Freekstorm VFX Blog

The Recording Process: General Sound Recording

Despite the hundreds of hours spent on the CG in our little film, as well as many hours endlessly editing, it wasn’t until we finally put the sound into the film that it really started to gel.

I was appointed as the sound technician for the actual recording of the footage. I thought Rich was very brave trusting something as important as the sound to a half-deaf wife, but you gotta love his faith in me. Anyway, we decided that we wanted sound which was a bit more advanced than the camera’s microphone, which always ended up with the dialogue sounding as though it was recorded in the loo. So we took the plunge and allocated some of the film budget to purchasing a microphone and big furry cover (which is rather horrifyingly called “a dead cat”- as a cat lover I must protest – I really do prefer live ones.) We also bought a groovy new Tascam DR-100 Solid State sound recorder, which was so simple to use that in no time at all I was wandering around practising my newbie sound-recording skills by poking my dead cat into the faces of anyone and everyone in the vicinity.

Unfortunately I didn’t have any training in how to use the recorder correctly to obtain the cleanest sound levels, so my learning was strictly a trial and error process. We were also filming the outside scene in the middle of the worst winds for several years, so we had to reshoot the scene many times so that I could learn to record the actress’s speech as clearly as possible whilst minimising the sound of the howling gale. I screwed up frequently at first, mainly setting the recording volume too high, resulting in red-lining the sound levels and generating a godawful hiss. At one point I set the recorder too low and the sound was inaudible on playback, resulting in a lengthy reshoot – the kids were not happy. No, not happy at all. And before you say, “Why didn’t you just over-dub afterwards?” I’m afraid that option wasn’t available to us as our leading actress is five years old and has a pretty bad stammer. With the best will in the world, overdubbing and stuttering do not mix. But it’s all a learning process and we recorded some good sound in the end – crisp and clear, just the way it should be.

The next stage was for Rich to synch the sound and match it to each scene, originally in Acid Pro 7, but when that turned its toes up, with Adobe Audition 3 instead (good software – a piece of cake in the end – shame we can’t afford it though.) He then added foley sounds (feet crunching on gravel, walking up stairs, monster sounds etc) which were mostly recorded separately by me, although we also used a few commonly available foley sounds which were available for free online. Finally he added the creepy music (which will be the subject of the next post.) Then the film really started to come alive!

So to summarise, Rich recommends adding sound to your film is as follows:

1. Master the dialogue
2. Add the major foley components
3. Add the music
4. Add any additional ambience and foley sounds which are needed to fill any spaces
5. Check, check and check again that the timing is perfect

What would we do differently next time round?

Well, for future movies I will definitely avoid recording sound in bad weather conditions - picture if you will your trusty sound-recording-mama bracing herself 45 degrees against the howling wind and driving rain, desperately trying to record crisp clear sound whilst simultaneously shoving her dead cat into face of her young, courageous actress-daughter and frantically worrying that said actress-daughter might be swept away in the gale.

Oh yes, that’s what all great family memories are made of – stress free, jolly, happy filmmaking. Such a shame real life isn’t like it is in the movies...

Resources:

Tascam DR-100 Solid State sound recorder
K6-ME66 Microphone by Sennheiser
Dead Cat: Rycote Softie
Tunes of Terror from Stockmusic.net
Monsters and Creatures Foley Sounds from Sound Ideas

Tips:

Don’t be afraid to spend real-live-money to buy good sound equipment. It will pay for itself many times over. On-camera sound is the sign of a newbie and almost always sounds like it comes out of a toilet, so make sure you invest in a decent microphone and sound recorder instead!

Labels: Diabolus Domi, filmmaking, sound