Sound Design During Production?

[ChrisH]

Just read a comment from Stephen Deichen which spurred me to start this. Our job as production soundies is to capture the actors cleanly and get post a good track to work with. My interest is how much work we do for them for other stuff like on set foley, reactions, ambiences, perspectives etc.

Stephen mentioned that when people wearing lavs com together it is an interesting fall into a muffled sound that then opens back up when they come apart. If the clothing noise is not too bad this is an interesting effect. I also love having multiple perspectives to match each camera and really nice clean ambience tracks for post to use under the scene.

For example I love sticking an MKH-70 about 100 ft away from set and recording nice ambience. I guess the true Ideal would be a stereo shotgun doing this but it makes me cringe to burn two channels on ambience.

Also Lav placement if I have time and actors that deal with it, if you have a nice ambience and a wide shot it fits a wide shot better if the lav is farther away form their mouth. A matter of 3-6 inches in placement makes a really tight dry lav have a little life and ambience for a big wide shot.

Any other ideas you guys have for this sort of thing during the shoot?

[Philip Perkins]

That's all great and is usually well received by post if A: you are keeping up with your main responsibilities getting all the dialog and B: document what you are doing C: make the files accessible (not mixed up with dialog) and D: TELL the posties to look for this stuff, and where (like in person or on the phone). This may involve follow ups long after production is wrapped. Clean stereo ambiances of big shots, clean specific sfx made by props used on camera, clean footsteps on a location set, long area tones of exteriors when no one is around. I usually found that I had to wait around until everyone left for the day (or get there early ) to get a lot of this stuff. I found prop masters pretty helpful with this kind of thing.

phil p

[Robert Li]

I usually wait until the break times to do this kind of stuff. I know its extra work, and sometimes a pain, but, hey, if it helps the post process its well worth it. So usually I do it at morning/afternoon tea, lunch and before and after shoots, make sure I clearly mark them on my report so theres no missing them by either the editor or sound designer (they have to go through everything in ingestion anyway) and I name the files using common sense and ID them when I record. In regards to roomtone/ambience/atmos/watevs, I, personally (although others may disagree), think it is a really important foundation for the soundscape within a scene, so I make sure to get a nice long take in as close a situation as I can as the take (especially for exterior shots, no point getting night atmos for an afternoon or dusk scene, it sounds different), in stereo if possible.

Anyway, on another note, I talked to a sound designer last year who popped onto set of a short film I was working on just to have a peek, and we chatted away about all these extra sounds that I usually get. She told me that, to her, atmos was the most important thing and that she rarely used any foley or wild tracks that were given to her... Other sound designers have told me they have been really helpful... I think in regards to these things it all depends on who is doing post, I don't really do sound design, but I would have thought the more material you have to work with, the more flexibility you would have in post...

[myke2241]

Thanks guys. I work as a sound designer and that stuff is really helpful! All those senses where no DX is needed. a lot of time it is either not there (never recorded) Really thin sounding or totally distorted! i would love if field mixers would have a stereo pair (MS XY AB or whatever) ready to roll when DX is not needed. i know a lot of time it is difficult but it would help out a lot.

[bmfsnd]

Time permitting, I always look for SFX that would be difficult to find or recreate later.

I was on a shoot where the main character drives a DeLorean. After scheduling an unofficial pickup hour with the owner, I now have my own folder of DeLorean SFX

[Max Futterman]

Time permitting, I always look for SFX that would be difficult to find or recreate later.

I was on a shoot where the main character drives a DeLorean. After scheduling an unofficial pickup hour with the owner, I now have my own folder of DeLorean SFX

Did you record that serious shit when he cranked that baby up to 88?

[bmfsnd]

Did you record that serious shit when he cranked that baby up to 88?

I would have but I didn't want my dead cat to be a crispy one!

[atheisticmystic]

...In regards to roomtone/ambience/atmos/watevs, I, personally (although others may disagree), think it is a really important foundation for the soundscape within a scene, so I make sure to get a nice long take in as close a situation as I can as the take (especially for exterior shots, no point getting night atmos for an afternoon or dusk scene, it sounds different), in stereo if possible.

Roomtone is for cutting dialog, not providing ambience, so I'd be surprised if anyone would disagree with it's critical importance. I try to record roomtone with OCD-grade regularity immediately after finishing in every single recording space with the same (hyper, shotgun, lav) microphone I've recorded the dialog with, NOT a stereo pair.

... Any other ideas you guys have for this sort of thing during the shoot?

Hey Chris, when I know ahead of time that I'll be cutting the sound, I seek more wild tracks of "things" to use as FX: last shoot had a nesting dove with two fledglings "cooing" on the balcony. After humanely chasing them off during scene work, I came early in the AM to catch some of it wild.

The cool perspectival stuff that you're describing comes to me during the post-process (like listening to the lav-crush). A few weeks back I walked into my favorite vietnamese restaurant. Immediately upon entering I passed a really old wall-mounted TV with a single bad speaker. At the same time that the bad mono sound passed hard in one ear, I could hear the same sports programming loud and in stereo from the widescreen TV across the room. I stopped and stepped back and forth across the phasey bad TV effect because it sounded really trick. My beloved partner smiled and knowingly said "You hear something cool?"

Best,

Steven

[Matt Martin]

I stopped and stepped back and forth across the phasey bad TV effect because it sounded really trick. My beloved partner smiled and knowingly said "You hear something cool?"

Made me laugh. I do that kind of stuff all the time and my wife just shakes her head with a smirk.

[DJMosandi]

Made me laugh. I do that kind of stuff all the time and my wife just shakes her head with a smirk.

Gave me a chuckle as well. Stuff like that really makes my day.

[RPSharman]

That's a great post, Richard.

It's important to realize that we are in the storytelling business. We have an advantage, as production mixers, of being there on the day to capture a performance. There are lots of things that go into a performance, and the physical space is one of them.

Until my recent run on sterile cable television shows, I used to mix little indie movies. We typically shot exclusively at practical locations. If something made a sound (creaky floor, squeaky door, etc.) and it didn't distract the actor or get in the way of the dialog, and it was accurate to the reality of the location in terms of the story, I left it alone. Or I might try to pick up a wild sound or unique ambiance, if I had time (never slowed down production for it).

Wether the post folks used it or not was not my concern, but I thought it would help them to know what the "real" space the actor "felt" sounded like.

Robert

[Chris McCallum]

I now have my XY mic rigged up in a blimp ready to roll on atmos whenever I have the chance. As someone who spends half his time in post it is great to get some "real" sound to match in rather than relying on the same old "atmos CD" tracks you hear over and over. I am sure we are the only ones who notice but I think it makes the end product so much more believable

Chris