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A sound stage (also written soundstage) is a large, Soundproofing structure, building or room with large doors and high ceilings, used for the production of theatrical film-making and television productions, usually located on a secured film studio or television studio property.
Compared to a silent stage, a sound stage is sound-proofed so that sound can be recorded along with the images. The recordings are known as production sound. Because most sound in movies, other than dialogue, is added in post-production, this generally means that the main difference between the two is that sound stages are used for dialogue scenes, but silent stages are not. An alternative to production sound is to record additional dialogue during post-production (known as dubbing).
The and of the building containing the sound stage must be heavily soundproofed, so the structure must be sturdy and capable of accepting such additional features and loads, or a new building specifically designed with the features and to bear the loads is required, which often is the less expensive alternative to retrofitting an existing structure because of engineering issues.
Buildings without soundproofing still are referred to as silent stages and may be used where the dialogue and other sounds are recorded as a separate operation. This separate operation usually involves the principal actors doing synchronized dialogue replacement voice recordings over a working cut of the film, specialized language actors doing a secondary language dubbing or for the filming of special effects.
A sound stage, unlike a silent stage, requires caution to avoid making noise anywhere within range of the audio recording equipment.
Sound stages make filmmaking more efficient because they are less vulnerable to external noises which often interfere with filming on location: car horns, aircraft, and emergency vehicle sirens.
A sound stage traditionally has a large red light above or next to each exterior door. When the light starts blinking, it means shooting is in progress. Anyone who opens the door at that point will introduce external sound and light and ruin the take in progress.
When a studio is home to multiple sound stages, they tend to all look alike from the outside: giant beige box-shaped buildings. Sound stages are marked on the exterior with large numbers to help distinguish them.
Another benefit of sound stages is that they can be rented on a long-term basis for television production. Permanent sets can be installed, properly lit, and used again and again. Filming on location means having to build or dress temporary sets and then strike them later.
Sound stages allow for complete control over lighting, to the extent of filming nighttime scenes during the day and vice versa.
In contrast, when filming on location in real-world buildings, professional lighting equipment must be placed on the floor where it will radiate heat energy and constantly get in the way, ceilings are short, and walls cannot be removed. As a practical matter, filming inside real buildings often means that multiple cast and crew members and a lot of expensive filmmaking equipment are all jammed together inside a tiny, hot and cluttered space. This may severely limit artistic choices.
Rental of a sound stage entails an expensive process, but working on a sound stage saves time when setting up for production as long as access to all of the necessary technical equipment, personnel, and supplies is readily available. As all the scenes can be filmed on the sets inside the sound stage, using it also eliminates having to move the production from location to location.
With the use of Chroma key (whereby backgrounds are inserted electronically behind the actors in the finished film) and a sound stage, extensive control of the production process is achieved.
Benefits of such a setup include total control of a scene; dusk and dawn can last all day. Not only can time of day or number of light sources be manipulated at will, but portions of the volume off-screen can be turned completely white to add fill lighting from a given direction, or they can be turned off to darken that area. They can also function as a typical green/blue screen for Chroma key by displaying the solid color behind the performers. Having a physical space where actors can see their environment and inform their performances accordingly is something that most greenscreen sets lack.
The controlled visual environment also allows directors and cinematographers the ability to better create mise-en-scène, with greater control over the set, and the ability to see the final image as they are creating it. Where these volumes are especially beneficial is in having light behave perfectly realistically on transparent, translucent, and very reflective materials. These types of objects, such as eyeglasses, glassware, and shiny armor, are often very difficult to deal with in a conventional chroma key work flow. This technique also minimizes the amount of tedious rotoscoping work required in post-production to cut out what was not picked up by chroma keying.
The downside to this setup is that unlike with greenscreen, whatever was filmed is final in terms of visual environment (as is the case with filming on any normal set or location). By contrast, a greenscreen film segment can essentially be swapped to anything at any point in post-production.
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