Holy Production Tracks, Batman!

I try to avoid reading anything about a movie I'm excited about before I see it, which is becoming more difficult in our media-saturated world. And so, I waited to read FilmSoundDaily!'s excellent articles about the sound for The Dark Knight until after I'd taken in a screening.

I've now gone twice (two short of the minimum nerd quota, but hey, I've been busy). The first was at Cinetopia in Vancouver, WA., an all-digital cinema with some of the best sound-systems I've ever heard (and this is from a former THX auditorium junkie).

The second time was in IMAX. As I wipe the drool from my chin, let me tell you that it was an absolutely amazing experience, with the same power and spectacle that the movies used to hold for me when I was a kid, before I was spoiled on DVD and home surround systems. Certain sequences of the film were shot in IMAX 70mm 15-perf, filling four stories of screen with an incredibly sharp and lushly detailed image

And the sound...huge, dynamics for days, rib-shaking lows and crystalline highs, punch-you-in-the-gut and smack-you-in-the-face, but in a good way. It was cinema as it should be: larger than life, and turned up to 11.

So, um, yeah...I liked it. :)

But the best b-chain in the world is nothing without a quality mix. FSD talks to production sound mixer Ed Novick about the challenges of getting good tracks on one of the biggest movies of the year. Snip:

FSD: Nolan said in a recent interview, “I just think separating the voice from the face and the body is very tricky… It is, after all, blatantly unreal.” With an established dislike of ADR, was Nolan more accepting of input from you on set?

EN: Chris likes to use the production sound for the final, yes. And if during shooting I can identify a problem - that’s fine. But he expects me to have a solution, as well. His method of shooting one camera at a time is very sound-friendly. I think we both agree that matching the camera perspective (wide shots sound more distant than close-ups) is correct, and that a well-positioned overhead boom mic will be better than a lavalier hidden under the clothing...

Chris made sure that sound was invited to every location scout (emphasis added). Many potential problems are solved this way, as issues like generator placement and cable-entry can be worked out in advance. This movie had a number of locations in practical office buildings, so identifying location issues (escalators, air-conditioning, elevator dings, etc…) early can help make them go away on the day. James McCallister (location manager) and his location team were terrific in this regard.

See? It can be done, folks. I've ranted previously about this very thing, and it's refreshing to see a director care as much for that ephemeral quality of sound captured in the moment. It does make a difference, and going the extra mile certainly didn't hurt the movie's bottom line. What's even more telling is this quote from Supervising Sound Editor Richard King, in his interview with FSD:

Chris likes the sound of production.I think there's maybe half a dozen looped lines in the whole movie.

King goes on to say that Novick was very diligent in getting wild tracks of anything that might have been called into question in post.

Now, I'm fully aware of why looping is so prevalent on bigger budget productions: it's the economy, stupid. It's far cheaper to have two or three editors and one actor re-record the lines in a controlled environment later than it is to make one hundred-plus crew and expensive talent hold for that plane. But you sacrifice something else when you do ADR, something that can't be replaced or imitated, that very subtle but integral connection to an event in an acoustic space. Novick and crew did their very best, with the approval and encouragement of the director, to maintain that connection, and the results speak for themselves.

FilmSoundDaily links:

Dark Knight Part One
Dark Knight Part Two
Dark Knight Part Three

And It's The Celtix By 1

Celtix, the open-source pre-production and screenplay writing program, has just been released as Version 1.0.

Did I mention it was free?

Based on the Mozilla application framework, Celtix can be used for more than just script formatting; it's essentially a one-stop shop for nearly every aspect of pre-production, from department-specific script breakdowns to scheduling.

Did I mention it was free?

Until today, Celtix has been in beta. Version 1.0 brings some new features, including:

Adapt To - a single click now converts a fully formatted script of one type into a fully formatted script of another - for example a Stageplay to a Screenplay - displaying instantly the multi-media potential of your work.

Comic Book - a new editor to write properly formatted Comic Books, and a common framework for collaboration between writer and artist.

iPhone - now view your Celtx projects from just about anywhere with a display optimized for your iPhone.

