First time - it's all mine - what am I missing?

G

gorillaonabike

OK, y'all. My first 'proper' short - all of my own - will be shot primarily on one day. There will be four, additional shots which are necessary but the one day is critical. We have not yet cast actors but will do so one month before the shoot. However, I just want to check I am not missing anything obvious. We have people in the following roles:

Casting: 3 people
Director: 1
Catering: me
Script: me
Lighting: some lights and a gaffer
DoP: Good DP
First camera: Sony Z7
Second camera: Sony VG10 (we have a Z1 if we need it).
Producer on the day: he is the most organised person in the known universe
Sound: At the moment, we have inbuilt sound and x has a shotgun mic he is kindly lending. In addition, there is a sound guy we might be able to get but we are struggling a little here.
Clapperboard: A nice chap
Editing and colourist:
Music director:
PA:

Naturally, we have a script, storyboard etc... What do you think? Am I missing anyone?
 
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I think you're lacking preparation for the sound capture. The first day I went out there to shoot something, I couldn't use any of it because of the crappy sound.

But I don't know the built-in mic of these cameras.
 
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Your audience will forgive mediocre visuals if your story is solid, the acting decent and the sound is good - they will never forgive bad sound. More otherwise good projects died because the sound was bad.

Just having a shotgun mic does not mean you will get good sound; you need to expend just as much, if not more, time and effort on your production sound as you do on the picture. This means being properly equipped and having someone on the set who understands sound and spends the entire shoot doing nothing but sound.

You may want to start with my blog:

http://www.myspace.com/alcoveaudio/blog

And then do a search on my numerous posts on the subject here on IndieTalk.
 
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it's possible to hide cassette recorders in the shots, then with a 10$ male-male cable to play it from the phones out of the cassette deck to the mic in of the pc. If the cameras closer to person a and the cassette deck to person b, you then just play with the levels of the respective tracks... artfully, as best to hide the cassette noise.
 
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Alcove Audio said:
Your audience will forgive mediocre visuals if your story is solid, the acting decent and the sound is good - they will never forgive bad sound. More otherwise good projects died because the sound was bad.

Just having a shotgun mic does not mean you will get good sound; you need to expend just as much, if not more, time and effort on your production sound as you do on the picture. This means being properly equipped and having someone on the set who understands sound and spends the entire shoot doing nothing but sound.

You may want to start with my blog:

http://www.myspace.com/alcoveaudio/blog

And then do a search on my numerous posts on the subject here on IndieTalk.
Click to expand...

Fair point well made and incidentally, I have been avidly reading your posts on sound.

I recognise sound is a weakness and my first short is designed to hide the flaws in my sound knowledge. It is designed as a 'loosener' before going on to more complex shorts posing different challenges.

We are shooting indoors close to the talent and in a carefully scouted and extremely quiet $1m+ USD apartment. A lot of the sound will be dubbed over from different environments - crowd noise from a boxing match etc.... The issue I have is that finding guys with a camera is reasonably straightforward. Finding a good sound guy who'll do stuff for free is virtually impossible but I am working on it.

Of course, if you happen to be in the vicinity of London early October and like doing stuff for free... ;)
 
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