Stand-Out Shorts

by Russell Evans

  Finally, check whether there are one-off sounds you missed but which appear in shot – such as a plane overhead. Get these sound effects from the web or record them if you can.

  FIGURE 17.2 Preston Randolph and crew working on location with a boom mic.

  GET IT RIGHT IN ANY SITUATION

  This is a quick and easy way to set up every shot so you record good sound every time.

  It goes like this. The first method (overhead boom mic) is the best and will work most times in most situations, so use it. If you can’t then switch to the second method (boom mic from below). If that is not possible, then move to the third and so on (see Table 17.1).

  Table 17.1

  Mic Setup How to Do It You Need Movies It’s Good For

  Method 1: Overhead boom mic Hold an extended boom mic over the action. Works every time for natural and authentic sound. Keep it out of camera frame. Unidirectional boom mic Most narrative movies; documentary

  Method 2: Boom from below Maybe the camera is looking up at the actors so you can’t avoid getting the mic in shot. Try switching it to below the actors. You might even prefer this rather than use the first method – the sound can be quite resonant. Unidirectional boom mic Most narrative movies, news, documentary

  Method 3: Boom mic planted This means having the boom mic fixed somewhere close to the actors. You might have a big wide shot and can’t avoid getting the sound crew in shot. Place the boom discretely so it can pick up what you want. Unidirectional boom mic Most narrative movies, particularly good for location work

  Method 4: Lavalier mic on actor You might not be able to record clearly because there’s too much noise around you – in a football game, or in a crowded bar, in which case you need a lavalier or tie-clip mic. It’s got a small range, less than the length of your arm. Clip it to an actor, near the heart, fixed to clothing. Watch out for manmade fabrics as these can create a static sound. Lavalier mics sound like you are in a studio – clear but maybe too clear and sterile, so make sure you pile on layers of ambient sound in the background later. You can plug in two Lavalier mics for dialogue. Again, use a splitter to connect them to the cam. Lavalier mic News, documentary, and most other movies if you don’t mind the clear but boring sound

  Method 5: Planted lavalier mic You can plant any mic on set to pick up one particular sound. You don’t even need to connect it to the camcorder. It could be a one-off sound or piece of dialogue and could be recorded straight to any digital recorder. Lavalier mic Ideal for any movie where you need to conceal a mic from the camera, but a regular mic is too big

  Method 6: Radio mic If cables are a problem and you need to hear what actors are saying on the move, you might need radio mics. It can be tough getting clear sound free from interference but the benefits are huge. Radio mic Distant scenes, big wide shots, location work

  FIGURE 17.3 Radio mics allow your actors to move about more freely.

  ON LOCATION

  Each place you shoot in sounds different, because of the surfaces and size of the location. Sound waves are like balls that bounce around a room – the harder the surface, the more they keep bouncing; the softer, the more they get absorbed and die down. The hard tiles of a bathroom will let sounds bounce around, while the soft fabrics of a bedroom will absorb them. The larger a space is with hard edges, the more you create an echo.

  Get practiced in listening to the acoustics of your location – use good headphones to hear the quality of the sound and judge whether the acoustics of the place are a problem or not.

  You need a natural, realistic effect to your sound so don’t remove all traces of the acoustics in your location, but on the other hand you need to keep them in check so that main sounds – actors talking, for example – are clear and up front.

  FIGURE 17.4 Using headphones while you shoot means you know the quality of the sound, and whether there is any interference affecting the mics. (Photo courtesy of iStockphoto, ©helenecanada, Image# 6234702)

  EVEN BETTER AUDIO RECORDING

  If you want to go one stage further, opt for an XLR mixer. This is a neat box that fits under the camcorder and into which you can plug two mics or more. It’s small, tucked out of the way and ideal for documentary makers who don’t want to mess around with loads of cables and don’t want the extra crew that a much larger separate mixer would need. Try BeachTek for good mixers.

  The XLR mixer is a small box that plugs into your camera and allows you to blend the sounds from each mic as you record and boost the gain (the volume) on any. If your camera doesn’t have the right input for an external mixer, try the Beach Box (about $200), using a simple line-in plug to connect it to the camcorder.

  If you use a mixer, you can try a tip for getting even more professional sound by recording with two mics at the same time: use channel 1 to record ambient sounds or “presence” using an omnidirectional mic; and use a regular unidirectional or lavalier or whatever you need to record the crucial sounds like voices or action. The total sound will feel more believable when edited.

  If you can’t get a mixer, check whether you have two audio inputs on your camera. Or, an even cheaper option, record the main action on the camcorder and the simultaneous background ambience on an MP3 player/recorder.

  THE SOUND ENVIRONMENT

  Your brain sorts out the sounds around you to help figure out what to pay attention to; you home in on the voice in front of you and ignore the sound of nearby traffic. This jumble of noises is the “sound environment.” You can create your own sound environment made up of sounds which are not actually present on location. It’s a great way to add atmosphere to your movie, and you can make the movie feel bigger – having bigger production values than you can afford. Many movies add layers of sound to add denser texture to a scene. Try it out – record some extra sounds from other places and store these ready for when you edit later. Why not add some city street sounds to make your small town scene seem like it’s in a gritty, urban setting?

