IronFilm Posted May 11, 2018 Share Posted May 11, 2018 Sometimes I wonder if people are doing something else which are making them look dodgy and creates attention. As heck, I'll happily shoot in public on the street with a my "big" PMW-F3 rigged up with mattebox etc and a boom op and a gaffer, without a second thought. No big deal. Quote Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
mercer Posted May 11, 2018 Share Posted May 11, 2018 Sometimes I wonder why people treat small productions as if they’re on a Hollywood set and are required by the union to have a best boy. 52 minutes ago, kye said: Happy to take some pics of the setup if this is useful. Thanks Kye, I’d like to see that set up. Quote Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
kye Posted May 11, 2018 Author Share Posted May 11, 2018 24 minutes ago, IronFilm said: Sometimes I wonder if people are doing something else which are making them look dodgy and creates attention. Don't underestimate different parts of the world.. the NZ people I know are quite relaxed, and I'm an Aussie, so that's saying something! There's something about big cities that make them a dog-eat-dog type of environment, and when you have to fight to survive it means that any kind of law-enforcement would toughen up quite a bit. 18 minutes ago, mercer said: Sometimes I wonder why people treat small productions as if they’re on a Hollywood set and are required by the union to have a best boy. Thanks Kye, I’d like to see that set up. Will post some pics when I get home My sets always have a "most awesome person" (hint - it's always me!) Quote Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
Don Kotlos Posted May 11, 2018 Share Posted May 11, 2018 I have something similar to @kye mercer and heart0less 2 Quote Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
kye Posted May 11, 2018 Author Share Posted May 11, 2018 Here's the mic with the foam cover on top of the 700D and Sigma 18-35: With the flash bracket underneath allowing the mic to be mounted on the side: Underneath of the same setup - notice that the flash bracket is one of the smaller ones (15cm long) and it's in its shortest configuration: If you put the whole thing on your palm then you can operate the focus (and maybe the zoom) with your left hand and hold the grip in your right: or, if you extend it, then you can get to the zoom by going in-between the mic and the camera: I've used larger brackets in the past to have multiple cameras when I wanted more than one focal length to enable jump-cuts. This is the only pic I could find, but I'm pretty sure that I actually used it with the mic in the middle like above. The more angle you put on the bracket the nicer it is to hold, but the more likely the mic or other camera will get in shot if you're using a wider lens. On a sound-quality-related note, I have played around with many audio setups too, and found a few interesting things. In terms of quality: The primary thing is self-noise (hiss) which you want to be low, the secondary thing is isolation where you pick up less background sounds, and the third is having a safety-track if something peaks, then last is 'sound quality' When YouTubers (and I assume non-audio people) talk about sound quality they are talking about hiss and then about EQ Talking about EQ is silly because you can adjust it in post in every video editing software known to man - at one point I was wondering about buying an expensive stereo mic for ambience, but I did some tests with the built-in mics on my cameras and they sounded just fine (with some EQ in post!) so I saved myself some money and carrying around a separate microphone, and now when I want some ambience I just unplug my shotgun mic and hit record and use the in-built mics I've got the Beachtek unit mentioned and battery life was just awful - 5 hours with freshly-charged rechargeables. Forget the price of alkalines - it's approaching $1 per hour of use. I ended up buying the Rode VMP+ which has 19 hours of battery life and means I don't need a mic pre-amp at all, plus it charges via USB. If you sleep more than 5 hours a night you can literally just turn it on when you wake up and off when you put it back on charge at night! That makes it much less likely to stuff up a shot by forgetting to turn the mic on. All of the above relates to on-camera shot-gun style sound setups, and for my home videos. I haven't messed with lavs or boom mics, so I'll leave that to Ironfilm in the other thread mercer 1 Quote Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
kye Posted May 11, 2018 Author Share Posted May 11, 2018 2 hours ago, Don Kotlos said: I have something similar to @kye That's a very interesting setup @Don Kotlos - I'd love a photo or description of how it's mounted. The mount that Rode provides works well but is large! I'd like to shrink my setup further if I can. Quote Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
