Prioritising one's funds on achieving decent audio is pointless if say the acting or camera work is terrible. You need to balance the skills and qualities of your films and in practise this almost always means audio should not be a financial priority. The reason why Alcove and I bang on about audio so much is because most lo/no budget film makers do not balance their filmmaking and the audio is usually of a lower or much lower standard than the rest of their film, which seriously detracts from the film and from whatever other filmmaking abilities they may have.
G
APE I agree with you. I suppose I was speaking from my own experience and not in a general sort of way. I can tell you why I feel that way.
Here's what used to happen in my shoots, and I don't really mean to sound like a dick, this is just how I feel.
I'd look for crew, and somebody would be audio, and somebody would be DP. The audio guy would be anybody willing to wield a boom pole. No specific audio experience was necessary. I would insist that the DP meet with me at least twice before the shoot. Most of the time the DPs were busy doing other stuff in order pay for their lives and their rent and would meet with me once. I would realize at the meeting that s/he had not really had time to read through my script, and they were more interested in shooting one part of the scene as opposed to all the other little "unimportant" scenes, such as, when someone walks into a room, nurses a drink, or some other 'cut to' scene. The DP would insist that I concentrate on a scene, and make it great, and I would insist that I wanted to compromise on the scene and finish the entire shoot.
So moving on, if something didn't look right during the shoot, or if the acting wasn't satisfactory, I could do multiple takes, until I was either satisfied, or decided I'd just have to wrap that scene, as lunch was near, and I had lots of other scenes to shoot before dinner. Obviously lots of other mistakes would happen along the way. I would come home look at the footage and discover all these mistakes. But that is also the first time I'd listen to the audio. And that's when I would discover that during a perfect take, something went wrong with the audio, and I was never notified during the shoot. Since I was happy with the scene visually, I'd move on. But the scene would be worthless since the corresponding audio had the microphone bumping against the ceiling, etc. And whoever was the audio guy would never notify me. And I would forget during the euphoria of the shoot to ask the audio guy if everything went well (this is on me).
Sometimes the audio would be fine, sometimes it would be bad. There was just no consistency. And also, if the audio was good, it was never really that good.
Anyway, this is getting long. The point of my story is that I realize that I don't pay people. I therefore accept, that people who volunteer have their own lives, and don't go to bed thinking about my film. So I like to have as much control over the shoot as possible, and I don't relinquish control to anybody for any reason, as every time I do that, I run over time. I run over time as the DPs do their experiments on my shoot. They haven't really thought through their idea because they were busy doing other things until they came to the set. And on set they suddenly get all artistic and tell me how they think a scene should be shot and how many camera angles I need, and how I need to adjust lights for every angle. They seem oblivious to the fact that I have three other scenes to shoot before lunch. So, what I've done is I've essentially gotten rid of DPs in my shoot. There is only one real DP friend I have who sometimes helps me shoot. He's a busy guy and I don't always get him. But I like working with him, because once I explain what I want, he goes along. He gives me his input, and I take what I like and if I say no to something, he doesn't take it personally. So I find it easy to work with him.
Now, (holy moly this is getting long), this is a kind of control I cannot exert with audio. I have no control over it. Some people might be able to do this, but I personally cannot concentrate on the visuals and then also listen to audio to make sure that is perfect. At least at this moment, I cannot do it. I generally budget my films. A lot of people want to show up on my shoots. And I don't mind. On any given shoot there are 10 to 15 people on my set. I feed all these people coffee, lunch, afternoon sandwiches whatever. I end up spending at least around $300 on a shoot. Some people may think this is stupid, but I enjoy the interaction, and a bustling set. So it's really for my own personal gratification. And I love it, and enjoy it immensely
.
In some of my recent shoots, I decided to spend on an audio guy, just to relieve my brain of the stress and the excruciating pain audio was causing deep inside my head. And I hired this dude for $150. I wanted to conduct a test of shooting actors from a distance, and I wanted to see how the audio would work in that scene. This dude was fantastic. It was unbelievable. He had lavs, booms everything going, 6 or 8 (can't remember) separate inputs. The entire time I was only concentrating on visuals and so many other things were going wrong outside with the sunlight and the clouds and even the occasional drizzle, not to mention traffic noise and police sirens. And when I got back to my computer, the best thing about the shoot was the audio.
Anyway. My point about audio is that, yes, you are correct. I suck at it. I cannot do both audio and video, and I need someone who really is an audio guy, who comes up and whispers to me as I'm rejoicing over how happy I am with a take, that I need to redo it because something went wrong with the audio. A real audio guy will do that to you. Non-real audio people will keep quiet and you'll discover the disaster on your computer after the shoot is over. I'd rather that I'm apprised of this during the shoot.
Oh my lord this is long. Now I have to read through all this before I hit submit to keep the grammar police at bay.
So APE, what I was really trying to say is that for someone like me, since audio is not my strong suit, I'd rather concentrate on developing skills that I can exert more control over, and leave audio to someone who really loves it, has been doing it for a long time, and is so passionate about it, that they won't let me make a mistake.
Apologies for the long and directionless post. It's not personal. If you're a DP, don't take offense. Just consider it to be how the other side thinks. It's never personal. All we all want to do is make a good film.
Cheers,
Aveek
Edit: Also, before a shoot, if I get the chance, I do a rehearsal with the actors. Almost every time, I find that actors come to the set unprepared for their lines. So if it's complicated and has a lot of dialog, I insist on a rehearsal. That way I get the lines drilled into their heads before the day of the shoot. That way actors know exactly what I want and I spend less time with the actors while all the other crew stands around during the day of the shoot, while I talk with the actors. This has another major benefit. I get to correct my script for inauthentic sounding dialog. And since the actor becomes more familiar with the character, s/he can improvise in a more realistic way. Again, this is not personal. If you are an actor who always knows his/her lines, I hope I get the chance to one day work with you.