Catalogs - a new organization and searchable dashboard view of all your story's elements and production items.

Sidebar - annotate and break down each scene with notes, media (images, audio, and video clips), and production items through an easy to manage, thoroughly upgraded new sidebar.

Project Scheduling - has been vastly upgraded to fully integrate with the script breakdown and provide a Call Sheet and a host of new shooting reports.

Storyboarding - as requested, you can now choose from a variety of ways to view and manage your images, create a storyboard outline based on your script, and add shot descriptions to each image.

As always, it is cross-platform, and available in over ten different languages.

Did I mention it was free?

www.celtix.com

Quiet On Set

Wired.com is featuring an article about the ever-increasing level of man-made noise pollution, and its impact on the biosphere. Snip:

Krause has a word for the pristine acoustics of nature: biophony. It's what the world sounds like in the absence of humans. But in 40 percent of the locations where Krause has recorded over the past 40 years, human-generated noise has infiltrated the wilderness. "It's getting harder and harder to find places that aren't contaminated," he says.

From a filmmaking standpoint, it's becoming nearly impossible to find an area completely devoid of background noise. For Car Trouble 2: Them's the Brakes, the first project I ever did audio post for, the director and I drove four hours in every direction over two days to try to get some clean background tracks (or atmos, for those of you across the pond) and came up empty handed. Ultimately, we ended up looping nearly every line, and creating the remaining sounds from scratch using library tracks, recorded years ago when you actually stood a chance at getting a clear recording.

Please to enjoy (bear in mind, that in addition to being my first post outing, that it was also mixed in Final Cut Pro 3, a blunt tool for audio):




Link to Wired article.

The Noise Has Already Been Broughten

Hey, kids.

Today's treat comes from DV Magazine, in the form of a brief overview entitled Bring the Noise — Simple Steps To Ensure Solid Sound Recording On Location. The author, Jay Holben, is a former cinematographer, but we'll overlook that, as he has the right idea. Snip:

General audiences will forgive poor images, but they will rarely forgive poor sound, especially if they can’t clearly hear what the subjects onscreen are saying. Obtaining good sound just takes time, consideration and a willingness to get it right—adding artistic talent to the mix can then make it great.

See? Even DP's can be taught. :)

Link, via dv.com.

Field Sounds

In my second New Zealand-related post today, I'd like to introduce you to Field Sounds: A Portal for Film and TV Recording. Mixer Ande Schurr has amassed a considerable link list of tutorials and advice for novices and veterans alike. (Disclosure: I found out about it after he linked to my post about working with the Coast Guard).

Snip:

Q: What do I need to know?



Attitude for Beginners : Sit down last - Stand up first; Listen first - Talk last; Laugh at jokes - Don't tell them; Arrive First - Leave last; As a new person no one will need your education but they will appreciate a humble, WORKer. Don't dress to impress or distract (You get this or you don't...); Don't smoke near non-smokers or gear or food or at all if possible; Learn everyone's name (this is big); Be especially nice to support services, security etc - it will pay off when you need a favour or info in a hurry; "Please, Thank You, Excuse Me" - always; When your are bored out of your skull, don't read a book, talk on cell phone etc. (Learn to hide like the rest of us); When you are given boring /miserable tasks, just do it and come back for more; ALWAYS, ALWAYS ask for details if you don't understand a task; Don't rely on someone else to finish an assigned task - YOU will look stupid when they don't; If you are unsafe, you are fired. If you speed, you are fired. If you are drunk/stoned etc..... DO go for a beer if invited - DO NOT get drunk and try to out talk the old timers. Avoid set politics - let everyone slag people/departments while you remain neutral. When you move up the ladder, be especially nice to people below you.

This kind of aggregated information is invaluable to newer folks and those of us who live outside of the Major Markets (ie LA and NY), and thus can't necessarily network face-to-face with more established mixers. If you don't have the opportunity to apprentice under someone (as I did not), you end up learning a lot the hard way, unless you can benefit from resources like this, along with forums like jwsound.net and R.A.M.P.S., to name a couple.

