Movie Trailer Post Project - part 2

Today we'll be continuing to work in our groups on the movie trailers from the last class. Our goals are:

1. Finish recording and mixing all dialog.
2. Divide up duties for getting all the different audio elements together:

• Foley
• FX
• Music
  

3. Assemble all the different pieces (aka "stems") back into the Pro Tools master session in the DAS.
4. Mix everything down and export to a single Quicktime movie.


In the real world, people work completely separately on the different audio elements of a film. Foley people do their thing, FX people do their thing, music people do their thing. Generally, these people aren't interacting and their work doesn't get put together until the final mix. Instead, they all work separately and mix their work down to stems, which are stereo mixes of their particular stuff (one for foley, one for FX, one for music.) These mixes are then given to the mixing engineer, who puts them all together to create a nice balance. This is what we're doing today...

Movie Trailer Post Project - part 1

Today we're going be working in groups to replace the dialog from a movie trailer. I have placed a few Quicktime movie files in the Instructor Share folder.

Take a minute to look through these clips and then, as a group, decide which one you want to work on.

Groups will switch off working in the DAS and recording the appropriate dialog.

Some things to remember:

• Make separate tracks for every different character who is speaking
• Make a note about what kinds of environments characters are in (indoor? outdoor? OUTER SPACE???) How do you think this will affect the sound of the characters' voices?
• Always pay attention to the placement of the microphone. Make sure it is adjusted to the appropriate height and is aimed towards the speaker's mouth. The speaker should be about 6-12 inches away from the mic.
  

Audio Post-Production Exercise

prepared by James Minton

We’ll be working with the opening sequence from “Grind & Glory: From the Streets to the Stage.” I’ve presented you with a Pro Tools session file that contains a simplified version of the OMF file I was given, plus the film clip so you can see what you’re working with. For the sake of time, I’ve organized all the sounds and mixed them down into continuous WAV files on separate tracks.

The 1^st track, which should be muted when you open the file, is the filmmaker’s mix. Feel free to refer to this in making your mixing decisions. The very last track, also muted, is my final stereo mix of this segment of the film. Feel free to refer to this too, but I’d prefer you waited till after you’ve done your own mix – do it your way, to your own standards, and have fun with it.

The things you should focus on here are EQ, panning, and volume levels. Try to follow the sequence I showed you in the presentation – get relative dialog levels first, then get overall levels for dialog, then natsound, then music. Use VU meters (Chris and I will show you) to measure how loud the sounds are.

Listen for sounds that have too much of a certain frequency – bass, for example, and use EQ to make them sound more natural.

You’re mixing in stereo here, and the opening sound montage offers a lot of opportunities for “creative panning.” You also have a lot of latitude with the music, to enhance the drama of the clip.

Enjoy …

Elements of Audio Post-Production

Audio post-production refers to all the work that is done on a movie's sound after the shooting has finished. The sounds that go into a video or film can be broken down into 4 basic categories:

1. Dialog - the MOST important part of the soundtrack. Includes anything being said by characters on or off screen. In many cases, the dialog you hear in a movie is actually NOT what was recorded at the time of filming; it is rerecorded in a studio by the actors who say their lines while watching the video of their performances. This is called ADR (Automatic Dialog Replacement).

2. Foley sounds - sounds made by the characters as they move around in the scene (footsteps, clothing rustling, picking things up, etc.). These sounds are performed by foley artists who specialize in making sounds that realistically match the actions on the screen (even though the sounds may actually be made using all kinds of crazy materials).

3. Sound effects - sounds not made by the characters. These can include realistic sounds (cars, animals, everyday things), ambience, bigger-than-life sounds (explosions), and imaginary sounds (lightsabers).

4. Music - there are four main types of music you might hear in a video

• Score - Music composed specifically for a film or video
• Jingle - Music composed for a commercial
• Environmental music - music that is actually part of the background of a scene (from a radio, playing in a bar, etc.)
• Soundtrack music - any music where the music is the main audio focus (a music video, the end credits of a movie)

ASSIGNMENT:
Today we're going to practice importing a movie into Pro Tools, and then add some effects and ambience.

1. Create a new PT session in your folder on the Media drive. Name it: (your name)_video import exercise
   
2. Import a Quicktime movie (same as process of importing audio):

• Go to File>Import>Video.
  
• Look in the Instructor Share>Video Files

3. Place 5-10 sound FX in your project, including at least 1 track of ambience. You can get sounds either from the Hollywood Edge sound FX library, or by recording your own sounds directly into Pro Tools. Whichever way you choose to go, you must LABEL every single track according to what the sound is.
4. If you have time, import some music.

DP at the Yerba Buena Center for the Arts!

As you should all know by now, on this coming Monday, February 11 we will be having our first screening where we share our work with the general public. We will be playing some of the highlights from last term (interviews, PSAs, etc.) in between videos from the Video class. There will be a panel discussion where you will all be expected to speak a little about your work.

The time and location of the event are as follows:

Yerba Buena Center for the Arts
701 Mission Street
San Francisco, CA 94103-3138

Reception - 6:30 pm
Screening - 7:00 pm

This is a great chance for you to show off your work, so please invite family and friends!

Sound Design/Musique Concrete Assignment

Assignments

1. Transfer all audio collected over the break to Pro Tools and edit your sounds.

Name your PT session: (your name)_Sound Design 1

To Import your recordings from your Pure Digital camera, do the following:

• Plug the Pure Digital camera into the USB drive on the front of your computer (NOT the one on your keyboard).
  
• Go to File>Import>Audio
• Navigate to the Pure Digital icon (it should show up in the left panel).
• Go into the folder called "DCIM"
• Scroll down until you see the files that end with .AVI
• Single-click on the first.AVI file
• Now scroll down to find the last .AVI file. Single-click on that.
• Click on the Convert All button.
• Click Done.
• Now choose between "New Track" or "Region Bin". THINK very carefully before you hit OK! What is going to happen when you choose either of these options? Which is better for your workflow? Your call...

2. Edit your recordings down to the sounds you want to use and place these on a new mono audio track labeled "Edits". Sounds can be short (a door slamming), or long (the wind blowing through trees). Just remember that you’re going to be making a musique concrete “song” using these sounds, so make sure that they’re usable.

3. Practice and show the instructor an example of each of the following processes:

1. Pitch shifting
2. Reversing a sound using the Audio Suite plugin
3. Inserting a reverb or other effect on the sound

4. Compose a musique concrete piece (45 sec.- 1 min) using your edited sounds. Be sure to include ambience.

5. Bounce your final songs out of Pro Tools and put them in the folder called "Sound Design songs" in the Instructor Share folder. Use the following format:

-File name: (Your name)_Sound Design song
-AIF file format
-Stereo Interleaved
-Sample rate = 48,000 Hz
-Bit depth = 16 bit