what are some important things new filmmakers should know and understand?
Tips for new filmmakers?
- Thread starter laurenvictoria
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Put your own spin on a film, don't just do what everyone else is doing!
Add an aspect of your previous films into your newer ones. Similar to Tarantino with his recurring characters.
Add an aspect of your previous films into your newer ones. Similar to Tarantino with his recurring characters.
You're wrong. The first thing you will notice with a technically inferior film is bad audio. People do all types of things to manipulate the look, sometimes even adding grain, etc... but once you can't hear it, forget it!
A film shot on VHS with Hollywood-quality sound and effects outweighs a slick Hollywood film with no-budget quality audio. That's just the truth.
An experienced sound person is crucial.
A film shot on VHS with Hollywood-quality sound and effects outweighs a slick Hollywood film with no-budget quality audio. That's just the truth.
An experienced sound person is crucial.
Wombat - thanks for clarifying that but I want to add one thing:
A movie like Social Network had one of the top sound designers and top re-recording mixers and it was just a bunch of characters sitting around talking, right? NO! There were so many intricate details that went into that soundtrack and elements which required the utmost skill to bring to fruition.
That's a good example of how a seemingly low-effects and "simple" movie for sound required some of the best sound engineers in the world to pull it off successfuly.
A movie like Social Network had one of the top sound designers and top re-recording mixers and it was just a bunch of characters sitting around talking, right? NO! There were so many intricate details that went into that soundtrack and elements which required the utmost skill to bring to fruition.
That's a good example of how a seemingly low-effects and "simple" movie for sound required some of the best sound engineers in the world to pull it off successfuly.
Put it this way... the first thing that spells amateur is poor audio.
A. You're watching a well shot film but it has tin can audio, muffled sounds, wind, whatever it may be. This spells amateur, not just to filmmakers, to all audiences.
B. Now play the same film with professional audio, everything is clear, the sound and effects are superior, but the image is grainy or it looks like video, not film, jittery-cam, whatever. This may be a choice by the director... an effect... and the sound is so superior you are convinced this is by design, and not inferior.
B wins. There is no way you would ever think the opposite. Bad audio is never a choice (unless it calls for bad audio for a particular part).
A. You're watching a well shot film but it has tin can audio, muffled sounds, wind, whatever it may be. This spells amateur, not just to filmmakers, to all audiences.
B. Now play the same film with professional audio, everything is clear, the sound and effects are superior, but the image is grainy or it looks like video, not film, jittery-cam, whatever. This may be a choice by the director... an effect... and the sound is so superior you are convinced this is by design, and not inferior.
B wins. There is no way you would ever think the opposite. Bad audio is never a choice (unless it calls for bad audio for a particular part).
Oh, certainly. However, realistically speaking, new filmmakers aren't going to have the same grasp of the medium as someone like David Fincher and aren't going to be able to afford to get someone like Trent Reznor to beef up your soundtrack and atmospheric sounds, right?
That's kind of an unfair comparison, isn't it? You're comparing adequate video to terrible audio, in which case adequate video will always win. A more balanced comparison would be tinny, windy audio and blurry, color-drained, aimless video. Like I said, I'm not suggesting that new filmmakers should ignore their audio quality (just the opposite, actually), simply that the visual quality is marginally more important than the audio quality.
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Disagree. Considering you have a good story already, to make a good film, they need to be treated as 50/50 as has been stated, treating audio as less even marginally will show. Or hear. Whatever.
Alcove didn't you once bring up there is no audio equivalent to show? Or something like that.Disagree. Considering you have a good story already, to make a good film, they need to be treated as 50/50 as has been stated, treating audio as less even marginally will show. Or hear. Whatever.
Well, don't get me started on all that.. Trent just wrote some electronic music. I was more talking about the Sound Designer Ren Klyce and mixer Michael Semanick who dealt with the dialogue mixing, backgrounds, ambience shifts, etc. I've got beef on that subject I want to vent:
This is how The Social Network was "scored":
He was asked to make demo music after being told a brief outline of what the movie was going to be about.
He then made 2 hours of electronic grunge stuff with no reference to picture.
Fincher then took this music and edited his movie to it.
As far as I know, they used about 90 percent of the original music he "scored".
Tell me. What's wrong with this picture?
The fact that he didn't SCORE it. He wrote music and it was edited to.
And that garners an ACADEMY AWARD???
