How To Make Your Movie Sound Like A Real Movie

I get a lot of questions on if I can "do" sound sweetening, usually by frantic filmmakers, calling in the middle of the night. They are frantic because the sound in their movie or video is bad.

18 Interior WallsSpotlights usually function as accent lights - that is, they focus on one area or object. They're reflector lights that emit narrow beams to illuminate and highlight objects while leaving the surrounding area in darkness.If the filmmaker is very, very lucky, somebody will tell him the sound is bad. Otherwise, he has no clue.You will put the mic just as close to your subject as you can, and roll off the wind noise, and use a fur piece on the mic, and only mix in enough room or ambient noise, and only when it's necessary.01.3 City & Co. Lic's & FeesOr shoot two takes, one with the camera running, one without, but recording sound both times, and cheat the camera-less sound over the camera take, and cut it into sync.07 Wall FramingFirst, and most importantly, you need to setup your Items correctly because they are the heart of QuickBooks for Contractors. You should setup an Item for each level of detail you want on your job costing reports. It can be as simple as Labor and Materials or as detailed as having hundreds of sub-categories for the services you provide. A good example of a middle-ground (enough detail to manage your job costs without become overwhelming) can be found in the sample contractor-based business file that comes with QuickBooks:For floor and table lamps you just plug them in and they're ready to go. But for other types of lights, you'll need to hire an electrician unless you're a handyman.First, notice how video procedures are designed for quick-and- easy operation, and not really for quality.You've probably seen many commercial movies with good sound, so why doesn�t your movie sound like them? You probably don't really know how a good movie sounds, and what effort went into making them sound good.Few things are worse than an edit session that becomes an audio salvage operation. It detracts from the creativity, replacing it with an air of desperation. You want to edit, when you edit.The best video camera sound I've found is on the Panasonic DVX-100A. Its audio section is good as most DAT or solid-state flash memory recorders. Shooting with one is like recording on a separate digital recorder.The most common types of lights are ceiling lights. These generally emit a bright overhead ambient light that illuminates a whole room or area such as a hallway. Ceiling lights can take a wide range of forms such as recessed lights and chandeliers. As they provide the main ambient light for a room, these need to be considered first when installing lights.Which brings me to the point in "making your movie sound like a real movie."People don't know why the movie is bad, actually. Not one in ten can recognize "bad sound," they just think the movie stinks.02.10 DemoMake it clear to your sound crew that you consider sound just as important as the picture, and you expect good work from them.You may not want to record double-system (sound recorder separate from the camera), but if you can, do it!26 Landscape & PavingStyle wise, you have many options. For example, with ceiling lights, you might like to opt for recessed lights. They are installed in recesses cut into sections of the ceiling. Of course, they require more work to install but it's worth it for the sleek and elegant look they provide.Cheap-and-dirty analog-to-digital circuits add noise and distortion to your high-quality mic's crisp analog sound.Floor lamps are similar to table lights in having a base and a shade. They give off a cosy glow but the stand is longer which makes them ideal for positioning by a chair or sofa.10 Exterior Trim & DecksMini-DV camera sound is uncompressed 48Khz/16bit sampling. That's better-than-CD audio quality, but camera makers save money by using cheap audio circuits in most under-$5k video cameras.He wants to know if bad sound can be fixed. I have to tell him the bad news - no.Other terms you'll come across with reference to lighting are up lights and down lights. These terms are self-explanatory. Up lights shine their beams upward where they're reflected off the ceiling. The result is a relaxing diffuse light from reflection from the ceiling with fewer shadows than from a central ambient ceiling light.Give your video sound's midrange an EQ bump, and a raise at 6Khz, and it will be more like how film sound is recorded.Have the picture scored by a composer who knows what he's doing, and get the very best mix you can.If you actively listen to your track, you'll start hearing (it takes time to train your ears) all the junk you're recording.In a pinch, a closet full of coats works fine, or a tent made of carpet, hanging from the ceiling. Just put the mics away from your computer fan or open windows.Film sound expects post-production sweetening, which makes film audio sound so different