Though the camera, lighting, and set design can certainly affect the quality of a production, more often than not it is the sound design that separates a film from the pack. Sound has an unbelievable ability to not only surround an audience in the atmosphere of the film, but also transport them in a way that images cannot. Like many big-budget science fiction and action films, sound plays an important role in Prometheus. If you haven't seen it yet, it certainly is one of those films that deserves a viewing for its production design alone. SoundWorks Collection has put together a tremendous resource for those interested in sound and sound design, and this video detailing the sound design in Prometheus is no exception:

There's no question that sound is important if you want to make a successful film. It has a tremendous ability to fill in the gaps that are missing from the visuals. By using everyday items, there is a sense of familiarity even with a movie set almost 100 years in the future. It takes quite a bit of creativity to find real-world items that can be recorded and manipulated to create the many varied and layered sounds in a film like Prometheus. If you are wondering why your production seems lacking, even though your visuals are fantastic, your answer might be hiding somewhere in your sound design.

On another note, Prometheus was color graded entirely in Blackmagic (Davinci) Resolve. Company 3 used Resolve and a (expensive) control surface to grade the film in 3D (since it was shot in 3D using RED Epics). It's remarkable that a movie with a budget over $100 million dollars used software that comes free with the new Blackmagic Cinema Camera. Of course, they might have a few more toys to take advantage of the program, but it shows you that if a program is good enough for a major feature film, it's certainly going to be good enough for an independent feature. If you're interested in seeing a more independent film graded on Resolve, Koo's Scarlet short film was completely corrected and graded in that software.

Link: SoundWorks Collection - Prometheus

[via Film School Rejects]

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Sound & Music