Film audio – Film Audio Project – SEM A

AUDIO CONSTRUCTION – Final Scene Foley

13421070 / January 27, 2016 / Audio Production

A waterloo moment in George was the sound of the threatening teenagers spray-painting the house and then running away right at the end. I felt the perspective for the design here this should support the camera’s and be heard from inside the house.

There follows a quick, and largely photographic, precis of the various methods we used to try and achieve this.

Location Sound

The scene was shot multiple times, and we collected a considerable amount of location audio from multiple angles and with multiple mics. However, this was blighted by two things. Firstly, it was raining, but the picture doesn’t look as though it is in the final cut. Secondly, it was roughly 5:30pm on a week day, and traffic on the road outside the house was relatively busy at this time meaning we’d collected almost no clean takes of some fairly subtle sounds on review.

The stereo mic position above did collect some unexpectedly excellent stereo fields of the cars passing on the road below, however.

First foley + sfx attempt

Turning to ‘easy’ methods in post, I tried to use a combination of sound effects from the library for the spray and cans and a walled off foley mic in various positions and concrete slab for the footsteps.

Sadly, this didn’t have anything like the desired perspective effect.

Foley on Set

So, we returned to the set approximately three months after the shoot with a portable recorder and reran the action in location foley. Once again, traffic and circumstances conspired against us, as we pitched up during the bell ringing at the Cathedral, which is clearly audible across uphill Lincoln. This, alongside the fact that the set (an uninhabited residential house) is very old and not sound proof in any sense, meant that the audio we captured inside with the front door closed was also of the wrong perspective, as it sounded more like the action was outside and still very close.

Solution

On our return from the above we recorded one more attempt at this foley on campus, through a large, closed double glazed glass door at the back of media loans. This finally furnished usable audio for the scene, once we’d cleaned the internal air conditioning sound out of it with EQ.

KEY POINTS

Problem solving for foley perspective – Application of skills and conduct in production

To manage the post-production workflow and contribute substantially to the sound design, construction and editing of the piece.

PLANNING – Sound Script Elements + Reflection

13421070 / January 27, 2016January 27, 2016 / Audio Production, Individual Reflection, Planning

The sound script we devised and communicated to our client contained a number of ‘key’ audio scenes. This post will discuss a few of these and how they panned out or didn’t, as the case may be, and as such the post will make considerably more sense if tackled after you have watched the piece.

One of the main motifs of the sound design in ‘George’ was intended to be the sound of the outside world encroaching on the protaganist’s home as a metaphor for his level of anxiety or distress at any given point in the film. However, we rapidly discovered it is very easy for audio devices such as the sound of people passing by outside the walls of the kitchen to be distracting when there has been no visual suggestion of their source. In the end, we attempted to turn the constant traffic noise which plagued our location recordings (and which is, coincidentally, perfectly setup visually in the opening scene of the film and reinforced repeatedly throughout by fortuitous edits) to our advantage by using it to signify the threatening outside world encroaching on George’s anxious existence. In reflection, I think we convinced ourselves that this worked better than it did because we didn’t do enough detail work to the films atmosphere layers – whilst the outside does very much burst in on occasion, for me the question is ‘on what?’. That suggests I didn’t do enough to bring out the sound design of the base atmospheres, such as incorporating small details ala Green Mile. This is in line with Mangini’s idea of –

“…the sonic equivalent of LIGHT and SHADOW. I learned from Joe Dante how painters use a touch of blue to make white seem “whiter”. An old visual trick to give texture to something that is textureless. I extrapolated this idea to the silence of the MILE. To create silence I needed to “define” the space with little sounds that highlight the emptiness.” – (Mark Mangini).

George’s textures have plenty of shadow but not quite enough light, in my estimation.

