[Community Project] Sound Design

[AudioPostExpert]

Here are some questions, notes and suggestions on how to interpret and/or modify the script to maximise the effectiveness of sound design to aid the storytelling. Here's the link again to the draft script for reference.

Scene 1 (EXT. WOODLAND AREA, NIGHT): Are we going to be hearing this dialogue from the perspective of it being recorded on the cellphone along with the cell footage? Or, are we going to be hearing it as if we were there, ie., not as part of the cell footage? If it's the latter, it would be useful to have a minute or two of the sound (ambience) of the woodland scene, preferably in stereo as we might be able to use it in the final mix. Mono is better than nothing but it would then act more as a guide. If recording the ambience in stereo then 30 secs of mono "room tone" in addition to the ambiance would be useful.

Scene 2 (EXT. SAN FRANCISCO BEACH, DAY): A. Beach scenes are usually tricky as far as audio is concerned. The sound of waves breaking/lapping is irregularly rhythmical and so makes decent picture and dialogue editing very difficult/impossible and due to it being broadband noise it is difficult/impossible to remove. In all likelihood this scene will need ADR'íng. B. If possible, get a master-shot of the beach, preferably including one or more of the following: a nearby road/traffic, industrial or commercial dock area, boats, planes, jet skis, bus station/stop, fun fair, bar or indeed anything else which makes a noise! C. Again, if possible, a stereo (preferably) or mono recording of the location for guide purposes would be useful.

Scene 3 (INT. ARTIST’S STUDIO (RICHMOND, VA), DAY): Where is this studio? An urban/city center, in the countryside or a suburb? Is there any possibility of a shot of establishing this location? Is there any possibility of establishing the nearby presence of: a construction site, someone mowing their lawn, a train line/station, airport, school playground, etc?

Scene 4 (EXT. NEAR AUSTERLITZ PYRAMID): A. Again, a recording of the location to act as a guide would be most useful. B. If it's a very quiet location, maybe at some point one or more of the actors could briefly/subtly respond to a sound in the distance, maybe while smoking? If it's not so quiet consider a shot which briefly visually establishes what's causing the sound.

Scene 5 (INT. BEDROOM (WELLINGTON), NIGHT): When looking out of the window, is there a way to very briefly establish the presence of one of the following: a train line/station, transport depot, hospital, factory or any other point of aural interest which operates at night?

Scene 6 (EXT. FOREST AREA, DAY): A: Again an aural guide of the location would be useful. B. Where is this wooded area, is there a distant logging operation? Can we visually establish there is some logging related operation going on in the distance or at least the odd truck/vehicle using the road?

Scene 7 (EXT. OREGON SMALLHOLDING, DAY): Any chance of visually establishing the presence of some running farm machinery when Samuel runs across the yard or in one of the rundown buildings?

These are just suggestions, we don't always need to visually establish the reason for a sound but it does dramatically improve audience believability and in some cases is essential. These suggestions are to allow the logical presence of a background ambience with occasional sounds which can push through that ambience.

For those who maybe unaware, we can vary the level of this ambience (and/or those occasional SFX within it) to add tension, increase the pace/tempo/shape of various parts of each scene, add emphasis to the dialogue, change/affect the aural POV (for example, create an aural link between our "real location" and the location as perceived by a particular character) as well of course as creating a believable aural world beyond just the picture frame. Here's a hypothetical example: Maybe we see a brief distant shot of a saw mill (band saw SFX) and hear the last few words of Vern's phone conversation just before we cut to Scene 7. Now we can add the distant/very distant band saw sound once Vern gets out of his truck. The sound of an operating band saw varies as it goes through thicker/denser wood and it also starts and stops, we can use this to make the action more dramatic; maybe the saw sound dips or even stops when Vern spots the liquid and maybe it starts up again when Vern sniffs and recoils. We're talking about a very distant quiet saw sound here, very subtle, hardly noticeable if you're not specifically listening for it. On the other hand, we might make the saw sound so quiet that it can't be discerned at all from the background ambience or we might leave it out altogether. The point is that we have an aural storytelling tool which we can logically employ (if necessary) once we've seen how the dramatic impact of the scene plays out on screen during/after picture editing.

