Regarding the Sound Department and Costs

When you hire a sound guy, most often there are two things that you look at when deciding on which sound guy to go with: Experience, and Equipment. With this in mind, it is somewhat rare to expect the same things from almost anyone else on set. DPs rarely have their own camera (unless you are shooting on something like a 5D or 7D), and the production usually rents the lighting and grip equipment. Makeup brings their kit, sometimes Wardrobe provides the clothing, but often times they are provided with a budget to purchase or have made certain articles of clothing. The DIT often has his computer, programs and card readers. And a few other people often have their own equipment, but usually pretty small stuff, with the exception of a steady cam operator. The sound guy on the other hand has to have his own kit, otherwise he wont get work. It isnt very faire, but thats the way it is. We also have to settle for less pay than the DP, unless its a really low budget production, in which case the sound guy is often the only person that gets paid. I'll get back to this point in a minute.

So whats in a standard production audio kit? Well, a shotgun mic, boom pole, headphones, two wireless lavs, and a multi-track field recorder/mixer. We often cary more than that, but a basic standard ENG kit is what I just described, as well as cables and various accessories. Now lets say the production wants the sound guy to provide Comteks (listening devices for the director, producer, and/or scripty), or a Time Code slate. In my opinion, these are things that are outside of the job description of the sound guy. The sound guy is there to record audio, not to ensure that the camera is in sync with time code, or that everyone can hear whats happening. So if a production requires me to provide these things, I tell them that they need to pay extra for it. But listening to whats happening, thats audio related right? Well, yes, technically. And so are walkies. But it isnt my job to provide those either. But the sun, doesnt it provide light? Well that must be something that grip needs to provide. I feel that requiring so much from the same person is a bit unreasonable. Often times because I have to show up with thousands of dollars of my own equipment, and get paid less than people who provide none of their own gear.

Now, those low budget shoots where Im the only one that gets paid. Whats up with that? Well the truth is, DPs, actors, directors, these are all people that need to have something to add to their reel. They need to prove that they are competent, and have a lot of experience, because a lot of what they do is make artistic decisions. So if someone hands them a job, that is saying that they trust these people to make artistic decisions for them, which is really a lot of trust to have for someone working on your project. But because of this constant needing to prove ones self in these fields, these people will often have to accept a smaller wage on a low budget production because they need this for something, so in a sense the project it's self is part of the pay. 

The Sound Department on the other hand doesnt need to prove anything to anyone. Once youve gotten a few credits under your belt, and you have your own kit, you can get work for the most part. So when the low budget production comes to me and says how great the team is, how awesome the script is, and how many name actors are involved, and that they are all working for peanuts or nothing at all, that it is a passion project, I consider the following: work for nothing, or an insulting rate, or just check job posting and find something with an adequate wage. I have no problem finding work, so why should I cheapen my craft by making professional production audio something people can get for free? Not to say that Im greedy, but remember how I mentioned that I have to provide my own equipment? Well that stuff is expensive, so I often have to re invest every extra dollar I have into new gear, replacement parts, etc.

To rent out a standard sound package from a rental house, Ive done the following research:

Rental House 1 - $460 per day

Rental House 2 - $395 per day

Rental House 3 - $430 per day

These are the daily rental rates of the same sound kit at three different rental houses. This is what it would cost a production to rent these items, not including someone to operate them. Now, there are then expendables to take into consideration, such as batteries, topstick or moleskin, etc. A sound person needs to make at least enough money per day to make working in audio worth it, instead of working at a supermarket. On top of that, he needs some sort of kit fee to make it worth the wear and usage of his equipment. This stuff is expensive, and some things have to be replaced rather frequently. I think on average I replace the microphone component of my wireless lavs about three times per year per lav. Why? The wires are delicate, and actors forget that they are wearing them, so they put stress on the wires, spill drinks onto them, perspire onto them, lots of reasons. And those mics start at $150 each, and can go as high as $1000 per mic!

I get a good amount of gigs where they see what my kit consists of, and then the day before shooting they tell me they are going to need x amount of wireless lavs. I have to remind them that they saw my kit, they know how many I have, and that they dont grow on trees and arent inexpensive. If they need more than what I have, they can rent them, or I can rent them and they can pay extra.

Im not trying to sound like a curmudgeon, but the overhead costs for the sound department are high, and in the independent film world, few people respect that. Those that do however are often times the best people to work with, not just because they are a friend of the sound department, but because they have a better overall sense of how a professional shoot works, and who puts what into their craft.

But the one thing that I think anyone should really walk away from this article with is that every position on a film set is important, and there for a reason. So you cannot overlook each department or position because you view them as a lesser position. Shoots without PAs and Grips take twice as long, so the money you are saving from not hiring these people is spent on time and location. An AD is important because among other things, they keep us on schedule. A scripty makes sure that everyone is sticking to the script, and generates reports that are important to the editor and dialogue editor. ACs are important because they build the cameras, follow focus, and make sure that things are running smoothly in the camera department. These are all important positions, and no single position should be overlooked or thought less of.

Frame It Out!