Visit early and often, kids. If I'd known about this when I'd first started out, I'd have saved my self a small fortune in Tums.

Link.

Audio Gangster

Filmsound Daily! has just posted an interview with William Sarokin, talking about his experience mixing production sound for American Gangster. Snip:

FSD: We all know that getting in early is important for any film craft. In sound, if you're lucky you get hired before location scouting commences. How often have you been involved in that process? Why doesn't this happen more often?

WS: I'm never hired before the location scouting begins. I usually have 4-5 days prep on most films while the location manager starts months before production begins. My prep consists of 2-3 days of tech scouting, a day for the production meeting and a day for the equipment load in so often the best I can do is damage control. Often the UPM will call me weeks in advance if there is a question about a location they want to use but are concerned about sound issues, but that is pretty rare.

And why is this so rare? I mean, yes, I know it's all about the budget, but it seems penny-wise and pound-foolish, since having your mixer on the location scout can save you time (ie money) up front by offering solutions to sound issues before you even get to set (I've ranted about this previously).

But I have to say, as a relative newbie, I feel a bit better hearing that even seasoned pro's still run into problems with things like limited wireless range and multi-camera scene coverage. This lets me know that I'm at least on the right track, and not to give myself an ulcer about it.

In theory. :)

Link.

There Are Some Enterprises in Which a Careful Disorderliness Is the True Method

Electronic music artist Moby is now offering royalty-free song downloads for non-commercial, non-profit use. Snip:

'film music', is for independent and non-profit filmmakers, film students, and anyone in need of free music for their independent, non-profit film, video, or short.
...
if you want to use it in a commercial film or short then you can apply for an easy license, with any money that's generated being given to the humane society.

Link, via studiodaily.com

New Sound Mixer Blog

Whitney Ince, pro sound mixer, has started a sound-for-picture blog, prolocationsound.com.

The interwebs could certainly use more in-depth coverage of production sound and gear. To that end, Whitney has a ringing endorsement of iPower rechargeable batteries. Snip:

For anyone who hasn’t tried these rechargeable batteries they are a must. I use them as my primary battery in all my 200c and 250c Tx with zero issues. On my last project I saved over $1000.00 over using standard

Link.

The 700 Club

On January 28th, 2008, a chunk of the sky is going away.

The FCC will officially open bidding on this date for the 700 Mhz band of the RF broadcast spectrum. Since the US is mandated to finish transitioning to a digital broadcast infrastructure by 2009 (yes, this means that your ol' Zenith nineteen-incher will no longer work without a set-top box), the folks in charge of something invisible, weightless and tasteless have decided to sell it.

What does this mean for the world of audio? Plenty, if you have Sennheiser wireless in the C block, or Lectrosonics in blocks 27-31 (which is quite a few folks out there). By all accounts, either the effective range will be greatly diminished or unusable in urban areas.

What happens to big shows that depend on a lot of wireless? Either they'll have to redesign how the show is shot (unlikely, given that many of these programs are popular and very profitable due to their low production costs), or audio companies will have to get more innovative with their wireless technologies.

Already, some companies (notably Zaxcom and Ricsonix) are developing digital systems, some of which operate in the 2.4 GHz range, using the Bluetooth protocol (yes, the same tech in your little Borg-style phone earpiece) or a similar variant, and Audio Technica recently announced a new, wide-band analog RF system that skirts the issue altogether.

What's being put in its place? A portion of the band has been allocated to emergency communications, but a good chunk is up for grabs (if you happen to have, say, $15 billion or so just laying around). Obviously, major telco companies are jockeying for position, looking to gain a foothold in the ever-expanding mobile wireless market, especially as people get used to having things like the interwebs and media delivered directly to their phones. Others, including Google, want to extend wireless internet access in metropolitan areas, via a "third-pipe" (alongside the traditional channels of broadband cable and DSL).

