Here we are at the start of another exciting year of football! Although the COVID-19 pandemic has caused the cancellation of college games and most high school games, the NFL intends to persevere. So for this week’s You Design challenge, we’re paying our respects to the larger-than-life American sport by giving our own pass of the coming-of-age, cult classic football film, Varsity Blues.
Sports films create their own unique challenge for sound. They require an extensive amount of foley and sound design like most action films, but they also require specific attention to the environment that they’re in. Each sport has its own distinct-sounding environment and stadium whose recreation must be delicately crafted in order to sell the scene. Then there’s the constant motion of sound—each sound is likely to move across the entire screen in a shot, so there is significant use of panning. Not to mention, sports films love slowed-down and sped-up shots—so the sounds used must be time-adjusted and properly EQ’d to create believable sound.