Pro 5.1 finishing mix budget?

[USLatin]

How much would I have to allocate for a pro to mix a feature into 5.1?

I would have all the ADR, sweetening, and sound design in there. All I would need is to be able to bring the tracks for them to give it a pro touch by mixing it into 5.1 Dolby like it should be done. Possibly a little tweaking time too, but hopefully the only thing necessary will be to surround mix it and output the Blu/DVD master.

Hopefully someone in the San Fernando Valley since there are so many places.

 

[Rippie]

Be prepared to pay a pretty penny to get the license for encoding to dolby digital 5.1

 

[Noiz2]

As Ripple mentioned last time I looked a DD license was around $12,000. AND it has to be mixed in a Dolby certified stage, figure $450/ hr minimum. Since you won't have any surround premixes the final mix will take longer. On a big budget film 1 reel/ day is considered pretty good so figure say two weeks on a 90 min film. 10 X 10 (post works a 10hr day) X $450 = $45,000.

But your going lean and mean and are going to be VERY prepped so cut that in half and add a lot of antacids. Your still looking at a minimum of $35,000 in license and facility fees if you want to show DD in a theatre. And of course there are those 35mm prints....

Now you mentioned BlueRay. I think that puts you in the DD for DVD (AC3) category. That is a different story. I have not gotten a definitive answer on what all the licensing requirements are. You can certainly create the AC3 file with out spending a whole lot, but what exactly can you do with it????? You can't use the Dolby name with out a license, but what license. The DD for DVD AC3 format is not a "theatrical" format so????? You would have to talk to Dolby and tell them what you want to do and what they want to let you do it. A decent theatrical mix stage for surround can be had (at least up here) for closer to $150 an hour. But none with any brains will cross Dolby so if your encoding you better be able to show that it's OK with the power that be. Small screen only? Again it's unclear exactly what, say owning DVDSP, gets you in terms of licensing. You can certainly encode. You need a license agreement with Dolby to stick their logo on. But exactly what they charge for that and what limits they put on your showing is unclear from everything I have read. At least for a low budget small screen project you can do it with out putting Dolby's name on it and players will still detect the stream and play it back. And with so little money involved Dolby will probably not pursue it even if you are in violation of an EULA on what ever encoder you use. And if your on a small screen you can mix in a smaller space. If my space was set up to mix surround I would figure at least two weeks for an out side project that I didn't know the state of. And I would probably be looking at $100/ hour or so. But that would not include any licenses you would need to get and it would be in a small private studio not swish commercial facility.

All the above is why I try to persuade low budget projects to do a GOOD stereo mix. It's a LOT better than any surround mix they can afford. Have you had your editor cut for surround? Have they prepared surround ambiences? Are there FX designed for surround? In a low budget the answer is 99% no. And if the answer is no then surround is a marketing ploy. If you just want to say it's surround Mix in stereo and make sure the dialog is bussed to it's own mono (centered) buss. Take the BG tracks and send about 3% to the "surround" tracks. Print the Dialog and Foley track (mono - Center) all the FX and music (Stereo - L & R) and the low reverb "surround tracks" (Stereo - Ls & Rs). If you think you need some sub take your stereo stem and copy it put a low pass filter at around 80Hz and sum it to mono (phase cancelation shouldn't be much of an issue, if it is just use the L channel) and call it the Lfe. Encode it and check on "home theatre" but you should be fine. That is the way about 80% of feature films mix in "surround", thought they are actually monitoring the surround chain. Most films only really care about the LCR mix, and in truth that is all 90% of films really should worry about. Most "surround" features are heard by the audience in stereo, some even in mono. If you go to the theatre spend a few seconds and focus your ears on the surround speakers. Way too often there will be nothing coming out of them, even on a film billed as being in Dolby Digital.