Audio for Films- HELP

[Glory_Morris]

I've been hired to operate the boom / record audio for a film here in Austin.
Honest truth-- I've never done anything like this before. I'm not sure what to expect in the way of problems. Anyone here have any experience they can share so I don't fuck this thing up?

ANYTHING will be appreciated. Thanks

[Glory_Morris]

Nothing?

So I've got two rental options-- the apparently "highly respected" Marantz PMD222 cassette field recorder, or the Tascam DA-P1 Portable Dat Recorder.

It's $55/week to rent the Tascam, but the battery life is only 2 hours. I guess I can get extra batteries too with the rental, but DAT tapes only hold that much audio too. Sounds costly.

I'm nervous about the idea of using anything less than the dat. Suggestions?

[JGriffin]

I've used the DAP1 for lots of productions. Good machine. Get the extra batteries. Esp. if you're phantom-powering your mic, which eats up the batteries quicker. And it takes a couple hours to recharge the batteries once they're dead, which you have to do in the deck -- and you can't use the deck for recording while you're charging batteries. I'd definitely prefer to get the sound on DAT over cassette if I was the post audio guy on the film.

Make sure you work with the cameraman on framing--ask him how tightly he's framing each shot so you know how close to get the boom to the actors.

More later.

[Glory_Morris]

Alright-- see I never would have thought to ask.

I'm going to see if they can give me four batteries.

[jackson park]

I've done some stuff like this for school. I got to use the-tada- Nagra tape machine. I found that being able to hit the red without digital distortion saved me a few times. If the actors nail the scene but get too emotional and say something too loud, I don't know if a digital format would have let me get away with peaking for longer than a split second. The rest of the crew rarely pays attention to the sound crew. "Speed" and you're expected to just stick the boom and everything's supposed to be great.

I agree with the other guy, asking the Camera Op where the frame is to get the mic close is very helpful. Monitoring during scene run throughs to get an idea of each actor's volume is a good idea. I mainly used two different shotgun mics both with some serious windscreens. Finding creative positions, like crouching behind a car for a sidewalk scene to get closest to the actors is good. Extra batteries and tape, always.

[JGriffin]

Ditto about the "attention to sound" thing. They just don't get it, don't expect them to. Lloyd Kaufman, the Toxic Avenger guy, says in his book "Make your Own Damn Movie" something along the lines of "you should never ever ever ever have to fucking wait for sound, ever." So even veteran film-makers with decades of experience don't get it. They'll spend 4 hours wiring up the blood-squib just so, or moving lights a millimeter at a time to get the shadows just right, but when they wanna roll you better be ready and i mean NOW.

The indie shoots I've worked on, I've been very lucky to establish a good rapport with the line producer and director, and I've been able to say on some occasions, let's take a minute and throw some blankets up in the ceiling fan to kill the bounce off the ceiling, or can we hold for two minutes while that traffic copter goes by...and it's because I've explained to them that ADR'ing later may be an option but it's not something you want to count on, and scheduling that will be much more trouble than waiting here another two minutes while I sort it out. (and of course, an actor in an ADR studio may never get to the emotional place they were at on set. I had one actress have almost a complete nervous breakdown in the studio trying to do ADR--she was convinced she'd never match the emotion of her on-set performance, and you know how it goes: argue for your limitations, and sure enough they're yours! So she ended up sobbing in the corner and I ended up finding other ways to fix the dialog track.)

? Record room tone in every location. Two-five minutes if possible, sixty seconds minimum. Don't change your levels to record this. And I don't mean with crew talking in the other room. Real, honest-to-gosh room tone, with everyone in "hey, we're shooting a take" mode, shutting the hell up. Whoever is cutting dialog may need it to add length to pauses, take out mouth noises, coughs, cars going by, and they'll definitely need it to lay under any ADR that needs to be done. Slate it as room tone, mark it on your log sheet.

? Since you won't be timecode-locked to the cameras, you'll need to document the time reading on the DAT machine for each take. You can do this in a few ways. The DAP1 has a minutes:seconds counter setting; use that. Write the time of each take start on your log or tell the AD before each take. Figure out before shooting how documentation is being done. Is someone keeping a log that will have all this info? Is it the script supervisor? Is it you? On one film I did, both cameras and audio would call out their time codes, the script sup would write it all down for general reference, and then the clapper board would be used for exact sync in post. Make sure you record the clapper for each take. Once again, without time code this is the only way the editors will get the audio in sync without wanting to kill you and eat your dog.