IronFilm Posted May 11, 2018 Share Posted May 11, 2018 1 hour ago, kye said: The primary thing is self-noise (hiss) which you want to be low, the secondary thing is isolation where you pick up less background sounds, and the third is having a safety-track if something peaks, then last is 'sound quality' When YouTubers (and I assume non-audio people) talk about sound quality they are talking about hiss and then about EQ If you're using any external recorder which is at least as good as say the cheapie Tascam DR60Dmk2 and it is set up right then you don't need to greatly worry about self noise for YT standards at all. 1 hour ago, kye said: Forget the price of alkalines Eneloops are your saviour when it comes to whatever audio gear it is you're using. Or close clone alternatives such as LADDA 1 hour ago, kye said: The mount that Rode provides works well but is large! Rycote just makes the BEST shock mounts. And Rode licenses it from them. Quote Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
sanveer Posted May 11, 2018 Share Posted May 11, 2018 5 hours ago, IronFilm said: Sometimes I wonder if people are doing something else which are making them look dodgy and creates attention. As heck, I'll happily shoot in public on the street with a my "big" PMW-F3 rigged up with mattebox etc and a boom op and a gaffer, without a second thought. No big deal. I kept wondering what is about you that don't draw as Much attending with a boom Mic and Large Sound Equipment (or camera equipment in this case) as everyone else. Sir, you look like Einstein testing for things nobody is quite sure of, in the city. They probably won't suspect that you are part of a film crew. I won't be surprised if some bystanders stand next to you for Yoga lessons and lessons on Eastern Mysticism. You have almost 2 careers running parallel. The Sound Yogi ? kye and IronFilm 1 1 Quote Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
IronFilm Posted May 11, 2018 Share Posted May 11, 2018 Did I ever share this recent video? Not only are we shooting with an Arri AMIRA in public, and I'm fully rigged up in my sound gear, but heck the producer even goes and asks the construction road workers to stop! You can "get away" with an awful lot. sanveer 1 Quote Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
kye Posted May 11, 2018 Author Share Posted May 11, 2018 1 hour ago, IronFilm said: Not only are we shooting with an Arri AMIRA in public, and I'm fully rigged up in my sound gear, but heck the producer even goes and asks the construction road workers to stop! You can "get away" with an awful lot. Not everyone is as lucky as you... The US: https://petapixel.com/2016/02/25/ive-stopped-20-times-police-camera-tripod/ The UK: https://petapixel.com/2016/07/16/video-photographer-tests-rights-streets-london/ https://petapixel.com/2011/07/20/six-photographers-test-their-right-to-shoot-in-london/ Australia: https://petapixel.com/2015/11/30/top-australian-photographer-fighting-for-rights-after-near-arrest-on-public-land/ Terrorism video warning about photography in public: https://petapixel.com/2012/08/09/terrorism-prevention-video-asks-public-to-report-photographers-to-police/ And if those are too tame, then this one is just great.. https://petapixel.com/2015/04/21/woman-pointing-smartphone-camera-at-police-has-it-snatched-and-smashed/ That was just a few quick searches of one photography website. The moral of the story is don't attract attention. sanveer 1 Quote Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
Super Members BTM_Pix Posted May 11, 2018 Super Members Share Posted May 11, 2018 The problem in the UK isn't caused by the real Police but by the private security companies. The Police (by and large) know the actual law about theses things and if they don't they can at least be reasoned with in regard to you asking them specifically about which laws you are breaking. The private security companies think they know the law and also, bizarrely enough, think they have the right to enforce them, both the real law and the ones they think should be law. The really stupid thing here - which should be blindingly obvious to both the real Police and the pretend ones - is that because of their overt paranoia about photographers then anyone who is genuinely up to no good will of course never be carrying a camera and a tripod because they run the risk of being pulled. One thing that you do have to be careful of is that, increasingly, what you think is public land in the UK actually isn't, often due to council's selling off areas for development to private companies. It might be a public space and have no deterrent to access but its not actually publicly owned so in that instance the private security companies are well within their rights to ask you to leave. IronFilm and kye 1 1 Quote Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
