How to handle actors speaking at different volume

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Denialorcoped

Well-known member
Hi guys,

I'm a director and a newbie to audio. For my short film I'm booming an Octava mk-12 mic. I've noticed that my actress's voice is not as loud as the other actors. I'm hesitant to have her speak louder cause she IS speaking at her normal volume.

Is the proper way to handle this to just beef up her audio a little in post, have her speak louder, or something else????
 
Typically, when working from a script, I'd ride gain on the boom. I will sometimes ask the director if we can get the actor to speak up a little but typically I'll use mixer gain to make up the difference. Make sure the mic is as close to her as possible when she's throwing her lines, and that you're aimed at her sweet spot, listening and adjusting aim to find the spot where you're getting the richest voice content.

I try to get enough level while I'm on location. Leaving it to post to fix is not the way I approach sound.

What mixer are you using?
 
We aren't using a mixer; this is a no-budget short film and I'm a one-man crew, often relying on my actors to help out with the booming, lighting etc...

I wish I had other resources but I don't. Do you have any advice on how to get by without those resources?
 
If you aren't using a mixer, your options are really limited.

My question is this:
Are you trying to get this into festivals, or is this just to help build your reel?

When you are just starting out, you need to understand that not everything is going to be perfect, because that costs money, and money is in short supply for a lot of people, which is understandable. When I was doing freelance sound design, and worked on projects with newer directors, there were always problems, but that's just part of the whole experience. You will learn a lot from this, and that is what's most important here. My goal as a sound designer when I was just starting out was to have each project be a step up from the last, and never to take a step back.

I have to be honest, I've seen some really good short, and even full length films, shot on nothing but a crappy Sony handycam, and used nothing else. No external audio, no lighting, nothing. They did some creative work with the editing, and had to ADR the WHOLE thing, but when I saw it, I thought, "man, give these guys $50,000, and I bet they can do something really cool". That's what you should be striving for with your early work.
 
Thanks for the information. This thread have answered my question too. I was wondering how to record talent's soft/quiet voice. So, the best way to do, besides asking the talent to speak louder and getting the boom mic closer, is to use the mixer to gain up on the volume a bit, correct? What I don't use a mixer, how practical is it to use the gain on the camera's?
 
The problem is that she will be speaking softly, but the next actor(s) will be speaking louder; so if you increase the gain for her you run the serious risk of overload/clipping/distortion dialog of the rest of the talent.

The reason you have a mixer - actually, a person to be the production sound mixer - is to "ride levels" and adjust the volumes on the fly as the dialog is recorded. A great boom-op makes a very large difference as well. They would also, as well as booming, wire up the talent with wireless lavs to give the audio post team (specifically the dialog editor) more options. You obviously have not reached the point you can afford to hire a professional sound team, but that's how it works when you have a budget.
 
That's some good information, I will definitely keep that in mind in my future films and as I develop as a director.

But it would be cool if this thread could also find the best solution for those without the resources of a sound crew and a sound mixer. As I understand the three options would be to A.) have the person speak louder B.) put the boom closer (if it is possible) C.) adjust it in post

Since I have already filmed that scene, my option is limited to adjusting it in post; I know it's not the most ideal solution but a small beefing up of her dialogue may do the trick without the audience being able to tell the difference. If that works that's fine by me, so I will try and do that tonight and post a clip to get some feedback...
 
Denialorcoped said:
That's some good information, I will definitely keep that in mind in my future films and as I develop as a director.

But it would be cool if this thread could also find the best solution for those without the resources of a sound crew and a sound mixer. As I understand the three options would be to A.) have the person speak louder B.) put the boom closer (if it is possible) C.) adjust it in post
Click to expand...

For a one-man-band, you may try using a mixer to bring in the mono mic, and sending it out via 2 channels, setting up to record 'stereo', but just changing the gain on one of the paths to match the female voice, and the other path gained appropriate for the other stronger voices.

Then while the female's track may be clipped when the others are speaking, and correspondingly, the female's low on the other voices' track, with splicing and dicing you can get both dialog tracks to give something better than one gain setting for all, and obviously if you don't have someone available to adjust gains on the fly.

And of course try it to see if it works before committing a shoot to it...
 
Don't make it more complicated than it needs to be. Just turn up her vocals in post. You are going to have to do a mix of all of the sound for the movie, and you are going to have to adjust all of the volume for everything, so if you don't have the proper resources to adjust on the fly, just turn up her mic when you are doing your sound mix after editing.

If you are going into this thinking you aren't going to have to adjust the volume of a lot of stuff in post, either your project has very little going on, or you are going to be surprised at how much level adjusting you are going to end up doing.
 
In a way it's good you do sound, so you know what it is. And you will notice it when listening in your room... You will hear the fridge, the heaters, cars, airplanes, children, music.... (if it's there)
 
unless i'm missing something, and assuming your not only shooting a master and ARE going in for closeups, you should be booming her closer and getting proper levels in her closeup, same as the other actors.
 
Post vs. a mixer isn't a massive deal - either way, when you bump up her level, you'll also bump up room sounds, and also amplify any electronic noise in the recording chain. Adding gain in post will also boost any noise-floor issues that come after the preamp, say converters or any hum/hiss from the camera or recording medium, which should be negligible with decent gear. As usual, good balanced cables and a good mic are big pluses.

Room tone can really save you here - if you sense the "room" getting louder when she's speaking, try to draw your volume envelopes very close to her dialogue, and match room tone to the louder passages. The first time you include room tone in your audio editing, you'll realize what magic it can be. Also, see if the lower end of the room can be EQ'd out of your dialogue tracks, which can make the gain rides more transparent and give the room tone "space" to do its thing. Sometimes a soft-knee limiter can help even out the top and smooth things out.

When drawing audio gain envelopes, listen critically - you may find you need a slight overall bump for her, and that only certain syllables need a real push. Getting specific with your volume automation can separate the men from the boys when it comes to impact and legibility.
 
Whenever there's a significant difference in volume between two (or more) talents I find that adjusting the boom distance is more effective than riding levels on the mixer as it doesn't affect the background noise level and leads (IMO) to more natural transitions between talents.
In a 2 shot that can even make booming easier in some situations: say you have a soft-spoken talent talking to a louder one. Instead of having to swing the boom back and forth between the two you might be able to get the levels just right by placing the mic right above the soft-spoken talent's mouth and just panning it toward the louder talent when he/she speaks.
 
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