How do you film/edit where the scenes...

[atticus27]

where the scenes cut into another scene as if person1 were talking to person2 face to face and the scene cut to each person really fast w/ the audio flowing.

I have one camera (canon SD630) and when ever i make short movies for class and I'm trying to make scenes where person1 is talking to person2 and whenever I edit it, it isn't smooth..is it because of the audio? the editing?

If you have no idea what i'm trying to say. It's like in regular movies where you don't notice the camera is going back and forth because it's so smooth. How do they do that and how can I do that.

Heres one movie I made. It's a remake on Alfred Hitchcock Psycho

http://video.google.com/videoplay?docid=7083760763701556026

Thankyou

 

[NoahK]

well you film one side completely, then you turn the camera around and film the other side. then you edit those together in post production being careful to match the audio across cuts, etc. You really need to use a professional microphone mounted on a boom pole so that the difference in perspective between camera angles is not as obvious.

Noah

 

[knightly]

Make sure you get a minute of "Silent" footage, no noise on your set, for each location to use underneath the regular audio...this room tone will act to smooth the cuts.

 

[atticus27]

Make sure you get a minute of "Silent" footage, no noise on your set, for each location to use underneath the regular audio...this room tone will act to smooth the cuts.

Do you have an example? I don't quite understand what you mean with the silent footage and the use for it. How do I put the silent audio to use?

 

[Zensteve]

Room noise, ambient noise, etc.

Spend two minutes just recording what the room sounds like, before or after you shoot in there.

Tell the actors & crew to be quiet for these two minutes. You'll want to be recording the audio on what that silent room/area sounds like... 'cos it's anything but silent.

Ambient sound of traffic going by, the hum of the ceiling fan, air circulation through the vents, the refrigerator kicking on & off, the occasional dog or bird, what-have you. There's a tonne of natural & artificial sound going on that people naturally tune out, but the huge absence of it is definitely noticed as well.

If you have a two minute loop of ambient background sound, it will make it a lot easier to mix audio from dialogue. It can help cover spoken audio that just doesn't match, if you have a constant background.

Also, ramping up & down the levels of the dialogue (start & end) can help blend it in.

More stuffs, in general:

Turn off any appliances you have, in the area you are filming.

In the film you linked, one of the opening scenes required the use of the fridge. Fair enough; you needed that shot of the ice-cube dispenser. No getting around that, unless filmed differently. Aside from that shot, that fridge should be unplugged. The air-con should be turned off. The less mechanical devices running, the better your audio is going to be.

Btw, there were several things you could have done with light. Lots of overblown stuff.

Back to that fridge... dispensing the ice caused a light to trigger, which blew your colour balance. You can either shove a colour-correcting gel up there, or replace the bulb with a daylight bulb. (They sell them cheaply at K-Mart, even for 40w fridge bulbs)

With all the wide sliding-glass doors in the living room, adding some shade outside the windows could have helped a lot to reduce the overblown light coming in through those. (Also replacing the ceiling lights with daylight bulbs, too)

Wow, I'm just rambling again.

Other audio techniques to look into should be J-cuts & L-cuts.

Very handy, when you've shot the same scene from two or more angles. You can have the Actor#1 audio keep rolling, while video switches to a reaction shot of Actor#2. This is really useful (aside from getting that reaction) as it can let you have the option of keeping the better of two takes from a different angle.

 

[atticus27]

Other audio techniques to look into should be J-cuts & L-cuts.

Very handy, when you've shot the same scene from two or more angles. You can have the Actor#1 audio keep rolling, while video switches to a reaction shot of Actor#2. This is really useful (aside from getting that reaction) as it can let you have the option of keeping the better of two takes from a different angle.

Wow, thanks those were really helpful. I'll def. look into the J cuts and L cuts. Yeah the part w/ Actor1 and Actor2, I was trying to make it so the audio kind of blend'd w/ the reaction, I just filmed Actor2 with the reaction and took that scene and put it between Actor1's scene...is that the correct way to do it? I only have 1 camera and I'm not sure how to do it the RIGHT way. Thanks!!