Don Kotlos Posted May 11, 2018 Share Posted May 11, 2018 8 hours ago, kye said: That's a very interesting setup @Don Kotlos - I'd love a photo or description of how it's mounted. The mount that Rode provides works well but is large! I'd like to shrink my setup further if I can. Yeah I wanted to shrink it as much as I could. I used velcro to mount it on the camera, which also removes some of the vibration transfer from the body. Of course not as good as the native mount. I also modified a cable to reduce the profile of the 3.5" head, but you can find short cables from ebay. kye 1 Quote Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
Bioskop.Inc Posted May 11, 2018 Share Posted May 11, 2018 5 hours ago, BTM_Pix said: The problem in the UK isn't caused by the real Police but by the private security companies. The Police (by and large) know the actual law about theses things and if they don't they can at least be reasoned with in regard to you asking them specifically about which laws you are breaking. One thing that you do have to be careful of is that, increasingly, what you think is public land in the UK actually isn't, often due to council's selling off areas for development to private companies. It might be a public space and have no deterrent to access but its not actually publicly owned so in that instance the private security companies are well within their rights to ask you to leave. LOndon is a complete nightmare (especially the public/private land thing), but where I am in Bristol, no one cares. I've even had 2 Policemen stopping whilst I was filming so as not to walk into shot - I was using the BMPCC with a K3 pistol grip/shoulder mount & probably looked like we were filming tourist stuff. As far as photography is concerned, there's a 24hr photo competition & you get given a time slot to take a photo - never heard of anyone being stopped or the police being called, but they do have better things to be doing & you hardly ever see them walking about these days. If you are filming with a crew, whether it be 2 or 5, it's really easy to get a permit to film & doesn't cost a bomb. But i've shot loads of stuff & never been stopped - quick & discrete is the rule of thumb. But in general, where I am, no one is going to approach you or call the police - perhaps we're just a little bit more chilled as a city. IronFilm 1 Quote Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
kye Posted May 11, 2018 Author Share Posted May 11, 2018 6 hours ago, Don Kotlos said: Yeah I wanted to shrink it as much as I could. I used velcro to mount it on the camera, which also removes some of the vibration transfer from the body. Of course not as good as the native mount. I also modified a cable to reduce the profile of the 3.5" head, but you can find short cables from ebay. That's a great idea! Velcro is potentially underrated. I do a lot of hifi stuff and vibrations are a source of distortion so isolating components is a thing. During my research I found that a company that makes scanning electron microscopes uses something to isolate from vibrations that is basically the same principle as velcro (which holds the weight but has a bit of give and therefore doesn't transfer all the vibrations). Quote Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
Kisaha Posted May 13, 2018 Share Posted May 13, 2018 On 11/5/2018 at 11:03 AM, kye said: The primary thing is self-noise (hiss) which you want to be low, the secondary thing is isolation where you pick up less background sounds, and the third is having a safety-track if something peaks, then last is 'sound quality' When YouTubers (and I assume non-audio people) talk about sound quality they are talking about hiss and then about EQ Talking about EQ is silly because you can adjust it in post in every video editing software known to man - at one point I was wondering about buying an expensive stereo mic for ambience, but I did some tests with the built-in mics on my cameras and they sounded just fine (with some EQ in post!) so I saved myself some money and carrying around a separate microphone, and now when I want some ambience I just unplug my shotgun mic and hit record and use the in-built mics. The difference in "hiss" is similar to buying a 4f lens, or a 1.8f lens, you can definitely can do great things with an 4f Yongnuo less but we all crave, or own a fast Zeiss. The mic pre amps play a role in this too, which is the equivalent of the "sensor" in cameras, and a lot of other things that we can discuss. The "isolation" thing is solved by a dedicated person booming the source of sound with the appropriate equipment. Nothing is coming close to that, and technology won't easily replicate this. Safety tracks, yes, but also limiters, the right gain, experience, etc. Plenty of times were that failed. Example. We interviewed a motorbike racer, when we finished, he switched on his 1000cc Yamaha (personal bike, not even the racing one) and he left. Director loved it, but if I didn't have turned the gain all way down (almost to zero), safety track would have peaked, very ugly. All the above are part of the quality of sound. The in built microphones of your Canon equally good to an "ok" stereo mic? What headphones/monitors