So since I'm a noob to all this, if I have several shots of the same scene, and say I have the left angle then I switch to the center angle all while the actors are speaking, how do I keep the audio the same? It's different noise volumes because it's picked up on two separate cameras. And I do not have any external mics or sound recording stuff. I just have those two angles. Do I extract the audio from the one angle and try to dub it onto the other angle and make sure the sound matches the lip movements?
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How to keep audio level consistent?
- Thread starter camopaint0707
- Start date
A very complex subject. It combines proper production sound procedures, dialog editing, sound effects and mixing.
Using the camera mics is the absolute worst thing you can do. Using a camera mounted mic is almost as bad. You should have been using a boomed mic, which would yield much more consistent production sound and it wouldn't matter how many cameras you used.
Did you record room-tone? No? Now you know why it is so important. Room-tone makes dialog editing and mixing A LOT easier. You will have to create a room tone by finding "empty" spaces in the production sound and "looping" them, which is a real PITA even for experienced dialog editors.
In a proper dialog edit you delete all of the sound between the lines of dialog. (Actually, you cut out the production sound between the lines of dialog and drop them onto muted/inactive tracks.) You then put a fade-in at the head of each individual dialog clip and a fade-out at the tail. Create a room tone track, then put the dialog of each character on a separate audio track.
Sound effects include the background/ambience track, which is sort of like room-tone; this also helps to smooth out the dialog tracks.
The mix is where you do noise reduction on the production sound dialog.
I recommend that you spend some time watching John Purcell's Dialog Editing videos on YouTube and, reading his book.
Here's his first video:
https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=3d5XIzKlWFk
There are five (5) more that should be easy enough to find.
I've got to get back to work, so I'll check in later to try to expand on this for you.
Using the camera mics is the absolute worst thing you can do. Using a camera mounted mic is almost as bad. You should have been using a boomed mic, which would yield much more consistent production sound and it wouldn't matter how many cameras you used.
Did you record room-tone? No? Now you know why it is so important. Room-tone makes dialog editing and mixing A LOT easier. You will have to create a room tone by finding "empty" spaces in the production sound and "looping" them, which is a real PITA even for experienced dialog editors.
In a proper dialog edit you delete all of the sound between the lines of dialog. (Actually, you cut out the production sound between the lines of dialog and drop them onto muted/inactive tracks.) You then put a fade-in at the head of each individual dialog clip and a fade-out at the tail. Create a room tone track, then put the dialog of each character on a separate audio track.
Sound effects include the background/ambience track, which is sort of like room-tone; this also helps to smooth out the dialog tracks.
The mix is where you do noise reduction on the production sound dialog.
I recommend that you spend some time watching John Purcell's Dialog Editing videos on YouTube and, reading his book.
Here's his first video:
https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=3d5XIzKlWFk
There are five (5) more that should be easy enough to find.
I've got to get back to work, so I'll check in later to try to expand on this for you.
holy crap...I have so much to learn...and we had to make due with the equipment we had.
Three or four lifetimes should be enough to learn everything you need to know. No, seriously! Go to IMDb and look up a film, any film. Scroll down the cast list and click on the link which says "See full cast", scroll down that page until you get to "Sound Department". You will notice this list contains anywhere from about 10 people on a very low budget film up to as many as 70 or so on some blockbusters, most studio films are usually around 25-40. Also notice that in the job description column, no one is listed as "sound guy", there are in fact a dozen or so different audio roles/jobs. Some take a few years to learn some take decades, all in all, certainly a couple of lifetimes or more!
This raises a couple of questions. Firstly, you had two cameras but no sound equipment? Good if you're trying to make a photo album, not so good for a film/short! It's a bit like trying to build a car with two engines but no wheels! Secondly, why would you want to keep the audio the same? As a general rule, if the visual perspective changes, the aural perspective would have to change as well, otherwise the sound will contradict the visuals and pull the audience out of the scene. I have to say though, aural perspective is an area where virtually all amateur/no budget filmmakers tend to struggle or ignore completely.
The specific issue of noise is a fairly complex area which involves lots of tricks/techniques, experience and specialist tools to treat. However, even the most experienced professionals with all the best noise treatment tools cannot usually get dialogue recorded from a camera mic to an acceptable level, which is why anyone who is remotely serious about making films (including zero budget amateur filmmakers) do not record dialogue with a camera mic (except for guide purposes). There's probably no practical solution for your current project, it's most likely a case of chalking it up to experience and getting a production sound rig (or someone to collaborate with who has a sound rig) next time. It might be an idea to post a link to the scene with your current sound mix, so me or Alcove can have a look to see if there's anything simple we can suggest which might at least make some improvement.
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I thought it was correct to keep the audio consistent. But you are saying if I have two digital cameras and want to switch between shots use the respective audio?
That is correct, you need to keep the audio consistent with the audience's POV (the reality you are trying to create), which means if the audience POV changes the audio probably needs to change "POV" as well. This is not always the case but is a good general rule.
No, that is not what I'm saying! You need to read what I wrote in context of what Alcove already told you. Namely, that production dialogue is always recorded with a boomed mic (and/or a lav mic). A boomed mic is usually within 2ft or so of the subject and a lav just a few inches from the subject's mouth, the point in both cases is to record clean dialogue, IE., to reduce the noise to levels which are manageable in audio post. Most/much of the aural perspective is created in audio post.
Regardless of what camera you are using or how many cameras, you will virtually never get acceptable sound quality from a camera's mic. So the question you are asking doesn't really make any sense because you are essentially asking if you should switch between extremely poor audio and other extremely poor audio. What I am saying is that if you want to create some sort of film which appears to be at least marginally better than an average home video, you need to get away from extremely poor audio.
G
Why is it that people just don't seem to get the fact that film is half about audio.....and more than half of getting good audio is getting it at the source?