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I've been lucky to be starting audio post on my first feature (very low budget), which is just over 80mins. It is a drama between three main characters, but there's a few more. I'm already over a month into it and I've already been delayed significantly by ADR editing, although that is part of the process. Just looking for some perspective on how much time to give a project, when the Director/Producer's one "sound designer" (me) is likened to a whole audio-post department. Tell me if this is not unusual? Firstly I know there are many variables that will be affecting the size of sound post teams. Budget and work load are the main ones. In this case, it is just me working on it. I've got <5yrs experience, but I'm supposed to be paid what I would demand for about 27 hours of work. But I'm thinking the finish line is a bit more than few months away haha. No sign of contract yet. They did not have an experienced, or specially "dedicated" sound recordist, so Sound Editing is probably going to take more time than the actual creative sound design itself, although I think Editing is very time consuming regardless. I've tried to break down the time estimate to the Director since he's already asking me when I should have it finished. So I've just informed them that Editing, Sound Design, Mixing are the main blocks. If I could split that further into a time estimate as a ratio, it would probably be 5 : 3 : 2 Any thoughts/advice much appreciated. How much time should I really dedicate to something like this or what is expected? In between other (part-time) work and projects I'm thinking I'll be lucky to get this done in under a few months. Is there anything typical or any examples that I could use as a guide? That's another thing too, in the meantime how does one decide on taking on other projects? It is low budget but what of priorities?

I'm directing my first feature in late Dec/early Jan, and still looking for the right person to handle sound. The ideal candidate should be Brooklyn/NYC-based and have his/her own gear. Though we're shooting on a relatively minimal budget, I've set aside a decent amount of money for sound. Send a list of your past projects w/links and an equipment list if you want to be considered for this project: derick@fstopimages.com Thanks, Derick