The bread and butter scene is the most infamous of the project, and was initially supposed to be a chance for the film to hint at the dark past of it’s main character. We’d planned to refer to his previous, violent crime with the audio landscape around the slicing of a bread loaf by making the sounds associated with this action a little more visceral than realistic, and by subtly weaving the scene with screechs, yelps and whimpers in a process often referred to as ‘sweetening’. Unfortunately, this scene was axed due to health and safety evangelism on set and replaced with a shot of George buttering pre-sliced bread. We felt it would be inappropriate and off-putting to attempt to apply the same audio components to the new scene, feeling that no amount of audio work can add an undercurrent of menace to Kingsmill, and opted for the music cue becoming the focus of the scene.

Upon George’s final return to his home in the evening after the graveyard scene, we were asked to provide the sound of music being played at high volume through the walls of the house from next door (ostensibly by the teenagers who are introduced earlier in the film). We had developed a complex system of audio segues from one scene to another rooted in the idea of having ever-present music pumping through the walls, including morphing the bass thump of the beat into a heartbeat and then into a variation of our main score and a variety of interesting perspective shifts depending on George’s location in the house, as well as weaving further references into the music choices themselves, if possible. The entire plan proved unworkable as the directors failed to film any visual reference to a source for the music, and we collectively abandoned the idea in concord with the second director during post.

Finally, the BBC report playing on the radio after the opening credits was a late addition because we felt the scene was just too devoid of activity and needed something to invigorate it and give it a focus which didn’t overwhelm or detract from the very stilted visuals. Talk radio makes great audible wallpaper, and we requested and were granted use of the Radio 4 piece in the context of this film by it’s producer at the eleventh hour (though not before recording our own re-scripted version in a similar style to get around the potential copyright problem). The dialogue in the R4 piece encapsulates some of the premise of the film right at it’s outset, and very much supports the story and character development of the piece.

In reflection on these points, I think it can safely be said that no battleplan survives contact with the vicissitudes of filming and I found it necessary to be extremely flexible as some of the plans were forced to change, without compromising the overall audio arcs and themes of the piece.

– 800 words

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KEY POINTS

Planned aspects of the sound script – Planning, Application of skills and conduct in production

To judge the initial direction of and maintain the consistency of the overall tone of the audio team’s work on the piece, and liase with the director to ensure this is concurrent with their vision of the piece.
Develop creative, original, and innovative strategies within an audio production project.
Structure intellectually rigorous and coherent ideas to an advanced level in order to communicate ideas through the integration of form and content.

RESEARCH – Mix Requirements + Final Mix

13421070 / January 24, 2016January 26, 2016 / Audio Production, Contribution, Learning Outcomes, Research, Role - Supervising Sound Editor

“Mix Stems are used to create the final print masters for film and high-end TV productions…If done correctly, mix stems will combine at unity gain without any adjustment.” – (Shepherd, Pro Tools for Video, Film and multimedia)

Our client did not specify any particular requirements for their files or mastering levels, so I suggested we deliver a single stereo mix and component mixes of dialogue, sfx and music tracks, to which they agreed. We also agreed with them to mix these using the BBC technical guidelines for audio which seemed appropriate for a drama of this type. An alternative would be to mix for theatre’s, given the intention to potentially show the piece at film festivals,or to the technical specifications of an average film festival. However, few of the major festivals I researched (including BFI’s and Canne) offer any specific technical guidance on audio mix levels, and it is difficult to mix for a large room without calibrating your mix environment to do so, and I’m unsure of the calibration in the LSM Sound Theatre.

Though my colleagues were still dealing with some of the specifics of the construction of our audio later in the piece, I spent much of our final two days on the project master-mixing each scene up to these standards and finessing the transitions. Again, this is not an ideal situation but we’d set ourselves the personal deadline of end of play on Saturday 23rd January to have completed the construction and mix of our hand-in version of ‘George’.