from audio for video. Video sound can be sweetened, but Indies use it pretty much as it is recorded. Yuck!27 ContingentThe major difference between how film dialog sounds and video dialog sounds is the EQ and compression that is used to make it intelligible and "fatter." With practice, you will learn how to get that sound. There is no shortcut - you must practice!Many contractors add sub-items for Labor and Materials to their Items which is useful if you want to track those costs separately. This also makes it easier to report only the Labor portion of a subcontractor's invoice on their 1099.Always "expect the unexpected" when setting your levels. I've noticed actors always "perform" 6Db louder than they "rehearse," and musicians do too.05 MasonryFilm sound is recorded on analog machines (yes, they still exist), or on cool new 96Khz/24bit sampling recorders.Cut your dialogue, and then effects. Use your audio editing program to "normalize" your levels, and clean up the sound.One of those that comes to mind is "Apocalypse Now," which had virtually no usable sound when they entered post-production. Think about that - everything was ADR and Foley!So, the Sound Guy (whoever they can get for a few minutes - usually a well-meaning person with no experience) turns up the level too far, which just makes the sound distort horribly, or too low, which buries the good sound in the mud.How much is enough? Experience will teach you. Listen!Start listening! Take care!When we recorded in analog, there was a certain forgiving quality to the recording process. Overmodulation would "saturate" the tape, limiting levels before actually distorting.Papers or clothes rustling, same thing. There are persons who make their living making clothing rustling noises, and walking and all those noises. They're called "Walkers," or "Foley Artists."06 Floor Framing15 HVACAt this stage, unless he has a great deal of time and money, and is willing to start completely over and take the proper care, nothing can be done.Use compression sparingly, so it doesn't make overall changes you don't want. Rather than compressing everything, use your audio editing software to draw in your gain changes.He chops the sound when he chops the picture, and that's it. He doesn't split it into tracks, or replace bad sound, or finesse the tracks, or otherwise spend time exerting care and craft on his precious film's soundtrack.In my experience, looping or ADR are not all that expensive, when you have a vocal room in your house, and some good mics.Just hanging a mic on a boom stand is better than nothing, but not very much better. Care must be taken at every stage.25 CleanupIn film sound, the sound designer matches sound to the look of the film. A sad movie has mood lighting, and the sound will be designed to match it in emotional tone. Its dialogue is EQ'd less crisply, with a lower-frequency boost.Maybe a better question is, "Why does video sound so bad?"If the sound gets too loud, L will distort, but I'll still have a chance to salvage that section of R, when I'm editing.See what needs to be fixed, and fix it. Some stuff can, like Boom mic crashes, and ambient noise, but if something is bad and can't be fixed, replace it with ADR, looping, and foley.Get some decent mics, not the cheapies. A Sennheiser ME66, or an Audio-Technika 835b, is mid-level, not terribly expensive, and really works well. Those will give you a rich and full sound.He's disappointed, but he still wants to maybe fix it. Somebody says "sweetening" the sound will help. So he comes to me.What can be done about it? How can you make your movie sound like a real movie?I know much of what I know about film sound from a long-ago interview with Walter Murch, in an issue of "Filmmakers Newsletter," where he advised to replace all the lines, rather than just one, so they'll all match. Die-hard attitude, but his tracks are lovely.Use your imagination, to determine what process might make your sound "sound right." Create a sound space for each scene that serves the story. Use EQ and reverb and sound effects to create that space.Film sound is recorded with a midrange bump, and an EQ raise above 6KHz.Until they've lost a film festival, and notice the winner has good sound. Or they see the one Indy film that comes along in a blue moon, the one with good sound.16 Electrical & LightingNow everything's digital, and if you're recording digitally (to DAT, CD, Mini-disc, or Flash Memory), there is very little "headroom," and much less tolerance for clipping, than in analog.This is actually a manual type of compression, with intelligence, (yours). Drawing in your level changes makes the track fatter and more intelligible.Film sound is "sweetened" by manipulating room tone, premixing audio levels, and carefully considering dialog, music, and effects for their proper audio EQ.After you determine which job costs you want to track, you're ready to add your Items. Go to Lists - Item List, right-click on Item and select New. Job costs should