Heart-Breaking Off Camera DX

[atheisticmystic]

I need to vent a tad...

I worked on a pilot pitch last December, and yesterday, the director sent me a link to the final product.

As I watched the 30-minute episode, I despaired at how awful it sounded: every single off-camera line was off-mic; not one line taken during the close-up coverage was edited in. There was also electrical hum from ballasts and lights that I couldn't get turned off during the shoot, and added backgrounds were often drowning out lines. The edit sounded like an indie picture lock or short does BEFORE the sound edit.

I kept thinking what a shame it was that the director, who spent 50k of his own money, and who has one small feature with a couple of A-listers, couldn't find the money to get the pilot edited and mixed. Then I read the credit "Sound Edit and Mix" by a very small local company in the end credits.

I'm genuinely confused as to what that credited individual did, and it makes me cringe to think that my part of the work is getting presented in such an awful way...ouch.

Thanks,

Steven

[Eric Toline]

See who you have to sleep with to get your name OFF the credits.

Eric

[Toy Robot]

See who you have to sleep with to get your name OFF the credits.

Eric

Hahahaha!

[MatthewFreedAudio]

See who you have to sleep with to get your name OFF the credits.

Eric

+1

It is a shame to see the final product turn out so badly.

[chrisnewton]

I feel your pain. The other common bummer is when your show airs and the broadcaster has compressed/limited/hacked/slashed the shit out of it. All that time spent in trying to keep perspective and leave some "air" in the sound is all down the toilet. Damned if i'm going to give up though. Full speed ahead.

[Marc Wielage]

I hate crap like this, Stephen. You just know if they had spent the money (often less than they feared) on a pro post sound editor, much of this could have been fixed. Between the close-up shots, isos, a little noise reduction, careful gain riding... they can often take marginal stuff and make it acceptable, depending on the location issues. Hum in particular can generally be knocked out by half, especially if it's consistent and not pulsating or something.

If they're still in pitch mode, maybe there's a way to tactfully suggest your concerns. I generally try to do this by proposing a solution, like saying, "hey, thought the edit looked really interesting, but I think the sound could be improved. I know a guy who could make you a deal..." or something along those lines.

On the other hand, if they're outta money, they're outta money. I've worked on (and seen) stuff where I've asked the editor, "hey, did you use the isos?" And they go "what isos? All they gave me was the mono mix!"

[Jan McL]

Yeah. Painful.

After a crew screening that showed the mix to be a hack job (levels all over the place from ear-splitting to too quiet to hear) I calmly approached one of the producers and sadly asked her if it would be possible to remove my name from the credits. To her credit, I think she arranged to have the film win best sound at some Indonesian film fest. That was her answer. LOL. Politics at its best.

[atheisticmystic]

Thanks for the commiseration ya'lls!

I think I'm going to attempt a "Wielage Approach" rather than the "Toline Maneuver".

I'll let you know how it goes.

...I think she arranged to have the film win best sound at some Indonesian film fest.

And just to be safe Jan, I think I'll get my passport re-newed (hope springs eternal)!!!

Best

[Michael Kennedy]

On the other hand, if they're outta money, they're outta money. I've worked on (and seen) stuff where I've asked the editor, "hey, did you use the isos?" And they go "what isos? All they gave me was the mono mix!"

I hate crap like this, Stephen. You just know if they had spent the money (often less than they feared) on a pro post sound editor, much of this could have been fixed. Between the close-up shots, isos, a little noise reduction, careful gain riding... they can often take marginal stuff and make it acceptable, depending on the location issues. Hum in particular can generally be knocked out by half, especially if it's consistent and not pulsating or something.

If they're still in pitch mode, maybe there's a way to tactfully suggest your concerns. I generally try to do this by proposing a solution, like saying, "hey, thought the edit looked really interesting, but I think the sound could be improved. I know a guy who could make you a deal..." or something along those lines.

On the other hand, if they're outta money, they're outta money. I've worked on (and seen) stuff where I've asked the editor, "hey, did you use the isos?" And they go "what isos? All they gave me was the mono mix!"

I hate crap like this, Stephen. You just know if they had spent the money (often less than they feared) on a pro post sound editor, much of this could have been fixed. Between the close-up shots, isos, a little noise reduction, careful gain riding... they can often take marginal stuff and make it acceptable, depending on the location issues. Hum in particular can generally be knocked out by half, especially if it's consistent and not pulsating or something.

If they're still in pitch mode, maybe there's a way to tactfully suggest your concerns. I generally try to do this by proposing a solution, like saying, "hey, thought the edit looked really interesting, but I think the sound could be improved. I know a guy who could make you a deal..." or something along those lines.

On the other hand, if they're outta money, they're outta money. I've worked on (and seen) stuff where I've asked the editor, "hey, did you use the isos?" And they go "what isos? All they gave me was the mono mix!"

Yikes! That same thing happened to me too. Got the same "what iso's?" answer when I asked the editor after watching the first episode of a show I did a while back. Turns out the Lacie Drive I was handing in to the young lad who was on his first gig as a production assistant was being re-formatted and used to store jpeg files for another show that the production company was doing! It was clearly marked as multi-track .wav audio files, but the dude apparently had no idea what that meant. Good news is that once the editor got the proper files, he did an awesome job on the show. Too bad about the first episode though...

[Michael Kennedy]

Ok, didn't mean to quote the same thing three times...technical difficulties on my end. Apologies...

[atheisticmystic]

According to the director, they hired someone to do a "rough temp mix" because they ran out of money, and they give a disclaimer to professionals watching it that it's "just a temp".

As Marc says, if you're outta money...still, seems that you might want to put BOTH of your best feet forward when pitching a pilot.

Best,

[Marc Wielage]

"Rough Temp Mix"! Ouch...

I know of a $3 million indie where they ran out of money when they hit post, and the temp mix became the final final mix. David Yewdall's excellent book The Practical Art of Motion Picture Sound has some similar stories, with movies big and small. I have an acquaintance that routinely does temp mixes, and he tells me he cringes when he finds out the film got shipped with his work, especially when he was doing an entire reel of dialog editing, sound effects cutting, and temp mixing in one day, maybe one week for the whole project. Realistically, I think even for a real cheap movie, this should take a week per reel.

But as I've said about color-correction on low-budget projects: "we can do it in a day, or a week, or months... the amount of work expands or contracts to use up your available budget." I once worked on a fairly successful 1980s film (I hate to name it) where the producer came in and told me to knock out the color-correction in one day. I told him that a week was more typical, but he insisted this was just a "temp viewing" copy. Six months later, HBO called us and said, "hey, this is the ugliest transfer we ever saw! This has gotta be redone!" Luckily for me, I had put a head slate and labels on the tape that clearly said TEMP COLOR--NOT FINAL on it. The client had to eat all the costs for redoing it from scratch, because HBO wouldn't pay the fee otherwise.