Tag: organisation

15/12/15 – PROJECT MANAGEMENT – ROLE DIARY – Post Begins

13421070 / / Audio Production, Learning Outcomes, Process Management, Role - Supervising Sound Editor

Despite the production problems, we have still received a version of ‘George’ with all the scenes complete before Christmas, though this differs noticeably from the film as originally discussed in terms of scene and shot lengths and is not a ‘picture lock’ version as we were originally promised. We’ve already had to start the post-production process proper even though the film will still be undergoing edits and other alterations into January, as we will be unable to complete the work to a good standard if we wait for the picture lock version to begin the finer audio work, mainly due to inability to access facilities for the required amount of time now the critical period of post-production has shifted into the new year. Considering these factors myself and the team decided that some slight changes of audio direction were warranted.

Some plot devices which our original audio plan had relied upon have not made it into the picture, and the overall feel of the piece has changed to such a degree that I feel the picture now dictates the arc of our audio work much more than we had originally planned, mainly due to the differences in style of the multiple directors who’ve created it and the way these have been constructed across the film. For example, the picture is very static early on but becomes much more animated in terms of shooting style later, a result of the two different directors shooting styles, and this provides a very definite ‘arc’ to the technicality of the piece. This provides the audio the opportunity to work with this overall arc or to counterpoint it, or a combination of the two. Whatever the choice, we feel our sound design should certainly account for the fact in some way, and in doing so enhance the synergy between the audio and the visual.

Also, in referring to my original briefing and synopsis, it is noticable that several devices used in the original script for the picture to hint at the dark past of the film’s protaganist have been removed. Our original audio plans, particularly with reference to our musical score, had looked to represent this theme strongly in intending to present a reasonably ‘normal’ drama style soundscape with an undertone of dissonance.  Indeed, the film overall has generally been simplified and is less rich in references to the character, which has also altered the balance of the themes the script originally portrayed.

All this meant I felt we should seek some guidance and run some new ideas for the audio past our new director as the new creative lead on the project, as well as enquire which themes within the piece were now to take primacy given the changes, and particularly to check that the mood of our music was still relevant to the vision of the piece and to their taste. As such, we touched base with the new director and the rest of the team just before the Christmas close-down of our facilities to demonstrate our work in progress and outline our plan for alterations to some of the more complex scenes. This meet was very useful with feedback on the work in progress being uniformly positive, and we used the opportunity to agree when a picture lock version of the film would be provided (8th December), and gave some advice as to what we need if further edits are to be made now we have begin the fine detail audio work, such as close foley editing. Specifically, we need the exact scene, shot, take and time information of any cuts, fades or additions to enable us to catch up with these in the context of our audio track-lay as quickly as possible.

Nominally, we have agreed to try to have the music for the piece completely recorded by the  10th of January and agreed to deliver as close to a completed film as possible by the 19th.. This leaves us a few extra days to tweak and QC our final hand-in and double check our paperwork etc.

– 670 Words

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Critical and artistic consideration of the rough cut version relative to the original audio plan – Planning & Research
Team management and interaction – Process Management, Professional Practise.

Learning Outcome –
Structure intellectually rigorous and coherent ideas to an advanced level in order to communicate ideas through the integration of form and content.

Personal Learning Outcome – 

To successfully manage a three person team in delivery of the entire soundtrack to a new piece of visual media efficiently.
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 manage the post-production workflow and direct the creative contributions of the audio team as efficiently as possible.

RESEARCH: Supervising Sound Editor

13421070 / / Audio Production, Individual Reflection, Role - Supervising Sound Editor

“Good sound design enhances the listening experience, but doesn’t get in the way of the story.”  – Eloise Whitmore

My role for the production of George is that of a Supervising Sound Editor. This is a hands-on role with involvement in the cutting and editing of dialogue, ADR, foley and special effects, as well as the oversight of the ‘deliverables’ for the film such as the various mixes required by the director, and making sure the mix meets any stipulated technical specifications. Responsibilities also extend to the sound budget, the work-flow and priorities of the sound team on the mix, and appointing and managing those responsible for each aspect of the post production editing.

