Tag: planning

PLANNING – Sound Script Elements + Reflection

13421070 / / 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.

 

20/11/15 – Project Management – ROLE DIARY: Shoot Day 3 + 4

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

11, 12/11/15 – ‘George’ Shoot Days 3 + 4

Audio for two of the final five locations was collected without problem, though the project has now fallen behind schedule as shooting was supposed to complete by the end of this week due to a spate of eleventh hour cancellations which have severely impacted the schedules of both groups.

This was concurrent with the abrupt departure of the film’s director from the working group just prior to this week’s filming.

It appeared from our perspective that the outgoing director did only the bare minimum to smooth the picking up of slack for the rest of her group which directly led to them cancelling a reasonably complex location shoot, use of the location for which had been offered on goodwill and only for a limited time. Nobody appeared to know how to contact any of the key people outside of the production team (location owners, the actor etc) in her absence, suggesting that this information wasn’t shared in an organised fashion within the group to cover such an eventuality. As such, it became necessary for me to liase with the rest of the production team, and to relay information to the rest of my group as decisions were made and the schedule changed, as well as replanning our own working schedule in response and trying to schedule in some kind of useful work on the project with no picture or storyboard available.

Unfortunately, in the longer term, the loss of most of two days shooting required a large amount of rescheduling, which in turn meant it was impossible for both groups to access equipment for at least the two following weeks. This has put the production back by at least three weeks, taken us from ahead of schedule to badly behind schedule and has required an extension to our institutional deadline which has now been granted. At this time, we’re told we’ll still have a picture-lock version of the film by December 20th, giving us a month to finalise the audio in time for the new deadline on the 27th of January. We’re attempting to fill the down-time this has created constructively by getting a head-start on the music and atmosphere work required for the picture.

A positive aspect arose from the uncertainty of the situation as, in the absence of the director during the full day’s shoot of the 12th which did go ahead as planned, the workflow, communication and creativity was much improved on set as the production team split the directorial duties between them.

The first director appeared to be no longer involved with the project after this.

— 500 words
Team management and interaction issues – Process Management, Professional Practise.

  • 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.

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.

PLANNING – Location Selection and Recce

13421070 / / Audio Production, Learning Outcomes, Process Management

Location selection for George was well underway by the time we agreed to get involved but, as a local to Lincoln, I was able to make a couple of suggestions.

We decided to make George’s home a residential house which is currently empty of tenants I’m aware of. This seemed sensible because the original suggestion was a student house of one of the crew and I felt that an empty house would present less obstacles for dressing and less likelihood of interruption to the filming process, and a more controllable environment for us to work in in general. The film crew concurred with this point of view upon seeing the house, as well as feeling it was a stylistic improvement that fitted the script more naturally.

We next performed a preliminary reconnaissance of all the locations bar one, as per Grant Bridgeman’s repeated admonitions in our earlier lectures.

The sound team and I performed a reconnaissance of the house from the perspective of problems for the location audio and the obvious issue, with a reasonably busy road outside and old style, single glazed windows, was traffic noise. This noticeably worsened at different times of day, and led to us advising that the few scenes with dialogue were scheduled in the quieter periods.

The graveyard in the script was also checked over well in advance, and again suffered from traffic noise even though the shoot location itself within the context of a large site was as far from the road as practicable. We also noted the lack of cover from the weather, and the relative distance and inaccessibility of the location if the crew attempt to reach it on foot, which was being mooted at the time. Again the timing of the shoot was clearly to be an issue, as it had an effect on both light levels for working and traffic volume.

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– 300 words

KEY POINTS + LEARNING OUTCOMES

Reconnaissance of locations – Planning, Process Management, Contribution.
Learning Outcome – To contribute extensively to the practicalities of creating and recording music for, and of recording location sound for the piece.