To Harmonica44 and to IndieTalk,
I recently got a reprimand – and very rightly so – from the moderators of this wonderful forum. And this is a wonderful forum. Considering what happens on many other forums, the degree of politeness here is amazing even when we strongly disagree. The recent discussions in the silent film thread between MiniJames and APE are an example. Despite very strongly held opinions, they continued to debate with courtesy and intelligence. (It was also quite educational.)
So I want to offer a very sincere and heartfelt apology to our good friend, Harmonica44. I have been very, very hard on you, and I am very, very sorry.
And I am also not sorry. H44, old buddy, you took it like a man. You didn’t bitch, you didn’t gripe, you kept asking and asking and coming back for more. I admire you for that. You are very, very persistent, and you apparently work very hard. It told me a lot about you.
I am in some ways a teacher, and good teachers push, poke, prod, cajole, insult, make us uncomfortable, make us reassess, and, of course, encourage us. But I am very frustrated with you, H44; we’ve given you all the knowledge that you need, but somewhere along the line, my friend, when it comes to sound, you just don’t seem to get it; hence my frustration and my harsh words. So please take the following in the positive spirit in which it is intended.
It’s all about passion and talent. We here at IndieTalk can’t tell you WHAT to do, we can only tell you HOW to do it. The essence of most problems are very similar, as are the solutions. But you have to apply the knowledge that you have accumulated to new and unique situations.
Let’s take your recent campfire thread as an example. You don’t THINK like a soundie; sound does not seem to be instinctual with you.
You have knowledge.
You have a recording kit.
You have a script with a campfire scene.
Your first QUESTION was “how do I protect my equipment.”
As a natural born instinctive soundie your first REACTION should have been, “Oh crap! Campfires are effing NOISY!”
When you get to the script discussions with the director the first thing you should say when you get to the campfire scene is something like “Campfires are very noisy and fire noise, no matter how little there might be, is really tough to cut the together smoothly once you’re in audio post.” The discussion then becomes how to reduce – and at best, eliminate – a noise source using your knowledge/experience as a basis for your recommendations to the director. Resolving the noise issues goes a long way to resolving the equipment safety and personal safety issues.
When the director makes their decision – raging bonfire, small cook fire, CGI fire or any of a million variations thereof - you tell him/her the sound quality they can expect. You inform her/him of the safety issues. You offer other options like renting lavs and have a good ballpark figure. And you write it all down in your sound log to cover your ass. But it’s not your ultimate decision; that belongs to the director. You told him/her what the issues are and s/he made the compromises.
Once you get on set you finally get a chance to see and assess the actual situation for the first time. You have to use your knowledge and experience to react fast. When the director and DP start on framing, YOU are the one who is supposed to think, “Okay, all I’ve got I’ve got a shotgun and a hyper, how do I do this?
1. I’m going to be close to fire – SAFETY.
2. I’m going to be close to fire – NOISY.”
You do the best that you can under the given circumstances. There are many external forces beyond your control from preproduction through the shoot, and they can change very rapidly. YOUR job is to adapt to all of those external forces, capturing the best sound that you can within the scope of the situation and your skills & assets, and to let others know what’s going on sonically.
YOU should be the one who thinks of where and how you position yourself to get the mic in as close as possible. YOU are the one to see an opportunity for a plant mic. YOU should be the one who tells the director how good or bad the sound is right now given the framing limitations. YOU should be the one to say, “We’ve got a hum” or a buzz, or traffic, or a plane, or any of a thousand other things that you are supposed to hear and tell the director. YOU ask for the time to fix what you can, or YOU let him/her know there’s not much that can be done and s/he will have to live with it. YOU should be the one to tell the director “It’s roomy” or hollow or churchy or... Your job is to KNOW what to do given your own skills, the limitations of the budget, the schedule, your equipment, etc., etc., etc. YOU are the one to take all of the sonic initiatives.
However, the director is the one who makes all of the final decisions and you have no choice but to work within and around those decisions. You did your job - you told the director the sound would be good, fair, bad or horrible, you offered possible solutions to fair, bad or horrible, the director said no (or yes) and that’s that. If the director has made the decision that sound is not as important as the visuals in that shot, or s/he wants to split the difference between great sound and great picture, that is not your choice. Your job is to provide options. The director will take those suggestions or NOT take those suggestions. And it may indeed sound like crap, but that’s not your choice and there’s nothing you can do about it. And while we all want to do better, we all must to bow to the immediate circumstances.
But if you want to do sound you have to LISTEN. You have to know and understand instinctively and automatically what you are hearing. When you’re a soundie the second your headphones go on you should be going “Oh crap, we’ve got a 60 cycle hum!” Or whatever the noise may be. I get it, you’re just starting out, but the second your cans (headphones) go on and you start hearing through the mic you should be identifying whatever you are hearing. If you don’t know what it is, you track it down. See if there’s a way to fix it with what you have on hand. You have the knowledge, now adapt your available assets and do the best that you can. IT IS NOT GOING TO BE PERFECT. IT IS NEVER GOING TO BE PERFECT. But you’ve got to remember it for next time. Then on the next shoot it’s “Oh, last time I heard that it was a _____. What’s like that around here? How did I fix it (or not) last time?”
