I’m going to make an argument that will get me in trouble with cinematographers: sound design is the single most important technical craft in filmmaking, and it’s the one that gets the least recognition. An audience will tolerate imperfect visuals if the story is compelling, but bad audio will make them walk out.

In Australian cinema specifically, sound design has been a quiet strength for decades. Australian sound designers and mixers have worked on some of the biggest international productions, and the local indie scene has benefited from their expertise. But we almost never talk about it.

Why Sound Matters More Than You Think

Here’s a simple experiment. Watch a scene from your favourite Australian film with the sound turned off. Now listen to just the audio without the picture. Which one tells you more about what’s happening emotionally? In most well-made films, the audio carries more emotional information than the visuals.

Sound design encompasses everything the audience hears that isn’t dialogue or music. Ambient sounds, foley effects, atmospheric textures, and designed sounds that may not correspond to anything visible on screen. Together with the dialogue recording, the music score, and the final mix, sound creates the complete audio experience of a film.

In Australian cinema, the landscape itself provides a distinctive sonic palette. The cicadas of a Queensland summer, the wind through dry grass in central Australia, the distant hum of a Melbourne laneway. Australian sound designers who understand these textures can create a sense of place that’s as distinctive as any visual.

Australian Sound Design Excellence

Australia has produced world-class sound practitioners. Wayne Pashley, David White, Andrew Plain, and many others have contributed to both Australian and international productions. The Australian screen industry’s sound expertise is disproportionate to the size of the market.

Part of this is infrastructure. Melbourne and Sydney have excellent sound recording and mixing facilities. Part of it is education: AFTRS and several university programs produce skilled sound graduates. And part of it is culture: there’s a tradition of taking sound seriously in Australian production that traces back to the revival era of the 1970s.

Sound Design on a Budget

For indie filmmakers, sound is often where corners get cut, and it’s the worst possible place to cut corners. A film with beautiful cinematography and terrible audio will feel amateurish. A film with adequate cinematography and great audio will feel professional.

If you’re working on a tight budget, here’s where to spend your sound money. First, get the location sound recording right. Hire a competent sound recordist with good equipment. The best sound design in the world can’t fix a poorly recorded dialogue track.

Second, budget for a proper sound mix. Even a modest sound mix with a skilled mixer will dramatically improve your film. Many Australian mixing studios offer reduced rates for independent productions, and some sound designers will work on deferred payment for projects they believe in.

Third, invest in foley. The custom creation of everyday sounds, footsteps, clothing rustle, object handling, is what gives a film its physical reality. Without good foley, even a well-shot film feels thin and disconnected.

Sound Design and AI

AI audio tools have entered the sound design space, and some are genuinely useful. AI-powered noise reduction can clean up location recordings that would previously have been unusable. AI-assisted audio restoration can improve archival material for documentaries.

However, the creative core of sound design remains firmly human. Designing the sonic world of a film requires artistic judgment that AI tools can’t replicate. The choice of which sounds to emphasise, which to suppress, and how the audio landscape changes with the emotional arc of a story is creative work that depends on human sensitivity.

The sound designers I’ve spoken to view AI tools as useful for technical tasks but irrelevant to creative decision-making. That assessment seems right to me.

Pay Attention

Next time you watch an Australian film, pay deliberate attention to the sound. Notice the ambient textures, the spatial quality of the dialogue, the way sound is used to create tension or release. You’ll start hearing the craft that goes into creating those audio landscapes, and you’ll never watch a film the same way again.

Australian sound design deserves more recognition in our critical conversations, our awards processes, and our appreciation of what makes a film work. It’s time we started listening properly.