"Dave Watterson" <
forums@theiac.org.uk> wrote:
Help, please.
I'm judging a club competition. There is the usual range of work and some
good items. But there is a fault which is common to most of them: poor sound.
So quick tips, please. Pretty, please.
Some time ago I told you that I'm making a film about my friend and folksinger
Brian Higbee who lives in Devon. The weather conditions were extremely bad.
It was windy and Brian had to sing outside, but Davy, one of the members
of my club, who is a musician himself, was a member of my "film crew". He's
an expert on sound. Last year we bought a sennheiser (price : about £450).
It is a very good one. We approached the singer as close as possible. We
used a monitor, a TV-set with flat screen. We could not see the perse and
microphone which was covered with the skin of a rabbit or any other animal.
(I've forgotten the English word again !). Davy (27), who's a new member,
suggested buying a mix-panel. It costs about £95 ! He found it on the website
:
www.conrad.be They also have a site in the UK, but unfortunately the
mixer we use is not available in your country. See :
www.conrad.com It
is an 8 channel battery powered line mixer. Hit this link for specs
http://www2.produkt.info.conrad.com/dat ... 01-ml-Mini
Mixer Mc Crypt MCB-1002.de-en-fr.pdf. They sent the mixer to us by parcel-post.
Why a mix-panel ? Because we wanted to have total control of our mic. before
the sound was going to be recorded. We used earphones and could already hear
the slightest breaths of wind and background noises entering the microphone.
So we could choose the right angle for the mic. and get the best out of the
desired sound using the tone control knobs. Another advantage : the mixer
switched the mono signal for the mic into stereo sound. We also made some
recordings of Brian with his guitar plugged into the mixer as well, and in
the mean time we recorded his voice with a microphone.
Two years ago I already took some shots in Devon. I didn't use the manual
function (sound) in my sony 2000 camera, which was wrong. The sound was mono.
Looking at the sound tracks in my casablanca or on any recorder I noticed
that only one of the two sound tracks was moving. Some weeks ago my film
was partly in mono and partly in stereo. Having seen this Davy adjusted the
sound in his computer (programme pinnacle 10). Now the film is only in stereo.
You can also do this with your casablanca. Now I think that the sound of
my film is alright. I tested it in our filmclub. Perhaps you can still hear
some traffic in the far distance, but then you must have the ears of an elephant.
Anyway, traffic in the distance is natural.
While filming our folksinger Brian we had to stop from time to time, because
of airoplanes making too much noise. Not only the wind was terrible.
Now something different : Each time when you hear the narrator saying something
in your documentary it's good to decrease the number of decibels. Of course
you must not exaggerate. The fluctuations must be "soft" or "smooth". Music
is used to create the right atmosphere in your film.The balance music-narration-live
sound is very important.
Peter is right. Editing a film also means working on the sound by using crossfades
for instance. It may take months to get the ideal quality of sound when making
a film of about 20 minutes.