If you were a natural instinctive soundie your campfire thread should have been more along the lines of (in more polite terms and in more detail):
“My moron of a director wants a raging bonfire, wants to do only wide shots, and I can’t change his effing mind. There’s a really good chance it’ll be too hot for me to be between the fire and the five actors. I can probably boom one or two actors from one end or the other, and maybe I can get a plant mic in there somewhere, but I’ll never get them all. And they don’t have the budget to rent wireless lavs. Far from perfect, I know. Is there anything I haven’t thought of?”
Now, maybe you’re not an aural person and sound isn’t for you. That’s okay; I’m not a visuals guy. I’m not an “original” creative person either. I was a pretty damned good musician, but I can’t write original music or lyrics to save my life; the Lord knows I try – and fail miserably. But I can sure enhance the hell out of someone else’s work.
Harmonica, you have a lot of drive and ambition, but I think that sound may not be for you. I could be wrong; I don’t know. Only you can answer that question.
So, here we go… I think that you’ve spread yourself much too thin; sound, cinematography, acting, writing, and more. There’s too much data, too much process and not enough passion. You need to take a really good hard look deep inside yourself and find out what you are truly passionate about. Put all of your focus there. Live it. Love it. Let it become a part of you. Let it become that cruel demanding mistress that consumes your soul. It will be good for you.
You want to be in film. But WHY do you want to be in film? What, Harmonica44, not relying on the opinions of anyone else, from deep inside of you, is the most important aspect of filmmaking to you?
Maybe your passion isn’t even filmmaking. But find something that you are truly, deeply passionate about. Do nothing but that one single thing. From there it’s all about discipline and ambition, which you seem to have in spades. Find your true passion, no matter what it is. I think that you will go far, because, once you find out what your passion is, your perspective changes; you will INSTINCTIVELY know WHAT you want to do. Then all you need to do is find out HOW to do it. And, once you find where your true talent is, you will absorb the HOW to the point where the HOW becomes a part of your natural instinctive reactions.
Again, I hope that you take all of this in the positive way that it is intended.
And once again, I am sorry for my harsh words and anything else that may have offended you. But, as your teacher, I will continue to beat you up.
I admire you and wish you well.
Very sincerely,
Bob Kessler
Alcove Audio Productions
I recently got a reprimand – and very rightly so – from the moderators of this wonderful forum. And this is a wonderful forum. Considering what happens on many other forums, the degree of politeness here is amazing even when we strongly disagree. The recent discussions in the silent film thread between MiniJames and APE are an example. Despite very strongly held opinions, they continued to debate with courtesy and intelligence. (It was also quite educational.)
So I want to offer a very sincere and heartfelt apology to our good friend, Harmonica44. I have been very, very hard on you, and I am very, very sorry.
And I am also not sorry. H44, old buddy, you took it like a man. You didn’t bitch, you didn’t gripe, you kept asking and asking and coming back for more. I admire you for that. You are very, very persistent, and you apparently work very hard. It told me a lot about you.
I am in some ways a teacher, and good teachers push, poke, prod, cajole, insult, make us uncomfortable, make us reassess, and, of course, encourage us. But I am very frustrated with you, H44; we’ve given you all the knowledge that you need, but somewhere along the line, my friend, when it comes to sound, you just don’t seem to get it; hence my frustration and my harsh words. So please take the following in the positive spirit in which it is intended.
It’s all about passion and talent. We here at IndieTalk can’t tell you WHAT to do, we can only tell you HOW to do it. The essence of most problems are very similar, as are the solutions. But you have to apply the knowledge that you have accumulated to new and unique situations.
Let’s take your recent campfire thread as an example. You don’t THINK like a soundie; sound does not seem to be instinctual with you.
You have knowledge.
You have a recording kit.
You have a script with a campfire scene.
Your first QUESTION was “how do I protect my equipment.”
As a natural born instinctive soundie your first REACTION should have been, “Oh crap! Campfires are effing NOISY!”
When you get to the script discussions with the director the first thing you should say when you get to the campfire scene is something like “Campfires are very noisy and fire noise, no matter how little there might be, is really tough to cut the together smoothly once you’re in audio post.” The discussion then becomes how to reduce – and at best, eliminate – a noise source using your knowledge/experience as a basis for your recommendations to the director. Resolving the noise issues goes a long way to resolving the equipment safety and personal safety issues.
When the director makes their decision – raging bonfire, small cook fire, CGI fire or any of a million variations thereof - you tell him/her the sound quality they can expect. You inform her/him of the safety issues. You offer other options like renting lavs and have a good ballpark figure. And you write it all down in your sound log to cover your ass. But it’s not your ultimate decision; that belongs to the director. You told him/her what the issues are and s/he made the compromises.
