Geeky audio observation watching a movie last nigh

[llmonty]

So last night i watched the movie Auto Focus (Bob Crane / Hogan's Heros / Sex Addict movie). Decent movie, not as good as I hoped it would be.

Anyway, a big part of the movie is how he loves to play the drums. In one scene he is at home playing away on a nice vintage set (even had it mic'ed up) but the sound coming out of it was terrible - 80's synth sounding drums with no room sound at all. So weird. Like was it really that hard to pull some realistic sounds?

I remember a thread about that soda commercial with the little penny type character - how his voice had no room sound. Anyone annoyed by other movie sound gaffes?

Really bummed me out and made the movie feel like a TV after school special low budget thing - albeit with willem defoe video taping various sex acts

[JGriffin]

Well, bad ADR always pisses me off. Then there's the audio equivalent of the French Bread Rule. (The French Bread Rule states that any character shown coming home from the grocery store will have a paper bag with a big loaf of french bread sticking out of it, to quickly and simply communicate that s/he has been to the grocery store.) The audio equaivalent of the French Bread Rule is The PA Feedback Rule, which states that any character in a movie shown speaking into a public address microphone will, almost immediately after opening their mouth, be greeted by a short burst of feedback--to quickly and simply communicate that a) the character is speaking into a live mic and 2) that the sound guy is incompetent. Drives me fucking batshit.

[pantone247]

spaeking of ADR, does anyone know did the noise making guy in The Police Academy series of films actually made all those noises himself, or were they dubbed on at a later point??

I HAVE to know!!

[llmonty]

spaeking of ADR, does anyone know did the noise making guy in The Police Academy series of films actually made all those noises himself, or were they dubbed on at a later point??

I HAVE to know!!

i m 99% sure it was him. during that time he had a stand up career and i remember seeing him on tv making those noises in a stand up environment. i even remember him coming on tour to the local suburban comedy club years later.

[thethingwiththestuff]

of course that was him! dont forget he also did "the bleeps, the sweeps, and the creeps" in spaceballs.

[pantone247]

Thanks guys!

You've restored my faith in the art of bodily noises for comic effect!

[moogrocker]

spaeking of ADR, does anyone know did the noise making guy in The Police Academy series of films actually made all those noises himself, or were they dubbed on at a later point??

I HAVE to know!!

The guys name is Michael Winslow. Oddly enough when my brother was at....gasp.....Full Sail.....about 5 years ago, one of his projects was to do some work on an album for that guy and do live sound at one of his shows in the area. I don't know if he's still touring but he had a full band and did music with his "noises" along with some standup. Probly would have been pretty cool to see.

[doc]

Well, it's not the actual sounds in the movie, but I noticed in The Bourne Identity all the equipment in the girl's secret office/lab is cheapo Behringer rack gear. There's an Ultra Curve Pro, a Multi Gate, two stereo compressors and some other stuff. I thought that was pretty fun. I didn't have any issues with ADR or foley in that movie though.

-Doc

[mcfl0nuz]

The guys name is Michael Winslow. Oddly enough when my brother was at....gasp.....Full Sail.....about 5 years ago, one of his projects was to do some work on an album for that guy and do live sound at one of his shows in the area. I don't know if he's still touring but he had a full band and did music with his "noises" along with some standup. Probly would have been pretty cool to see.

i have a friend that played guitar for this project that you're talking about...never got to see them play but he told me about how he'd always goto his house to practice.

seemed like a neat idea, i always thought he was a funny guy.

[I'm Painting Again]

spaeking of ADR, does anyone know did the noise making guy in The Police Academy series of films actually made all those noises himself, or were they dubbed on at a later point??

I HAVE to know!!

i love that guy!! i think those sounds he does are real..

here is his live album dvd:

[jzahos]

did the noise making guy in The Police Academy series of films actually made all those noises himself, or were they dubbed on at a later point??

While I'm sure he made those sounds himself, (I remember seeing him on TV - I think on a late-night talk show demoing some of them), they may have recorded after the fact, as is most or alot of film sound and dialogue. He really made those sounds, though, maybe in a studio, but still awesome.

As for studio audience sounds - Has anyone else ever noticed that ANYTHING that is produced by Lorne Michaels has the same laugh and applause tracks? The signature (and unmistakable) mark is a ascending whistling sound mixed in with the clapping. It's crazy. Saturday Night Live, Kids in the Hall, and others that I can't remember right now

JZ

[JGriffin]

The Bourne Identity post reminded me of the movie "Contact" with Jodie Foster, where they're monitoring the alien signal and recording it--they have 2 ADATs and the same signal is being recorded at different levels on all 16 tracks (okay, Mr. President, we have recorded the alien signal...we've only got 40 minutes of it, but it's on there 16 times)! There's also an Eventide Harmonizer in the rack (why?) and an actor uses the big knob on the front (which changes program and adjusts parameters) to turn the master volume up.

[Disasteradio]

There's also an Eventide Harmonizer in the rack (why?)

so you're saying the aliens wouldn't benefit from a bit of LA Spice ? that shit don't PLAY on mars homie.. man spotting something like that would make me stand up in a movie theatre and yell in geekery.

ahem, yeah the most annoying thing I hear a lot of is really wiiieerd aliasing from DV taped TV shows, especially with speech. how can editors miss something so apparent ?

..and ever notice how many cartoons have the character like, 3000 feet away but he/she still sounds totally close miked ?

[i am monster face]

wow