sound Sound Issue

ad2478

ad2478

Hi friends recently i finished 30 mins film for the final project. I have sound problems which i want to discuss. There are many scenes in which there is hissing. We recorded sound via boom mic now the problem is suppose if there is a scene of a room. when we shot with one camera angle sound is fine but as we placed the footage from other camera angle it had hissing. i dont know why this issue has arrived. Any idea and suggestions?


Another question can we put the boom mic on table or something to record the voice. Because on many occations boom mic operator got tired and he was willing to put the boom mic on table which we didnt allowed but i was curious that if it had been placed on table will it create any problem?

Will be waiting for guidance

Regards
 
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It's very hard to say without having been there or hearing the audio. You may have had something in the room creating the noise that picked up at that angle (possibly came on between shots; wasn't anyone monitoring the sound?), or the levels were set differently from shot to shot or possibly the mic was aimed incorrectly. To eliminate the hiss you can use a low pass filter. Start the cut-off at about 10kHz and slowly work your way down until you hear it affect the dialog. You'll have to do that to the "good" dialog as well so that they match better. Did you get clean room tones?

I've never heard of a boom-op wanting to put down the boom; that's what s/he is paid to do! When I first got into production sound work I practiced with an 18 foot steel pole that weighed about 40 pounds or so and got my arms in shape. After swinging that baby around for a week or so a real boom was a feather! BTW, there are specific techniques that should be used that help reduce arm fatigue. There are also harnesses that a lot of boom-ops use that relieves shoulder stress.

http://www.boomaudiovideo.com/products/category-boom-pole-supports/-kit-cool-3117/

It's also great when you have to boom and mix at the same time.

Plant mics are usually small - I've used lavs - and hidden them in a prop. In a breakfast scene, for example, I cut a two holes in each of the cereal boxes (one for each angle), one hole for the antenna and one hole for the mic. I put the transmitter in the cereal box, pulled antenna through one hole and pulled the taped, well padded lav (to eliminate the sounds of hands on the table, etc.) through the hole on the side away from the camera. I put a second lav in a milk carton (empty and dry, of course). The receivers were taped to the underside of the table. I've used small condensors in flower pots and the like. I've also used boundary mics, but they're not my first choice.
 
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i have to agree...the hiss can be many different things...could of been something in the room when the mic was angled that way or a problem with the mic...hard to say

as for putting the boom down...come on...how long were the takes??? i did a film a year ago..Racheal Gets Married..and we had 40min takes !!!! i was almost dead after each take, but i never put it down.

as for putting it on a table??? not the best idea...cant move it...headturns are lost noise from actors hitting or rubbing the table...i would only go to a plant if it were the last thing i could ever do...i would always wire and actor before something like that.

as for that boom helper...i dont think i would ever use anything like that...cant move cue with something like that...and if you need one for FILM work..think of another job. hate to sound so negative, but if someone showed up with that...i would tell them to have a nice day and wonder how they ever got in the union...and there would be many laughs on set to see something like that.

now i could see it being used for maybe ENG EPK Doc work, but personally i would never use one, i have done many overtheshoulder work and never used anything like that in my 32 years.
 
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If the DP was tired would you let him put the camera on the table?

This goes back to all that the two sound pros above have been saying since they joined here... DON'T TREAT YOUR SOUND LIKE SH&T, it's just as important as the image! :)

So... no lol. And good for you for not letting him.
 
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Well there were no sound in the background...... we had shot in same place at the same time. And levels were also left same.
More over the boom mic operator was none other then the team members and so it is obvious that no one was paid for that.
Anyways i am seeking for some advise on how the sound should be kept best. What should be the safety precautions etc. This time the sound has been horrible and i need to know more how to keep the hissing sound away.? :(

And indietalk i agree sound is important and i know it because here and in few books i have read that sound is very important in fact if video quality is a little poor it can be fine but sound should be the best. But the thing is that we didnt avoide sound aspect , it was actually lack of experience that how to handle sound
 
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ad2478 said:
But the thing is that we didnt avoide sound aspect , it was actually lack of experience that how to handle sound
Click to expand...
This is the answer to your first statement:
ad2478 said:
i dont know why this issue has arrived.
Click to expand...
You need to take as much care with the sound as you do
with the picture. As others have said, you don't set the mic
down when you get tired just like you don't set the camera
down when you get tired.

Even though you were in the same place and you didn't
hear any noise in the background doesn't mean there WASN'T
any noise. The mic picked it up - so it was there. You can
look at a set or location and it looks well lit, but when you
point a camera at it it isn't well lit. If you don't set the white
balance what ends up on video won't look the way your
eyes see it.

Same with sound.

You have learned a valuable lesson. The person recording
the sound should take as much care with the audio as the
person shooting the movies does with the picture.

Next time bring on a dedicated sound person.

Making movies is harder than it seems, isn't it?
 
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ad2478 said:
Well there were no sound in the background...... we had shot in same place at the same time. And levels were also left same.
Click to expand...
It's obvious that something changed sonically. Was anyone monitoring the audio with headphones?

