How much do you spend for your film's audio needs?
- Thread starter Dutbo
- Start date
There are no simple answers to your questions, it varies from film to film depending on genre, distribution platform/s and various other platforms. The amount spent on audio can vary from $0 to about $10m. On professionally made films the percentage/proportion of total budget can be anywhere from about 2.5% to about 10%.
There is no single person responsible for everything audio related. The audio for films is split into the production sound team and the post-production sound team. The production sound team usually has 2 - 6 people and the post production sound team anywhere from 4 or so up to about 70 (split into several sub-teams). The person in charge/responsible for the production sound team is the PSM (Production Sound Mixer) and the title of the person in charge/responsible of the post production sound team is the Supervising Sound Editor, although again this can vary from film to film. Sometimes the title of the person in charge is Supervising Sound Designer of even just Sound Designer. At a minimum (on a no budget film) there would just be a PSM and a Sound Designer.
G
There is no single person responsible for everything audio related. The audio for films is split into the production sound team and the post-production sound team. The production sound team usually has 2 - 6 people and the post production sound team anywhere from 4 or so up to about 70 (split into several sub-teams). The person in charge/responsible for the production sound team is the PSM (Production Sound Mixer) and the title of the person in charge/responsible of the post production sound team is the Supervising Sound Editor, although again this can vary from film to film. Sometimes the title of the person in charge is Supervising Sound Designer of even just Sound Designer. At a minimum (on a no budget film) there would just be a PSM and a Sound Designer.
G
I don't know what others spend but can tell you about mine.
My kit is: Fostex FR2-le, Promix 3 and an ECM 674. I have a backup mic or 2 and a backup Tascam DR100. Naturally, I have XLRs, a boom, softie, the little thingy that attaches the mic to the boom, couple of sets of cans with words like 'Sennheiser' on them etc... All the expensive items were used so were a fraction of the retail price.
My last short had music and I am not averse to paying for music. Mike McGuill is worth paying for and he is on this forum.
For my last short, I did the sound mix myself, albeit with some help from a foley professional. When a medium-level international film fest wanted to screen it at a London cinema (right before a film with a budget of $1m USD!!!!), I paid a pro to get everything into shape (known as TP) which cost $500 USD.
To answer your question, I set an initial budget for filming etc... based on the technical needs which was low although good music is worth paying for. Once it was all cut together I then noticed it was worth spending a little additional cash on. If the short had been potentially 'incredible,' I would have increased the budget. It was decent enough but just not 'fantastic' and I therefore saved the money for my next productions.
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I don't spend any money on film audio, because I don't make films. Like APE (Audio Post Expert) I'm one of the people you want to pay to work on the audio of your film; APE works on projects with real budgets, and my niche is low/no/mini/micro budget indie films.
Sound-for-picture is a complex topic. As I have posted innumerable times:
Your project will only look as good as it sounds, because
"Sound is half of the experience."
This is not a mere platitude. By far the most common technical reason a project fails is poor audio. So you must begin thinking about sound-for-picture during preproduction while you are working on your shooting script. The optimum choice for good production sound is to hire an experienced professional. Barring that you look for an up-and-comer who has a basic prosumer kit, a bit of experience and a lot of ambition. If you can't find that person you'll have to take care of it yourself, either renting or buying gear and "swinging" the boom yourself or having a PA/friend do the boom-op job.
Every dollar/minute you spend on production sound will save you ten minutes/dollars in audio post.
You may want to start with "The Location Sound Bible" by Ric Viers.
http://www.amazon.com/The-Location-Sound-Bible-Professional/dp/1615931201
So on to audio post. There are five elements to audio post - dialog editing, Foley, sound effects, music/score layback/editing and the mix. On large budget films there may be, as APE said, a very big audio post team; on low/no/mini/micro budget projects there are guys like me who do all the aspects of audio post plus the whole gamut of variations in between. As with the production sound the optimum choice is to hire a professional supervising sound editor/sound designer. Second best is an ambitious up-and-comer. The final choice is, of course, to do it all yourself. If you are going to DIY you could start with the following:
Dialog Editing - John Purcell
The Foley Grail - Vanessa Ament
The Sound Effects Bible - Ric Viers
Sound and Vision - Michael Chion
Sound Design - David Sonnenschein
Producing Great Sound for Film and Video - Jay Rose
Practical Art of Motion Picture Sound - David Lewis Yewdall
You may also want to spend a few days (or more) at filmsound.org; lots of basic definitions and sound-for-picture history as well as great articles by and about some phenomenal sound folks.
Audio post is a complex topic, and gearing up for production sound and audio post can be daunting, as well as (relatively) pricey, not to mention the skill sets that need to be acquired. Don't let this discourage you; you opened this particular (but very fascinating and rewarding) can of worms, which shows you care about the sound of your projects. GOOD FOR YOU!!!! All you have to remember is:
Your project will only look as good as it sounds, because
"Sound is half of the experience."
and you'll be fine.
Good Luck!!!!!!!
Sound-for-picture is a complex topic. As I have posted innumerable times:
Your project will only look as good as it sounds, because
"Sound is half of the experience."
This is not a mere platitude. By far the most common technical reason a project fails is poor audio. So you must begin thinking about sound-for-picture during preproduction while you are working on your shooting script. The optimum choice for good production sound is to hire an experienced professional. Barring that you look for an up-and-comer who has a basic prosumer kit, a bit of experience and a lot of ambition. If you can't find that person you'll have to take care of it yourself, either renting or buying gear and "swinging" the boom yourself or having a PA/friend do the boom-op job.
Every dollar/minute you spend on production sound will save you ten minutes/dollars in audio post.
You may want to start with "The Location Sound Bible" by Ric Viers.
http://www.amazon.com/The-Location-Sound-Bible-Professional/dp/1615931201
So on to audio post. There are five elements to audio post - dialog editing, Foley, sound effects, music/score layback/editing and the mix. On large budget films there may be, as APE said, a very big audio post team; on low/no/mini/micro budget projects there are guys like me who do all the aspects of audio post plus the whole gamut of variations in between. As with the production sound the optimum choice is to hire a professional supervising sound editor/sound designer. Second best is an ambitious up-and-comer. The final choice is, of course, to do it all yourself. If you are going to DIY you could start with the following:
Dialog Editing - John Purcell
The Foley Grail - Vanessa Ament
The Sound Effects Bible - Ric Viers
Sound and Vision - Michael Chion
Sound Design - David Sonnenschein
Producing Great Sound for Film and Video - Jay Rose
Practical Art of Motion Picture Sound - David Lewis Yewdall
You may also want to spend a few days (or more) at filmsound.org; lots of basic definitions and sound-for-picture history as well as great articles by and about some phenomenal sound folks.
Audio post is a complex topic, and gearing up for production sound and audio post can be daunting, as well as (relatively) pricey, not to mention the skill sets that need to be acquired. Don't let this discourage you; you opened this particular (but very fascinating and rewarding) can of worms, which shows you care about the sound of your projects. GOOD FOR YOU!!!! All you have to remember is:
Your project will only look as good as it sounds, because
"Sound is half of the experience."
and you'll be fine.
Good Luck!!!!!!!
Hey, Really helpful posts!
@Alcove Audio The books and links you suggest sound perfect!
Very helpful post..
I totally agree with you - sound may be even more than half of the experience..
I think that you can watch a film with 'bad' image but not with bad sound..
I'm so grateful for your replies!
@Alcove Audio The books and links you suggest sound perfect!
Very helpful post..
I totally agree with you - sound may be even more than half of the experience..
I think that you can watch a film with 'bad' image but not with bad sound..
I'm so grateful for your replies!