? Creative positioning story: I was working as one of two boom ops for a dialog scene where I'd follow the actors with a boom pole on their entrance from the other room, and then the other audio guy would take over as they sat on the back of a sofa to continue the scene. He was hidden behind the couch, lying on his back. Problem was that the scene called for one actor to throw a box of papers at the other actor, and it would land...right where the other boom op was lying. So we found a plastic milk crate, laid him down and put his head inside the crate so when the box came down he didn't have to worry about getting hit in the face. It was a stressful shot for other reasons, and after take two or three I'd swear the actor throwing the box started aiming at the milk crate...though that might have been just to avoid accidentally hitting the guy in the nuts.

[Brian]

If you must know,
I have questions.
Are you on a soundstage with AC?
Ifso, use it instead of batteries, but, have them charging as backup and one on.
BOOM:
go from below up if you can, better sound.
Wildtrack, don't leave set without it.
SILENCE:
Make sure you get people to shut up before you start and have them shut off all motors like fans, fridges, airconditioners, yada yada yada.
Compression:
If you have to, use it, but, don't go overboard. Rush up sucks. Audio technica boom unis suck, Sennheisers rock. Sennheiser digital wireless lavs rocks.

[Professor]

The lack of timecode can be tricky because it means you're syncing everything the 'old-fashioned way' by lining up the clap board later... assuming they are using a clap board. I would ask if there is going to be timecode on set and find some way to rent a time-code deck. Either a Fostex DAT recorder or that new Tascam HD-P2 that costs less than the DA-P1, uses compact flash so you can upload faster than real time, and it can generate or sync to timecode. If there's any way to rent one of those, you'll be much happier later. It also runs on standard AA batteries (8 of 'em) which last a fairly long time, maybe 3-5 hours depending, and are easy to replace rather than needing to recharge the pack in the DA-P1.
I used a friend's HD-P2 last summer to capture location sounds, vehicle sounds and other effects for post-pro on a film project and it worked like a champ. We weren't rolling film, so I can't speak to the timecode side of things, but the sound was great, the operation was simple, and the transfers were cake. Plus there's the fact that mono recording scores you double the record time, unlike linear tape. The only thing to watch for is that CF micro-drives like the Hitachi 4GB ones I have put a very slight high-pitched whine into the files. It was only noticeable in really, really quiet places, and easy to remove, but it was there. Hard media CF cards (real compact flash memory, and not micro-drives) are dead silent - and of course, have no moving parts.

-Jeremy

[ballpein]

there's a fine line to be walking. On the one hand, you want to get the best possible sound and make the editor and sound designer happy. On the other hand, you want to be invisible on set as much as possible... a great sound guy on set is one you don't notice... by being invisible you are making the lives of the director and d.o.p. that much easier.

Having said that, speak up when you need to correct problems whenever possible; it's expected that 'action' often has to be held while waiting for an airplane or whatever, or that you might need to send a PA next door to ask the guy practicing his bongos for a few moments of silence. People only get pissy with sound guys when there's a hold up for a problem that the sound guy should have anticipated.

The best way to anticipate is to be active in rehearsals; don't slack off because the cameras not rolling, don't be flirting with the makeup girls.

And if you want to really be a hit on a low budget shoot, try to scare up a cheap remote headset for the director and script super.

the point on room-tone has already been made, but it bears repeating: always get it. It's your job to make sure you get it, nobody is going to quiet the set down for you... the AD may be of help, but he or she is likely to forget about it. Along with roomtone, it's a bonus if you can get any specific sounds that are a part of the physical space... a creaky door, a squeaky floorboard, the sound of a fat actor's corduroy pants rubbing when he crosses the room, whatever, try to get it... don't make a fuss over it, but if you can quietly get this stuff, your editor and sound designer will love you for it.

Somebody already mentioned sennheiser shotgun mics... don't cheap out with an imitation, anything else is a toy, and any decent editor will hear the difference.

oh... perhaps most importantly, sound guys usually have the best weed.

[Glory_Morris]

We're supposed to have a production meeting tonite. From what some of the other engineers are telling me, they just want to run straight into the camera! No meter either.

I'll know for sure tonight, but I'm a little worried.

[JGriffin]

Well, the camera oughta have some sort of metering, even if it's in the viewfinder. In that case, eyeball a level before the scene rolls (have the cameraman let you look at the viewfinder) and do your best.

[bickle]

DON'T let them run into the camera! I've done a lot of film stuff (which is necessarily to a separate system), but a lot of video guys want to do that. It'll never sound as good, and you'll never have the necessary freedom of movement or control. Separate systems is the way to go.

