Mastering On Films...

timapter

timapter

Veteran
Hey everyone, yet another question for your professional opinions...

Im involved in Post Prod on a 15 minute short film shot here in South Africa - its a thriller type film all about drowning, water, drowning, and more water.

BUT ANYWAY,

we have a fairly large budget to be using in post (for a student film), and here is my question:

How do Hollywood films get their final mixes so damn LOUD onto DVD's? Is there a mastering step that Im missing or something?

I will be mixing in 5.1 on Nuendo 3.0 when we reach final mix, and mixing down to AC3.

How can I get that "blow your face off" loud mix that US features get without destroying my dynamic range?

Is there a step Im missing here?

And, by the by, whats a good average level for dialogue to sit at? -15? lower?
 
oh wow, you find US featres "blow your face off loud"? You must hate our 0db flatlined music then.

PLEEEASE don't go nuts on your volume! You should be looking down at us for having such loud masters.


but if you have to.............. Waves-L2 is a popular way to crush audio to 0db.
 
Compressing the dynamic range is exactly how the average level is increased without an excessive amount of overs (hard clipping). You can compress the dynamic range prior to or at the Dolby Digital encoding step. As for an average level for dialog, -12 dB works pretty well, you could push this up to -8 dB , but there would be less range for any dramatic event above your dialog.

In the end, you are trading off dynamic range versus the apparent level. There are no magic fixes for this, just a well chosen compromise.
 
hmmm. thanks guys... blow your face off lous ROCKS... but I hate compromising on my dynamic range, things just sound boring then.
 
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