I really appreciate this video-sound intro, Cotty. Thanks for taking the time to make it so detailed.
On Wed, Jan 9, 2013 at 2:57 PM, Steve Cottrell <[email protected]> wrote: > On 9/1/13, Walt, discombobulated, unleashed: > >>That does make sense. I was thinking mostly about ambient sound, but I >>can see why it would be less important in recording speech. > > Jut an FYI: > > In broadcast TV, general atmos (ambient audio) recorded at the same time > as the video is shot, is not recorded in stereo. In fact, in nearly 33 > years of working in television, I have never worked on a production that > was recorded in stereo. Of course, that's not to say they don't exist - > feature films are routinely recorded in stereo. Music is, obviously. > > I have 2 sound tracks on my TV camera and receives a camera mounted top > mic as default. The other takes a proper directional mic used for voice. > I can change them, and have two people mic'd up separately so voice A is > on track 1, and voice B on track 2 for a two-handed conversation. Most > voice recording in TV or feature films is recorded mono. > > Perhaps just a few lines here about what you see and hear when watching > say a drama or a documentary. > > For a drama, almost all sound you here is not recorded in sync with the > action. The reason for this is because when a drama is sold for use in a > foreign country, you must produce what is known as an 'M and E' version. > That means music and effects. So, the whole programme is sent out to the > receiving countries with all the sounds as they were edited together > EXCEPT any actual speaking voices. When the receiving country gets the > prog (or indeed before it gets there, at a domestic foreign voice > dubbing facility maybe) the receiving country's language is dubbed in by > actors. They add only their voices to all the sounds that are edited > together on the programme, and any music. > > So imagine what you must shoot and how you must edit it together to > produce that! If you've got lots of dialogue, well that's fine, just > strip it out in the editing. But what happens when the actor is talking > as he exits a car and shuts the door. There are several sounds present: > his voice, the noise of his clothes rubbing and the leather seats, the > shuffling noise as his shoes step onto the tarmac, the door slam, and > then footsteps as he walks away (still talking!). If you take out his > voice, you take out all the above sounds as well. > > So how do you go about replacing just those? Record the whole thing > again with him speaking? That would be too easy ;-) > > The fact is that after location shooting, all the sync sound (recorded > at the same time as shooting) is later stripped out by a dubbing editor, > notes made of what sound will need to be created especially, and then > the new sounds recorded at a foley session. Also known as a footsteps > session, the foley artists actually create the new sounds while watching > the video on a screen in a special theater with a myriad of articles and > items and surfaces at their disposal. Literally, little pits of gravel > for recording fresh footsteps in. Car doors, front doors, wooden gates, > all stuck to the walls. Clothing, upholstery, surfaces, chairs, tables, > you name it. All gets recorded as close as poss into sync in real time. > Later, the dubbing editor fine-tunes and makes sure it all appears in > sync. The prog is then dubbed (mixed down with all the levels at the > right settings so the footsteps aren't overpowering, or the car door to > quiet) and finished off ready to go. The domestic version is also > produced here, except using recorded dialogue. Some sync sounds will be > used, but as a rule the foley sessions will be used because they in > effect become the 'master' sound effects for the programme. > > Some sounds are unique and get recorded on location at the time of > shooting. For this, as well as recorded incidently during dialogue, the > sound operator will later record a 'wild track' of a particular sound > for inclusion by the editor. Mics placed for recording dialogue are not > in the right place to capture the (say) unique sound of the character > tripping over a Pentax 645D someone carelessly leaves on the sidewalk. > So that sound is recorded after the dialog scenes are complete. Or if > they forget, the dubbing editor might sort out a few spurious sounds he > is missing later. And maybe commission a few new ones. The original star > wars movies used sampled 'twangs' from telephone pole support wires as > 'blaster' sounds. Fun! > > So care and attention to sound can REALLY enhance a video - and it > doesn't take much effort. > > For documentary shooting (which is anything that's not like the > above ;-) a good sound recordist will get some atmos as a wild track for > use in editing. Consider this: you're filming at the seaside. Gathering > lots of different shots on the beach of people having fun, children > laughing etc. The actual camera placement from shot to shot can change > frequently in terms of where it is in relation to the sea and to > laughing voices etc. When you come to edit later and put two shots > together, the two shots might look fab next to each other (one a close > shot of kids in the surf - the next a shot of a family on the beach > further away from the water) looking on. The sound of the outgoing shot > of the surf will be much louder, perhaps, than the incoming shot of the > family. A hard sound cut here might be abrupt and garish. Yes, you could > plop an audio dissolve between the two, but the professionals would > rather do this: film at will on the beach, and afterwards, record a > minute or so of general atmos (ambient audio) so that you can basically > cut the pictures mute and overlay the atmos to cover those shots. If > there is some closer sync sound that obviously looks better with a > particular shot rather than the wild track atmos, then by all means > include that as well. It can all be smoothed out at the final sound mix > (dub) later. > > I use some sound effects discs full of library sound, but most sound is > better recorded at the actual location. Or I go record my own. > > In this video of GFM, in the opening sequence, the shutter sound was > recorded later and added to the audio track in sync with the camera > shutter being pressed. It was simply impractical to record it on > location at the time it was shot. Similarly much later when Helen is > bounding out onto the rocky outcrop to get into her own landscape shot, > the lapel radio mic she was wearing was not able to pick up the sound of > her footsteps. I could get away with not having them, but I felt the > immediacy of the scene was enhanced by adding some. I recorded them > weeks later in my own driveway and adding in one at a time. i think it works. > > <https://vimeo.com/user2607591/review/9087452/203d039142> > > If you enjoy shooting the video, you'll have twice as much fun editing > it. What I would say is you may find Premiere a bit too much for what > you want to do. It's like giving Photoshop to someone who's just picked > up a pointnshoot and told them to edit their images on it. > > I use Final Cut Pro which is of the same standard as Premiere, as is > Avid Media Composer. They can be a very steep learning curve. Heavily > suggest something like iMovie on the Mac, and I'm sure there will be > some PC suggestions here for something similar on Windows. > > Ranted on much longer here than intended - time to cook some sausages. > Go have fun shooting, and let's see the results! > > > -- > > > Cheers, > Cotty > > > ___/\__ Broadcast, Corporate, > || (O) | Web Video Producion > ---------- <www.seeingeye.tv> > _____________________________ > > > > -- > PDML Pentax-Discuss Mail List > [email protected] > http://pdml.net/mailman/listinfo/pdml_pdml.net > to UNSUBSCRIBE from the PDML, please visit the link directly above and follow > the directions. -- -bmw -- PDML Pentax-Discuss Mail List [email protected] http://pdml.net/mailman/listinfo/pdml_pdml.net to UNSUBSCRIBE from the PDML, please visit the link directly above and follow the directions.