are you using to listen to your audio? Post is a very expensive procedure, if it's alright with you, it 's perfect, but if I bring sound that needs a lot of post in the production company, I just won't be working for them long. I had such an experience, when the post house did a mistake and load on Avid the wrong mic (a MKE600 I had on camera) instead of my 416. I immediatelly realized what happened when the producer called me (and very angry), but it took them almost a month to solve the issue, because the post house didn't accept that they did a mistake, and the editors and post are always right in our business (because they have the final saying, and are working very close to the directors/producers in their nice air conditioned space!). Guerrilla = a member of a small independent group taking part in irregular fighting, typically against larger regular forces. Referring to actions or activities performed in an impromptu way, often without authorization. What hunting has to do with anything? Quote Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
kye Posted May 14, 2018 Author Share Posted May 14, 2018 13 hours ago, Kisaha said: The difference in "hiss" is similar to buying a 4f lens, or a 1.8f lens, you can definitely can do great things with an 4f Yongnuo less but we all crave, or own a fast Zeiss. The mic pre amps play a role in this too, which is the equivalent of the "sensor" in cameras, and a lot of other things that we can discuss. Maybe - it's a matter of what you're doing. I don't want to pay for, carry, or worry about a fast Zeiss. I want to get the shot, which means that I don't have time to change lenses. A fast Zeiss would likely be a prime, which actually means a set of big, heavy, and expensive lenses. They'd require a pelican case to cart them around too. A fast lens has shallow depth-of-field (unless you use it stopped-down all the time, in which case just buy a slower lens) which means missing focus all the time. I don't want to miss focus all the time - I want to get the shot - having the background blurry in some shots isn't worth the risk of having the subject blurry in other shots. The moral of the story is that everyone has different requirements. It can be quite difficult to hide a noisy audio track though, depending on the situation. If you're recording audio for a scene set in a nightclub or busy restaurant where there will be lots of ambient sound in the scene then you can cover it up, but if you're recording audio for a scene that takes place somewhere quiet then having hiss can ruin the content, or force you to use an ambience track that will compromise the aesthetic of the scene. For me personally I don't mind as my videos are for family and friends and are normally set to music, but if you only had budget for one setup then I'd make sure it didn't have too much hiss. 13 hours ago, Kisaha said: The "isolation" thing is solved by a dedicated person booming the source of sound with the appropriate equipment. Nothing is coming close to that, and technology won't easily replicate this. We've covered this before. In your productions there might always be room for a dedicated audio person with a boom mic, but for many of us that isn't the case. Scroll up and read the parts where we're discussing the size of an on-camera microphone attracting too much attention and potentially ruining shots or a whole shoot. Don't confuse your situation for how others are making their films. 13 hours ago, Kisaha said: Safety tracks, yes, but also limiters, the right gain, experience, etc. Plenty of times were that failed. Example. We interviewed a motorbike racer, when we finished, he switched on his 1000cc Yamaha (personal bike, not even the racing one) and he left. Director loved it, but if I didn't have turned the gain all way down (almost to zero), safety track would have peaked, very ugly. All the above are part of the quality of sound. When we're talking about equipment, the ability for something to record safety tracks is a consideration. Everything else you listed above is either skill (which cannot be purchased) or can be applied digitally in post in virtually any editing software (and therefore a separate topic). 13 hours ago, Kisaha said: The in built microphones of your Canon equally good to an "ok" stereo mic? What headphones/monitors are you using to listen to your audio? What aspect of sound quality do you think it lacks? I heard differences in the sound, but nothing that made me think I needed to spend hundreds of dollars. If I was recording something where the stereo audio was absolutely critical then I'd spend the money, but for most productions (mine included) stereo ambience is something added to the film for an almost subliminal effect. I know a lot about audio so don't dumb-down your answer for me. Feel free to talk about THD+N, IMD, imaging, phase response, macro-dynamic performance, micro-dynamic performance, stereo imaging / width / depth / focus / etc. 13 hours ago, Kisaha said: Post is a