As a sound guy, I have worked on countless indie films, including student projects, shorts, web series, you name it. And the one thing that always astounds me is the lack of attention to the audio side of things.
Indie film makers like to try to cut corners whenever possible because, lets face it, they're trying to save money because they are usually working with no budget, or very little for that matter. One of the biggest mistakes they make is not hiring an adequate sound guy. I see this over and over again: The production hires "interns" to do the location audio, or simply hand the boom over to one of the grips or someone on set who doesnt necessarily have any experience, because it's only sound right? It's not as important as the picture! Wrong! What just happened here is that due to lack of experience and knowledge in the field, this guy isnt going to know about mic placement, acoustics, maybe he wont know what makes a shotgun mic different from a handheld mic. There are a thousand things that can go wrong in this scenario. But the one thing I find more than most aside from improper mic placement and clipping, is noise.
That's the location scouts fault a lot of the time too. He/She didnt choose a location with a quiet enough environment, and the production team didnt take care of any possible acoustical sound problems that will affect the production sound.
So what does this mean? Well in short, your film wont do very well because nobody can hear whats happening, or if they can, it doesnt sound good. The only way to fix this at this point is to re record the audio. That means calling all the actors into a studio to do ADR (Automatic Dialogue Replacement, or Looping), which is re recording all dialogue. Then you need someone to place/record things like footsteps, clothing movement, doors, any sound that may be needed. On a feature film you would usually have a Foley guy to do all the natural human sounds like footsteps, an Fx guy to handle non organic sounds like sonic details, a background & ambiance guy to take care of those types of things, a dialogue editor, a sound designer, composer (with music supervisor), and of course someone to mix the whole thing together. Those are a lot of hats for one sound guy to wear, but it is easier on short films, though still not always entirely practical.
But at this point, you have bad production sound, and now instead of paying someone who knew what they were doing in the first place, you have to pay someone to take care of all of this, which doesnt come as cheap as just getting good production audio. And also, your actors wont like having to re record themselves, and probably dont have any experience doing it, so the sessions can be long and tedious, and you will almost definitely lose the emotion and character that goes along with a live acting performance verses a dubbed one.
I have had to be this guy more times than I can count, and although I dont mind the work, I know you the film maker are pulling your hair out over this whole thing and living with regret.
So if you think that interns are the solution, nope, they are going to cost you money in the end more times than not. Even guys fresh out of school. Location audio is an art and science in it's self, and it takes a lot of knowhow and experience to get it right.
Film Schools. Due to my experience working on these types of productions, I can't help but think that either the film schools dont talk about audio much, or the film students just dont care about it. This explains the attitude towards the importance of sound in their films. Maybe film students, being a student of a visual medium, feel that because sound cannot be seen, it is somehow less tangible than the visual aspects of the film. Lets face it, 98% of whats happening on set is purely for visual reasons!
We have the DP (Director of Photography, or Cinematographer), maybe a B camera and assistants, Grips (lighting), actors of course, wardrobe, makeup, and just about everyone else on set is there to make sure things LOOK good. They're all assuming that the sound guy is just going to take care of the sound by himself, because afterall, sound in their eyes is often a minute detail.
Pre Production. Very important that you secure a good sound guy and boom op and bring them in on pre production so that the work conditions can be ideal (or at least better) for the sound department.
A Bad Example: A lot of my gigs are last minute calls. The sound guy dropped out or got another gig for your shoot date (usually because it pays better, if at all), and I am called in the day before. So I show up on set the day of shooting, and nothing has been done to ensure good sound. We're shooting in a house or apartment, it's on or near a busy street, the walls are all bare and there's a low sealing (which creates that "boxy" sound you get on indie films), the refrigerator is humming, kids and gardeners are all outside making the world a noisy place. The location scout should have brought the pre production crew to the site prior to get the OK from all departments. I understand we can't control what happens outside, but inside we can at least to a little acoustic treatment, and maybe move the fridge into the hallway or something to reduce the noise level. So at the end of the day, I did what I could, but there was a lot of background noise.
