Saturday, November 17, 2012

Just venting about sound... - IndieTalk - Indie Film Forum

Old Yesterday, 02:48 PM ? #1

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Just venting about sound...


Great, I've shot my first short, the musician whose music I borrowed liked it so much she is spending money on shooting a music vid, I have another short next Feb / March and a few other bits and pieces kicking around. Sure, I had my short critiqued by an industry pro who taught me a huge amount about what I should've done. I was beginning to get compliments, feeling smug that I was making progress and then, and then...

I sat for 2 hours with a sound engineer. I helped him with a little thing which means that in return, he's happy to give me lots of his time recording free of charge when he's around and also to give me a few lessons. In that two hours, I learned more about the mistakes I'd made than I could ever possibly have imagined. Sound design for individual scenes (creating depth, shape), mood and recording live. The amount I learned was absolutely unbelievable.

I felt like a complete, total and utter sound fool, almost as if I'd never shot anything before. He showed me simple little elements which would've improved my first short immeasurably. I had absolutely no idea and feel like a total, complete and utter idiot relating to the sound which was recorded. Before I met him, I thought I knew something about sound but afterwards, I feel the way Einstein's cat must've felt when he was talking about Quantum mechanics.

It feels like the more I know, the more I don't know...

Anyhow, just venting...

And incidentally, if anyone has a minute, I have a trailer for a second short in the narrative screening room. If you have (literally) a minute, I'd appreciate if you'd have a look and critique. And if you do have a look, please be brutal. And sound people - I can now hear the issues... Jeez, I feel like a total noob...


Last edited by gorillaonabike; Yesterday at 02:50 PM.

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Old Yesterday, 02:54 PM ? #2

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oh god now i'm going to be self conscious about my audio

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Old Yesterday, 03:25 PM ? #4

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Quote:

I felt like a complete, total and utter sound fool, almost as if I'd never shot anything before.

I understand that you are just venting. I assume you're venting in public
knowing people will comment. Mostly I'll let your own words comment:

Quote:

In that two hours, I learned more about the mistakes I'd made than I could ever possibly have imagined.

Quote:

The amount I learned was absolutely unbelievable.

Learning is what it's all about in my opinion. Everyone posting here has
been where you are or will be there. I've been where you are. Don't beat
yourself up. Enjoy the learning.

Quote:

It feels like the more I know, the more I don't know...

Quote:

Jeez, I feel like a total noob...

Aren't you a noob? Clearly when it comes to audio you are. Is there something
wrong about being a noob? I've been making movies for a long time - I've been
making my sole living (not part time, not hobbiest) for my entire working life
in film so I'm no longer a noob, but everyday it feels like the more I know, the
more I don't know. I LOVE that! I am always learning from someone who knows
more than I do and that's what keeps me going. Do you not feel that way? Usually
I recognize and understand that we all feel differently about most things - but
not this. I can't imagine anyone not absolutely loving the fact that the more you
know the more you find out you don't know. I would be stifled if I actually knew
everything about filmmaking. I would stop making movies if I did. Learning new
things is what keeps me going - it's my favorite part of this job.
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Old Yesterday, 03:32 PM ? #5

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My audio guy has 20 plus years in studio recording and live venue recording. The last thing he did for me (Kohlman Files) is now the 10th film/video project he has worked on. I believe if you count everything (mix, Foley, ADR, music, etc...) he put 200 hours plus into a 22 minute video. We STILL consider what we are doing on the sound side really rudimentary at best.

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Old Yesterday, 04:15 PM ? #6

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I'd definitely second what Directorik said. I've been making my living from sound (music and audio post) for nearly 30 years. Many consider me to be an expert but that doesn't mean I know it all, in fact far from it. Being an "expert" means that I am knowledgeable and experienced enough to realise just how limited my knowledge really is, whereas you are just starting to learn how limited your knowledge is. Even after 30 years I still know only a small fraction of what there is to know about sound but it's this which drives me. If I really did know it all, I'd probably give up out of sheer boredom.

In other words, don't let ignorance get you down, use it to push yourself forward. That's what I do!

G

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Old Yesterday, 05:09 PM ? #7

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All I've learned is that I still have an awful lot to learn...

Sound is the hardest part of filmmaking. You can't see it, you can't touch or feel it, and no one ever bothered to teach you how to listen.

Listening is so completely automatic that you never think about it. Your ears were the only sense that was completely active when you were in your mothers womb. Your ears never "turn off," they are active 24/7. They are your alarm system when you are asleep, still processing everything you hear, listening for threats. Your hearing is multidimensional without moving your head; you can pinpoint sounds left or right, front or back, up or down. You can close you eyes if you don't want to see something, but you can''t close your ears; at best you can stuff your fingers in your ears and mute the sound a bit.

That is the issue; you take your hearing completely for granted. Until you learn how to listen you will always have problems with film sound.

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Old Yesterday, 05:48 PM ? #8

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Quote:

All I've learned is that I still have an awful lot to learn...

Sound is the hardest part of filmmaking. You can't see it, you can't touch or feel it, and no one ever bothered to teach you how to listen.