very expensive procedure, if it's alright with you, it 's perfect, but if I bring sound that needs a lot of post in the production company, I just won't be working for them long. I had such an experience, when the post house did a mistake and load on Avid the wrong mic (a MKE600 I had on camera) instead of my 416. I immediatelly realized what happened when the producer called me (and very angry), but it took them almost a month to solve the issue, because the post house didn't accept that they did a mistake, and the editors and post are always right in our business (because they have the final saying, and are working very close to the directors/producers in their nice air conditioned space!). For any film that is going to have big expensive audio treatments in post they can probably afford to get permission to shoot in locations, etc. Guerilla film-making is more about getting something done with a minimum of budget and resources. Depending on the type of film being made the results might be compromised in quality, however this is part of this type of film-making. If you could get perfection by shooting without getting noticed then why would anyone spend $300M on a film? 13 hours ago, Kisaha said: Guerrilla = a member of a small independent group taking part in irregular fighting, typically against larger regular forces. Referring to actions or activities performed in an impromptu way, often without authorization. What hunting has to do with anything? The words Guerilla and Gorilla have the same pronunciation, so it's similar to saying "hunting gorillas". It's a joke based on this similarity! One thing I see on this forum a lot is that people assume that everyone makes the same types of films they do, or lives in the same type of environment, or has the same quality requirements as they do. Obviously this is false, there are as many different types of film-makers as there are types of films, or types of people for that matter. That is why I put my comments into this thread instead of the one where @IronFilm and others are providing excellent advice. This thread is specifically about films that are being shot on location without permission, which at least implies that they're small productions with limited funding, and I included my comments as part of a discussion about on-camera microphones, which indicates that the production is very small indeed, and therefore willing to compromise quality to a certain degree. If this isn't obvious to someone reading then I apologise, but this is the internet, and everyone should always question and verify everything they read or see on here. Quote Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
IronFilm Posted May 14, 2018 Share Posted May 14, 2018 1 hour ago, kye said: It can be quite difficult to hide a noisy audio track though, depending on the situation. If you're recording audio for a scene set in a nightclub or busy restaurant where there will be lots of ambient sound in the scene then you can cover it up, but if you're recording audio for a scene that takes place somewhere quiet then having hiss can ruin the content, or force you to use an ambience track that will compromise the aesthetic of the scene. If you're recording in an actual working active busy restaurant/nightclub then you are *FVCKED!!* for audio. However if it is closed for the day, then yeah if you have a bit of whispering from extras on hold in the next room over (the bane of my life a couple of days ago! The problems when you have 50+ people on set and no 2nd/3rd ADs, heck almost no 1st AD really!! Ditto no walkie talkies. Sigh) or have a bit noisy pre amps from an old H4n (ugh!) then you'll possibly be just fine once the busy soundscape is laid on top in post. (you might run into issues at quieter moments in the edit, such as when you're doing a tense close up and you want to drop down the background ambiance you've got in the sound design) Quote Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
kye Posted May 14, 2018 Author Share Posted May 14, 2018 16 minutes ago, IronFilm said: If you're recording in an actual working active busy restaurant/nightclub then you are *FVCKED!!* for audio. However if it is closed for the day, then yeah if you have a bit of whispering from extras on hold in the next room over (the bane of my life a couple of days ago! The problems when you have 50+ people on set and no 2nd/3rd ADs, heck almost no 1st AD really!! Ditto no walkie talkies. Sigh) or have a bit noisy pre amps from an old H4n (ugh!) then you'll possibly be just fine once the busy soundscape is laid on top in post. (you might run into issues at quieter moments in the edit, such as when you're doing a tense close up and you want to drop down the background ambiance you've got in the sound design) Agreed. I was referring to a situation where you are putting a noisy restaurant or nightclub ambience over the top. Many years ago when I was helping out student films I was asked to 'fix' dialog tracks with hiss in them and the only way I found to hide the hiss and make them usable was to use a mixture of background noise over the top and a fairly aggressive noise gate on the offending channel. My point in listing it first was that if self-noise on a piece of equipment is high then the rest of its attributes are basically irrelevant.. it could be very very low distortion, have huge bandwidth, large headroom, if it's digital it can be 24/192, etc etc etc, but if it puts unacceptable amounts of hiss into the dialog of a quiet scene then it's game over. mercer 1 Quote Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