The BBC guidelines above informed the mix of ‘George’, along with a passing reference to the EBU R128 recommendations, also mentioned above. Each master auxiliary – music / dialogue / sfx / foley – had it’s own set of automated processing, which was generally lightly compressed and / or limited in some cases. This fed another gently compressed master bus compressor. I’ve tried to be careful with the compressors as George’s audio is very dynamic – some scenes have little in the way of loud action, others are much more heavily layered – creating a ‘blocky’ mix visually. I wanted to retain this dynamic artistically, because backed off atmospheres and near-silence helps maintain a sense of stillness in some scenes, but balance this with the technical requirements above, specifically that nothing peaks above 6 PPM, and that the focus points of the mix remain roughly within the levels above.

Here’s a visual representation of the music mix structure in protools, blue tracks are the music components, orange the aux subs, leading to the burgundy master fader –

The final point in this process came after mixdown, with a thorough mono / stereo check of the final stereo wav before the audio was delivered to the director.

– Circa 400 Words

Key Points –

Interaction with the director to discover delivery requirements – Process Management

To successfully manage the audio team’s interaction with film’s director, editor and producer on a practical and creative level, and ensure the audio team’s work is delivered on time and to a good standard.
Application of skills and conduct in production

Research and application of delivery standards in the mix – Contribution, Research

Comply with legal and ethical codes of conduct; health & safety regulations.
Assess the technical requirements of a production to inform the selection of appropriate tools, techniques and processes.
Application of skills and conduct in production

Conducting the mix – Contribution

To manage the delivery of the soundtrack at various stages of the production along with relevant paperwork, to the director and producer.

ROLE DIARY – ‘George’ Early Planning and Liason

13421070 / October 26, 2015January 27, 2016 / Audio Production, Process Management, Role - Supervising Sound Editor

Our group agreed to work on the film ‘George’ roughly three weeks ago, and the main priority over this period has been to work with the film crew to solidify a shooting schedule which will enable us to properly cover the requirements for location sound for the project. This has been largely achieved by liason between myself and the director as single points of contact for managing our respective teams, and we now have the dates and our equipment and availability confirmed for shooting and location recording.

We also insisted that a rough schedule for post production be agreed, which has enabled me to plan and book facilities we will require for post well in advance.

Since we are required to score, compose and record the music for the piece as well as managing location recording and all post production in a relatively short timeframe, I am aware we should begin work on music and atmosphere prior to the beginning of filming as the schedule is tight. After receiving some basic guidance from the director on her requirements and an early draft of the script, we arranged several meetings with the crew to thrash out some more specific plans for the film’s audio.

The first part of this process was the discussion of the themes and motifs deriving from the story and script, and to what level these can or should be represented in the audio. In this case, the film addresses loss, sadness, institutionalisation and the rights and wrongs of judging others.

We were also informed that the director required ‘a lot of music’ which – practically speaking in the context of a short film, means ‘more music than not’ – and that this music should be rooted in a ‘classic’ score utilising acoustic instruments and tones, but should retain an unsettling, electronic edge. It is immediately apparent that this will constitute the largest and most challenging aspect of the project if we are to create the music to high standard, and that the 7 week timeframe for completing the entire project will mean we must begin the composition almost immediately, and before even basic rushes of the picture are available. This is unfortunate, and was specifically flagged as something which can cause problems by professional music supervisor Lol Hammond in a guest lecture to the AUP contingent this year, but is unavoidable if we’re to complete the job on time.

To this end, we requested further reference tracks and films from the director, and attempted to get to the heart of what works for her about these pieces. Since it is difficult to convey complex ideas in music and sound we worked to simplify these ideas and looked for ways to bridge the meaning the director intended to convey into music.

The information collected during this process allowed us to set about constructing a basic outline of our audio plan with reference to the script, roughly split into the areas of music – foley – atmosphere, whilst also taking the opportunity to document as many of the ‘physical’ (translating roughly to foley – atmos – dialogue) aspects of the script as possible, and arranged all this into several rough planning documents, with each group member concentrating in a particular area as dictated by their chosen role for this project. We checked a number of these ideas over with the director in conference as we worked.

