacts how an viewers perceives a narrative. Listed here are a couple of rules I dwell by:
- Spatialization: Creating an immersive atmosphere is greater than panning and reverb. It’s about sculpting a scene’s dimensionality in order that the viewers feels current inside it. Correct spatialization can improve pressure, intimacy or comedic timing with out ever calling consideration to itself.
- Frequency and Tonality: Dialogue should lower via with out masking key results or music. Sculpting the frequency spectrum rigorously ensures readability whereas retaining emotional resonance.
- Dynamic Vary and Layering: Delicate ambiences, Foley and sound results mix to offer depth and texture to a scene. Understanding when to layer or to go away house is crucial. Overcrowding the combo will be simply as dangerous as below designing it.
- Timing and Pacing: Comedic timing, suspenseful beats or emotional crescendos typically hinge on milliseconds. Sound regularly dictates the rhythm of a scene, and the fitting timing can dramatically amplify the viewers’s response.
Technical experience alone doesn’t make an incredible sound designer. Listening deeply — to each the scene and the viewers — is simply as crucial. Ask your self continuously: “Does this alternative serve the story?” If the reply is sure, you’re heading in the right direction.
Fairness within the Room
Variety in publish manufacturing is as very important as variety on display screen. I really imagine that completely different views result in richer storytelling, nuanced textures and inventive options that may in any other case go unnoticed. Broadening entry to technical roles ensures that narratives will not be solely genuine but additionally resonate extra broadly.
I typically remind rising professionals: Discover your house, personal it and help others as they do the identical. Mentorship, collaboration and advocacy for inclusion aren’t simply ethical imperatives; they’re important for elevating the craft itself.
BET’s Lil Kev
Classes From Excessive-Profile Tasks
Engaged on initiatives like Perpetually and Lil Kev demonstrates how sound drives viewers engagement throughout genres. In animation, comedic timing is instantly influenced by sound cues, and each influence, pause and impact should really feel natural. In live-action dramas, delicate ambiences or the feel of a sound impact can intensify suspense, emotion or realism. Every undertaking jogs my memory that sound doesn’t exist in isolation; it interacts with modifying, cinematography and efficiency to create a whole narrative expertise.
Reflections and Recommendation From Expertise
Submit manufacturing will be intense. Tight deadlines, complicated expertise and inventive conflicts are constants. My recommendation is to deal with development, not simply output. Experiment boldly with instruments, acoustics and strategies, however at all times tether your experimentation to storytelling. Study to steadiness technical perfection with emotional resonance. Probably the most impactful mixes are those who make the viewers really feel one thing with out drawing consideration to themselves.
Sound is delicate, but important. It strikes audiences, shapes narratives and carries emotion in methods visuals alone can’t. By combining technical mastery, inventive perception and an intentional strategy to mentorship and fairness, we will proceed to craft tales that resonate — each sonically and culturally.
Kenneth L. Johnson is an Emmy-winning supervising sound designer. He based Burbank/Atlanta-based Artistry in Sound, a full-service sound firm specializing in sound design, editorial and mixing for movie, tv, animation and immersive media.