Now, I'm lucky enough to make a living as a freelance sound mixer, but I personally believe that every person on the planet should have internet access (along with, you know, clean drinking water, food, shelter, etc. But we're talking tech here, so..:). If that means that I have to get new gear, or come up with a more creative solution to limited available spectrum, so be it.

Having better access to the greatest repository of information since the Library of Alexandria can only help people; I, for one, greatly benefited from the internet. I never went to film school, but having access to volumes of information about sound and audio electronics gave me a foundation to begin the career I have today. If you ask any working professional out there, they'll tell you that they've learned a thing or two by having access to industry veterans, by way of online forums and the like.

Would things be easier if we could keep the freq's as they are? You betcha. But Uncle Sam says they're going away, and we all have to plan accordingly. As with all things, the only constant is change; this axiom is no more relevant than in a technology-based industry such as ours.

Article round up:

Ars-Technica; Wired's FAQ; Shure's White Space Info (very in-depth); Sports Video Group's press release (explains considerable use of wireless by pro sports); Apple Eyes Wireless Auction (via businessweek.com); What DTV Means to Wireless Microphone Users.

But this blog takes the cake for spectrum info: publicknowledge.org.

A Stitch in Time (code)

Whew.

I'm enjoying unencumbered breathing again, now that the uncharacteristically hot, dry winds of the past two days have blown by Portland, and have taken all of their evil alien allergen spores with them.

Which brings me to something else frustrating but inescapable: time code. If you deal in any sort of motion imaging, you will encounter it sooner or later.

From wikipedia: time code is a sequence of numeric codes generated at regular intervals by a timing system [and is] used extensively for synchronization, and for logging material in recorded media.

One place to start is this tech newsletter from B & H Photo Video, found over at Self-Reliant Film. Snip:

Time code synchronization is still a big mystery for many audio and video professionals, and as today's Audio and Video technologies continue to integrate, having a basic understanding of time code has become more and more essential for both studio and field production.

Trust me, someday you will be up at 4 am banging your head against the wall of the post suite (or, if you only do field audio, having your head banged for you by the editor) because of a time code issue. The sooner you get it down, the better you will fare with the inevitable multi-car pile up of cascading sync errors.

Link to Self-Reliant post; direct link to newsletter.

If you really want to sink your teeth into it, try this primer, for sale over at SPARS.

A Star of Audio Tracks and Field Recordings

You know, kids, I initially started this blog because I felt that sound for picture got less consideration than other departments in the coverage of media production; indeed, one can usually only find articles, or sections, rather than entire magazines devoted to the subject.

Since this is especially true of production sound, I decided to make it my main focus, along with articles about post written with the student, audio newbie or indie filmmaker in mind.

Another sound blog, Film Sound Daily! (which I've mentioned before) covers the "big boy" movies, and has incredible access to folks who normally aren't addressed in the traditional coverage. In their most recent post, they talk to recordist Rob Nokes about field recording for post during production.

Snip:

Anytime a movie has a unique situation involving crowds or machines it makes sense to capture the original on location as the costs to re-stage unique events are usually cost prohibitive.

Link, via Film Sound Daily!.

Papa's Got a Brand New Audio Bag

Back in the land of the living.

22 days, all on location, from farmhouses to miniature steam train parks to operating trestle bridges to decommissioned nuclear power stations, in sun and rain and dust. But we survived, mainly by the graces of sunscreen and Red Bull.



Day two of locomotive process shots.

Which brings me to My First Product Review TM, for the Petrol Sound Knapsack. Petrol are well known for their production bags and harnesses; this is their first dedicated back-pack.



At first glance, it looks and feels like a standard back pack with water-retention issues, but once you yank on one of the the heavy-duty zippers, your MacGuyver-o-meter should peg its needles deep into the red.

In true Petrol fashion, The Knapsack is constructed of blue and black Cordura and ballistic nylon, with an orange fleece-like lining that easily mates with hook and loop connectors, and heavily padded and ergonomically shaped shoulder straps.