This process of discussion and feedback enabled us to create rough outlines of the arcs of the audio components of the film which we fed back to the film-makers at our final panning meeting a week before shooting commences, which in turn will enable us to begin work on our contribution as early as possible.

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KEY POINTS –

How decisions pertaining to overall artistic direction were made, and why. – Contribution + Role

To manage the post-production workflow and contribute substantially to the sound design, construction and editing of the piece.

Process of liasing with client and discovering their requirements. – Process Management

To successfully manage the audio team’s interaction with film’s director, editor and producer on a practical and creative level, and ensure the audio team’s work is delivered on time and to a good standard.

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Project Overview + Learning Outcomes

13421070 / October 22, 2015January 27, 2016 / Audio Production, Learning Outcomes, Project Overview

Semester A Audio Project AUP3003M group comprising:
Alice Asbury (Music Supervisor) – http://aliceaudioproject1.blogs.lincoln.ac.uk
Gareth Bailey (Supervising Sound Editor)
Rory Hunter (Location Audio Supervisor) – http://roryhunter.blogs.lincoln.ac.uk/

Project Overview + Film Synopsis:

The Semester A project for the above group is to provide the audio for a 10 – 12 minute short drama created by a group of Media Production students, directed by Lucy Norton.

The following synopsis of the plot was provided by the client – “The film is about an old man (George) who struggles with everyday life tasks, encouraging the audience to sympathise with him. However, through the film there are suggestions that George has a dark and unsettling past that asks the audience to questions exactly how they actually feel about him. The film is based around the themes of judgement, punishment, forgiveness and loss.”

Client Requirements + Timeframe

We are engaged to provide a full score (preferably composed), location field recording of the audio and dialogue on set for roughly 8 days of filming, and full audio post production and editing of the audio, including additional foley and dialogue replacement as necessary.

Filming is due to commence October 26^th for a two week period and scheduled to conclude by Sunday 8^th of November, and the project audio must be completed and delivered in compliance with BBC audio guidelines by the 17th of December 2015.

We will receive an assembly cut of the film circa 4^th of December, and will deliver the finished soundtrack to picture by December 16^th leaving time for quality control, final paperwork and submission for all parties before the deadline. Prior to receipt of the assembly cut we will have provided a number of temp music tracks and work in progress for audio atmosphere, as many specific plot devices and scenes edited prior to the assembly cut’s delivery as is feasible which should enable us to deliver scratch mixes of the audio tracks for all or part of the film as required.

Group Aim

To create and deliver the soundtrack to the film ‘George’ by Lucy Norton, Charlotte Hughes, Shaun Standring and Angelin Selvanathan.

Group Objectives:

To create an effective musical score and soundtrack that suits the themes of the film and supports the story in a manner concordant with the picture and the preferences of the director.
To successfully manage and conduct location recording to capture useful dialogue and atmospheres that will form the basis for some sound design aspects of the picture.
To create believable and relevant atmospheres and sound effects in post production, and edit these into a full soundtrack using foley, location recordings, composed music and replaced dialogue where applicable.

Outcomes as the project’s Supervising Sound Editor:

To successfully manage the audio team’s interaction with film’s director, editor and producer on a practical and creative level, and ensure the audio team’s work is delivered on time and to a good standard.
To judge the initial direction of and maintain the consistency of the overall tone of the audio team’s work on the piece, and liase with the director to ensure this is concurrent with their vision of the piece.
To manage the post-production workflow and contribute extensively to the design, construction, editing and mixing of the audio for the piece.
To manage the delivery of the soundtrack at various stages of the production along with relevant paperwork, to the director and producer.

Other personal learning outcomes:

To expand my knowledge of the theory and audio techniques deployed in the films influencing ‘George’, and in drama as a genre more generally.
To contribute extensively to the practicalities of creating and recording music for, and of recording location sound for the piece.
To have a good degree of creative involvement in the conception and direction of the soundtrack for the piece.
To successfully manage a three person team in delivery of the entire soundtrack to a new piece of visual media efficiently.

– 639 words