Listening is so completely automatic that you never think about it. Your ears were the only sense that was completely active when you were in your mothers womb. Your ears never "turn off," they are active 24/7. They are your alarm system when you are asleep, still processing everything you hear, listening for threats. Your hearing is multidimensional without moving your head; you can pinpoint sounds left or right, front or back, up or down. You can close you eyes if you don't want to see something, but you can''t close your ears; at best you can stuff your fingers in your ears and mute the sound a bit.

That is the issue; you take your hearing completely for granted. Until you learn how to listen you will always have problems with film sound.

It is unbelievably hard... and easy at the same time.

However, what really struck me is how obvious certain elements of sound design are... and how I completely overlooked them. I put a couple of them into the f@cked up trailer I put together (in the narrative section) but the sound had already been recorded badly by the time I got to it...

Back to beating my head against my computer screen...

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Old Yesterday, 08:10 PM ? #9

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Quote:

... the sound had already been recorded badly by the time I got to it...

GIGO - Garbage In, Garbage Out

As I've been preaching for years, it all starts with the production sound. At the indie level you cannot afford - financially and artistically - to ignore capturing quality production sound.

"Sound is HALF of the experience."

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Old Yesterday, 09:02 PM ? #10

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Quote:

That is the issue; you take your hearing completely for granted. Until you learn how to listen you will always have problems with film sound.

I would add 'in a film-maker's way.' I can hear lots of elements of classical music and back in the day we were all trained to strip a score down just by listening to it.

However, this is the first time I have had to consider how sound carries an image, the way the brain interprets etc... This is all new.

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Old Yesterday, 09:43 PM ? #11

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Quote:

However, this is the first time I have had to consider how sound carries an image, the way the brain interprets etc... This is all new.

This observation is IMO fundamental to filmmaking. What we see isn't reality and neither is what we hear. We don't see or hear the world around us as it is, instead we perceive the world around us as our brains interpret it. This distinction between reality and perception is what allows film to work. Without it, everyone would experience film for what it is, edited together clips of almost pure fakery and film would not exist as an art or as entertainment.

As filmmakers we need to have a good understanding of perception, so we can manipulate it to tell our story. The fact is that perception is a single combination of senses rather than a set of individual unrelated senses. This is massively important to appreciate because it means that our perception of what we are hearing is influenced by what we are seeing and how we perceive the images we are seeing is influenced by what we are hearing. Filmmakers who concentrate on the visual aspect of filmmaking are wasting their time, if they are not equally considering how the sound will affect the perception of those who will be watching the images. Here's an excellent demonstration of what I'm talking about and of how the perception of sight and sound are completely interlinked rather than being two independent senses.

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Old Today, 12:44 AM ? #12

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Holy crap! I didn't even notice his mouth at first, i just started hearing fa fa fa instead.. That is very interesting.

This whole thread has been making me think about my sound. Sound is one of the things that was extremely lacking for me in the past and still is. I have no clue how to even get started on getting into making better sound. My friend who is working on films with me is the one with the real passion for sound. Although, he is at the same place as me and I don't really know how to get him started on actually learning how to create proper sound for our films. I don't even know where to start myself..

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Old Today, 01:40 AM ? #14

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One place to start is to read Sound Design: The Expressive Power of Music, Voice and Sound Effects in Cinema by David Sonnenschein. He discusses the artistic, psycho-acoustic and other esoteric aspects of sound rather than the technical ones.

You may also want to watch/listen to folks like Randy Thom, Ben Burrt, Gary Rydstrom and Walter Murch discuss the craft of sound design on YouTube and on the DVD extras of the films on which they worked. (I posted a Randy Thom interview today, as a matter of fact: http://www.indietalk.com/showthread.php?t=44361) You may also want to spend some time at FilmSound.org. Randy Thom is especially forthcoming. He used to be a frequent participant on an audio post forum I subscribe to; he doesn't participate much these days as he now basically runs SkyWalker Sound. He was a great help to me when I started out, answering my endless questions.

Production sound is highly technical and requires great skill, but does not allow for much in the way of creative artistry, although it is an art-form unto itself. Audio post is another world entirely. Sound design is about the emotional content of the sounds, how they propel the story and enhance the characters. One thing that immediately becomes apparent is that you need to be able to understand and use technology instinctively so that it doesn't interfere with the creative process. You are creating, from scratch, an entire sonic world. The audience must believe it entirely, yet not really notice it.

I'm not trying to denigrate your interest in sound, but it requires a very large commitment. You really need to love sound. You need to spend a lot of time listening to the real world and how sound designers translate the real world into the film medium. I can't tell you how many hours I have spent with a hidden mic and headphones in bars, diners, train stations, bus stations, parks, beaches and dozens of other locations listening to people talking (to get the flow for dialog editing) and how real world sounds are radically changed when coming through a microphone - and then how it changes again when played through speakers. I also spend a lot of time listening to films without watching the visuals; it's amazing how much just the sounds (and the score) let you what is going on in a film.

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