I dont expect everyone on set to fully understand the nature and technical aspects of audio. After all, that is why they hired a sound guy in the first place! But Ive recently had some experiences with actors and producers who really dont have a good grasp on how sound works. These scenarios are for everyone's benefit:

Most recently I was shooting a film in the desert. One of the shots called for the actor walking towards the camera while speaking. Simple enough, however the camera was hand held and walking backwards as the actor continued walking. Now, most camera operators (from my experience anyway) arent very subtle with their movements in regards to sound, and in this case, we also had the assistant director following along with myself as well. Naturally I extended my boom pole out to its maximum reach in order to distance myself from the audio I wished to capture. However the camera operator and assistant director both made a great deal of noise while walking, so when you listen back it sounds like more than one person walking during this scene.

Now, I had a lav on the actor, as well as used the boom. I told everyone involved that they would most likely have to re record that dialogue because there were too many footsteps in the background. At this point the producer began telling me that he had seen a sound guy have things on separate tracks, which is why we had the lav on the actor in the first place. Yes, this is true, however the lav doesnt have perfect isolation, so those footsteps are still audible. If you wanted true isolation, you would record the dialogue and the footsteps separately. That is the only way to obtain true isolation. At this point the producer and actor proceeded to argue with me about this! At which point, I told them that they could spend all day trying to tell an expert about his craft, but that wont change the way sound works.

This is a tragic case of ignorance and unwillingness to admit when one is wrong. But the real unfortunate thing about this scenario is that although I recorded plenty of "wild" tracks of footsteps and clothing movement, most of the dialogue was ad-libbed, so I couldnt get wild tracks of those lines because the actor couldnt remember them! This is a real case of shooting ones self in the foot, because instead of me recording the lines off camera a few times to give the dialogue editor something to play with, they will have to either go into the studio to re record those lines, or be stuck with the production audio with the mystery phantom footsteps!

Another thing I find myself saying a lot on set is that sound is not like a camera. I cant just frame out what I dont want to hear! So when we are rolling, I need things to be quiet. This not only includes the location, but also the cast and crew that are not in the scene. A funny story:

I was on a set where a number of the cast and crew werent respecting the "silence while rolling" policy, and on top of that, most of crafty was comprised of things in plastic wrappers such as chips and granola bars. I was constantly hearing those plastic wrappers in my headphones, which is a very irritating sound. So after asking politely that everyone set their snacks down while we were doing a take several times, I reached a point where I had had enough. So in the middle of a take I called cut, stopped recording, set my equipment down, walked over to craft services and threw everything that was in a plastic wrapper away, as well as took any remaining snacks out of peoples hands. One person that I confiscated their snacks from was the producer. Normally a big no-no. But when the producer got mad at me I told him that I was hired to record good sound, which was not possible if people cant put down their snacks during a take. So what was it going to be? Good sound, or snack time? I had recently told this story to some crew members, and the very next day one of those people was eating chips while we were doing a take. The director snapped at the guy, telling him "he just got finished telling us about this, werent you paying attention?!?"... I thought it was kind of a funny situation!

As you can see I am very strict about noise during a take. In many cases, the location we are shooting in will be so quiet that I can hear the movement of a person that is off camera while they simply shift their weight. That is why we call out "sound is speeding", so that people know to quiet down. If people arent respecting this right away we call out "settle!". This implies that we set everything down that was in our hands, stand perfectly still, and breath as silently as possible. Because remember, we are in a recording session at this point!

One thing that I see more often than anything else are the use of mobile phones on set. When I am on set, I turn my cell phone off. I expect everyone else on set to do the same, so before our first take of the day, I tell everyone "cell phones off!". At this point I get a lot of people putting their phones on silent instead of off. Silent is not the same as off. Have you ever set your phone next to a speaker, and then received a call or a text? That weird sound coming from the speaker is what I hear in the mic, even when your ringer isnt on. Why? Well, I dont completely understand how a transducer (speakers and microphones are transducers) would pick up on something like that, but it does. A speaker turns electrical signals into acoustical audio, and a microphone converts acoustical audio into an electrical signal, so they will both pick up on this if it does happen.

I will admit that this phenomenon happens a lot more frequently in europe for some reason, but if you are close enough to a microphone here in the States I will pick up on it. 

So I often times have to tell people that "silent is not the same thing as off, so please turn your cell phones OFF". Since there are so few people who actually do this, I sometimes have to institute a "$20 if your phone goes off" policy. Most people dont take this very seriously, and view it as an empty threat. But when it happens I stop production until I get payed by whomever received the phone call.

This is a very effective method because people dont want to have to lose that much money, but more so because the director or producer doesnt want to wast any time, so they will tell the person "thats what he said and you didnt listen, so pay him so we can move on!". Obviously this is an extreme situation, and you would have to be working with some rather unprofessional people in these cases, but you would be surprised how these types of people manage to find their way onto a set!

Aside from my extreme measures that I have to take from time to time, I am a very pleasant person to work with, and a lot of film makers tell me that they enjoy the fact that I am not a typical sound guy who stays away from everyone, quiet in his corner. Instead I make friends with everyone and participate in what is going on, as well as joke around with the other crew members. I get a lot of repeat business because people enjoy working with me, but they also know that I run a tight ship, so when it comes down to business, Im on top of it.

So the moral of these stories is simply this. Unlike a camera, I cannot just frame out unwanted sound. So if conditions on location are not suitable to make clean recordings, then the sound guy cannot guarantee the quality and integrity of the recording. And if you dont get a good recording on set, you will have to spend a lot of money in post to re record things. So make sure that not only is your location a quiet one, but the people on set with you are going to respect the fact that they have to be quiet. And film makers, please dont tell experts how to do their jobs., it only makes you look like a fool.