I want people to watch it and enjoy it, know I put time, effort and money into it. But if they're going to sit back and ridicule the audio, well, sorry, haha..
I saw the other post referenced and if it sounds good or great on their home theater doesn't seem to mean much in terms of playing in a theater...
The real problem, which is ALWAYS an issue, at every budget level and for every type of media and playback device is "translation"; what the mix sounds like in the studio/mix stage where it was created compared to how that mix "translates" when played on the destination playback system. The destination playback system for a theatrical film is obviously a cinema and cinemas have professionally designed acoustics and sound systems which are relatively well standardised. But even so, there are variations/discrepancies, not to mention faults, such as cinema owners changing the levels/calibration after the professional installers have finished. So, even spending big bucks on a commercial full-sized mix stage (very precisely built to this cinema "standardisation") there is no guarantee that the mix will always translate well to every cinema.
It's always just a probability! In the case of the top commercial full-sized mix stages you are essentially paying for the highest probability of good translation it's possible to attain (let's say, over 95%) and the assurance that you have a "reference" quality mix. Meaning that if there is a problem, that problem is most likely due to some fault in a specific cinema rather than with the mix itself. In a high-end boutique (but not full-sized) facility you are down to a probability of say 80% or higher, which is not bad considering the cost is going to be half to a third of the cost of a full-sized facility. Although, you have to realise that these boutique facilities have very knowledgeable re-recording engineers who are using their considerable experience to avoid or "play it safe" in those areas most likely to cause translation issues and of course, this is to some degree going to compromise the mix. It's unlikely to compromise the mix to the point that it's distracting, I mean "compromise" in terms of how effectively the sound mix aids pace, excitement and the generation of the other desired audience responses (in other words, the storytelling). As you go lower down the audio post budget scale the prices are lower due to some combination of; lower quality (cheaper) acoustic environments and equipment and less skilful, knowledgeable and/or experienced audio post personnel. All of which will of course lower how effectively the sound mix aids the storytelling and increase the probability of translation issues serious enough to make the mix actively distracting. Even at the extremely lo/no budget level there is a chance that a mix will translate well enough not to be too distracting but there's also a chance that it will be so distracting that it will completely destroy the screening (!) and of course, even in the event of it not being too distracting, there's an extremely high probability that the mix will not aid the storytelling well. Your budget is higher than this level though, so you would be hoping for a much smaller probability of: A completely destroyed screening (let's say 20% chance), a mix which is not distracting in places (let's say 40% chance) and a mix which does not aid the storytelling well in places (let's say 85% chance). Which is better than say 30%, 85% and 99.99% respectively! Of course, these probability figures are all guess-timates based on my experience/opinion and there's certainly no scientific evidence or "official" figures to support them.
There's also a problem with translation when creating mixes for TV, Youtube, DVD, etc., but I won't go into that just now.
...so what should I be looking for?
When you don't have the budget for a "reference" quality mix, your question encapsulates the problem! In terms of the mix itself, there is nothing much you can do beyond just relying on the extremely rough guesstimates I've provided, aside from testing the mix on a full-size commercial mix stage. In terms of employing the right "someone" in the first place, that's also tricky because unless you're an expert yourself, it's pretty difficult to tell the knowledgeable from the bullsh*tters! However, in response to this same type of question previously on IT, I came up with a few questions to ask candidates which should help separate the genuine ones from the pretenders:
1. What is the relative difference between the sub woofer calibration level and each of the surround channels in a theatrical surround system? A: The sub woofer is calibrated +13dB higher.
2. At what SPL level is their studio calibrated? A: 85dBSPL for the front main speakers and 82dBSPL for the surrounds is the international standard but
ONLY for a full sized dubbing stage! A smaller room could be anything but somewhere around 79dBSPL (and 76dBSPL for the surrounds) would be most likely. This answer is a bit vague but is still a good question because if they don't know the answer or say the Dolby standard (85dBSPL) when they have a small room, you know to run away!
3. What is the crossover frequency of the sub woofer in a theatrical sound system? A: Trick question, there is no crossover with the sub in a theatrical system, only in studio or consumer bass managed systems.
4. What is "frame edge alignment" and do they have it? A: Frame edge alignment is where a house master clock and sync unit are used to reference and synchronise the audio sample frequency of the audio equipment with the video ref of the video card or picture playback device. Having a frame edge aligned system is not something you would commonly find in most low budget audio post studios. They should still know what Frame Edge Alignment is though!
5. What is the Dialnorm setting for a Dolby Digital theatrical mix and a BluRay mix? A: -27 for BluRay/DVD and -31 (or off) for theatrical.
These are basic questions that any moderately experienced/knowledgeable audio post person would be able to answer off the top of their heads.
That being said where to I find these aspiring professionals? Mandy.com? Any good sources?
Mandy is probably as good as anywhere. You might try
Gearslutz's "Post Jobs Offered" section but you'd need to give a clear indication of your budget in your post and make clear that your film is very low budget because Gearslutz is populated by a lot of industry professionals (some of them top industry professionals) but there are also some aspiring audio post peeps who may well be interested.
You should also contact the festivals to whom you are considering submissions and find out what their audio and video requirements are. Some require a complete 5.1 mix, some smaller festivals are okay with just a stereo mix.
I
absolutely agree with this essential advice! I had assumed you (OP) were asking about DCP because you had already identified some target festivals which require a DCP for screening. If this isn't the case, you don't really want to be spending time/money on a 5.1 theatrical mix if the festivals you want to target only accept stereo!
To answer your other questions:
Stereo would be cheaper than a 5.1 mix. Creating a 5.1 mix when you already have a stereo mix might be a little quicker, depending on how well organised the stereo mixing session is. In my experience making a 5.1 mix from a lo/no budget DIY level stereo mix is not much, if any, quicker than starting the 5.1 mix from scratch. JFYI though, creating a stereo mix from a 5.1 mix is very substantially quicker than starting a stereo mix from scratch.
Lastly, assuming someone has a decent picture on their hands (in my case a short), how much does audio play into getting into a festival?
That's a complicated question to answer. On a technical level, the answer is "not that much", providing the audio is of a basically decent technical standard, so dialogue can be easily understood, etc. Remember that the initial decision of whether to accept a film for a festival is usually decided by watching a DVD on a standard stereo TV or even on a laptop. It's worth baring in mind though that depending on the festival, audio quality is usually the most common
technical reason why films are rejected for screening. On an artistic level, the answer is potentially "quite a lot", to understand what I mean by this it might be worth you working you way through the
Principles of Sound Design thread.
Depending on the time available between acceptance and screening, it might well be worth just creating a stereo mix and not a 5.1 mix until you know if you've been accepted. But again, check that the festival actually requires a DCP (multi-channel mix) for screening.
G