Extra goes in-depth on 24’s Sound

The real-time thrills of Fox’s “24” race by at a heart-stopping pace. To make every second count, no detail is overlooked, especially the sound.

From frantic footfalls to a hail of bullets, “24” director and co-executive producer Stephen Hopkins believes sound design is critical to capturing the mood and building white-knuckle suspense. He says, “I’ve always been a sound nut. One of my movies won the sound Oscar, ‘The Ghost and the Darkness.’”

So when it came time to sweeten the sounds on “24,” he turned to the same Oscar-winning studio, Soundstorm, where William Dotsun and his sound effects wizards enhance, alter and replace almost everything you hear and even some of the dialogue. Kiefer Sutherland says, “Generally if you’re having a shootout or any kind of an action sequence, you’re looping it.”

Looping is the process where “24” star Kiefer Sutherland rerecords his dialogue by lip-syncing his lines.

To give a van crash a boost, added engine noise is recorded. To give the van’s crash punch they use a boxing glove, chain link fence, and a garbage can. Watching the scene on a giant screen, they have to time their sounds to match the crash exactly.

Now, that’s time well spent.