IronFilm Posted May 14, 2018 Share Posted May 14, 2018 24 minutes ago, kye said: Agreed. Agreed also with your original point that I got, I was just further expanding upon it :-) kye 1 Quote Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
IronFilm Posted May 14, 2018 Share Posted May 14, 2018 20 hours ago, Kisaha said: Post is a very expensive procedure, if it's alright with you, it 's perfect, but if I bring sound that needs a lot of post in the production company, I just won't be working for them long. I had such an experience, when the post house did a mistake and load on Avid the wrong mic (a MKE600 I had on camera) instead of my 416. I immediatelly realized what happened when the producer called me (and very angry), but it took them almost a month to solve the issue, because the post house didn't accept that they did a mistake, and the editors and post are always right in our business (because they have the final saying, and are working very close to the directors/producers in their nice air conditioned space!). Oh WOW, just WOW, what a tremendous fvck up by the post house. And it took a whole MONTH to resolve that?? They should be ashamed to call themselves a "post house". Unfortunately not only do most people not appreciate what goes into the sound department during the shoot, but they don't understand that it needs to also be properly handled in post as well. Just like what is shot in camera isn't magically the same as the final resulting video, but it needs to be carefully and skillfully edited together, and have a good color grade done, and VFX etc etc Likewise post sound is composed of a tonne of different distinct roles such as: Dialogue Editor ADR Recordist Foley Artist SFX Editor Composer Sound Designer Re-recording Mixer Etc etc Expecting your guy who cuts the visuals to also do the sound post is like expecting on set that your 1st AC would also be a great boom op. Likewise to expect your composer to be a great dialogue editor is like expecting your steadicam op would also be the best choice as a drone pilot. Sometimes people have skills in both areas, but it is totally wrong to assume that. Every year I greatly enjoy doing the 48HOUR film contest (during which you must make from scratch a complete short film in only 48hrs, from conception, to script, to filming, to editing, to submission by the deadline). 48HOURS is extremely popular across the country, with hundreds and hundreds of teams entering just in my city along, let alone the rest of the country: https://www.48hours.co.nz At the start of the competition each year (when the 48hours starts ticking down) each team gets given randomly an assigned genre along with certain requirement elements (props/sounds/actions/cast/lines/etc. You can see this year's here: https://www.48hours.co.nz/news/genre-elements-and-ultra-2018/) which must be in the final submitted film (there are also a bunch of other requirements which are the same for all teams, such as what fps / resolution / max length / etc that the film must be). Naturally such a format means you tend to have smaller teams with an extremely fast turn around (under forty eight hours!), thus of course a lot of compromises have to be made. However, I was bitterly disappointed in how the audio turned out last year on the team I was on. Because while we had a professional editor who does this full time as a job, he comes from a background of editing picture for reality tv (I heard some horror stories for sound from him!), thus his expectations/workflow/standards/mindset for sound is radically different from what you'd want for a narrative short film. This means when I got to experience our film for the first time (as I missed seeing it at the heats due to work) at the Auckland Finals (one of only a dozen films chosen) I got quite the shock (although those who had heard it in the heats did give me a heads up beforehand). I wondered if our editor had painted on ears? I dunno. Even so, at least it was good enough we made the Finals, and even into the Grand Finals of the entire country wide competition. So even if you have a great sound recordist on set, your final sound in the film will be far worse than what it can be if you don't take the same care with it as you do with the visuals. Thankfully they did teak the audio a little before putting it online, thus the audio wasn't quite as awful as I experienced in the cinema, this