always be setup as Service Items which, fortunately, it defaults to. If you are a contractor with short-term jobs make sure to set up all your Service Items as two-sided, with both an expense and an income account. This doesn't occur automatically and unfortunately it isn't very intuitive. You need to put a check next to "This service is used in assemblies or is performed by a subcontractor or partner" for the expense box to be added to the setup screen. Contractors often use a cost of goods sold account called something like "job related costs" for job-related expenses.Film sound mics have a cleaner sound, and flatter response, sounding better than the mics used to record video sound. They are highly directional (rejecting extraneous noise).Essentially, when he's done shooting and cutting and laying music, he thinks he is done, without spending the minimum of time and care and money it takes, to have a good sound track.Once your Items are setup, you need to start using them. Many of the job costing reports, such as Estimates vs. Actuals, require the use of Items on all your transactions including bills, checks, and credit card charges. Again, this is not very intuitive especially since all these transactions types default to an Expense tab, but look carefully and you'll see an Item tab just to the right of the Expense tab. In order to get the most out of QuickBooks for Contractors, you must always use this tab. Forget that the Expense tab even exists. It's also important to assign all your transactions to a Customer/Job, of course.19 Ceilings & CoverThat's why you need a Sound Mixer with sound as his only job, one who cares, with enough faith in his ears, and experience at setting the gain and EQ, and also a trained and experienced Boom Operator, with necessary skills to point and move the boom.You will learn what distortion sounds like, and you will learn to set the gain properly, and boost the midrange or add compression in recording or mixing, when it's necessary, to push the important signal up out of the mud, and into your audience awareness.35mm mag film to edit? Sounds great. It should � it�s a 1/4" magnetic track at 18ips, and if you fill empty spaces with slug stock, it's self-gating.Compression is still a useful tool, even in these days of digital audio. It makes the "louds" quieter, and the "quiets" louder, raising the overall perceived level. That makes the track easier to mix, because it is "pre-mixed." The mix flies itself.01.1 PlansAll quite delightful results, if you record a track just to use as a guide track.Bad sound is the product of negligence. If you spend the time and care, from the beginning, there is no reason for your film or video sound to be bad.11 SidingInsist they yell "Cut!" if it distorts, and tell you when they need another take.If your meter goes "into the red," the sound becomes a chattery digital nightmare. It is ruined forever. So make sure you use "-6Db" for your "0Db," to keep it clean.They've used a cheap mic, plugged into the camera, or worse, have used the on-camera mic.Pendant lights hang from a ceiling and give off direct or diffuse light. They can be task lights such as when they hang over a cooking space in the kitchen, or simply decorative when they illuminate all or part of a room. The chandelier is a famous example of a pendant light.22 SpecialtyFoley is extremely subjective, that is, it's not realistic. You don't notice footsteps at all in real life, but in the movies, if you need to know somebody's purposefully walking along, the footsteps are loud and pure and pristine. Tik, tik, tik.Also known as downlighters, downlights cast light downward. They work well as task lights by offering concentrated light for such tasks as reading and sewing, and also work well as accent lights to enhance objects. Downlights can be recessed or surface mounted and be fixed or moveable.I think that's a fair question, because frankly, most video sound, (all elements music-dialog-effects), sucks. I've heard exceptions, so I know it's not just the video itself.The next type of lights we'll look at is the freestanding light. Table lamps are perfect for lighting a limited area with the warm, cozy glow that comes from their shades. They can also function as focal points around the room. Special types of table lamps function as reading lights.How is film sound different from video? Making a movie sound like a movie starts with the production sound.Some, from the sound of it, have pointed the mic directly at the whirring camera, or rumbling electric generator, or humming air conditioner, or buzzing fluorescent lamp. They've bumped the mic against the wall, or the ceiling, or trees or bushes.What can you do to make your movie track sound less like a video, and more like a real movie?6KHz is the high end of the human voice. �Midrange� is around 2.5KHz. The film sound "EQ raise" at 6KHz increases dialogue intelligibility and perceived crispness.02 Site Work

Start listening! Take care!

Author: Sam Longoria