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  1. Post Production Begins with ADR

    April 20, 2013 by Andrew Kettle

    Today we began post production on ‘April’. We decided the best way to begin was to get the actors back in to re record the dialogue parts which could not be obtained on location. This consisted of re-recording the dialogue from the opening bar scene and the ending café scene. ADR for both April and Issac were needed as well as the audio from the bar man in the opening bar scene. Overall it ADR went really well. Considering neither of our actors had recorded ADR before, they were very accurate with their pronunciation of words in comparison to the visuals. We used a Rode NTG2 and an AKG 414 to record the ADR. The reason for both mics was to see which mic made the voice suit the film better. This was in terms of how re recorded the dialogue sounded. From reading the previous posted research prior to beginning the ADR recording, it helped my understand what to do and not to do in the ADR recording process.

    The Picture posted below is our main male actor James Hallam (Issac) recording his ADR.

    James Recording ADR


  2. Post Production Preparations

    April 13, 2013 by Andrew Kettle

    I have now arranged all the sound into there corresponding folders and transferred them to my PC. The sounds have been backed up 3 times on different devices to prevent losing any audio. These audio files have been given to Amy, who is our editor. She will arrange the syncing of the dialogue to the picture before it is passed back to us for sound design and mixing. Once I have received the dialogue edit, i will go through each dialogue take and replace them with the best quality audio file that was recorded on location. Whilst on location recording i made a note of each sound file and its corresponding shot number. This meant that when it came to the post production stage it would be easy to locate the correct sounds for each scene and filter out the good takes from the bad. I have added some examples of audio from our location shoot below as an example to what quality of sound we are working with. Overall, the quality of the audio is very high with good clarity.

    Link to the Sound Log Sheets (The Scenes with no audio reference in them had no on shoot dialogue)

    April Audio Test (Boom over April)

    Issac Audio Test (Boom over Issac)


  3. Post Production Research

    April 6, 2013 by Andrew Kettle

    Now all the location shoots are complete, i am beginning post production for ‘April’. I have collected research together which will help me in the post production stages of recording. This includes, research of foley recording, ADR, music and atmosphere for film productions. An important area i am researching, is how to sustain the emotion in the music for the audience on film productions. Due to ‘April’ being a romance film, emotion plays a big part to interact with the audience and explain the narrative of the film. Throughout the film their are certain scenes with voice overs. These voice overs are used to help explain the films narrative and explain the thoughts of Issac during the film. I have discussed with the film director on the idea behind the sound design for the voice overs. After chatting with the director, the agreement was made that whilst these voice overs are being played, soft, emotional music is needed outline the emotion to the audience. An example of this is the closing scene in Two Days in Paris. 

     

    http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=DD9XP0Ane8U – In this clip, the two actors are talking which leads into a voice over. These voice overs are similar to those of which are in April. The idea which is used is to emphasize the videos being watched. The voice over means the audience can interact with the character speaking with first hand thoughts of the characters thoughts. This is a reference point which I will use to test music over the voice overs in ‘April’.

    Music adds to the emotional quality of the film. There is some empirical evidence to support this: fast and loud music arouses, slow and soft music calms. Motion and emotion are often entwined (Meyer, 1956).

    http://www.e-filmmusic.de/emotion_film_scores/background.html – This blog has some interesting and important information in choosing film music and how sustain emotion when producing film music.

    Due to some of our scenes having lively atmospheres, the level of quality in which the audio was recorded was limited. This means in the post production stages of April, ADR will be needed to either patch up scenes, or redo the complete dialogue for an actor in a scene.

    http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=f2HKN1N2SZQ – This tutorial was helpful in understanding the complete process for ADR recording, what can go wrong and where is should be correctly used. The actors used in our film have never been part of an ADR recording before. This means more time will have to be allocated to record the ADR to make sure the correct dialogue is recorded exactly the same as filmed in the picture.

    I am confident with producing foley for ‘April’. I have had more experience producing foley than any other of the sound for film production process. http://www.musicofsound.co.nz/blog/the-role-of-sound-effects-in-film – On this webpage there is some interesting information into the importance of SFX and foley on films. This will help me in understanding what will be best for the film, ‘April’. To further my research into foley recording i will be reading a chapter from (Practical Art of Motion Picture Sound – David Yewdall – 2012). This chapter is Ch.17 – Foley: The Art of Footsteps, Props, and Cloth Movement.


  4. Cafe Nero Shoot Finished

    April 3, 2013 by Andrew Kettle

    The final shoot with dialogue has finished! Today we filmed at Cafe Nero in Lincoln. This shoot consisted of filming our two main actors chatting over coffee. Immediately after arriving we knew it was going to be a difficult shoot due to the location. The position in where we recording in the Cafe was very inconvenient for us. There was a speaker which was playing music that was located directly above where we were shooting. Due to it being a cafe we could not have it turned off as it was open for the public. There was people talking, cups rattling and the coffee machines obviously being used constantly. Another problem we had was we were told to position ourselves at the back of the cafe. This conflicted with the entrance to the bathrooms, which were always being used. This means that most of the dialogue we collected was unclear and had horrible background noise behind it. This means we will have to ADR some of the dialogue in the studio to make sure there is a consistency with the dialogue throughout the film. Getting the room tones were simple as there was a lot going on in the cafe to obtain a realistic sound. This shoot could of been much better but due to the location, a lot could not be helped without interrupting with the business working day.

     

     


  5. Shoot at Home (Bar) Lincoln

    March 28, 2013 by Andrew Kettle

    Today we had our shoot at Home nightclub in Lincoln. We used the same equipment as our other shoots, this being : SQN 5 Channel Mixer, Marantz Recorder, Rode NTG-2, Boom pole, XLR Cables and lots of batteries. This scene consisted of filming our two lead actors (Issac & April) along with using approximately 10 people as extras in the bar. These extras were several students from the University whose role was to sit in pairs at the tables in the bar with drinks, talking between themselves. We also had to obtain an extra actor to play the bar man behind the bar. For this we used an actor who we located through the University. Due to where the scene was being filmed (at the bar). It was hard to position the boom because there was a large mirror behind the bar which reflected the boom pole because of it being held so high. To rectify this we had to position ourselves behind the bar with the microphone angled up towards the actors. This was so we stayed well out of shot. This was the problem we encountered on our shoot. The second problem we came across was when we listened back to the first few takes that we recorded on the Marantz. The setting for mic/line level was incorrect which caused the recordings to be very distorted with a very high level. Due to us using the SQN we had to make sure the Marantz was on line level in order for the level to be correct. To rectify this we simply just switched the level from mic to line. Because Home nightclub is also used in the day for restaurant purposes as well as bar for the public we encountered a problem with background music and noises from the staff walking around outside the room we were in. Due to Home being a business it was rude for us to ask for the music to be turned off. After speaking to the manager, he turned the music off in the room we were using. The problem we had was the music from the other rooms was being picked up quite heavily through the microphone. This was hard to work around as we could do nothing about the matter. We just had to time our shoots around the music being played. Other problems that occurred were minor problems relating to the shadows that the boom poles were creating on the floor and walls. This was simply rectified by moving the position that we were standing. I think this shoot would of gone better by incorporating a little more planning and preparation prior to beginning the shoot. This would of prevented the loss of audio and incorrect sound recordings. The next shoot is on Wednesday 3rd April at Cafe Nero. This will be the final shoot which has dialogue. Then the post production begins!

     

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