Inside, the bag is designed from the ground up for modern production, with three main compartments: one thoroughly padded and smoothly lined, large enough to accept a 17 inch laptop.



Another, more open space for the included organizing bags, each made of black neoprene with a zippered clear vinyl lid, allowing at-a-glance confidence of each bag's contents.



The outermost compartment has more traditional pockets and dividers for things like sunglasses, keys, pens, and the like.



I used my sample as my wireless bag, employing the more square-shaped bags for my four Sennheiser Evolution sets. Each bag was able to hold a transmitter, receiver, coiled lav mic, and body pouch with room to spare.



The nifty finger loops allowed me to yank another mic set out of the bag quickly if the needs of the scene changed.



In the eight variably-sized containers, you can keep a multitude of gear handy. There are two more rectangular bags in which we kept our boom mic capsules, switching between the cardioid for interiors and the short-shotgun for exteriors.



The biggest pouch ended up being a perfect fit for the Sony cans.

Seriously, I can't say enough good things about these pouch thingies. Keeping your stuff compartmentalized in a soft-shell container means that you stay organized, but have the flexibility to deal with the dynamics of field production. The fact that you can take them out to wire someone up on set without either bringing the whole backpack or just awkwardly pocketing a wireless set is nearly worth the price of admission alone.

Since the mixer bag I had initially bought was back-ordered, I resorted to using the laptop compartment to carry my Sound Devices 442 to and from set. There was more than enough room for the mixer along with a break-away cable and extension.

In the outermost pocket, I kept my sunglasses case, sunscreen (boy, was I popular on set for having that stuff...), and a small plastic kit with all of our "wiring" goodies: Transpore, Topstick, moleskin, and scissors. A vertically oriented space meant that I had quick-draw ability with the wiring kit, ready to re-mount a mic whose tape had succumbed to the sweat of the talent (yeah, I got into movies for the "glamour", folks:).

The bag also comes adorned with a very solid rubber Petrol badge that rests right between the shoulder blades. At first, I thought that this would be extremely uncomfortable, but the bag is so heavily padded in the back that I never once felt it, even when the bag was fully loaded.




The outside of the bag also has four smaller zippered pockets, each of which was big enough to hold two bricks of industrial AA batteries a piece. These pockets flanked a small net pocket, intended for boom poles, although it's closed at the bottom and only about eight inches deep. It felt like the pocket would be better suited to carrying a water bottle, although you'd have to take the pack off to reach it, so it wouldn't be very practical for that use. I also found myself using the neck of the net pouch as a handle to pick the bag up more often than not, even though Petrol included a very nice gel-padded handle across the top of the bag.




We did the majority of the movie cart-style, but certain locations proved to be inaccessible to anything other that foot traffic. In these instances, the bag proved indispensable, allowing us to quickly run in and get our shots without worrying about improperly packed gear bouncing around.

One issue that gave me pause was the doubling-up of the straps if you use the bag with a sturdier audio harness (Petrol's or otherwise), which, when mixing run'n'gun stuff by myself, I will certainly be doing. While it can be done, you end up with about three to four inches of padded straps across your frame, which can feel a bit unwieldy. I guess a possible solution to that would be a modular system (a la some tactical harnesses), where you have a central harness that you clip things to, e.g.: mixer bag in front, wireless bag in the back, etc.

Pros: tough; well- padded; room for days; pockets for everything and then some; those awesome pouches; ergonomic; very tech-cool looking.

Cons: no water bottle carriers; boom pole "pocket" a little funky (feels like it would be better to include two hook and loop straps to lash the pole, like on their other audio bags); solo operators may find doubling up of harness and pack cumbersome.

All in all, I was very impressed. Once I stashed all of my wireless in their respective pouches, wiring and adjustments became a breeze. No more digging around in a dark carry-all for the one vampire clip, no more crossing my fingers that my mics will survive being stuffed into a book-bag for the hike out to location. Moving to the next set-up was made that much more efficient by being able to simply shoulder half the kit, leaving my hands free for other gear.