was our film from 48HOURS 2017: This year I thought I'd be missing out on 48HOURS for the first time, as I had to choose between those dates or being able to work on a feature film. Obviously I took on the feature and the paid work. However at around midnight on Thursday night I discovered Friday/Saturday/Sunday's shoots was cancelled! (due to rain) Thus I was in the strange position of having a weekend free for once, what to do? Then I remembered, of course, 48HOURS! So at the very last minute I looked around for a team to join as their sound recordist (I'd had heaps and heaps ask me in the weeks coming up to the competition, which I all sadly had to turn down due to the clash with the feature film I'm working on), and on Friday morning (the event starts on Friday! At 7pm) I got confirmed onto a team. I was hopeful this year would go differently, as I'd joined quite a good team, in fact they were the countrywide winners of the entire competition last year with their film "Under the Bridge": However after principle photography wrapped on Saturday night I realised from discussions with others on the team that the guy they had coming in to do post sound tomorrow morning after picture lock was someone primarily with a music/composing background and thus I was immediately starting to develop deep concerns about this year's dialogue editing as well. As a sound recordist your primary job on set is to "protect the dialogue", everything else in your job is secondary to capturing the best dialogue you can under the circumstances. So in a way I decided I better on carrying on protecting the dialogue another step further as it passes through post. Not ideal, as my practical experience as a dialogue editor is right next to zero (but I have been reading through a textbook on dialogue editing: "Dialogue Editing for Motion Pictures: A Guide to the Invisible Art", dabbling a teeny teeny bit in a DAW: REAPER, and hanging out in various sound post forums. All of this significantly motivated by my bad experience last year, I didn't want to leave sound post at risk in someone else's hands again. But I'd been too busy and 48HOURS came around surprisingly earlier than usual this year, and so I hadn't got around to mastering dialogue editing at all in time). So I proposed that I (together with Josh our picture editor, who kinda had some spare time after picture lock, as he wasn't handling the grade at all, rather they had a specialist color grader coming in just for that do it in DaVinci Resolve with a BMD grading panel) focused specifically on doing the dialogue edit, while their post sound guy focused in on doing his composing together with the overall sound design and final sound mix. Really needed Josh's assistance though, as I have no experience with Premiere (what little video editing I do very occasionally do, is done in Vegas) and his computer was the only free computer there anyway to do editing on. But by guiding him along (read: "micro managing" :-P ) with identifying where the issues are and pointing him to how and where solutions existed (seriously, if not for me, I bet he'd never have even glanced once at my sound report file! Even though I gave him the heads up a sound report existed every time I offloaded files to him during Saturday's shooting). However in the end I only managed to do one very very quick and rough first pass through the dialogue of the film (ah well, better than nothing!), as in the end I got dragged away by the director herself as she instructed me to do foley and SFX that was needed (WHICH NEVER GOT USED!! Even though Josh & myself not once, not twice, but three times ran upstairs the files to him for the sound design / mix, but he claims he never got them?! I to this day do not know what was going on.... In the end I saw him recording with a handheld mic in his noisy room the extra sounds he wanted, and I just bit my tongue... as I knew my objections would just be overruled by him, the producer, and director. Plus we were running very short on time by then so anything I said that I knew wouldn't happen would just be wasting time and thus be bad for the team overall. Thus my best course of action would be to walk out of the room to keep my thoughts to myself. Although it sure feels good to let them out now....). Oh and btw, although I did the foley and SFX (which never got used....), there was no need for me to do any ADR! ;-) Because I'm awesome. (and modest) And that is the end of my tale about how sound post is important, don't neglect it! </rant> Addendum, I did some BTS videos during the weekend: Also from my SECOND team that I was on that weekend (this was done after principle photography wrapped on Saturday evening for my main team, and then I returned to their base on Sunday morning before picture lock), I must be just a little insane to chose to do such a thing, and I barely slept that night: kye 1 Quote Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
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