Monday, May 10, 2010

Location Location Location!

One of the biggest factors that will determine not only the outcome but the budget of your film is the location. In the indie film world, this usually means whatever place will suit your film cosmetically, and is free to shoot in. 

Since a lot of indie film makers are looking for places to shoot in that won't cost them anything (permits, location rentals, etc.), they often take what they can get. Or they may have found some place that has a beautiful backdrop. That's fine and there's nothing wrong with that. But there is often one thing that location scouts forget about, and that of course is the issues that the location may cause in regards to sound.

When you are filming in an apartment in downtown Los Angeles or New York, one would expect a little city noise in the background, and though not ideal, it's ok because we understand where the location is in the setting of the film.

But one of the noisiest places one can film believe it or not is in a suburban neighborhood. The difference is that while a downtown location is noisy, it is relatively constant. But in the suburbs, it is generally quiet until something makes a noise. At that point, your take is ruined and you have to re shoot.

I recently worked on a film where the setting was in a typical suburban neighborhood where all of the couples were young, everyone had young children, dogs, an SUV, and were living the modern version of the 1950s dream.

I arrived on location early in the morning, and it was quiet and a lovely day. Once we began filming, an army of gardeners were unleashed upon us. These were people from a gardening company contracted to come through the entire neighborhood every week and do all the landscaping, trimming, etc. They first sent the lawnmowers, then the weed wackers, then the side trimmers, then the leaf blowers (which are actually illegal in Los Angeles county because they pollute and don't abide by noise pollution laws, which of course are never observed). We were able to convince them to come back later in the day (we were shooting everything outside) by sending over a good looking actress to ask them kindly and to offer them some money, sandwiches and some beer. But our efforts were in vein because as soon as they quieted down, the garbage truck came around, and for whatever reason, picked up the track of every third house, so they could draw out their hours and make the rounds three times. They began at about 10am and were still there around 5pm!

Of course there were dogs barking, motorcycles, trucks, SUVs and other large (and loud) vehicles that were passing constantly throughout the day, but when about 1pm struck, all the kids came home from day care/school. So at that point, suddenly there are kids screaming throughout the film for no particular reason.

If the location scout had shown up to the location on the same day during the same time a week before making their final decision, they would have known that choosing this location was basically going to completely ruin the film. The fact is that there was constant noise all day long, and we spent most of the day waiting for it to quiet down enough to get a take, so needless to say we finished very late, and there was a lot of background noise that you typically don't hear in suburban settings in films or TV shows.

Another film I worked on recently had some visually great locations, but a good segment of the film was shot under a freeway overpass, which was noisy due to the traffic overhead which is understandable. But a place like that acts as a wind tunnel. Anyone who has shot at the beach knows that wind is not a friend of the microphone, even when you have a blimp around your boom mic, or when you're using lavs. I told the producer that we would be lucky if any of the audio recorded in that location would be useable. 

Other locations that are problematic in a different way are locations that are too reflective (have echo), and have that "roomy" sound. A lot of homes and apartments built between the 1940s and the 1970s have low ceilings, which is not only difficult for the Boom Op, but often causes poor acoustics, which gives you that "roomy" or "boxy" sound. If you are shooting on a location like that, you should take into account acoustically treating the location prior to filming. Acoustical treatment is different than sound proofing, though people often don't know the difference.

Studio foam is acoustical treatment. It will not sound proof anything; it is foam and you can hear through it. But it will help reduce the acoustical reflections caused by bare walls. This is called acoustical treatment. The only issue is that it is expensive and probably won't fit in with the decoration of your set. But there are alternatives. Tapestries often work well as good acoustical treatment and decoration at the same time. Often times when shooting a scene in a room there are bare walls that will never appear on camera that could be covered with blankets or carpet. Tile and hard wood floors are also reflective and the more you cover up, the better your sound will be.

So for all you beginning and indie film makers, be aware of what kinds of noise problems your location has, because I guarantee you that in post you will either have a lot of work (which will cost a lot to fix), or you will simply have bad audio. And bad audio in a film means you have a bad film.