The Sound Knapsack is a valuable tool for anyone who needs to keep an ENG/indie film audio kit organized and in good working order.

MSRP: $219.

Link.

Two Snaps Up.

Happy 4th, y'all (and I'm sure that you're all wearing hearing protection with those fireworks, right?:).

Today's post is about soundsnap.com, a new website that offers free sound effects and music loops for download, as well as creating an online community for artists to upload and share their own recordings.

From the website:

What is Soundsnap?

Soundsnap is the best platform to find and share free sound effects and loops- legally. It is a collection of original sounds made or recorded by its users, and not songs or sound FX found on commercial libraries or sample CD's.

What Soundsnap is NOT:

* An alternative to Myspace, Limewire or BitTorrent.

* A place to upload your band's songs or your favourite mp3's. Soundsnap is only for sound effects and loops.

* A place you can upload or find sounds from commercial libraries. All sounds here are original- made or recorded by its users.

Soundsnap is the brainchild of 25 year old Tasos Frantzolas, a sound designer and musician who recently returned to his home country of Greece to launch the website.

From Creative Cow News:

He started Soundsnap in order to fulfill a need for a library of high quality, on-demand free sounds. He gathered a talented team of contributing sound designers, producers, web designers and developers to start the Soundsnap community.

I've covered one other open-source SFX website before, but Soundsnap takes things a bit further, wrapping everything in a very pleasant AJAX-y interface, complete with very high-quality Flash previews of each sound. For download, MP3 is offered alongside uncompressed PCM, in either WAV or AIFF format, depending.

Along with the slick visuals, Soundsnap is very intuitive and easy to use. Samples are tagged, allowing quick keyword search, as well as more traditional categories, such as Human, Film and Comic FX, and Science Fiction. There's even a tag cloud, showing quantities of samples relative to one another.

As I've said before, there's often no substitute for a professionally recorded and produced FX library. But for those on a budget, or just on the lookout for something new and fresh, I heartily recommend giving Soundsnap a try.

Link to soundsnap.com.
Link to Creative Cow News article.

The Fifteen [drops tablet]...Ten! Ten Commandments of Sound for Picture! (Part Two)

Okay, kids, here is Part 2:

6. Thou shalt arrange/budget for a dedicated audio post mixer. (aka: Avoid being a Jack of all trades, master of none).

Granted, at the low/no budget level, you have to take what you can get, and many non-linear video editing systems have rather impressive audio features. But that doesn't mean that you can skimp and just be a one-person-band: writing, directing, shooting, editing, then mixing your project, and expect professional results.

There's a reason why you get a DP: they know how to shoot better than you do, and they worry about picture so that you don't have to. Same thing applies to audio post. While it's all well and good to do a temp mix for screening purposes, nothing screams "amateur" more than rough sound, no matter how pretty the picture.

Pro sound mixers fill in the rest of the picture with a full, rich sound track. They have access to more diverse sound effects, making your track fresh and dynamic. They have tricks up their sleeve that may end up saving you from having to loop that one line after all.

They are definitely worth it.

7) Thou shalt make an effort to commission an original music score.

Don't cheap out in the end. You created an original screenplay, got actors to create original performances, got a DP to create original images, and then at that critical final step, you shrug and say "just use pop music. They'll never find out. No one will ever sue us".

There are numerous resources for new, affordable and even legally free music out there. Use them. You crewed up through Craigslist; now keep going, and find a hungry music school student or a local band. There are plenty of talented musicians out there who could use the exposure, and would be willing to score your film, sometimes for little to no money.

And, for the bazzilionth time, there's a reason why that track you bought from iTunes won't work in your Final Cut Project: you're not allowed to use it. (Yes, I'm well aware of the myriad technical workarounds for this, which shan't be discussed here).

8) Thou shalt learn about "headroom" and "standards".

There's a very specific reason that mixers insist on making that annoying "bloop" tone when you record color bars at the head of each tape. This tone represents the nominal bus voltage output of the mixer, and thus must be generated by the mixer, not by the camera (I've had more than one heated discussion with many a DP on this issue).

