The Interviews Thread

[Richard J. Johnson]

Great Thread! I thought Herman was some old dude that looked like Kenny Rogers.

[Rodney V. Smith]

BRAD SEMENOFF - SOUND DESIGNER

WEBSITE | IMDB

1.) What's your name and what is it that you do?

My name is Brad Semenoff and I am a dialog and sound fx editor as well as a sound designer and re-recording mixer. Basically I handle all of the post production sound duties except for music.

2.) How many DVXFests have you been involved with? Any winning or top 10 entries?

Due to the timing of other projects, I've only been able to work on four films in three separate fests. Fortunately all four of the films have placed in the top ten with two of them coming in first place.

O2 Timefest dir. Tim Hyten
THE SMALL MULTIPLE Timefest dir. Daniel Piatt
THE STRANGE DAYS OF JOEY DAVIS Questfest dir. Rodney Smith
DISPATCH Monsterfest dir.Tim Hyten


3.) What is it like to work with directors from DVXUser?

It's a lot of fun! Usually it's the first time that they've worked with a separate sound designer so they're really excited at the prospect of seeing what I can add to the project.


4.) What are your guidelines for working on a project? As a sound designer there must be a certain process you like to follow.

Well my number one guideline is that the sound must fit the story and and aide in its narrative development. Film is a storytelling art, so having a cool sound that doesn't make sense with the picture is a waste of time.

When I first take on a project, I like to read the script before seeing any of the dailies so that I'm not influenced by the images before the story. I try to get a sense of what the characters are feeling, and think about what sound role sound can play. I'll talk to the director about their ideas and see if my ideas are in line with their vision of the film.

When working on the film, I always cut production sound (dialog), backgrounds, hard FX, and then sound design. Dialog is the bedrock of the film, so cutting the production sound first let's me know how much work the other areas of the film will need. For example if the production sound is relatively clean and I'm able to make a good bed of fill (the sound of the air in the room), then I don't need to rely on the backgrounds as much to provide the air. After the dialog I'll cut the backgrounds and hard FX, which is anything we see on screen that would need a sound (doors, cars, dogs, etc.). After all the ground work is done so that the visuals seems sonically complete, I'll start working on the sound design. Hopefully there will be a rough draft of the music at this time so that I can fit my sound design in with the composer's music. My standard joke is that if they go high, I go low… if they go low I go really low, but it's a lot more involved than that. After my first pass of the sound design, I'll send that to the director and composer for notes. After we talk it out and see how everything works together, I'll go ahead and start mixing.


5.) What's your favorite thing about working as a sound designer, and what can you bring to a project?

I love how sound influences emotion. To me all art is an attempt to trigger emotions, so when all the pieces come together and the viewer left feeling and thinking about the movie then I'm happy. Of course sound, like all aspects of the film, is directly influenced by what happens before in the chain. If the script is written to take advantage of sound, the director plans the shots to take advantage of the sound ideas in the script, the production sound team is given enough time to respect to do their job, the final cut of the film takes advantage of the shots that the director planned that took advantage of the sound ideas in the script, then I can play a much more creative role in the final product of the film. Ideally I'd like to come on board during pre-production so that I can make suggestions as to how to plan things to take advantage of sound.


6.) Do you ever request any new sounds or do-overs for films you workon? What kind of communication do you give or expect from directors you work with?

Well the only real thing that I can ever suggest is to do ADR. If the film needs a certain sound effect I would go out and record it myself. Ideally I'd like the director to give me an idea of what role they envision sound playing in their film but sometimes they give me free rein which is fine. Once the film has been edited and the locked cut has been delivered to me it's very helpful to do a spotting session with the director. In a spotting session, we watch the film together and talk about what kind of sounds they want for each scene.


7.) How can a director, first time or even more experienced, get you involved in a project?

Email is usually the best way to contact me. On my website I have a contact form with a questionnaire that helps me get a better sense of the film and what the director is looking for.

http://www.bradsemenoff.com/contact/page2.php


8.) What's your favorite DVXFest so far? Do you tend to watch most of the films and listen specifically for sound design work?

I guess my favorite fest so far has been Timefest, which was my first. It was fun because I had two entries that year; one was really hyped and the other was a largely unknown underdog and they went on to win first and third respectively.

I usually am not able to watch all of the films in each fest simply because of the sheer number of entries. I always pay attention to sound for the ones that I do watch and I try to comment on that aspect, since I'm totally unqualified to talk about any of the visual aspects.


9.) How important is sound design in having a solid film? Tell us why.

Well I'd have to say that it is more important than anything else, but I may be a bit biased :-) . As many people have said and studies have shown, good sound makes the images seem to look better. Sound is a powerful storytelling tool and I think that film makers are only hurting their film if they don't explore its benefits.


10.) What's in the future for you?

I predict… a cheeseburger! That sounds good!


11.) Any words of advice?

1. Start thinking about sound early on in the pre-production process and even during the writing phase if possible.
2. Always record sound on set, even if you think the shot is MOS.
3. And finally, try to record as many wild takes as possible during production. If a scene or take seems like it may be a problem for sound due for whatever reason, take the actor's aside immediately after and have them perform the scenes without having to worry about the camera. They may save you from having to do ADR later

[Edgen]

Awesome Rodney! Thank you so much for including me

cheers!
/justin

[dre83]

Great interviews.

Hope some more are to come

[Brandon Rice]

Hey Rodney, these are awesome! Thanks for posting them

[dre83]

Great Thread! I thought Herman was some old dude that looked like Kenny Rogers.

Funny

[Rodney V. Smith]

The Alex Whitmer interview in now live.

[ZazaCast]

I want an interview with Michael Anthony Horrigan... who's with me?

...and who's that Alex chick?

[Rodney V. Smith]

Hmm.. need a DP, a Sound Engineer, a VFX guy and maybe a producer... any suggestions guys?

[Brandon Rice]

Shot you a PM Rodney.