Zero Budget post-production

M

Morto-Vivo

New member
Hello all:
This is my first post here. Found this forum and i've been reading mostly all topics and learning quite much with everyone.
I'm going to make a zero budget movie in 8 days. I have an camera HV30 and a Zoom H2, with an ATR55 and a Rode pole, all things i bought by reading posts here. I guess I don't have the best setup, but it's the best I could afford.
Finishing it, there is one thing that keeps worrying me: post-production. Ok I know there is Adobe Premiere, Pro Tools and Cubase or Nuendo. But working with windows XP, is there anything good for free? or even at a low price. I know that what you pay is normally what you get, but is it possible to make something that we all could sign proudly? I Understood there was an free edition on Avid DV, but never found anything free for audio, witch could use VST, could be multitrack and could be used to synchronize video like those pay ones do. How can I get an clean job for free and legal? I tryed several like Reaper but none had video support.
Thank you for your attention.:)
 
if you're new to post production audio..
even more reason to spend the extra time getting it right on set.
Kill all the background noise you can, let the boom mic get in as close as it needs..
..etc.

The better it is on set, the less issues you'll have in post.
Something obvious, but worth mentioning.
 
Rippie said:
if you're new to post production audio even more reason to spend the extra time getting it right on set. Kill all the background noise you can, let the boom mic get in as close as it needs etc. The better it is on set, the less issues you'll have in post. Something obvious, but worth mentioning.
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AMEN!!!​

No matter what your budget preproduction is the key to a successful project. One preproduction technique that has worked for a producer that I work for on a regular basis is to treat the project as a silent piece - you have to make every visual image count - and to approach the project as a radio play - you can only tell the story with sound.

You should also be able to describe the project in ten (10) words or less. (It's a zombie film; it's a film about choices; it's a romantic comedy; etc.) This defines the focus (pardon the pun) of your project.

No one ever notices the audio of a project unless it's bad or not there at all. On top of that, audiences will forgive a lot visually if the sound is solid. So pay close attention to your sound in preproduction, production and, obviously, audio post.

My blog may be of a little assistance:

http://blogs.myspace.com/index.cfm?fuseaction=blog.ListAll&friendId=111888913

There's also:

filmsound.org (good place to lose yourself for a few days)
jwsound.net (production sound pros discussing production sound)
 
Jockomo said:
I haven't tried this, but it's open source and says it handles DV, AVI and QT

http://jahshaka.org/Tutorials/p2_articleid/75

Also for what it's worth, almost all of the adobe products have a 30 day demo.
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Unfortunately, the "Jashaka" project does not seem to be particularlly active. I was very interested in it quite a few years ago, and had some contact with the developer. But the project never really got to the point of being usable (at least by my on Mac OS X...). There may have been a Linux version that worked... to some degree...

Unfortunately, for 'video processing', I think it is still the case that the Open Source solutions are few, and not very good.

So, I shell out for the Adobe CSX, and Final Cut Express...
 
You can do some decent work with either of the programs that come free with Windows or MacOS anything- Movie Maker and iMovie. Those of us who got spoiled with higher end NLE's may hate those programs, but they will get the job done. I don't know if any of the open source programs have developed as well as they were hoping to. I think Cinelerra developed pretty well, but you'll have to try it out yourself to find out. A Linux installation isn't a big issue if you need one. You don't even need to repartition if you can invest a little, small hard drives are cheap. If you need extra audio work, try Audacity. If you need graphics work, GIMP can replace Photoshop. That should cover you for now, at least until you want free CGI (which is even easier to find).
 
There actually is a Free version of Protools (Protools Free). It's been discontinued for some time, and doesn't support newer operating systems. Moreover, only the Mac version supported video via quicktime.
 
Hello all:
Thank you very much for all your replies.I worked with Pro Tools for 5 years, but never could find a free audio multitrack editor with video support. The thing is: I can get something out of the H2 and the boompole (all the short is in interiors) so I wont need a blimp. I'm using a slate to get it synchro sound and image. I have the AVID Free DV and this may work. The Pro Tools Free, I have it but only works with 98 and doesn't have video support. Googling I found some interesting plug-ins freeware, like Blue Cat, opposite to Waves, but an audio editor is hell to find. Thanks for the tip on Adobe products. I don't know Audacity. Does it do the job?
Thank you for all the nice help. I'll try Jahaska. Still, i'm looking for something just for the audio. But doesn't seem to exist.:)
 
Morto-Vivo said:
... Ok I know there is Adobe Premiere, Pro Tools and Cubase or Nuendo. But working with windows XP, is there anything good for free? ...
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Well at least three of those have windows versions. PT free is ancient and was out around the time PT first had windows compatible version so it probably wouldn't do you any good. I thought one of the "big pluses" with windows was all the shareware? It's been years since I was on a windows box but I seem to remember a few multi track editors that were free or cheap. There was a gold-something??? can't remember. You might be able to pick up a version of SAW for not a lot of $. It was never super cheap but it's not one of the big players so you might find it used. I REALLY liked it and it was extremely stable with incredible support. I used to email the developer with a question or problem and sometimes got "fixed" versions with in hours! About the only thing I missed moving to the Mac.
 
Thank you very much Noiz2. I got Jahshaka, bu doesn't even open, gives me an error report. I'll see what I can find on SAW. I know a person who has a H4, maybe he has Cubase LE with him. That might do the job (I hope). Do all zero and do a reasonable job, I don't believe is impossible. It's just a question of being reasonable and don't expect miracles. Let's see.:thumbsup:
 
The thing you have to remember is that there is no zero budget, your just not paying in cash. Peoples time is worth money, equipment loaned to you cost money, people taking the time to help you are donating to your project and underwriting it, just not with cash. One reason it's important to remember that is that it doesn't stay that way. At some point people will want to get compensated etc. So it's good to keep track a bit of how your pulling things off and what they "should" cost so you have a somewhat realistic "budget". You will be surprised how much your zero budget film ends up costing. I did post on a very low budget feature (I think they ended up at around $35,000 - on credit cards!). He did pay the production people and actors a very small day rate (most of the budget). We did the final mix on the same stage they were remixing The Godfather. I pulled lots of connections and we ended up spending $350 in transfer fee's for roughly $7,000 of stage time. That was all we spent on audio post. BUT I had budgeted audio post and what we "spent" was around $60,000, we just didn't spend it in $. Some of what worked on that project can be used on others but a LOT of one shot favors and "deals" are what really made it happen and those don't repeat so easily. We got the stage because some folks owed me some favors, so that couldn't repeat with out generating more favor equity (I like that phrase). So nothing is really free. The trick is to find ways of "paying" with things you have or can get. The simplest is money but it's not nec the easiest to get.
 
Those are very wise words and I thank you for sharing them with me. Of course the minute you start thinking is the minute the money counter starts ticking. Things cost money, time costs money, but if one can be so lucky like me who found a dozen persons willing to work, and If everyone is doing his job, and if everyone is not selfish, and if nobody is playing like 'i'm the director and so and so...", people have a chance to shoot, people have a chance to direct, and in the end, everyone's happy because all our names are there. Call me 'naif' but this is our first work and it's going smooth...:Drogar-Mark-10(DBG)
 
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