Students step into the shoes of professional sound designers and Foley artists, learning how to craft and manipulate sounds that bring movies to life. They’ll explore diegetic, non-diegetic, and trans-diegetic sounds, experiment with everyday objects to produce sound effects, and build their own Foley folio. The session culminates in composing an atmospheric poem soundtrack, blending creative writing with immersive sound design. Industry insight comes from star interviews with Ben Burtt (Wall-E) and real-world research into sound careers.

Students analyze how music evokes powerful emotions in film, focusing on techniques like drones, ostinatos, and dissonance. They listen to professional composers discuss the power of film music, then experiment with creating their own suspenseful phrases. The final project challenges students to compose and record an original piece inspired by a dramatic image, applying all the techniques they’ve learned to heighten tension and mood .

Students explore the mesmerizing Shepard Tone—a musical illusion of endless rising or falling pitch. They investigate the 12-tone scale, the physics of sound and auditory illusions. After a deep dive with sound design experts, students use digital tools to create their own Shepard Tone, learning how these advanced concepts enhance film and media soundtracks to create "ultimate suspense'.