G

 

[cheeseandachallenge]

Bleh, didn't realise he was confusing roles (I'd already said raw files only to him). Yeah he's quite over-eager (not necessarily a bad thing) and wants to be involved as much as possible. I'll pass that on and get his skype username.

 

[AudioPostExpert]

Bleh, didn't realise he was confusing roles (I'd already said raw files only to him).

JFYI: He's not only confusing the roles but the distribution formats: LKFS and dBTP are part of the requirements for TV broadcast/distribution, they are not used for theatrical audio and as there are no audio specs for YouTube etc., they are usually not used there either. The most likely distribution for this project is: Online (YouTube, etc) or theatrical (in the case of acceptance to a decent film festival), either way, no LKFS or dBTP! And besides, LKFS is a measurement of the complete mix and is never applied to just the dialogue. One last point; EQ, compression/limiting, noise reduction and many other audio processes either cannot be removed at all once applied or can only be partially removed. Hence why audio post should always be supplied with raw unprocessed audio files.

Yeah he's quite over-eager (not necessarily a bad thing) and wants to be involved as much as possible.

Eager is good, over-eager is bad! In this case a similar analogy would be an over-eager unit cameraman who asks what colour grading settings to apply to the footage s/he has shot.

G

 

[AudioPostExpert]

The cable car shot is preferable, as visually it's a lot nicer, more unique, and a hell of a lot easier for us to get - but there's no point if it doesn't work from an audio perspective.

Using the cable car is certainly not out of the question from the audio side, in fact it's a good thing, as it provides interest and as with the visuals, is unique (relative to other scenes) and a reference to Wellington. The only reason I initially tried to dissuade you is because it will require more work on the audio side:

Ideally I would need two or more stereo recordings of the cable car, each lasting a couple of minutes or so and preferably one "pass-by" (the stereo mic/s are stationary and the cable car travels past the mic, left to right or right to left). Additional recordings of specific aspects of the sound would also be very useful, such as: Braking/squealing sounds, acceleration sounds, motor/machinery/cable sounds or anything else you can think of/observe. The reason for these individual sounds is to provide sound design opportunities. For example, a squealing/braking sound could be used to aid a transition, say morphing this squealing sound into the kettle whistling sound or, it could be used arbitrarily during one of the shots to heighten tension, emphasise some emotional response or just inject some sonic interest and pace into a scene/shot.

None of these audio recordings need to be made at the time of filming, as long as we're covered for anything we can see visually (cars accelerating/slowing, doors opening, that sort of thing). Also, the recordings need to be as clean as possible. A little background noise is inevitable and probably not much of an issue: If for example there is some background traffic noise it won't be much of a problem as we're going to be adding some traffic noise in the soundscape anyway. However, if it's recorded from say the cable car platform and on the recording we hear some fairly present sounds of people talking/walking/etc., then that's more of a problem because if we're going to process the cable car sounds to appear to be in the distance (through the open window in the scene) then obviously hearing close sounds of people movement/talking is going to make that aural distance illusion impossible.

Other than that: For my establishing shot, do you want me to bring Trent out to get some reference audio?
And, if you look in the community project main thread, I've posted some storyboards. I've only included notes on sound when it's not obvious what the sound would from the actual picture itself. Are there any issues sound wise/do you have any suggestions for a more interesting aural scene?

Some reference audio is always useful, either for actual use in the soundtrack or at least to provide ideas/a guide which may help when constructing the soundscape to include elements representative and individual to that location (Wellington).

Other than that, your storyboards already appear to provide some decent sound design opportunities: The open window provides good opportunity for background SFX and the flapping curtains, kettle, light switch, looking through notes, etc., provides for some foreground SFX. Both of which, foreground and background (hard/soft FX) we can raise/lower, emphasise or not, to create sonic movement/interest and aid the pacing and heighten emotional response wherever we want. In a scene will little hard action, providing these types of sound design opportunities are essential to maintaining audience interest.

G