Make a scene: Creating immersive theatre-of-the-mind moments in audio
The best audio always transports the audience to a place, or a moment they feel they can picture.
By Grace Pashley, Senior Producer
What would Bill Clinton’s shoes sound like as they entered a White House bathroom, seeking the young intern who he’d just spilt pizza on?
What exact golf club did model Elin Nordegren use as she smashed in the windscreen of her cheating then-husband Tiger Woods?
Was it smooth or avant-garde jazz playing at the bar actors Jason Momoa and Lisa Bonet met at? Was the bar crowded? And what drinks did they order? CAN I PLEASE BE A FLY ON THE WALL AT THAT BAR?!
These are all questions we asked ourselves when bringing these pivotal ‘scenes’ to life in the celebrity relationships podcast Hooked, Hitched & Hung Up.
While a ‘scene’ might seem like a visual word, you can of course create a world or conjure up a visual moment with sound. Creating a scene in audio can take many forms. They can be scripted and constructed with overt sound effects, or you can bolster ad-libbed conversation with subtle production music to hint at the feeling in a moment.
Each episode in Hooked, Hitched & Hung Up had both scripted scenes (where the two hosts, Brittany Hockley and Laura Byrne, would re-enact the most dramatic moments from a celebrity relationship), but also audio scenes built around key plot points (told more casually by the pair.)
These scripted scenes were extremely fun to build. The show’s job is to entertain the audience so we had permission to go wild in our re-creations and play off Britt and Laura’s personalities to bring these moments to life.
We follow some guiding questions when building a scene:
What is the scene trying to communicate?
The components of a scene should never get in the way of what you’re trying to say. So if you’re working on a show that has serious subject matter and you’ve reached a tense moment in the story, you don’t want the effects to detract from the story.
In the Hooked, Hitched & Hung Up episode that covered actors Demi Moore and Ashton Kutcher’s relationship there’s a segment where host Britt talks about their miscarriage. It’s a serious topic in a not-so-serious podcast, but it’s also a key scene we wanted to emphasise with sound. So in contrast to some of the more bombastic scenes with lots of effects, we used sombre production music that sat underneath the vocal track. It served to keep the momentum going but also made the audience picture the couple’s emotions during a tough time.
Have we got a sense of place? Where is the scene playing out?
Building a world really draws the listener into your story.
Sometimes this will be easy as there are literal elements of a story you can re-create in sound, like actors Jason Momoa and Lisa Bonet meeting in a jazz bar. You’ve got the clinking glasses, hum of voices, and jazz music in the bar.
But there are other details from the story you can add to give the scene momentum and a timeline. Momoa rode a motorbike there, so you can bring in the sound of an engine coming to a stop, and add footsteps on gravel as he walks up and into the bar.
You aren’t always gifted with neat scenes when you’re re-telling a story, but usually there’s a thread you can pull. For Bennifer’s episode, we created the moment Ben Affleck called Variety Magazine and took out a full-page ad praising J Lo’s performance in a movie they co-starred in. With a little creative license, we imagined what the call would have sounded like when Affleck rang the magazine to place the ad: the phone buzzing, ambient noises of a busy media office, and Affleck’s affectionate voice down the line, explaining this charming overture to the sales department.
The best audio always transports the audience to a place, or a moment they feel they can picture. Placing scenes also give a show momentum and colour, adding to the tension or suspense you’re building.