 “On the average A-picture the first post production sound person brought onto the film is the supervising sound editor, who not only directs and coordinates the creative contributions of the post-production sound staff but also must handle all the related administrative duties like scheduling mixes. The tendency is to bring the supervising editor on earlier and earlier. The main reason is the changing demands for sound in early screenings. This practice has engendered the greatest changes in the logistics of post-production sound in the last two decades,” – (FilmSound.org)

Liasing with the artistic leads on the film (usually the director) is critical to the role, and supervising sound editors often double as sound-designers, directing the overall artistic audio tone of the picture to a greater or lesser extent. Again, this aspect of the role is relevant to ‘George’, as I am partially responsible alongside my colleagues in translating the wishes of the director into a functional sound-script and ultimately into a working soundtrack.

This makes the role very variable based on the scale of the film in question, and in the case of ‘George’ – a zero budget student-film – I felt the creative liason, sound design and the hands-on editing would likely be the most relevant aspects. ADR, for example, was unlikely to be required for a script which has ended up containing very little dialogue yet had engaged the services of a full location audio team, and the audio team personnel and roles were largely dictated by our modules requirements.It also became clear during preproduction (based on the original institutional deadlines for the work, at least) that the audio work on this film would need to be directed carefully and, as the evident lack of concept and storyboarding came to light, the liason with the director particularly would need to begin as any possible headstart on the more complicated aspects of the sound design would be necessary in order to be able to condense relatively large requirements for a piece into a short period of time.

This is somewhat at odds with some conceptions of the role in the wider industry as it tends to begin at picture lock and the beginning of post production for films with little budget, but this is usually due to the constraints of said budget. Larger budgets enable longer contracts and more responsibilities and involvement for a supervising sound editor, and whilst ‘George’ has no budget it was possible to begin work on it early due to the institutional context.

Forward planning and preparation is absolutely critical in audio work of all stripes and especially in the relatively complex world of moving image with it’s many interlocking roles working in a production line sense towards the end product. In the context of my post production role, this is important when considering the necessity for ample source material to work with in the edit phase, and I wanted to participate in the location recording of this project partially to make sure we collected plenty of useful wild-track audio for later use in our atmospheres. This documentary on the film Australia opens with the Supervising Sound Editor / Designer Wayne Pashley discussing his work on the film, the set of which he was able to visit in order to capture the location sounds because ‘…there’s nothing like it’, referring to the unique nature of the sounds of the landscape in Australia. Whilst the locations for ‘George’ are not in anyway similar to that production, I think it would be useful to collect ambience for later use in a similar way.

I’ve examined some of the work of a couple of well known supervising sound editors, one that is relevant to George and another who concentrates mainly on sci-fi and the fantastic, which is my preferred own specialism, in the form of Richard King. The work he directed on Christopher Nolan’s Inception is a personal favourite, and I would love to try to weave some of the nuance of his work on that film into this one in some small way, specifically the discussion of ‘transitioning’ the audience into a dream sequence from this interview –

‘…we also altered the pitch of all the real-world sounds when we transition from level to level (much like the watch ticks change speed in the first sequence). So all the sounds slow and change and become a different sound in the next sequence – interior jet roar becomes traffic when we transition to the first dream level, for instance.’ – http://designingsound.org/

This interview also supports the notion above of recording as much as possible on set, though not at the cost to the impact of the audio, as King points out:

‘…It’s so important to get the sounds which you feel and imagine could be there. There’s always a lot of manipulation afterward of course, but recording new raw material is so important. I’d love to record everything every time, but the most important thing is to find the sound which provides that feeling you’re looking for regardless of where it comes from.’ – http://designingsound.org/

Richard King is soon to receive an MPSE career award for his contribution to cinema audio.

Mark Mangini’s work is discussed in this post covering the influence of Green Mile on the sound design of ‘George’.

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 – 1000 words

KEY POINTS –

Overview of supervising sound editor role – Research, Individual reflection on learning and team role.

  • Assess the technical requirements of a production to inform the selection of appropriate tools, techniques and processes.
  • Examine and implement professional practices in their production work in relation to professional contexts, clearances, ownership, copyright and commissioning.

ROLE DIARY – ‘George’ Early Planning and Liason

13421070 / / 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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