When it comes to filmmaking - "If anyone notices your work you haven't done your job right."
The reason there aren't more sound folks here on IT is what occurs to me all the time.
Newb: How can I get good production sound?
AA: Retain someone competent to handle your production sound.
Newb (after numerous attempts to guide them in the proper direction): Well, I'll just get an Rode VideoMic and put it on top of the camera.
Two months later….
Newb: My production sounds sucks; how do I fix it?
AA: You can't; Garbage In/Garbage Out.
Newb: There must be something I can do!
AA: Well, you can spend 10 to 50 times the money you should have spent on production sound to get an experienced professional to make your track (hopefully) intelligible.
Newb: But I can't afford that!!!!
It's not a question of getting more sound-for-picture folks here at IT, it's changing the attitudes of the filmmakers. I've been preaching from my soapbox here on IT for nine years now with little success.
Thanks Alcove, I appreciate the response.
I see where you're coming from, and I appreciate your logic, but I find it problematic in a couple of ways.
First, I'm not sure if you know how in-demand audio people are. I know that from your perspective, you probably think that you are the opposite of in-demand. I know that you've seen countless projects, both in real life and on here, where the audio is an after-thought. It wouldn't be unreasonable of you to reach the conclusion that the majority of indie filmmakers don't realize the importance of audio in their production, and choose to make it an afterthought. You'd probably be correct.
But what you might not realize is that my experience is quite the opposite. Look, as a tiny-budget filmmaker, it's easy as heck for me to find visually-minded people to collaborate with. It's incredibly difficult for me to find audio-minded people to work with. So I do the best with what's available to me.
Up until now, I've never had a project that was worth spending money on to hire a pro audio person to work with.
For example, in another thread, I've got a silly little short film that I used my freaking DSLR to record audio on. I know that that is the wrong way to record audio. But I didn't care because it was just a silly little short that we were doing for fun. At the time, I didn't own any proper recording equipment, and I'm obviously not going to hire someone to do the job properly. This was just me and a couple of pals goofing off.
But that doesn't mean I didn't care about audio
at all. If I cared
nothing about audio in that short, I would've just used the in-cam audio that is already synced, instead of taking the time to record wilds and foley and then mix it all as best I could.
On the opposite end of the spectrum, I very much want to spend whatever money I can to get the proper crew members needed to make my next feature a success, most especially audio. I won't be spending one cent to get a DP, by contrast. I've got a pro sound-guy lined-up for post. Exactly how much of the work-load he'll take on, we haven't yet discussed, cuz we can cross that bridge when we get to it. I don't know that I'll have the budget to get a pro for production. I'm certainly going to try, but budget (or lack thereof) may force me to hire a recent college-grad looking for their first job, or something like that.
Besides the fact that it's very difficult for folks like me to get audio-minded people involved in our projects, it's also true that maybe I want to learn how to do it. I may not be interested in becoming a pro audio person, but I absolutely think it improves the potential of me making a career out of directing by learning as much as I can about audio (and a few other things). And what's the best way to learn how to do it? By doing it.
You didn't just instantly become good at what you do, overnight, did you? No, it took a lot of practice. There was once a time when your audio was shitty. Am I not allowed to also make shitty audio, while learning how to become better at it? And let's go back to that newb. If they're truly a newb, then they have no idea which aspect of filmmaking they're going to fall in love with. It's possible that they may enter filmmaking thinking that they want to be a director, only to later realize that they actually have a deep passion for foley recording, or audio post, or you-name-it. Is that newb not allowed to discover their passion by dabbling in a little bit of everything?
The IT I remember is one that welcomed newbs. They were allowed to ask the same stupid questions, over and over, and the more experienced members would be there to patiently answer them. Your answer to my question almost makes it sound like you're saying that nobody is allowed to be a newb in audio - the only proper choice is hire somebody else.
I do appreciate you answering my question, though. We may not see eye-to-eye (yet), but I'm glad we can discuss it. Progress doesn't happen by not talking to people.
Best regards, Alcove, you rock!