WWCD: just as you must record the bars from the camera actually used in production (to get an accurate representation of the gear's output), so must you utilize the tone from your field mixer. The reason for this is that if any discrepancy is found in either picture or sound from a particular camera (too low of a red level, sound is 2 db higher on channel 1, etc), they can reference the bars and tone, and trouble-shoot to see if it's just a temporary issue, or consistent across the entire shoot, and then compensate for it if possible. Think of it as a Rosetta Stone for post.

Headroom: it can be a wonderful thing, if it's paid attention to. Just because you're not seeing every segment of your meter lighting up does not mean the audio level's too low. Your mixer will set the nominal reference level (usually -20dBfs for pro stuff), and then mix accordingly, giving you enough signal to have a clean recording without going "full scale" on loud or unexpected sounds (which, once reached, can't be undone, and sounds horrible).

Trust them, and it will turn out fine.

9) Thou shalt learn how to consider sound when scouting locations. (aka: "Well, they weren't using jackhammers here yesterday...")

I recently worked on a short where a dialogue scene was scheduled to be shot in a city alley at night. Good looking place, power nearby, permission from adjacent business owners. Everything seemed in order.

Until I asked about sound.

See, one of the neighbors to the alley was a nightclub, and right there on the front door of the place was a flyer for the reggae/dub band scheduled to play that night at 8 pm...precisely when we were supposed to roll. The band's prodigious bass (common to the genre) would have obliterated any chance at clean dialogue. Since this was a low-budget indie, there was little to no chance of guaranteeing the actor's availability for looping (or the money and facilities to do it properly, for that matter).

To their credit, they had the locations manger re-scout, and do a last-minute company move. At the end of the night, we had another location that fit their needs and ended up being just quiet enough.

Point being, you can avoid just this sort of thing by including your mixer in your pre-production and scouting process, just like you include your DP.

10) Thou shalt accept the fact that, once and for all, there is no such thing as a "remove echo" filter.

I've seen more than a few panicked posts on the boards out there asking about how remove the echo from their track. See, they used a shotgun, but it was at the other end of the room (or worse, mounted to the camera), rather than in close proximity to the subject, and now it sounds like everything's in a big bathroom. Guess what, Chachi, there is a solution: it's called the "shoot-it-again" filter.

Short shotgun microphones (easily one of the most misunderstood pieces of equipment in indie filmmaking) are not like zoom lenses. They do not bring the subject acoustically closer. Think of them more like a ring of Vaseline around a medium lens, with a clear circle in the center: the subject isn't any closer, but everything around the center of the frame, while not completely blocked out, is now "de-emphasized" and blurry.

The interference tube (the slotted "barrel" of the shotgun) filters sounds from the sides, and, in concert with the native directivity of the capsule, helps to "reject" (but not completely block) those sounds (and only at certain frequencies. Once you learn how complex short shotguns are, it's easy to see why they're so misunderstood).

If you want it to sound closer, you have no choice but to get the mic closer. You can't argue with the laws of physics (well, you can try, but the last guy who did ended up as the Incredible Hulk).

Whew. Rant over.

If anyone would care to submit addenda and/or criticism, please don't hesitate to comment...nicely. :)

Track Stars: The Unseen Heroes of Movie Sound

From the boards over at jwsound.net: Track Stars-The Unseen Heroes of Movie Sound, a short film showing the foley process live along with the action.

I actually remember seeing this on cable somewhere when I was a kid; I'm sure it's at least partially responsible for inspiring my love of sound for picture.



Link to the original video. You can read its imdb listing here.

Reverse Workflow

A reader recently posted an interesting question to David Bondelevitch over at dB's Blog. Snip:

It seems like sound is always piggybacked onto picture. Thus, it seems as though the sound editor does not have an opportunity to respond to the picture edit and say: "this does not work for sound." Is there much reverse motion in the work-flow and why is it that the work-flow puts sound after picture?


Well, the answer is, yes, and no.