Otherwise, lots of great advice - definitely get the room tone, use the right mics (I've liked Schoeps the best for indoor stuff, but the Sennheiser's the standby for multipurpose use), think about mic placement, and stay out of the way.

And yes, you're really supposed to stay out of the way; it's not that people don't care about sound, but the purpose of production is to get the picture, not the sound. You can certainly request what you must, though - usually, you go through the first AD, who issues instructions to the crew in general. They should know about room tone, etc. Remember that your job is to get the best sound possible with the minimum impact on everything else, and don't forget that you should try to get sound that's appropriate to the shot - more distant is a bit ok on a medium shot, but you never want too much room sound, and you can use lavs on really long shots and it'll sound normal to people.

I guess I'm rambling, but keep the questions coming - sound like a lot of folks know something about this. I general, you should feel comfortable asking people questions if you do it at the right time - most experienced film people will be happy to share their knowledge.

Good luck, and have fun - it;s a great time!

[kayagum]

I'm glad you're getting the opportunity, but hiring someone green can't be a good sign for a film project, especially in Austin TX.

Learn while you can. Make sure you get paid.

[ballpein]

recording to camera can work quite well. There are some drawbacks but it's very hard to argue against the benefits when it comes to post-production. Assuming they're using a decent camera, there's no reason the sound should be any worse than dat. Pretty much any documentary or reality based project shoots this way, and many many indie films as well.

I would try to hold out for some sort of remote mixer for you to have, it just means less futzing with the camera, and you should be able to get one for a pretty decent rate. Most rental houses offer packages which would be boom/mic/mixer and snake, and should be pretty affordable... just make your case for it with the producer; there are two points to be made on behalf of shelling out for a mixer: 1) better recorded sound and 2) you won't have to be peeking at the camera and annoying the camera team so much. The latter is probably your strongest argument with the producer.

I would absolutely insist on having a nice long snake. This will consist of a pigtail which attaches to both inputs of the camera, as well as the headphone return. Your snake plugs into the pigtail and this way there's only one jack to attach/detach between you and the camera, rather than 3, and you'll have all the cable you need to move about freely and be where you need to be.

Since there are two inputs on the camera, you can split your mono mic feed and record one channel 'safe' i.e. a few dB below normal, so even if you get some peaking the editor can always fade to the 'safe' track. Your notes will tell him which track is which and what level you set your reference tones at. Ask the editor / sound designer what levels he wants your reference tone at.

Of course, if you can't get a mixer, you won't be able to lay reference tone at the head of each tape which will be problematic... I would bring this up at the production meeting and establish how this will be dealt with. If all of this is brought up at the production meeting then everyone will know what limitations you're working with and no one can have a beef with you later.

Regardless if you have a mixer or not, you will have to calibrate the input levels on the camera to some sort of 'zero point'... this is easy to set up if you have some means of generating reference tone, otherwise you're going to have to just feel them out. In any case, the problem is that it's very easy for these levels to get screwed up, by the knobs being bumped or whatever. You'll want to check these often, at least every time they switch tape, and more often if possible without making a nuisance of yourself. On some cameras the input knobs can be locked (either physically or on a setting menu)... download a manual for the camera and read up on it. I might be able to give you some more specific help once you find out what camera they're using.

If the camera is of the shoulder mount variety, it will have sound meters on the side which you will be able to peek at without being obtrusive; of course this depends on where you're located in the shot. If there is a camera assistant, and you trust her, you can ask her to keep an eye on them for you.

Make sure that you are monitoring the feed from the camera (NOT the feed from your mixer)... this way you'll be able to hear if something has gone wrong. I've seen novice sound guys shoot entire days without ever re-checking the camera's input levels, and all the while they're monitoring the feed at the mixer, which sounds great... meanwhile the camera is getting a horribly distorted signal.

Make sure you listen to some audio playback at least once a day, to make sure nothing is going wrong on tape... a good audio signal can get screwed up by bad tape, dirty record heads, or camera malfunction... you won't be able to fix these problems, but at least you can catch them before you waste a ton of time.

Green people often make great films, and they always learn a ton. If this is truly an indie film (and not something that is being sold, or some schlock TV project) don't sweat getting paid, unless you're using your own gear... you're getting free training that people pay big bucks for at film school. Enjoy the experience, try your best to get great sound, learn a ton, and have fun collaborating with a bunch of other people.

[JGriffin]

the purpose of production is to get the picture, not the sound.

This is a valid point if the production has built in post-production timet to clean up the camera audio or do ADR. If not, the purpose of production isto get the whole enchilada.