The movie was great and the music was exceptional, but,
if Trent deserves an academy for writing 2 hours of electronica, then why not give an academy award to the songwriters and musicians of the album tracks that get used in a movie like let's say, Forrest Gump. I would imagine that movie got best "Score". So, why not give the award to not only the "scorer" but the countless other bands and groups that had their music used in the movie, like The Beatles, that Sweet Home Alabama song, etc..
I personally would have liked to see Hans Zimmer get the award for Inception because that score was more powerful and he actually had to SCORE it. Not write 2 hours of music and be done with it...
This is how The Social Network was "scored":
He was asked to make demo music after being told a brief outline of what the movie was going to be about.
He then made 2 hours of electronic grunge stuff with no reference to picture.
Fincher then took this music and edited his movie to it.
As far as I know, they used about 90 percent of the original music he "scored".
Tell me. What's wrong with this picture?
The fact that he didn't SCORE it. He wrote music and it was edited to.
And that garners an ACADEMY AWARD???
The movie was great and the music was exceptional, but,
if Trent deserves an academy for writing 2 hours of electronica, then why not give an academy award to the songwriters and musicians of the album tracks that get used in a movie like let's say, Forrest Gump. I would imagine that movie got best "Score". So, why not give the award to not only the "scorer" but the countless other bands and groups that had their music used in the movie, like The Beatles, that Sweet Home Alabama song, etc..
I personally would have liked to see Hans Zimmer get the award for Inception because that score was more powerful and he actually had to SCORE it. Not write 2 hours of music and be done with it...
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Well... did Fincher chop up the music, or use it out of order to how he wrote it? I admit it's a little different than writing it to the visuals of a movie but I would still consider it a score since it was based on an outline of the actual movie.
Hans Zimmer's Inception score was great, though. I agree, I think he should have won, but only because I thought the music in Inception contributed more to the atmosphere of Inception than Reznor's score did for The Social Network. I'll admit, my mind was blown when I found out the BRRMs were parts of Non, je ne regrette rien "slowed down".
This can also be stated this way: A film shot on VHS with a top notch script and decent-quality sound outweighs many slick Hollywood film with slick audio.
Story 50%
Audio 49%
Shooting format 1%
And that's just the truth!
They spent extraordinary amounts of time capturing great production sound for "Hurt Locker". This is not just an artistic choice (as ADR performances are usually far inferior to the production sound) but a financial one as well. Reducing the need for ADR and extensive dialog editing saves time/money in audio post.
Paul Ottosson did a phenomenal job. The balance between sonic realism and sonic emotionalism was what won him Oscars for Sound Editing and Sound Mixing. It's amazing what can be done on an "indie" budget...
Paul Ottosson did a phenomenal job. The balance between sonic realism and sonic emotionalism was what won him Oscars for Sound Editing and Sound Mixing. It's amazing what can be done on an "indie" budget...
Alcove, you got it.
If the production sound was trash and they ADRed the whole thing, it would be just another summer blockbuster.
But, the recordist was able to salvage the entire dialogue track from the original set and that couldn't be duplicated in an air conditioned studio in L.A. while they sip lattes.
The performance was maintained and preserved with the audio and that's why I think it won best picture, let alone both sound categories.
If the production sound was trash and they ADRed the whole thing, it would be just another summer blockbuster.
But, the recordist was able to salvage the entire dialogue track from the original set and that couldn't be duplicated in an air conditioned studio in L.A. while they sip lattes.
The performance was maintained and preserved with the audio and that's why I think it won best picture, let alone both sound categories.
@Cracker - Tips:
Spend lots of time on creating an ambience in post production. Ambient sounds. Record your own library of sounds and get good recordings of them and don't use stock store-bought sounds.
A soundtrack is like a salad. If you put fresh new ingredients you grew yourself out in the garden in your salad, it will be much better than old, store-bought ingredients full of preservatives and GMOs.
Spend lots of time on creating an ambience in post production. Ambient sounds. Record your own library of sounds and get good recordings of them and don't use stock store-bought sounds.
A soundtrack is like a salad. If you put fresh new ingredients you grew yourself out in the garden in your salad, it will be much better than old, store-bought ingredients full of preservatives and GMOs.
Annnnnd, we digress. Any audio TIPS for NEW FILMMAKERS?
THANK YOU haha i was getting a tad lost
that was beautiful ahah
for my next short, i'm composing all the music
makes it more personal
Best rule i learned so far.."what can go wrong.....will go wrong....."