Cinematic dialogue

[j1clark@ucsd.edu]

.. and how good is your talent/actors at doing this?

That's where you start from, if they don't have the experience in voice work, you'll be hard pressed to make your dialogue tracks sound 'more cinematic.'

If this is the case, call a local theatre group and ask for some help in the form of their 'best' voices to rehearse for their next show on camera.

Then you'll have some examples to play with in post .. and maybe another prospective client.

Cheers.

I participated in a 48 hour project recently, mainly to get more contacts with people. One of those contacts is someone who is involved in doing theater workshops. I'm hoping to set up some 'film experiences' where I shot some scenes.

Some of the observations I've had for a long time with in my own efforts and those that I see in the clips here and elsewhere:

1) Over gesticulation of the actor on screen.
2) Voice ranging from 'monotone' to 'over enunciated' (audio version of over gesticulation...)
3) Voice dynamics, mostly 'too low' for 'quiet scenes', and 'too loud' for emotional scenes...

Some of the dynamics could be compensated for by dynamic adjustments of the recording levels, but it seems to me there would still be too much 'noise' trying to boost an actor's voice when it is low.

[marvinhello]

Thanks everyone! I'll post some samples soon!

By the way, have you guys seen the trailer of 007: Skyfall? The dialogue in this trailer sounds very unique, again feels very bassy... maybe it's low frequency rumble?

[ryanjf]

Thanks everyone! I'll post some samples soon!

By the way, have you guys seen the trailer of 007: Skyfall? The dialogue in this trailer sounds very unique, again feels very bassy... maybe it's low frequency rumble?

Sounds to me like it's just a great recording with a good mic and preamp.

When he says "employment" you can hear a bit of the expansion at the tail. The mixer is probably doing that just enough to pull down the noise floor or it may be even a nice fade. The word "Skyfall" sounds like it's from a different take or even ADR?

Also don't forget the actual voice too. Some people just have good voices.

[marvinhello]

Sounds to me like it's just a great recording with a good mic and preamp.

When he says "employment" you can hear a bit of the expansion at the tail. The mixer is probably doing that just enough to pull down the noise floor or it may be even a nice fade. The word "Skyfall" sounds like it's from a different take or even ADR?

Also don't forget the actual voice too. Some people just have good voices.

Thanks for the insights, I heard someone say that it's better to position the mic slightly angled towards the talent's chest? In the skyfall trailer, Craig sounds full of chest-resonance to me (esp. the word "provocateur"), is this achieved by close micing (pointing to the chest) and EQ, compression/expander?

[Richard Crowley]

I think there is an excellent chance that what you are hearing was recorded in an (optimized) ADR studio with an LDC.

[dre83]

The shot where he sais: skyfall is wide yes, but WIDE is a BIG difference with HEIGTH... a shot can be veeeeeeeeeeeeeeeeeeeeeeeeeeeeeeeeeeeeeeeeeeeeeeeee eeeeeeeeeery wide... But for booming it's the HEIGHT that counts... I think the boom could reach low enough to have a "natural" sound regarding "frame wide" and "location. (little bit reverb is ok, because it's a reverby room in the image also)

You also hear that words are cut with fade in fade out.. But that's just because it's a trailer...

And also trailers are made I think before the final soundmix is done... So that's maybe the raison you hear "background noise" just on dialogue pieces....

Or so... I could be wrong also... :-p

[marvinhello]

hi all thank you for all the input, I've added a sample recording on set, can you please take a look at it and give me some tips on making the dialogue more cinematic?

[dre83]

it's very hard to say.....without image...

it's more easy to say what to do during recording and during post when we have also visual....

And it also depends is this a long shot ? or extreme close up ? If this was a long shot: don't worry and take the sound of the close shots

If this was a close shot: go closer with the mic... yes and I mean EXTREME close (0,000000000000000000000000000000001 inch out of frame is out of frame)
Now we do come to a point that you also need some "distance" to not have the "I'm a radio DJ effect"... But for now....go as close as possible.

I hear a lot of surrounding sounds, but it are cars ? If the scene is outside in a street, or even a park....it can pass.

I'll try to do some stuff...stay tuned :-p

[Noiz2]

...
And also trailers are made I think before the final soundmix is done... So that's maybe the raison you hear "background noise" just on dialogue pieces....

I'm not sure what is usual but many trailers are cut before the picture is finished with the picture cut and even before the sound team is hired. They are also often done by folks who have nothing to do with the actual films post crew. There are post houses that do nothing but trailers. This is part of why trailers will sometimes seem like they are for a different movie and often have clips that are not in the final film.

In some cases the person doing sound design on the trailer is kind of auditioning for the job for the final film. I know that happened on at least two big films but I'm not sure how common it is.

[dre83]

Aren't there also: the "we have to convince people to invest money or to sell our stuff trailers" and the "this is going to happen in the movie trailers" ?

For the example, there are a few "isues".

1: the guy is I think not boomed properly... he sounds like the mic is aimed behind him. The girl is ok, but sometimes going "off" also (off mic).
2: I'm not native english and I don't know every single word in english.. But I don't understand what they're saying... They're kinda "mubling"... Speaking way to fast.
It's like for image... When you do a travel shot at 406468464646464648646864 lightyears/second...it's a bit to fast.. That's same for sound...if you speak to fast...
3: Let them speak louder...Specialy the guy. But it's also good aiming which is important here (with the mic....)
It's better to be to much in front then behind someone (in front of the face....)

And the location is in a street with houses, one against one ?

http://dl.dropbox.com/u/3746174/wav059_EQ_NR.zip

I tried some stuff... I've done only EQ and EQ with some NR (Izotope). It's just a trial....