  RECORD LAYERS OF SOUND

  1.Use directional or cardioid mics.

  2.Focus in on just the single sound effect you need.

  3. If you are gathering background sounds, use an omnidirectional mic, or the on board one on your camcorder.

  4. Use a lavalier mic for clear sound effects where you need a hyper-real feel to it.

  5. Where possible, create the sound effect in the actual place you shot. The acoustics will fit perfectly, especially if you use a boom mic to record it.

  Record onto any digital device, but it’s nice and easy to record straight to the camcorder. Write a description of the sound you are recording on a piece of paper and point the camcorder at it as it records the sound – this will help when you come to look for these sounds when you edit.

  ESSENTIAL KIT OR RESOURCES

  Low budget kit:

  Lavalier mic. Stretch your budget to two of these if you can, preferably Sennheisers.

  You’ll also need a mic splitter to plug two into one socket on your cam.

  Boom mic. To improvise try using a unidirectional mic fixed to a boom pole.

  Ear-covered headphones. Try AKG or Sony for ‘phones.

  An XLR mixer if you can.

  Zero budget kit:

  A hand-held unidirectional mic; improvise with a pole to create a boom.

  TRY IT OUT

  Make an audio mash-up.

  A mash-up is where you grab images and freely stitch them together in a way that just looks good and feels good. It’s half-coordinated and half thrown together intuitively. It makes sense listened to later, but probably not when you make it.

  You need:

  Unidirectional mic

  lavalier mic

  MP3/4 recorder/player or a camcorder

  Step-by-step:

  Go out and look for sounds that are diverse enough to stand out from each other: voices, cars, birds, sirens, crowds.

  Try to get a range of sounds in your recording, from high-pitched sounds at the top to bass sounds below.
Record 15 seconds of each one.

  Next gather some found sounds. Use TV news, or phrases you have found elsewhere, on TV shows or films.

  Next, find a sound that can go under everything, like a conversation, or a busy street, or a video game.

  Go home. load everything onto your Pc. Arrange it all just as you would as a movie edit, with each sound placed ready to use. Edit them together ?C using layers of audio tracks. Make it two minutes long.

  Experts’ Tips

  Ben Winter, film student, USA

  “Don’t spend any money on extra audio equipment. Audio hit its technological peak long ago; microphones made twenty years ago sound as good as microphones made today, so if you buy nice equipment now, chances are you’ll be using it well into your filmmaking career. The quality of your picture is nugatory compared to the sound. If the audio is ruined during a take, redo it, no matter how good the take was otherwise. It will be difficult and more cumbersome than you’d like, but this is a sacrifice a filmmaker must make.”

  * * *

  Chapter | Eighteen

  Health and Safety

  OVERVIEW

  Don’t get sued. In the UK alone there are over 150 serious injuries on movie sets each year. The buck stops with you so make a safe and happy set.

  ONE-STOP PLAN TO MAKE A SAFESET

  Choose one person who is in charge of worrying about health and safety. Most often the producer is in charge of it.

  You, or the person whose job it is, must figure out all the potential risks to crew and cast, and passers-by, on your production.

  Communication is the key to good risk avoidance. Talk to people, send emails, provide lists – all helping to avoid risks.

  When you have figured out what risks there are on set, rate them according to how bad they could be, and then what you can do to lower this risk.

  Use all equipment and props according to the manufacturers’ instructions.

  The overall key to being good at health and safety is knowing how to spot hazards. What seems like just a small problem for one person might be a huge hazard for another person.

  FIGURE 18.1 Make sure one person on your movie is in charge of safety. Cables need to be wrapped and made safe to avoid tripping up the crew. (Photo courtesy of iStockphoto, ©bjones27, Image# 6092023)

  DRAW UP A RISK ASSESSMENT SHEET FOR EACH LOCATION OR STUDIO

  Include in this sheet:

  Risks from your equipment

  Risks from the place where you are filming

  Risks from people or animals

  Risks after production (editing, etc.)

  How to do a risk assessment:

  1. Look for hazards.

  2. Decide who this might harm.

  3. Figure out how bad this would be if it happened.

  4. Write down what you have found, and tell those people it affects.

  5. Take action to avoid this hazard.

  Table 18.1 Example risk assessment sheet

  FIGURE 18.2 In any location filming, hazards need to be identified, as in this production shot from The West Side web series. Working on the roof of a building is just one of several potential hazards in this action scene.

  MOST COMMON RISKS

  Lamps falling over due to unsteady tripods; lamp cables overloading the electrical supply, lamp bulbs exploding.

  Cables as tripping hazards.

  Working long hours leads to accidents not normally seen as hazards. Legally, keep to no more than a 12-hour day at maximum.

  Noise: If there is continuous noise over 85 dB, you must have ear defenders.