Link to the post.

Shotgun Shootout

Good morning, sportsfans.

Whilst perusing the internets, I came across this comparison by Bryan Beasleigh over at DVFreelancer. Entitled Shotgun Shootout, the article details how Bryan made some basic field comparisons of some of the most popular short shotgun and hypercardiod microphones on the market.

Snip:

I managed to record samples of the Sanken CS-1, CS-3e, MKH 416, MKH60 and even Sennheisers top hypercardoid small condenser, the MKH50. This past week I returned and recorded some sample of the AKG Blue Line and the C480b ULS system as well. I also own an MKH60, a Schoeps MK41 a Sennheiser K6 / ME66 and two Oktava MCO-12 kits

Comparisons have been done singularly and with mics mounted in tandem directly in front of the speaker. Distances are between 12 and 24”. No effort was made to boom because of time and space constraints


Some files have been recorded using a Sound Devices Mix Pre or 302 fed at line level into a Marantz PMD670 flash recorder. The others were recorded directly into the marantz PMD670, using the onboard phantom and preamps.

Bryan's made the recordings available in either uncompressed WAV or MP3 formats. As I've mentioned before, this kind of comparison is worth its weight in gold for people who are just starting out, who live in smaller markets, or for whatever reason can't afford to travel to a pro dealer in order to try out a mic before they purchase it.

Link to the shootout, via dvfreelancer.com.

Free, as in Beer AND Speech

When building a modern soundtrack, you generally have two choices: either you go out and record what you need as you need it, or you purchase a pre-recorded library, usually organized around a central theme: doors and windows, automobiles, weapons, etc.

Most soundtracks are ultimately a mix of both, since there's rarely the time or the money to record every single effect needed, while re-using the same library tracks can make the project feel stale and repetitive.

But what about the indie folks, with limited budgets and schedules? One option that is free is The Freesound Project, an online database where you can download user-produced sound effects and music samples, all under a Creative Commons license.

Snip:

The Freesound Project aims to create a huge collaborative database of audio snippets, samples, recordings, bleeps, ... released under the Creative Commons Sampling Plus License. The Freesound Project provides new and interesting ways of accessing these samples, allowing users to

* browse the sounds in new ways using keywords, a "sounds-like" type of browsing and more
* up and download sounds to and from the database, under the same creative commons license

The project was started by the Music Technology Group at the Pompeu Fabra University in Barcelona, Spain in 2005.

I can tell you that I've used it and I highly recommend it. It's certainly no substitute for a professionally recorded commercial library, but the effects and samples are of very good quality and the search engine is one of the better I've used.

According to the license, you are allowed to use the tracks in any way you see fit, at no charge, so long as you identify the source. In this day and age of the RIAA suing grandmothers for "piracy", this kind of respectful openness is appreciated.

Link to the Freesound Project. For more about Creative Commons, go here.

Vitaphone It In

From wired.com:

1926: The Vitaphone sound-on-film process is announced by Warner Bros. studio. It’s the death knell for the age of silent films.

Vitaphone was prone to human error, since the alignment of the film projector and attached phonograph had to be precise even though it was set by hand. Nevertheless, it represented a marked improvement over previous sound-on-disc technologies.

Link. For more about Vitaphone, be sure to check out this diagram from widescreenmuseum.com. For more about early film sound, check out this article, via filmsound.org.

Holy Foley

In this modern age of DAWs and desks, one of the more active jobs in audio post is that of that of the foley artist. In this tutorial, Philip Rodrigues Singer, M.P.S.E., takes us through some of the finer points. Snip:

On a film set nothing is real - the sword is made of plastic, the marble floor is painted plywood. Foley replaces or enhances that live sound; the result is a sword that rings like metal and floors that echo like marble! During filming, the location sound recordist tries to capture only the dialogue. Microphones are keenly positioned on set to record even an actors slightest whisper without the background noises from camera and crew. Foley helps to add back a controlled background layer of sound to produce a rich and realistic track.

Link to the tutorial.