Guns. The staple foundation for a lot of young film-makers when they get started, myself included.

But there's one thing that makes gunshots seem to stick out like a sore thumb.

Repetition. The sound of it being copied and pasted on the timeline over and over. It pulls you out of the film.

Well here's a quick tip to help make your gunshots sound a little more organic.

So you have your sound effect.

A pistol shot.

Match it to your muzzle flash and you have a gun firing!

But if your subject fires in quick succession...like here...it starts to sound synthetic.

To avoid this, alter the speed of each sound. So this one is 90%, the next can go at 110%, and so on. Between 80-120% of your normal speed is usually a good bracket.

It sounds more embedded into the scene.

The sound of gunfire is just the bi-product of gun mechanics. It's a natural sound, and natural sounds are never identical. This method places the sounds back into reality.

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