  Lifting and moving: crew moving heavy items without bending properly, causing back injury.

  Editing: fatigue and stress – you need a five-minute break every half hour. Try placing screens at different distances so that your eyes need to refocus. Stretch and move around.

  Poor weather: watch out for rainwater or dust affecting equipment and people.

  LIGHTING SAFETY

  Don’t overload your home supply. A couple of 300 W lamps may cause problems, if you add in the other stuff you have got in the house already.

  Wait for lamps to cool for a few minutes before packing away or moving.

  Cables trip people up – use duct tape at all times to keep the cables out of

  Lamps on tall tripods topple easily - make sure no one knocks into them.

  Lamps are hot up close - don’t burn your actors or crew.

  Section Three: Cut

  CUT AND SHARE YOUR MOVIE

  This section guides you through the final stage of making your movie as you cut it into shape. Start by setting up your home studio, then playing around with different ways to edit, and then move on to perfect your soundtrack.

  Chapter 19: Your Home Editing Studio. This chapter takes you through the basics you need to start editing at home, from RAM to capturing the audio playback.

  Chapter 20: Pre-edit Footage Viewing. If you’ve just shot your movie, this chapter tells you what to do next – sit down, take your time and plan the edit.

  Chapter 21: Editing Methods: Narrative Continuity. Next, two chapters to help cut the movie in the way that suits you. This chapter shows you how to cut a narrative movie, for action, drama or documentary.

  Chapter 22: Editing Methods: Montage. This chapter guides you through editing movies without stories, like music promos, or when you just need something a little different in your movie.

  Chapter 23: Audio Editing. This chapter takes you through the ways to get the audio mix right. Find out how to layer sounds to create a bigger world than the one you actually shot, and why color is just like sound.

  Chapter 24: Foley. If you made a narrative movie, stop here and pick up some tips on amping up your soundtrack with added real sounds.

  Chapter 25: Screening for Feedback. OK, it’s in the bag - isn’t it? Sort of. Find out how to roll out a Beta version of your movie for people to take a look at before you unveil it for real to the world.

  Chapter | Nineteen

  Your Home Editing Studio

  OVERVIEW

  For less than the cost of a secondhand car, you could build an industry-standard edit studio.

  Your home edit setup is like a painter’s studio – it’s where the real work takes place. After everyone else has gone home, you are left to come to grips with the real art and craft of editing your movie.

  Your ideal edit suite is in a small, airy room, with a large desk to hold two monitors, a large stack PC or Mac tower below, and good-quality speakers to allow for excellent audio playback. You’ll have a soft chair, designed for long sessions of late-night editing. An angle-poise lamp will illuminate your keyboard, and a softer one lights the wall behind the monitors to offset eye strain from looking at a bright monitor against a dark wall.

  It’s organized, with drawers for scripts and old tapes and racks for CDS and DVDS. The room has good acoustics, which means that the sounds from your movie don’t echo and bounce around the room, distorting what you hear. You achieved that through carpeting the floor and using drapes on the windows.

  WHICH SOFTWARE?

  Oscar-winning editor Walter Murch (Apocalypse Now) is abigfanof Apple’s FINALCUT Pro and has helped make Hollywood feel safe with it. In the indie sector many feature films are now edited on FCP. UK director Robin King, of Standalone Films, wouldn’t use anything else. “I love it – it feels really intuitive and it’s easy to work in a way that allows for backtracking, should you change your mind. For me it’s fun too. Final Cut Pro is a professional tool and one could quite easily edit a feature film with it.”

  Table 19.1

  What You Need The Lowdown

  Computer When it comes to your PC, a tower is essential rather than a laptop. But if you have just invested in a new laptop and want to stick with it, simply add on external hard drives.

  Macs are the preferred system for many video makers. An Intel dual-core tower will give you an advantage over other systems, and Final Cut Pro is itself
reason enough to invest in a Mac. System stability tends to be excellent and since there are so few viruses for Macs you certainly sleep better at night knowing that you are unlikely to lose everything suddenly through outside attack. Even the basic MacBook provides a solid and reliable way to edit video, if used with an external hard drive.

  RAM In either external or internal drives, aim for ones with at least 7200 revs. Aim for the biggest your expansion slots will allow, at least 2 GB.

  Monitors Beyond needing extra space to park all that HDV footage, you’ll need a pair of monitors that let you see the quality. Flat-panel monitors with native high resolution that don’t simply scale up the images are not cheap, but are worth the cash. Why two monitors? It frees up a lot of space by placing editing windows on separate screens. You get a larger playback screen, and can expand the timeline a lot more to see more detail. You can also have a bigger range of tools on view, such as effects, transitions and color.

  Audio playback Speakers in your computer are not up to the job when it comes to editing sound. The easiest solution is to plug in a small, cheap 3.5 mm converter which lets you connect phono cables between it and the input sockets on a separate amp, the one you use to play your CDs. You can then hear your PC on your main amp speakers. Place these a few yards apart, on either side of your monitors.