"When reading the script for the first time, you'll get a lot more out of it if you do this from beginning to end with no interruption, and at a pace as close as possible to the final film pace (usually a minute per page.) if you can do this, you'll get a more accurate feeling of the storytelling pace and the rhythms inherent in the drama, and it will be your only opportunity to get it like a first time viewer. After this reading you'll be digging into individual elements, pulling things apart and putting them back together while consciously searching for creative solutions. So close the door, turn off the phone, and get into it for a few hours non stop, as if you were sitting in a movie theater. But leave the lights on and have a pencil in hand. You will use the pencil like a conductors's baton, nimbly marking the script as your eyes dance down the lines."

Page 2

As soon as I get the new script, I will do this. I know i needed to do this with the last script, but I wasn't sure I read it in the right environment, and it's hard to try and visualise and think of it sonically at the same time. 

Listen out for - 

"1. Sounds linked to people, objects, and actions on screen that are explicitly described.
2. environments that can be fleshed out with sonic ambiance.

3. Key words in both scene description and dialogue that give clues to the emotions of the scene (both of the character and the spectator)

4. moments of physical or dramatic transition."

Page 3

If you go through each scene and think of each character and what they might be doing/what is happening etc, it can help in the story boarding process/visualisation of the film because then the sounds can link to the action & heighten the amount going on in the scene. 

Sound is associated with genre, so if it was quiet, in a horror film, you would heighten any other sounds to add suspense & potential for jumping. 

There's a difference between sound for the characters and sound for the audience.

Turning points in the script also indicate changes in the sound design & soundtrack.

Predominant feeling before and after turning point.

Once you have read the script & broken it down, think of associative words for sounds, and group them together by type - action, object, emotion etc.

This example is to show polar opposites in sounds.

Visual Maps for Sound Design - 

Choose the polar opposite words, like life & death, & create a visual map so that you can determine how you will shift between them in the film. 

You can then create a second line for other themes, such as power/weakness.

Have a continued dialogue with the director to establish that you are on the same wave length in terms of the themes, types of emotion, how the character is/is feeling etc.

Sound map - draft

(is also used by editor)

Add the sounds that are the main ones that tell the story, and that you thought of during the script read. 

TIPS -

Reducing or removing shots that might be expensive or time consuming, by substituting the sounds.
Assist in the selection of locations by considering acoustic factors.

Indicating proper equipment and materials for specific sound recording situations.

Planning to record wild sounds on a location shoot can save time and money in post production. 

Page 24

I will continue to read this book and reference it for tips on how to do sound design, but I am really enjoying its simple explanation of what feels like a quite complicated process.