Talk About Sound Reports

[Matthias Richter]

with WaveAgent I produce the pdf+csv with scene-name, who is on which track or specific track names, smtimes I add some infos to the wild lines, atmos FX recordings. Of course there are the standard infos in the header too.

in my handwritten report they will find all the mentioned infos plus specific hints to certain takes with or wout a problem, so the dialogue editor might find that one line easier to replace

[Bondelev]

@Bondelev -- What makes for a bad report (beyond inaccuracy)? Under what circumstances have you banged your head against the keyboard while flailing a sound report?

I know that the job is tough and the reports are frequently filled out in the seconds between takes, but the more info you can write down, the better. This is especially important to me when I’m looking for alts. Sometimes people simply write NG without specifying that the they mean NG for pix when it was OK for sound. Perhaps the most frustrating thing is when a take is incomplete and that is not noted in the report. This was worse when everything was on tape and I’d listen to a 7-minute take only to find out they stopped just before the line I was looking for.

[Jan McL]

I know that the job is tough and the reports are frequently filled out in the seconds between takes, but the more info you can write down, the better. This is especially important to me when I’m looking for alts. Sometimes people simply write NG without specifying that the they mean NG for pix when it was OK for sound. Perhaps the most frustrating thing is when a take is incomplete and that is not noted in the report. This was worse when everything was on tape and I’d listen to a 7-minute take only to find out they stopped just before the line I was looking for.

Armed with this information, I'm now 100% better mixer than 30 seconds ago.

Thank you so much, David.

It's a good day.

-- Jan

[cmgoodin]

Hey, Mike, I'd love to see one of the pdf's this produces.

Thanks!

I'm really excited about the possibility of getting to this kind of work flow for sound reports. Finding the laptop a spot on the cart is one of the first steps toward that goal.

-- Jan

Jan,

Here is a sample of the BWF-Widget Pro Sound Report.  The logo is a simple BMP file that you create and name "HeadLogo.bmp".  The columns can be re-arranged and you can include Track Names etc.

http://www.bwfwidget.com/data/SampleSoundReport%20Disk%203.pdf

----Courtney

[RPSharman]

Jan,

Here is a sample of the BWF-Widget Pro Sound Report.  The logo is a simple BMP file that you create and name "HeadLogo.bmp".  The columns can be re-arranged and you can include Track Names etc.

http://www.bwfwidget.com/data/SampleSoundReport%20Disk%203.pdf

----Courtney

That's cool, Courtney.

Can you leave out "user bits, frame rate, sample rate" to make more room for notes?

[mikewest]

Hi Jan,

Wow I've done it from a day on a feature some time ago

Tell me if works or email me direct

Mike

Log_Example.pdf

[Jan McL]

Ok how about what do we feel is the basic needed information on a standard report?

See my sound report. I've included everything I think is basically necessary printed out. No more, no less.

With this thread, have given some thought to using a more streamlined, 1/2-page report, without all the tracks broken out. What I like about the report I use is that anyone can see at a glance what's going on. It's faster down the line is my thinking. Faster = better.

One thing I've added to my handwritten notes in the last year is the mic make/model. With David's good input, I'm going to try to note the words on which an incomplete scene ends, and be more specific about why a take is NG for sound.

Is that what you meant to ask, Mike? I fear I misunderstood your question.

-- Jan

[Jan McL]

Hi Jan,

Wow I've done it from a day on a feature some time ago

Tell me if works or email me direct

Mike

Got it, Mike. Will take some time to digest this. Very helpful. Thank you!

-- Jan

[Jan McL]

Jan,

Here is a sample of the BWF-Widget Pro Sound Report.  The logo is a simple BMP file that you create and name "HeadLogo.bmp".  The columns can be re-arranged and you can include Track Names etc.

http://www.bwfwidget.com/data/SampleSoundReport%20Disk%203.pdf

----Courtney

Thank you, Courtney.

I like how on your report, the scenes are separated with a dotted line. Good.

Loading my brain with this info.

Bzzzzzzzzzzzzzzzzz.

I'm guessing with a csv tab delimited file (After reading the manual, see that data is exported as tab delimited. Check), one could run it through a database / word processing program, and wind up with something that looks more like my analog report, with track assignments, and columns filled up in grey so long as that iso is active, etc. This will take my brain some time to process, but...I'm excited to put this information-sharing part of my job into 1) a searchable database that is then also 2) formatted into a document as easy to read at a glance as the old-skool analog report.

Have been waiting for the impetus to buy the BWF Widget. Guess it's time

Now I'm off to see how the Air Desk laptop mount works since all the parts are in house.

Rockin'.

-- Jan