He's making a list, he's checking it twice!

NathanH

NathanH

Hey Indie lovers,

I am finally shooting my first proper short film in four weeks, this will be the first time i have filmed a serious narrative script with a substantial production crew. I have been working on post-production for the past 6 months.

You may remember my thread about making a fallout shelter, same film...

Anyway i am asking for your help in putting together a checklist, i want to have written down everything that i could possible need and the common things that could go wrong. I'm filming in a genuine neglected underground military bunker, so sound is going to be a bitch!

Okay so far:

Camera - spare batteries, spare memory cards, lens cleaner
Lenses
Tripod
Dolly track
Budget steadicam
Car mount
Lighting kit + diffusion/gels +reflector
Smoke machine (hells yeah!)
Audio recorder + boom pole + mic + headphones + batteries for mic
Soundman
Food and drink for actors
Script
Props

Can you think of any others? Is there anything i need to keep in mind, to stop things going wrong?

Also, how the hell am i going to get a good audio track in a concrete bunker buried in the ground? Is it worth re-recording audio in a controlled environment, post filming?

Thanks in advance for any replies, this could be difference between my film going tits up or not!
 
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NathanH said:
Also, how the hell am i going to get a good audio track in a concrete bunker buried in the ground? Is it worth re-recording audio in a controlled environment, post filming?
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According to your list you have someone to do the sound; that's good. Is s/he supplying the audio gear?

Acoustically live locations are a tough gig.

Solution One; get the mic in close. This sounds obvious, but you have to work hard to do that. It's the responsibility of the boom-op, but please listen to what s/he has to say when you're told that the sound sucks; if changing a set-up will significantly improve the sound quality take the time to do so.

Solution Two; use lavs. Using lavs is an extension of "get the mic in close" as the mic is attached to the talent. Again, you should expend the money and effort to do it right. What are you spending money on? "Hiders", sleeves, moleskins, clips, covers, etc. The time is concealing the lavs and the transmitter effectively. In fact, this should be done during preproduction in conjunction with wardrobe. You need to work especially hard to avoid clothing rustle.

Solution Three; plant mics. Plant mics are mics that are hidden on the set, usually lavs and "low profile" (small) mics. For example, the mic can be hidden in a flower arrangement, or, if the talent is naked in bed, in a pillow.

Using the three above solutions requires a multitrack audio recorder, one for the boomed mic, one for each wireless lav and one for each plant mic. I have the impression you will only have two people, so four tracks should be enough.

Solution Four A; sound treatment. This means bringing copious amounts of sound absorbing materials. Sound blankets, of course, are your best bet, but heavy quilts, moving pads, blankets, pillows, carpeting and anything similar you can get your hands on will be a help. Hang as much as you can everywhere you can that is out of the shot; this means bringing lots of extra C-stands. If you have the budget you can get sheets of Celotex. Celotex is actually a brand name of insulation, but they make a cork-like insulation that works wonderfully for sound deadening/insulation (I used it in my studio). It's not terribly expensive, about $30 for a, 8' x 4' sheet.

Solution Four B; stay away from flat surfaces. By this I mean don't shoot directly at a flat wall which will reduce direct bounce back. When you hang up the sound blankets and prop the Celotex make lots of angles to diffuse the sound reflections as much as possible.

A bonus... Keep all unessential personnel off of the set while shooting; in an acoustically reflective space like that every extraneous noise is overly emphasized, will bounce around the room and find its way into the mic. As a rule of thumb the chance for unwanted noises on the production sound tracks is the square of the number of people on the set. So if you have three people on the set (Director, DP, boom-op) you have nine chances for unwanted noises; if there's ten people on the set there's 100 chances for unwanted noise.

Do dialog wilds immediately after shooting a scene. The actors are still in character and in rhythm, so you should get some decent performances. Just get the mic in close - four inches or so - and have them run through the dialog a few times. Oh, don't forget the room-tones and sound FX & Foley wilds.


ADR is a tough gig even for experienced actors, and the performances are almost never as intense. If you do have to do ADR try to assemble your first rough cut quickly; the less time between wrapping the shoot and doing the ADR the better, the talent is still fairly close to the shoot so still has a grasp on the character.
 
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Thankyou AA, it's great to get a professional insight.

After your advice i think i'm going to go with Lavs and a boom, i'm hiring the sound equipment from my university so budget isn't a problem and they have a selection of 'okay' mics. I know they have clip on mics available as well as those flat round ones that sit on the floor, these would be fairly easy to conceal. I'm not sure if they have a multitrack recorder, i know they have the Zoom H4 available which has two XLR inputs, i've had fairly good results with this before, do you think it's up to standard?
 
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I'm not a fan of the H4n, but you use what is available to you. My recommendation is to change the batteries every 90 minutes; they're notorious for eating batteries. As retro as it might be if they have a DAT I would use that. In fact, use both. Use one for the lavs, the other for the boomed and plant mics. Grab every tool available to you, you want copious choices. A hypercardioid mic is your best bet, or a supercardioid or cardioid. At all costs avoid shotguns in reflectively ambient locations; they really exacerbate the problem. If you have the opportunity you should do some experimenting at the location prior to the shoot.

MAKE SURE THAT THE AUDIO IS CONTINUOUSLY MONITORED WHILE YOU ARE SHOOTING!!! You want to catch problems as they occur and not have an "OH SH1T! Everything is completely FUBAR!" moment when you're syncing the audio.

BW, you may want to check out my blog. (Which reminds me that I ought to update it...)

http://www.myspace.com/alcoveaudio/blog
 
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Thanks for the response again Alcove!

I have a friend who composes and produces a lot of electronic and live music, so i'm relying on his and my own ears to spot any signal loss or unwanted noises. As a musician it's something i'm quite aware of and really don't want any problems with. I'll see what other equipment my uni have available next week.

I will check out your blog, it's been a while since i've visited myspace!
 
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Okay audio is covered now, i have done an audio test and everything is clear with no background noise.

Could anyone give some insight into some problems i may run into as far as the camera side of things. Any 550D specific problems? Is my list okay, anything i missed?
 
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