First Video I have ever done the sound work on

J

johnnyevil

Active member
Okay guys, be honest, but go easy on me. I am still learning. Here is the first video I have ever run the sound for.

Geek V Geek

I wrote the piece for us to practice with. I boomed the actors with an AT4053b run through a MixPre and into a Sony PCM-M10.

The whole piece was cut in Final Cut Pro, though I did some very minor things in Audacity. I'm still reading Jay Rose's book on audio PP, and did very little other than actual dialogue editing.

Please tell me what you think was done well, and what I should watch out for for the future (I already know about the boom shadows in the beginning, and some slight booming from having moved the boom in the beginning).
 
A few "small problems".

- first shot: shadow on the wall at the back. Solution --> nothing much you could do actualy, lowering the lights could help... (yes you know it already I know :-p)
I hear the mic moving, but the good thing is you "move" with the actor. So that's good. (yes that you know also :-p)
"oh come on, not this garbage again, it's alway..." on the "it's" you missed it a little. But that's also because he turned his head suddenly. So it's not 100% your falt :-p
I hear you move, which I said already is good. But it was better to be more above the guy in front. The guy in the back sounding a little more "roomy" don't worry about that.
but it's good also you move and follow.
"What's wrong with star trek ?" --> reflections

On the 2nd shot the guy sounds the same "soundcolor", so that's good. But I think you could go lower there though. But I find it ok when it sounds "equal".

"teddy bears" --> it's good. He sounds closer and that's good.

Image isue: suddenly the camera goes down a little to re-frame... It's done a little to wild.... It was on a "stupid stand" ? :-p

"hey guys ?"
"Yes", "What" --> at the same time, so the "What" is less good then the "Yes".. But nothing much you could do about. As maybe being more above the "Yes-person" because he's more in front

Some sound editing isue: when he stands up and goes to the girl, when he makes the move of hitting here...the sound is gone suddenly. Don't do that.... always keep roomtone sound, movement sound
Wat sound did you use for the hit ?
 
That's for the observations.

About the shadows. Yeah, when I saw those, i was a little disappointed, because I kept asking the camera man "am I in the shot?" He assured me I wasnt. Again, you're right, not much I could do about that.

When the camera drop to reframe, i agree, it's too wild. Camera man and director couldn't agree on keeping the camera stable :/

I know that somewhere in the files, I took wild lines of both of them saying "Yes," and "what," but I couldn't find them. The yes sounds better than the what cause you're right, he was closer to the girl.

I'll go back and see why the sound disappears during the slap, cause I did record a roomtone track, and I did layer it into the mix. Maybe the sound effect I used for the glove slap is too overpowering over the roomtone?

I recorded the director slapping his arm with the glove several times to get a variety of slaps. I just chose the best one. I didn't do anything else to the sound (I'd probably do something if I have finished the book I am currently reading.).

Thank you for the insights and observations.
 
wild lines ---> very good

The slap sound actualy sounded a bit "strange" to me..... like not "fitting".

Sometimes even if you use the real material, it sometimes doesn't fit...because viewers are used to other sounds.

Example: eating spaghetti sound..is not real spaghetti...it's smashing sound of a wet shammy
 
What would you recommend for a glove slap sound? I also felt it was off, but I thought it was because I couldn't line it up directly with the best spot in the NLE, due to FCP only being as accurate as a single frame. The sound of the slap appears, to me at least, to sort of be in the middle of the frame.

Also, I think I fixed the issue of the roomtone dropping out. I haven't rerendered the footage yet, as I am on the wrong computer to do that right now.
 
I think a mix of hitting your arm with your hand to have a "slap sound", or hitting a row piece of meat (or a living cow, also good :-p)

and that one mixed with the "glove-slap" sound
 
I will give those a shot, to see if I can't make a better sounding slap than the glove on arm. Thanks for the pointers.
 
I believe Final Cut can edit sub frame audio but I'm not sure how to do it. I did read in the manual somewhere that it can be done. I agree with all of the notes mentioned. If any of the handling noise was between words you might have been able to clean it out and replace with room tone. I know it was just an exercise but I'm really weary of swearing in these kinds of things. I'm not a prude by any stretch but it seems to have become a cliche' way to add drama or shock value. It was almost over the top for the content of the argument. i see what you were going for: the juxtaposition, but it didn't work for me. Just a taste thing.
Nice effort though!
Bernie



johnnyevil said:
What would you recommend for a glove slap sound? I also felt it was off, but I thought it was because I couldn't line it up directly with the best spot in the NLE, due to FCP only being as accurate as a single frame. The sound of the slap appears, to me at least, to sort of be in the middle of the frame.

Also, I think I fixed the issue of the roomtone dropping out. I haven't rerendered the footage yet, as I am on the wrong computer to do that right now.
Click to expand...
 
There was less swearing before the director changed the lines. I agree, there didn't need to be as much swearing in it. But the director and I had a deal, I wouldn't tell him how to direct while on set. I do disagree with his changes overall, and don't actually like the way he shot it. But instead of reshooting, I still cut it, and then I'll just not let him direct anything I write again.
 
Hey guys, thanks for the tip on sub-field audio editing within FCP. I was able to find out how to do it from Google.
 
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