Once you get on set you finally get a chance to see and assess the actual situation for the first time. You have to use your knowledge and experience to react fast. When the director and DP start on framing, YOU are the one who is supposed to think, “Okay, all I’ve got I’ve got a shotgun and a hyper, how do I do this?
1. I’m going to be close to fire – SAFETY.
2. I’m going to be close to fire – NOISY.”
You do the best that you can under the given circumstances. There are many external forces beyond your control from preproduction through the shoot, and they can change very rapidly. YOUR job is to adapt to all of those external forces, capturing the best sound that you can within the scope of the situation and your skills & assets, and to let others know what’s going on sonically.
YOU should be the one who thinks of where and how you position yourself to get the mic in as close as possible. YOU are the one to see an opportunity for a plant mic. YOU should be the one who tells the director how good or bad the sound is right now given the framing limitations. YOU should be the one to say, “We’ve got a hum” or a buzz, or traffic, or a plane, or any of a thousand other things that you are supposed to hear and tell the director. YOU ask for the time to fix what you can, or YOU let him/her know there’s not much that can be done and s/he will have to live with it. YOU should be the one to tell the director “It’s roomy” or hollow or churchy or... Your job is to KNOW what to do given your own skills, the limitations of the budget, the schedule, your equipment, etc., etc., etc. YOU are the one to take all of the sonic initiatives.
However, the director is the one who makes all of the final decisions and you have no choice but to work within and around those decisions. You did your job - you told the director the sound would be good, fair, bad or horrible, you offered possible solutions to fair, bad or horrible, the director said no (or yes) and that’s that. If the director has made the decision that sound is not as important as the visuals in that shot, or s/he wants to split the difference between great sound and great picture, that is not your choice. Your job is to provide options. The director will take those suggestions or NOT take those suggestions. And it may indeed sound like crap, but that’s not your choice and there’s nothing you can do about it. And while we all want to do better, we all must to bow to the immediate circumstances.
But if you want to do sound you have to LISTEN. You have to know and understand instinctively and automatically what you are hearing. When you’re a soundie the second your headphones go on you should be going “Oh crap, we’ve got a 60 cycle hum!” Or whatever the noise may be. I get it, you’re just starting out, but the second your cans (headphones) go on and you start hearing through the mic you should be identifying whatever you are hearing. If you don’t know what it is, you track it down. See if there’s a way to fix it with what you have on hand. You have the knowledge, now adapt your available assets and do the best that you can. IT IS NOT GOING TO BE PERFECT. IT IS NEVER GOING TO BE PERFECT. But you’ve got to remember it for next time. Then on the next shoot it’s “Oh, last time I heard that it was a _____. What’s like that around here? How did I fix it (or not) last time?”
If you were a natural instinctive soundie your campfire thread should have been more along the lines of (in more polite terms and in more detail):
“My moron of a director wants a raging bonfire, wants to do only wide shots, and I can’t change his effing mind. There’s a really good chance it’ll be too hot for me to be between the fire and the five actors. I can probably boom one or two actors from one end or the other, and maybe I can get a plant mic in there somewhere, but I’ll never get them all. And they don’t have the budget to rent wireless lavs. Far from perfect, I know. Is there anything I haven’t thought of?”
Now, maybe you’re not an aural person and sound isn’t for you. That’s okay; I’m not a visuals guy. I’m not an “original” creative person either. I was a pretty damned good musician, but I can’t write original music or lyrics to save my life; the Lord knows I try – and fail miserably. But I can sure enhance the hell out of someone else’s work.
Harmonica, you have a lot of drive and ambition, but I think that sound may not be for you. I could be wrong; I don’t know. Only you can answer that question.
So, here we go… I think that you’ve spread yourself much too thin; sound, cinematography, acting, writing, and more. There’s too much data, too much process and not enough passion. You need to take a really good hard look deep inside yourself and find out what you are truly passionate about. Put all of your focus there. Live it. Love it. Let it become a part of you. Let it become that cruel demanding mistress that consumes your soul. It will be good for you.
You want to be in film. But WHY do you want to be in film? What, Harmonica44, not relying on the opinions of anyone else, from deep inside of you, is the most important aspect of filmmaking to you?
Maybe your passion isn’t even filmmaking. But find something that you are truly, deeply passionate about. Do nothing but that one single thing. From there it’s all about discipline and ambition, which you seem to have in spades. Find your true passion, no matter what it is. I think that you will go far, because, once you find out what your passion is, your perspective changes; you will INSTINCTIVELY know WHAT you want to do. Then all you need to do is find out HOW to do it. And, once you find where your true talent is, you will absorb the HOW to the point where the HOW becomes a part of your natural instinctive reactions.
Again, I hope that you take all of this in the positive way that it is intended.
And once again, I am sorry for my harsh words and anything else that may have offended you. But, as your teacher, I will continue to beat you up.
I admire you and wish you well.
Very sincerely,
Bob Kessler
Alcove Audio Productions
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