Audio help with a Short

You need to use room tone to underlay the dialog and bridge the cuts. PArt of the problem is inconsistent micing from shot to shot, coupled with having the mic positioned too far away from the characters - there's a lot of room resonance in most of the shots. Not much can be done about that now except learn the lesson for the next time.
 
What Steve said.

But I'll add that, when shooting on location, things like fans, air units, and refrigerators need to be controlled during each shot. Part of the issue with this short is that, when the guys first meet Lou, it's obvious that an AC or fridge compressor was on during dialog from one of the actors, as it only comes in under his lines. This hoses the audio, as even if you do use room tone to smooth everything out, you now have that nasty, buzzy, hum in the background through the whole shot.

On the opening shot, the audio is distracting. It literally sounds like a mic and recorder were put in the room and left to record for a few minutes, then that audio was dropped in with the shot. The footsteps don't come in until he approaches the bar, and anything like that that will be Foleyd or FX edited needs to be consistent.

And because it sounds like all the camera audio was replaced in this opening shot, there are so many other things going on that should be heard but aren't:

- the door opening and closing
- the billiard game (I heard what could have been one stick-to-cueball, but the players are talking and there are no voices, not even closer walla)
- the guy walking through the beaded curtain
- the exchange at the bar (both the main actor and the bartender seem to speak briefly)
 
I'll add too that it sounds like the levels were set in post by ear without insuring you're working in a calibrated environment. They're all over the place.
 
When you say your "sound guy" I'm guessing you mean production not post. First, in a non critical environment (laptop) it doesn't sound too bad, certainly nothing that some post couldn't help. But you haven't done much post work, a few FX and a lot of music slathered on. That's a bit harsh I guess but it's the indi "fix all" and it drives me nuts. When you are pouring on score you still pretty much always need sound under it or you get in "dream sequence" time. You need to create the internal logic in this world and then stick to it. If it's a big weird loud soundscape out the door then we need to hear it as we get to the door and when the door is open etc. We probably ought to hear some of that thunder inside also. Though you don't have to be slavish about it the "see a dog hear a dog" school of sound editing is a good place to start. Go through and put in sound for everything we see that makes noise, or that we want to make noise. Then go in and add the stuff we don't see but we know is happening, like the drinks being made and carried over.

Now maybe there is a ton of really bad production that you cut out and maybe the laptop is just masking a lot but 90% of what I think needs work is post not production. You are not supposed to drop production sound on the tracks and call it a day. Production is the raw material, not the finished product.
 
Thanks guys. Do you all think I should dub the whole thing in ADR? Or just work with what I got? I'm entering it into some festivals and wonder if with sound as is, would it be taken seriously into consideration?

Also, we have fixed the levels on a few lines we dubbed, from the bartender at the beginning especially.
 
I know your asking here about sound but I would tighten up the edit before I spent a lot of time on sound. That is going to make a bigger improvement in your festival chances. I felt like I was waiting for lines a lot. And no ADR is a last ditch solution if you don't spend the time/ money to have it done right it will make the film look REALLY bad quick.
 
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