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watch GLASS ASYLUM - high school student film

Awaiting film school decisions. Applied to USC Film Production and Creative Writing, NYU Tisch, UCLA TFT. Curious to hear what they decide. Anyways, here's my latest effort for our first ever high school festival that our class is organizing.

https://youtu.be/Zgm4f_FHzow
 
My main criticism is sound... people are willing to forgive visual issues but bad sound is a no no. Obviously, this is your first film so well done on that but the first thing you want to look at in the future is recording dialogue better and getting it cleaned in post.

Makes the world of a difference.

Congrats on the movie!
 
My main criticism is sound... people are willing to forgive visual issues but bad sound is a no no. Obviously, this is your first film so well done on that but the first thing you want to look at in the future is recording dialogue better and getting it cleaned in post.

Makes the world of a difference.

Congrats on the movie!

Yeah, I think there was a loose cord from the mic to the zoom, creating a static fuzz that drowned out the dialogue when I bumped up the DBs. Not sure how I could've cleanly fixed it in post, it was just a screw up during production. I agree the audio isn't good, but I don't think it harms this film too much, since the dialogue is still audible and the acting is solid, plus the film hardly relies on dialogue.

thanks for the feedback
 
Yeah, I think there was a loose cord from the mic to the zoom, creating a static fuzz that drowned out the dialogue when I bumped up the DBs. Not sure how I could've cleanly fixed it in post, it was just a screw up during production.

Not much “fix it in post” on that one. The takeaway lesson on that is: who was monitoring production sound? Anyone? Always listen, or have someone dedicated to sound who monitors the recording. Your best bet is to hear issues when they arise and fix them on the spot. Waiting until post to see what you got is waiting too late to do anything about it.

I agree the audio isn't good, but I don't think it harms this film too much, since the dialogue is still audible and the acting is solid, plus the film hardly relies on dialogue.

Honestly, I stopped watching about halfway through. Strictly because the sound was so bad. It’s just too cavernous. The acting was not bad at all, but even the sparse dialog is important to telling the story.

There’s also a big difference between audible and intelligible. There were lines that were simply hard to discern. And if this were to be screened in a live room, it would be even harder to hear.
 
Where was the mic located?

Mic was always close to the actor.

I think another problem was that we shot this in a very echoey, white room. I don't have too much sound experience. I thought the best move would be to turn down the recording sensitivity to pick up less echo. I figured the male lead would be delivering his lines softly anyway. Combination of bumping that up with a loose cord, caused the problem.

It's disappointing. I think if the film had better audio, it would be beautiful. It hurts. But now I just gotta work harder and move on.
 
Mic was always close to the actor.

That doesn’t mean much. Proximity matters, but angle is just as important. And in a room that reflective, the type of mic used is pretty important. Was it a shotgun? Terrible choice for a room that is all hard surfaces. A hypercardioid would have been better, or lavs planted on the actors.

I think another problem was that we shot this in a very echoey, white room. I don't have too much sound experience. I thought the best move would be to turn down the recording sensitivity to pick up less echo. I figured the male lead would be delivering his lines softly anyway. Combination of bumping that up with a loose cord, caused the problem.

Turning it down to “record less echo” means you’re recording less of everything... including the stuff you want. Soft dialog needs to have a close mic, a tight pattern, and detailed attention to pickup axis. Low record levels are hell in post even if you don’t have a loose cable causing problems.

You can mitigate reflections in a room like that by hanging sound blankets over C-stands off-camera. Hang them away from the walls to create a buffer space that will help deaden the refflections. It adds some time as you have to move the blankets every time you move the camera, but it’ll tame the room and make sound recording easier.

And again, if you’re not wearing headphones and listening as you record, you have no idea what you are or aren’t recording.

I think this short can still be saved. It’ll take ADR and some pretty intense sound design including Foley and sound effects editing. Those can be challenging, but they can be fun as well. Everything else above is “lesson learned” to help you on your next projects.
 
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