A Good Example: One film I worked on was a very artsy surreal kind of film, and it was being shot in this sort of giant concrete basement stairwell. You can imagine how long the echo would hold out in such a place! So the director brought me and my assistant sound guy to the location about a week in advance, and said, "I know this isnt ideal, what can we do to fix this?". My first reaction of course was "very little!", but then I got to thinking and my assistant and I came up with a solution. The camera angles are only facing two walls throughout the whole film (at least where there's dialogue), so we can cover the other two (one of which was an open shaft that worked basically as an echo chamber) with cardboard and cloth, which will block out the echo chamber, and absorb the reverberation. On the walls that were going to be in the shots, we simply made sure that the decoration was going to diffract or absorb the sound, so we get good clean audio.
On top of this, the production also made sure that we had all the equipment we needed to get good sound for their production, which leads me to another topic that I will get to in a sec. The point is, the production audio was so good on this film that not only did we not have to re record a single word, but we won an award for it!
Sound Equipment: Rent or Expect the Sound Guy to have it? Well, it depends. But before you go looking for a sound guy thats going to provide all of his own equipment and work for basically less than minimum wage, I would like to you take a look at what is required for good production audio, and the price tags that go along with them.
Boom Mic: the standard one everyone expects goes for about $1,299.00
Boom Pole: 10 ft. Fiberglass usually goes for about $1000
Shot mount and Wind protection: another good $500 or so
Wireless Lavs: 1 mic (about $500), one Transmitter (another $500), and one Receiver ($500). Now this is for a quality "not going to cut out or sound like a tin can" set, but this is for just one wireless lav. You usually want two or more on set!
Mixer/Recording device: Assuming you are going with one boom and two lavs, you will need at least 3 mic inputs and recordable tracks available. But, mixers and recorders come in increments of twos, so you're looking at a portable four-track recorder. Most "cheapo" portable recorders (hard disk or flash drive) go for about a grand each. But if you want it to really sound good the standard is the model by Sound Devices. This goes for over $2000!
So already you are expecting your sound guy to provide more than $5000 worth of equipment, and you expect him to work for minimum wage, or "for experience/credit". I'll tell you something, unless this kid has money in the family, he wont own all of that unless he's got some major experience, at which point he certainly doesnt need the credit for your thesis film!
So let's talk about renting. There are a number of rental houses all over the place. I live in Hollywood, so obviously there are quite a few out here. I go to one place. I initially went there because they had the equipment that I needed at a better price than other rental houses were offering, and the staff was great and personable. I quickly developed a working relationship with them, and I am loyal to them because of how great their service is. Now, when an indie project needs to rent this stuff, a rental house usually wont rent out high end gear to some inexperienced student, or someone they simply dont know for that matter. And if they do, there will be a hefty deposit required. Due to the relationship I have with my rental house, indie film makers that I am working with are often granted access to equipment they otherwise would never be able to use, simply because they mention that I am working with them. Sometimes they even get discounts! So loyalty is important to your professional relations, and having professionals working with you can get you ahead in a lot of areas.
But if you are going to be shooting for many days, in some cases it is cheaper to buy the equipment. Then you can keep it for your next project, or give it to your crew as payment.
I cant tell you how many first time film makers I have worked with who went to pick up the gear from the rental house the day before the shoot, and were almost turned away because the rental house didnt know who they were. But once my name was mentioned, the production was saved! Of course my reputation is at stake here, so take care not to tarnish it! lol
So, in order to do things right, we need the right person with the right gear. But how do we afford this? Well, you could either save up all semester, work a part time job to put you through school (I did!), or look for other sources of financing. By this I dont mean sell yourself or deal drugs, I mean look for possible sources of financing that may pertain to your film.
What is your film about? Does it promote an idea or place? The content of your film can easily provide the answer to where the money can come from. These are called assets, and this is what the Producer should be thinking about in order to finance your film. Now, I'm not going to get into this right now, but I will in a future blog.
In any case, I hope this will prove helpful to aspiring film makers, and less like the rants of a jaded disgruntled sound guy! lol
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