• READ BEFORE POSTING!
    • If posting a video, please post HERE, unless it is a video as part of an advertisement and then post it in this section.
    • If replying to threads please remember this is the Promotion area and the person posting may not be open to feedback.

watch Stranger With A Gun": A Thriller Short

I only got about two minutes in, but Sky is right, the dialog is low.

I didn't get the spring-time sounding birds when they are wearing parkas and their breath is steaming. And what's with the extreme reverb on the dog barking in the opening?
 
As for the content stuff you mentioned, all I can say is they're probably rookie mistakes we'll try to fix next time. On the topic of sound, I'd love to get some tips from someone more experienced because recording dialog has always been one of our biggest challenges. Any suggestions on how to get better audio recording quality would be immensely helpful.
 
The production sound isn't too bad (I've heard MUCH worse), the little I heard of it, although I didn't listen on my "good" speakers. The issue we (Sky and I) are discussing is the overall balance between dialog, Foley, sound effects and music- the audio mix. I shouldn't have to keep adjusting the volume to turn down music or turn up dialog.

You also need to work on your sound editing. There are loud cheeps and chirps while the dialog is happening, and it doesn't sound like it's part of the dialog track; it sounds like you used a generic bird background sound effect without editing it so the bird chirps appear between the lines of dialog.

Audio post is as complex an art-form as composing & lighting a shot or doing seamless CGI effects. It is composed of many, many carefully selected, edited and processed layers of sound (Hollywood films can have over 1,000). There are no simple solutions. As APE and I have discussed along with the other audio pros here on IndieTalk the first thing you need to do is to learn how to listen. Most indie filmmakers hear their sound as they want to to be, not as it actually is. We all listen so automatically that we are never aware of it. In fact our sense of hearing is the ONLY sense that we cannot turn off. It's not as easy as you think. It's the only sense that is 100% active when we sleep, and, in fact, is the only sense that can have a major influence on unborn babies. So, you need to learn how to listen. Next, you need to learn the technical language of audio - tracks, channels, inserts/plug-ins, Audio Suite, various type of processing... the list goes on and on. And then you need to learn the artistic language of film sound. Certain conventions/clichés are expected, you almost always must use them.

There are number of books that, for me at least, are basic.

Dialog Editing - John Purcell
The Foley Grail - Vanessa Ament
The Sound Effects Bible - Ric Viers (also get his Location Sound Bible)
Practical Art of Motion Picture Sound - David Yewdall (technical/practical)
Sound Design - David Sonnenschein (artistic/philosophical)
Audio-Vision - Michel Chion (it's just good)

You should also deeply delve into FilmSound.Org, especially the Randy Thom and Walter Murch articles. The historical articles will also give you some much needed perspective. There are also quite a few good vids on YouTube.

http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=OexxFXUvit8&list=PLRQfdeu9nXWKU6oKGPd_LnUSRE_ppWTuW (not that instructive, but a nice introduction and entertaining)

http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=OONaPcZ4EAs (not realistic, but gives you an idea of what Foley is all about)

http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=AwBxNj_0B_Y&list=PL2A6TzvtLmBO9NXD1qoawDDsqZ-BtEcND (playlist of over 30 videos on sound-for-picture; some excellent, some good, some fair)

You can also check out posts by myself and APE (Audio PostExpert) right here on IndieTalk.


There's not much on mixing/rerecording, but, even with all of the standard processes and conventions, is probably the most esoteric and subjective audio art of all.


Another aspect that always seems to irritate many indie types is when we audio types tell you that you need GOOD speakers in a CONTROLLED audio monitoring environment, but we'll dive into that at another time.
 
"In fact our sense of hearing is the ONLY sense that we cannot turn off"

You can turn off your sense of taste and touch?
Share the wisdom, this will help me if I ever need to eat soggy vegetables or trapped in a fire and burned alive
 
We don't taste or smell when we are asleep, and touch is drastically minimized. Our hearing is our "early warning system" when we sleep to alert us to danger, so is still almost completely active while we slumber.
 
Ah okay, sleep. Well I will throw this out there - when you sleep you still see.

I own a LDID (lucid dream induction device), it detects rapid eye movie and flashes red lights into your eyes to alert you to the fact that you're in a dream.
 
But you are not seeing the real world, you're seeing mental images. Your ears always hear the real world.

You see red flashes.. there are red flashes in the real world. Looks and seems exactly the same to me.
You see all these red flashes and think to yourself where are these coming from? These aren't part of my dream. Then you realize.. you have a device on your head and it's flashing the lights into your eyes. that's where they're coming from. and then your dream becomes lucid
 
You see red flashes.. there are red flashes in the real world. Looks and seems exactly the same to me.

You're joking right? Are you really saying that you can't tell the difference between seeing the world around you (with some red flashes present) and being aware of red flashes when you have your eyes closed?

When you sleep your eyes are closed and the visual cortex either almost shuts down or switches over to processing dream images. Doing something drastic, like shining a bright light on someone, will kickstart the visual cortex and probably wake them up. However, when you sleep you don't close your ears and the brain does not stop processing the sound the ears are hearing. You might be more aware of the sounds in your dream world rather than of the sounds of the real world but when you sleep your ears and brain are operating/processing sound normally (the same as when you're awake). As Alcove stated, hearing is the only sense which isn't shut down, re-purposed or dramatically reduced when sleeping.

G
 
You're joking right? Are you really saying that you can't tell the difference between seeing the world around you (with some red flashes present) and being aware of red flashes when you have your eyes closed?

When you sleep your eyes are closed and the visual cortex either almost shuts down or switches over to processing dream images. Doing something drastic, like shining a bright light on someone, will kickstart the visual cortex and probably wake them up. However, when you sleep you don't close your ears and the brain does not stop processing the sound the ears are hearing. You might be more aware of the sounds in your dream world rather than of the sounds of the real world but when you sleep your ears and brain are operating/processing sound normally (the same as when you're awake). As Alcove stated, hearing is the only sense which isn't shut down, re-purposed or dramatically reduced when sleeping.

G

Not joking but maybe I'm not explaining myself correctly.
I'm just saying your sense of sight isn't shut down, because if you flash red lights into someones eyes while they're asleep they will see those red flashes in their dream. Ego sight is not shut down. You could claim is dramatically reduced and I wouldn't disagree - after all, I sleep with my eyelids closed. Also if you were to pinch someone hard i'm sure they would feel that and wake up too.. so touch isn't shut down either.

Maybe we disagree on the semantics of 'shut down' ?
IDK, I'm not trying to be pedantic but I feel like we're entering that territory
 
Last edited:
Back
Top