Can Sound Design Save A Viedo?

I recently came upon a project that was a bit of a challenge. The project was filmed with minimal to low light in the dark without the corresponding iso/aperture settings to amplify picture quality (they used a Sony A6500). It was my job to "fix" it in post. I found that there was only so much that I could of done with the color correction without forcing the picture quality to diminish into utter grain. I lowered the blacks, moved the exposure by 1.5 and dropped the temperature as much as naturally possible, and lastly played around with the highlights and shadows. To complement the lack of picture quality I resorted to sound design by using the in mic audio as a map.

One of my favorite things to create is ambiance environments, in this case, the scene took place in a highway overpass at night time. I layerd in wind, cars moving by,and some night crickets . The tricky part for me was being able to make the song playing sound like it is coming out of a radio for both the interior and exterior shots. I had so much fun playing around with the different levels, ranges, pitches, and reverbs (I LOVE REVERBS). Eventually, out of trial and error I managed to land on the right sound. Lastly, I worked on the detailed movements such as the door opening/ closing, the character walking, trunk opening from an inside of the car POV etc.

I believe that sound design can most definitely help pick up where visual representation is lacking. Sound is so important without it you have nothing!!! Sound helps amplify mood, tempo, emotional stimulus. Can one rely on sound to save a film? In my opinion no but I can sure make up for the lack thereof.

Peek the video below to check out the before and after!!!!