The Sound Of Motorway

[Bodun91]

We are filming in the forest near a motorway/highway. I'm using marantz solid state recorderr with a ntg 2 shotgun microphone for the film, do you how I can get rid of motorway/highway sound in post production. Try to research on the web, but I can get anything from there. Thank you in advance

[Chris Woodcock]

Without ADR you won't really be able too

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[thope]

Forget the shotgun.. Radio mics are your friend in this situation

[MatthewFreedAudio]

Try using the Marantz Tube Recorder instead.

Sounds like production has a location problem, not a sound problem.

Production Sound Mixing for Television, Film, and Commercials.

www.matthewfreed.com

[al mcguire]

Put the motorway in the shot.

[Mirror]

Yes, Please! Someone post a solution for this situation.

[old school]

I'd suggest you or post learn magic but there is no magic so the ADR budget needs to get larger. Radio mics will help some, but...

CrewC

[Jay Rose]

Give the producers a copy of my book. There's a section - even with a picture - describing almost exactly the situation you're in.

 

And the answer, like everybody said, is ADR. Also like everybody said, it's a production problem and the producer/director have to be part of the solution.

 

If ADR is totally out of the question:

 

Re-write the scene so it's all voice-over.

 

Or re-block it so the actors are always facing sideways, and put head mics on their unseen sides. Hair or beard mics might be close enough, if the motorway isn't too loud. 

 

If you're going to use ADR, go for shorter lines - they're easier to replace - and reactions or very wide shots where the mouths aren't visible. ADR is largely incremental, and every on-camera syllable you eliminate will make it cheaper and faster.

[Constantin]

Get a runner and have him run out of gas on the right lane, thus causing a traffic jam, which will be much quieter.

BUT: this is illegal, dangerous and it wasn't my idea.

I've never done it, but I so wish one day...

[Chris Woodcock]

Get a runner and have him run out of gas on the right lane, thus causing a traffic jam, which will be much quieter.

BUT: this is illegal, dangerous and it wasn't my idea.

I've never done it, but I so wish one day...

The Belfast method is to call in a bomb scare a little bit down the road so the police close both lanes.

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[rich]

The Belfast method is to call in a bomb scare a little bit down the road so the police close both lanes.

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does tend to cause sirens and helicopters though.

[Chris Woodcock]

does tend to cause sirens and helicopters though.

Only until the bomb squad turn up and we only have the one helicopter :-P

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[Ray Collins]

Get the DP to do an ultra tight shot, haircut, get the mic in as close as possible and remind the actors to speak up. We are technicians not magicians.

[mikewest]

All good advice, but tell the producer and director the problem and ask

if a forest not close to a motorway is possible to prevent ADR

 

mike

[studiomprd]

Hi, and Welcome...

Bodun: " do you how I can get rid of motorway/highway sound in post production. "

if you had done a bit of reading before posting, you would have found our magic secret...

We are not really allowed to tell anyone how we do this (sort of like magicians), but it is in here...

and, BTW, buy Jay's books at www.dplay.com

[Prahlad Strickland]

if you have already shot it and can't do the above which are the best solution from the best in the business.

 

Try izotope 3...  the spectrum tool is really good to painting out sounds that aren't constant,  like a horn,  a clap,  a ching or a chang and a wang.

 

their denoiser will not get rid of the road,  but it will reduce it by a decent %

 

unfortunately this will be turd polishing, but at least it will be a little tidier.

[Adam Butler]

I have exactly the same issue on a film that I'm mixing the dialogue on now. I have Izotope 3 and It works wonders! I couldn't recommend it more. But.... cars passing by whether near or far is a very hard sound source to remove. 

 

Good luck whatever you choose. 

[Wandering Ear]

Have the actors scream their lines at the top of their lungs. In tight shots the signal to noise ratio might be high enough you won't notice the road.

Really though, this is a location choice that seems like it is not conducive to what they want to shoot (no matter how much it looks like it)

[Marc Wielage]

Wow, here's a blast from the past. Makes you wonder what Mr. (or Ms.) Bodun91 did to solve the problem. The sad thing is often, the biggest problem with being a location sound mixer is the location, not anything else. Ain't no fixes for bad choices in locations.

[chris_bollard]

Took me some time to realise that I wasn't responsible for the choice of location; even if I have been on the location scout it's usually too late to change the location; it just helps me plan and organize to make the best of the shit sandwich I have been served.

Now I am at one with this knowledge I can sleep me comfortably at night