Just because your ears don't hear something doesn't mean that the mic doesn't "hear" it. It's too much to go into in a forum post, but, in essence, your brain has an "editing" function that can block out sounds that you don't want to hear. A mic isn't that smart, especially when you are recording in mono; it records all of the sounds that are present.

As I have said many times, most filmmakers ignore sound until it is much too late. And that makes little sense; unless it is silent, most films are about capturing the actors performing dialog, which is where the film actually began - a script of the verbal discourse between characters that tell a story. Everything else - costumes, make-up & hair, set design, cinematography, lighting, editing, sound design, etc. - is done to support, expand and enhance that discourse.
 
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well Alcove Audio as you said something changed.let me tell you the thing which is different is hissing. In one shot there is no hissing ans as we see the next shot it has hissing. I hope in a month i will upload it (it will take time because of some final rendering issues) and i request you all to see the horrible sound :(
More over as you said As I have said many times, most filmmakers ignore sound until it is much too late

Please let me clear this thing for the final time i know the importance of sound and i have never ignored it. Before starting this film making, for last 1 years i have been studying books and data from net and i know that sound is important. In fact on this forum and even some where in book i read that if video quality is little low people can see the movie but no one will like to see the movie with bad sound so i have idea about the importance of sound.

Please now this thing is irritating me when any one says that i ignored it. I have not ignored it but it is the lack of experience that i am facing issues. And i hope every one know there is a big difference in ignoring something and in having lack of experience. :(
 
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Next time catch this on set and fix it. This is what everyone means, not that you purposely ignored it, but you let someone do sound that wanted to rest the boom on the table. That is just as bad, or worse. Hope this helps. I know you are in school and you are working with students, this is a great learning experience.
 
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No doubt it is great learning experience. And i am learning how to solve issues. But here you people are mixing 2 different issues.
When i said there is hissing in one shot and no hissing in the second shot.

And when i said placing the mic on table. They are separate issues because in the hissing scene the MIC was in my hands all the time. Thats why i am confused how is it possible that in one shot it has hissing and the other shot has no hissing.
 
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Can't diagnose without clips, even then, possibly not. It's a shotgun mic. It could have even been pointing at something that was hissing. Who had the cans on?

If you were holding the mic you should have had cans on. The sound mixer too.
 
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Hmm might be thats was aproblem that we didnt had sound mixer. And i dont know about what is CANS. It was a simple MIC with foam on it which was able to get removed. But we didnt removed it.
 
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Maybe the hissing is dirty heads/tape/rollers/whatever inside the camera itself?


That might be possible. So if this was the case what should be the precautions for the next time? by the way we had a headphone
 
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ad2478 said:
Maybe the hissing is dirty heads/tape/rollers/whatever inside the camera itself?


That might be possible. So if this was the case what should be the precautions for the next time? by the way we had a headphone
Click to expand...
Did you hear this same hissing on set in the headphones?
 
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Alcove Audio said:
It was the last thing - all the actors were naked so I couldn't wire them up. We had such a low ceiling that we couldn't boom and keep the mic out of the shot.
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like i said...last resort...and i would of done the same as you...plant away and hope for the best...and making the actors aware of the situation you are in, can be helpful if the actors are working with you...

back to the "hiss" without hearing it, i cant even venture a guess.

and i understand things happen. this is something that can happen to anyone today in the digital world, since we do not monitor off a playback head, i do miss analog for that one, so everything sounds great and everything is recording, but then playback later and there is a glitch. this is the main reason i run a backup deck...so i am really recording to 4 media...the 2 decks hard drives and the mirror DVD for them. so the hope is if there is a problem, there is still a good chance we still have the take. and many times i send a feed to camera if we are shooting digital..so add another backup to that.

so in the end, the hiss may be no ones fault. it may have been something wrong with the record deck that could not have been heard till it was played back and that is something no one really has any time for..playing back every take...

and it wont be that last time something happens that no one catches till its too late....SHIT HAPPENS...i know it might cost a reshoot or ADR in this case...but dont kill yourself over it...and i think you learned to take more care if possible in the future.
 
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No indietalk the sound was fine when i had the headphone with me.

As Dave Pastecchi said

it may have been something wrong with the record deck that could not have been heard till it was played back and that is something no one really has any time for..playing back every take...
Click to expand...

Thats true we didnt played back the takes.

A request please. Kindly now tell me what are the precautions i should take related to sound while recording on the spot?
 
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ad2478 said:
A request please. Kindly now tell me what are the precautions i should take related to sound while recording on the spot?
Click to expand...
Have two people on set who are dedicated to only one
thing - the audio. A sound recordist and boom operator.
Have them both on headsets and concentrating on
ONLY the sound. Play back the sound often so everyone
can listen for excess noise. Keep the mic as close to the
actors as possible.

You are learning to use the camera and lights. You next
step is to learn to use the mic.
 
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