Is there a way to record dialogue between actors in the forest without catching excessive surrounding noise, especially cicadas?
Recording dialogue in woods without cicadas?
- Thread starter nefilmgroup
- Start date
As sfoster says, they are extremely loud and there's no simple way of eliminating it. There are only therefore 3 options:
1. Film in a different forest/location (without cicadas!).
2. Film at a time of the year when the cicadas don't make noise.
3. Record the dialogue with the cicadas and then use ADR where necessary.
G
1. Film in a different forest/location (without cicadas!).
2. Film at a time of the year when the cicadas don't make noise.
3. Record the dialogue with the cicadas and then use ADR where necessary.
G
When I had to deal with crickets, I threw even more cricket noises on top of everything and that helped to smooth out the differences between various dialogue tracks.
Otherwise it was really obvious as the cricket background frequencies changed when one take was playing and cuts to another. fortunately they weren't overpowering.. depends on how many cicadas you have
Otherwise it was really obvious as the cricket background frequencies changed when one take was playing and cuts to another. fortunately they weren't overpowering.. depends on how many cicadas you have
2 matched directional mics, one in front of the actors aimed at them and one behind them aimed at the forest, sent to discreet tracks on your recorder - giving you one track with voices+cicadas and one with mostly just cicadas. Invert the phase of the cicada-only track and then adjust the mix of the two to minimize the cicada sounds. Note that this is a completely theoretical idea that I've never actually tried and probably won't actually work that well in practice, and is likely to result in weird flanging artifacts in your dialogue.
Only other thing I could think of would be to use something like Izotope RX's spectral repair to manually remove the individual cicada sounds - which might or might not work well and could be pretty tedious depending on how much dialogue you need to process. Might be worth testing though.
Only other thing I could think of would be to use something like Izotope RX's spectral repair to manually remove the individual cicada sounds - which might or might not work well and could be pretty tedious depending on how much dialogue you need to process. Might be worth testing though.
Sorry -Donned-, the inversion idea won't work; it's been tried before without much success. And there are limits to Spectral Repair.
Two "practical" solutions have beed mentioned - shoot someplace without cicadas or do ADR. Or you can shoot at a different time of year when annoying cicadas and crickets are quiescent.
Another less practical idea at the low/no/mini/micro budget level is to use high pressure hoses to saturate the surrounding bushes, grass, etc. with cold water (the colder the better) immediately before shooting. The more area you cover the further away you push the sound of the insects. Depending upon the ambient temperature, how cold the water spray and how throughly you saturate the area you'll get three (3) to seven (7) minutes of relative quiet.
Just for fun - You can determine the approximate temperature (Fahrenheit) by using Dolbear's Law:
T = 50+[(N-40)/4]
T = temperature
N = number of chirps per minute
If you know the species of cicada or cricket you can calculate within +1/-1 degree Fahrenheit.
This may be the most interesting response I've ever got to a question on a message board!
I gave you the "fun fact" but the real message is that the hotter it is the worse the crickets and cicadas are going to be. So a cooler night will be less noisy. That's why soaking the ground with cold water will suppress them somewhat for short periods of time.
And........
How can insects be such a huge issue in mid-April? I mean, c'mon, it hasn't even reached the 80's yet! I'm just barely seeing buds on the bushes and trees, and my ground cover is just starting to poke through. I won't have bug-noise issues until late June or mid-July depending upon how early it gets hot.
BTW, using lavs will yield decent results since they are usually so close to the mouths of the talent.
And........
How can insects be such a huge issue in mid-April? I mean, c'mon, it hasn't even reached the 80's yet! I'm just barely seeing buds on the bushes and trees, and my ground cover is just starting to poke through. I won't have bug-noise issues until late June or mid-July depending upon how early it gets hot.
BTW, using lavs will yield decent results since they are usually so close to the mouths of the talent.