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Awkward Sound Loc


Reg

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Just finished a shoot in Kew Gardens - call sheet stated to work around flight noise issues. The loc is directly underneath the Heathrow flight path. Luckily, we were only recording links 30sec-1min in length so stuck a radio on and tried to go between the worst of the flight noise (the ones which caused particular issues were the planes where you could see faces in the windows!). 

Has anyone filmed at this location, and if so, what was your workflow for shooting anything longer than a minute or so? Try and shoot in 'chunks' in between the worst of flight noise (very difficult in an interview situation I guess), let it go and rely on post smoothing cuts with more flight noise, or just say not possible and suggest alternative location?

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I did a shoot just past the end of the seatac runway, similar situation.  Despite bringing it up on the tech scout, and timing the planes, the director blew it off, only to come to me in a panic on the day, freaking out about not having enough time to get the scene in, and asked me why I didn't have a mic to take care of that. ;)

We ended up tail slating everything, and every take we got ready, stood on standby until it was quiet enough, then quickly rolled and did the scene.  They still had to replace some of the dialog later.  There's no winning with airplanes.

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It's not totally useless - I'm sure it's a great guide track for adr!

Seriously though, plane noise is one of the hardest things to compete with because even if it's there only a little bit once the show is edited the noise inevitably sounds chopped up, which is extremely distracting for a listener. Steady noise can be dealt with or even ignored, noise that comes and goes and fades in and fades out like planes is a bigger issue. Find a different place to shoot. 

-Mike

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Guys, you can't beat yourself up, or the job on our end due to the decision that the visual, cost or need to film at a location, however horrible for us, is our problem. It is not...  It is the decision THEY made to work and shoot at that spot. If in fact they are professionals, they should know this. If they do not, and are surprised and miffed by the "problem" that now exists with their audio tracks, they are really not professional at all.  

  When in this situation, I simply say, "It's your location, and I will do the best I can I can to get some tracks you can use... It's all I can do.. I will use the best tools in my kit to do so... but, you may be replacing some of this..."   In reality, it's out of my hands.

It's not our show, it's theirs... at some point they need to take responsibility for the situation at hand.. Don't get angry, don't be uptight or overly defensive... just be informative and don't let it bother you... You did not create the problem... they did.

 

If you were on a scout and made them aware at that time... come on, what do they expect... 

 

It used to make me mad.... it no longer does... it now makes me laugh... ruining their own audio... how counter productive... but... sometimes there is actually a need to shoot there.. it is what it is...

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15 minutes ago, afewmoreyears said:

Guys, you can't beat yourself up, or the job on our end due to the decision that the visual, cost or need to film at a location, however horrible for us, is our problem. It is not...  It is the decision THEY made to work and shoot at that spot. If in fact they are professionals, they should know this. If they do not, and are surprised and miffed by the "problem" that now exists with their audio tracks, they are really not professional at all.  

  When in this situation, I simply say, "It's your location, and I will do the best I can I can to get some tracks you can use... It's all I can do.. I will use the best tools in my kit to do so... but, you may be replacing some of this..."   In reality, it's out of my hands.

It's not our show, it's theirs... at some point they need to take responsibility for the situation at hand.. Don't get angry, don't be uptight or overly defensive... just be informative and don't let it bother you... You did not create the problem... they did.

 

I you were on a scout and made them aware at that time... come on, what do they expect... 

 

It used to make me mad.... it no longer does... it now makes me laugh... ruining their own audio... how counter productive... but... sometimes there is actually a need to shoot there.. it is what it is...

+1  I very rarely get upset at others poor decisions on the set.  I make them aware of the problem and they choose to fix it or not. 

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1 hour ago, afewmoreyears said:

Guys, you can't beat yourself up, or the job on our end due to the decision that the visual, cost or need to film at a location, however horrible for us, is our problem. It is not...  It is the decision THEY made to work and shoot at that spot. If in fact they are professionals, they should know this. If they do not, and are surprised and miffed by the "problem" that now exists with their audio tracks, they are really not professional at all.  

  When in this situation, I simply say, "It's your location, and I will do the best I can I can to get some tracks you can use... It's all I can do.. I will use the best tools in my kit to do so... but, you may be replacing some of this..."   In reality, it's out of my hands.

It's not our show, it's theirs... at some point they need to take responsibility for the situation at hand.. Don't get angry, don't be uptight or overly defensive... just be informative and don't let it bother you... You did not create the problem... they did.

 

If you were on a scout and made them aware at that time... come on, what do they expect... 

 

It used to make me mad.... it no longer does... it now makes me laugh... ruining their own audio... how counter productive... but... sometimes there is actually a need to shoot there.. it is what it is...

Well put.  I think in all aspects of our job we should strive to remove our emotional selves from it, and be practical, realistic, informative, and helpful.

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Was the item about Kew? Did it need to be at Kew? Could another park in London have sufficed? If the answer to either of the first 2 Qs is yes, then smile and embrace the situation. If the answer to the 3rd Q is yes, and you are still shooting at Kew, then smile and take the money, they are clearly too stupid to worry about.

 

Kindest, sb

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