Jay Rose Posted February 25, 2014 Report Share Posted February 25, 2014 NYT goes to Skywalker Sound and explores what a sound designer does... a brilliant explanation for civilians. http://nyti.ms/1eqJkFA Plenty of screen time for full talking head quotes - not just soundbites - by Randy Thom and Steve Boeddeker. Nicely edited, with decent b-roll over the cuts. A couple of nice dissolves between production sound and full mix... without someone needlessly telling us "this is before and after". Even a pan across a couple of Nagras, for sentimental value. But none of the cliches: NO shots of cartoon voice actors with mortises of their animated characters! NO shots of walking foley (or scraping metal for sword fights, etc)! NO shots of a gigantic console in a darkened rerecording stage, just because it's sexy! Yeah, those are all important... but everybody's already seen them in every "making of" docy. Worth watching and spreading around. Quote Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
robertw Posted February 25, 2014 Report Share Posted February 25, 2014 This video has already been posted under General Discussion. Might be an idea to merge the two threads..? Quote Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
Jim Feeley Posted February 25, 2014 Report Share Posted February 25, 2014 Thanks for the link and review, Jay. I'll watch this at lunch! Quote Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
jrd456 Posted February 25, 2014 Report Share Posted February 25, 2014 It should have showed them layering the sounds------that's very interesting J.D. Quote Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
Jay Rose Posted February 25, 2014 Author Report Share Posted February 25, 2014 JD, consider that most of the people viewing that video think "soundtrack" means the music, and that everything else happened on the set. They had only a limited amount of screen time, so had to limit it to one message: soundtracks are designed and created in post, by people who specialize in this kind of perception. (e.g., those of us on this board.) I strongly suspect there's at least one major area Randy would have liked to include if it were possible. (I didn't ask him whether they were in the interview and cut by the producer, or if he limited himself to make it easier for them to edit.) Quote Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
old school Posted February 25, 2014 Report Share Posted February 25, 2014 It was a fun intro to sound design for non pros. Of course I'd like an in depth hour and a half film about the subject.;~) CrewC Quote Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
John Blankenship Posted February 25, 2014 Report Share Posted February 25, 2014 It was a fun intro to sound design for non pros. Of course I'd like an in depth hour and a half film about the subject.;~) CrewC +1 Quote Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
Jay Rose Posted February 25, 2014 Author Report Share Posted February 25, 2014 Of course I'd like an in depth hour and a half film about the subject http://www.dplay.com/aes/filmsound.html TRT is 106 minutes, but it's in two halves and further broken into chapters. More about technical issues than creative ones, and aimed at SMPTE / AES members rather than film sound people, and of course just one guy's opinions... …and nowhere near the Randy Thom level... but there's a cartoon at the end! ------ From the summary: The voices in movies usually sound pretty good. So good that, to people who understand audio, they seem impossible. * How does Hollywood record actors so cleanly, with everything else going on and no visible microphones? * Why don’t background noise and room acoustics interfere? * Most scenes are shot in multiple takes, with a single camera that’s moved to various positions: How can the voices and backgrounds stay so consistent, start to finish and shot to shot, even through scenes that took hours to set up and shoot? Surprisingly, the answer usually isn’t ADR or “looping” (recording the actors’ voices separately in a studio). ADR is sometimes necessary or tolerated, but it’s frowned upon by film sound professionals and most actors. Mainstream films use a very high percentage of actual production audio, recorded in tiny pieces through multiple shots. Technology doesn’t come to the rescue either. Other than a few adaptations for field use or speed, the equipment and software used in film sound is very similar to that found in a music studio. Directional microphones have their own problems, and the very directional ones don’t sound natural. Noise reduction software that can actually isolate human speech is still a dream. The real trick? Carefully specialized technique, a workflow that’s based on decades of sound filmmaking and being constantly tweaked… and a little smoke-and-mirrors. Quote Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
dustinguished Posted February 25, 2014 Report Share Posted February 25, 2014 I really liked what Randy Thom had said about casting the right sounds, just like casting a group of actors. That's brilliant! and validating I've often spent a large amount of time finding or making just the right sounds and textures, and almost always found that it paid off in the end. Quote Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
old school Posted February 26, 2014 Report Share Posted February 26, 2014 Thanks Jay. Here is a master class from a true master. CrewC http://nofilmschool.com/2014/02/watch-masterclass-legendary-film-editor-sound-designer-walter-murch/ Quote Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
Ze Frias Posted February 26, 2014 Report Share Posted February 26, 2014 Thanks Jay. Here is a master class from a true master. CrewC http://nofilmschool.com/2014/02/watch-masterclass-legendary-film-editor-sound-designer-walter-murch/ +1 Quote Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
mastermixaudiomedia Posted March 4, 2014 Report Share Posted March 4, 2014 Nice! Probably will revisit Jay's vid, and check out Walter's. Quote Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
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