Recently, The One Academy hosted a sharing titled ‘Scoring & Sound Design in the Modern World’ by Kaiyun Wong, Executive Director of Music Administration at Sparks & Shadows and Alexandre Côté, Composer & Executive Producer at Somatone Interactive. Students were enlightened on the wonders of sound in this rare opportunity as the two speakers from Los Angeles shared in detail about what goes on behind scoring and sound designing in Hollywood, as well as provided industrial knowledge and career advice. The audience listened in rapt attention as they were entertained with video clips that showed best the use and importance of sound and music in film and games.

Kaiyun is more involved in the executive, project management side where she coordinates, handles and manages things in the music production company she works at. Some of her notable work include the AAA video game God of War, films Happy Death Day, 10 Cloverfield Lane, and television series The Walking Dead, Agents of S.H.I.E.L.D. and Black Mirror. On the other hand, Alexandre does composition, sound design, and was previously involved in the film industry but is recently more centred to games. He has done audio contributions for The Nun, Penny Dreadful, and Nocturnal Animals, just to name a few.

Both speakers graduated from the prestigious Berklee College of Music in Boston, USA. They talked about the workflow in the industry to give students a picture of what it means so that when they step into the working world in their various fields, they will be prepared to face the challenges. They gave detailed explanation on what is scoring, what is sound design, industry workflow, audio team members, possible pitfalls and examples of successful scoring.

Enthusiastic students thronged the venue as the sharing’s topic of sound and music is relevant to their studies such as Advertising, Digital Animation & Game Development, Visual Effects and Digital Media Design. As technology advances, so does consumers’ expectations. In this digital age where animated actions make for a more interesting content, it is no longer enough to look amazing, but to sound equally wonderful as well. A great combination of visual and sound heightens user experience and delivers the intended impact.

Scoring is the art of applying audio to visuals to elicit a particular emotional response from the audience. Musical score can amplify emotion on screen, highlight underlying or unspoken emotion, ‘Mickey Mousing’ or mimic the action exactly, establish the setting or time period, and showcase a character’s psychology or thoughts. Sound design is the application of non-musical audio to picture. It is used for dramatic effect, emphasis of on-screen sounds, VFX, replacing location sound, and for animation where there is no sound at all, thus sound has to be created.

“No matter where you are in your career path, you should be humble about your work, and always be kind to others. This industry is incredibly volatile, so wherever you’re at, make the kind gestures that are genuine. Always remember that we’re all here to support each other in this crazy career path of entertainment,” advised Alexandre.

[The One Academy of Communication Design was established in 1991 with the aim of promoting the region as the world’s center of creative reference. Strategically located in the thriving creative hub of Bandar Sunway, Selangor, with a branch in Georgetown, Penang, The One Academy is today a top notch leading international institute in art, design and creative multimedia, renowned with graduates who steer successful careers in creative capitals worldwide. The courses offered are Digital Media Design, Digital Animation with Game Development, Film Visual Effects, Illustration, Movie & Game Art, Advertising & Graphic Design, Interior Design, Paris Fashion Design & Pattern Making and Fine Arts.]