is it possible to make it with only a handycam?
- Thread starter maxham
- Start date
Just some rambling commentary...
Make sure that you get some decent B-roll to back things up. For example, I did a short a few years ago where the director wanted a "scary machine" sound in a scene that took place in a factory. The problem was that there was no visual of a "scary machine" or any machines that were in motion during the scene at all. So every sound I tried didn't have any impact. Drones had no impact at all (or just annoying when I tried to make them evil or scary), and anything with "character" (metal cutting/shaping machines, etc.) just created a "what the hell is that" feeling because there was no context.
You can use sounds to create tension. The footsteps of the unseen ___________ coming down the hallway are simple and work great, but the characters have to "hear" them, meaning that they have to put across a series of cognitions/reactions.
Ambient sounds can also give a sense of place and time and can convey loads of information. Crickets are generally a night time noise, birds are daytime, locusts denote a hot summer day, surf and seagulls are obvious, heavy traffic and sirens are the city cliche, howling wind makes it "cold", noisy/fighting neighbors generally denote a low income apartment... In my current project B-roll is used to show the passage of the seasons. About 30 minutes in it's more dried out and dusty than the earlier scenes (spring), and there are red white and blue decorations around, so I put in distant firecrackers and other small fireworks, fewer birds than during the spring, locusts, etc. so you know it's early July. For the fall migrating birds like geese and ducks compliment the foliage for a scene on a lake. One character is a bit if a flake, so there is a cuckoo as a part of the ambience (it's just a muted part of the general ambience, not blatant or up-front) when she appears. One character is a very wise old man so everything sonic calms down a little when he's around - less frantic birds in the spring, more locusts in the summer (I find locusts a very peaceful sound), less wind in the winter.
When doing Foley it's amazing how much footsteps can enhance a character. On my current project one character is a retired Army captain; I've made his footsteps very sharp and precise, and the sounds of him cooking and doing other mundane things are also very "crisp". Another character is rather timid, so I've made his footsteps as "soft" and hesitant as I can; all of his other sounds (until near the end of the film) are very uncertain.
Anyway, it's getting close to bedtime so I'm going to sign off.
Make sure that you get some decent B-roll to back things up. For example, I did a short a few years ago where the director wanted a "scary machine" sound in a scene that took place in a factory. The problem was that there was no visual of a "scary machine" or any machines that were in motion during the scene at all. So every sound I tried didn't have any impact. Drones had no impact at all (or just annoying when I tried to make them evil or scary), and anything with "character" (metal cutting/shaping machines, etc.) just created a "what the hell is that" feeling because there was no context.
You can use sounds to create tension. The footsteps of the unseen ___________ coming down the hallway are simple and work great, but the characters have to "hear" them, meaning that they have to put across a series of cognitions/reactions.
Ambient sounds can also give a sense of place and time and can convey loads of information. Crickets are generally a night time noise, birds are daytime, locusts denote a hot summer day, surf and seagulls are obvious, heavy traffic and sirens are the city cliche, howling wind makes it "cold", noisy/fighting neighbors generally denote a low income apartment... In my current project B-roll is used to show the passage of the seasons. About 30 minutes in it's more dried out and dusty than the earlier scenes (spring), and there are red white and blue decorations around, so I put in distant firecrackers and other small fireworks, fewer birds than during the spring, locusts, etc. so you know it's early July. For the fall migrating birds like geese and ducks compliment the foliage for a scene on a lake. One character is a bit if a flake, so there is a cuckoo as a part of the ambience (it's just a muted part of the general ambience, not blatant or up-front) when she appears. One character is a very wise old man so everything sonic calms down a little when he's around - less frantic birds in the spring, more locusts in the summer (I find locusts a very peaceful sound), less wind in the winter.
When doing Foley it's amazing how much footsteps can enhance a character. On my current project one character is a retired Army captain; I've made his footsteps very sharp and precise, and the sounds of him cooking and doing other mundane things are also very "crisp". Another character is rather timid, so I've made his footsteps as "soft" and hesitant as I can; all of his other sounds (until near the end of the film) are very uncertain.
Anyway, it's getting close to bedtime so I'm going to sign off.
Just to say that's some good advice from a bunch of down to earth sounding people. I think I'll have to hang out here more...
