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Electric car

joe_griffin

Tossing this one to the group for thoughts: I'm cutting a film where one of the leads drives a completely electric BMW car. I went out to do vehicle recordings and found that the car is silent. No motor noise whatsoever. I've cut in the sound of tires on gravel, and that's cool, but I wonder if leaving out an engine noise will leave the audience confused. (and the car is not going fast enough that a whoosh-by would make any sense) As we transition to a world with silent cars, what do we do? I don't want to cut in engine noises and have anyone who knows this car tell me I did it wrong. But I'm not sure how to sell the moment otherwise.

What do y'all think?

Mike

I would say if you have no obligations to BMW and the director likes the idea of putting some synthetic/servo engine noises in, have at it. If it helps tell the story and make it feel more advanced and tech like, it works. Depending on the scene though, I also think it being extremely quiet and only hearing the road noise could be cool.

Any cool examples out there floating around of what other people have done?

joe_griffin

MikeQuell wrote:
I would say if you have no obligations to BMW and the director likes the idea of putting some synthetic/servo engine noises in, have at it. If it helps tell the story and make it feel more advanced and tech like, it works. Depending on the scene though, I also think it being extremely quiet and only hearing the road noise could be cool.

Any cool examples out there floating around of what other people have done?

Thanks! There's no connection with BMW, and I'm pretty sure the director will like what I wound up doing – I combined an electric wheelchair motor with some tires on gritty pavement/gravel (as I said above), and it seems to sell the visual pretty well.