Syllabus

The full signed syllabus, including university policies, is available as a PDF .

Course

DAD 310 — Sound Design for Film. 3 credits. Fall 2026, Dakota State University. Prerequisites: DAD 222 and MUS 204.

This course is an introduction to sound design for film and linear media. Students examine and analyze the use of music, dialogue, and sound effects for narrative storytelling. Topics include microphone techniques, foley, field recording, sound design, and mixing.

Meetings

Monday, Wednesday and Friday, 2:00–2:50 pm, Tunheim Classroom Building 209.

Instructor

Tate Carson · TCB 305 · tate.carson@dsu.edu

Office hours are Monday, Wednesday, and Friday, 10:00–10:50 am and 12:00–1:50 pm.

Final exam

Monday, December 14, 3:30–5:30 pm — you present your final project.

Learning outcomes

By the end of the course you will be able to:

1. Critically analyze a film with respect to its aesthetic and technical sound components.
2. Plan and create an original sound design for a short film.
3. Record original sound effects, backgrounds, and voice recordings.
4. Identify the roles and responsibilities of the sound designer in a professional film.

Semester at a glance

The schedule has the day-by-day plan. In broad strokes:

• Weeks 1–2 — Sound design in film; listening, soundscapes, and the sound walk
• Weeks 3–5 — Foley: aesthetics, live performance (Assignment 1), and studio recording (Assignment 2); Foley workshops and rehearsals, with optional REAPER review
• Weeks 6–8 — Setting and mood; field recording with the Zoom recorders (Assignment 3)
• Weeks 9–11 — Editing and processing sound effects (Assignment 4); reverb, space, and time
• Week 12 — Sound synthesis for science fiction (Assignment 5)
• Weeks 13–15 — Ambiences (Assignment 6); final project proposals and spotting
• Week 16 and finals — Full-draft presentations; final project presented at the exam

Three at-home screenings run alongside: WALL-E, The Zone of Interest (or Nope), and A Quiet Place, each with a screening log .

Materials

No required textbook. Studio-quality headphones are required and available to rent if you need a pair. We work in REAPER, with Vital for synthesis and SoundQ and Freesound for library material.

Grading

Attendance and participation 30% · Assignments 50% · Final project 20%.

90% and above = A · 80–89% = B · 70–79% = C · 60–69% = D · 59% and below = F.

Attendance and participation (30%)

• Attendance (20%) — three absences are free; after that, 10 points come off a 50-point attendance pot for each additional absence (see the attendance policy below).
• Participation (10%) — graded complete/incomplete, earned by the small assignments and in-class exercises:
  • The sound walk journal
  • The Earth.fm narrative share
  • Gain-staging and field-recording lab work
  • Independent work-day deliverables during the ATMI conference week
  • The in-class spotting presentation and the full-draft feedback session
  • Spoken feedback during critique and listening sessions — one specific observation and one concrete suggestion when a classmate’s work is played

Attendance and make-up policy

Students are expected to attend all scheduled classes. After three absences, 10 points will be deducted from the 50-point attendance pot for each additional absence.

Late work will only be accepted with a documented excuse. Students may redo work they received an undesirable grade on once, but only if they turned in something by the original due date. The deadline for redoing work is one week after the original due date. After this time, no late work will be accepted.

Communication

• Email: tate.carson@dsu.edu — the preferred contact method. I will respond within 48 hours during the school week.
• Office hours: see above, or book a meeting .
• Feedback on assignments: within 1–2 weeks of the due date.

AI tools

Audio software increasingly ships with AI features, and they aren’t all alike. Tools that process your own recordings, such as stem separation or noise reduction, are fine to use in this class; mention them in your submission notes the same way you’d name a sample source. Tools that generate the creative material itself, such as sound effect or full-song generators, don’t belong in graded work unless an assignment says otherwise. When you’re not sure which side of the line a tool falls on, ask before you submit. If this territory interests you, DAD 492 (Topics: AI and Music) spends a whole semester on it.

University policies

University policies (accessibility, academic integrity, freedom in learning, grade appeals, and student support) are in the official syllabus posted on D2L.

The signed syllabus

This page is the readable version. The signed PDF below is the official document and carries the university policies in full.

Open the syllabus in a new tab