Prepping your Film/TV Show for the Audio Team

This is a blog post aimed at Directors and Video Editors (or both if you’re super talented!) on how to prepare your film/TV show’s audio to be ready for the Audio Department. It’s a basic list of what you’ll need to get ready, and most importantly, why it’s useful to do.

1. Organize your Session

Organizing your session is extremely important when delivering your work to Audio. The best way to organize the audio you’ve collated in your session is by these three types: Dialogue/Sync, FX and Music.
These groups are the bread and butter of the audio dept. and you should have seperate audio tracks for each of them in your FCP/Avid timeline. For example, A1/A2 would contain solely Dial/Sync, A3/A4 would contain FX and A5/A6 would contain Music. This will save the Audio Dept. a LOT of time and they will be extremely grateful for it.

2. Mono/Stereo Audio

The difference between Mono/Stereo Audio is often mis-interpretated but quite straightforward in reality. The common misconception is that mono = 1 channel, stereo = 2 channels – right? Well, almost.

A mono channel, is a single channel of audio, and a stereo channel is two channels of audio playing simultaneously. But, what if both the channels in a stereo track are playing the same thing? This is called dual-mono and is undesirable. Having the same information on 2-channels is pointless, so, if it’s mono – it’s best to leave it that way, as a single channel. If it’s dual mono, then blow away either leg/channel (left or right) so you’re left with a single mono channel.

Deciding what is ‘true’ stereo (a stereo channel which contains different signals on the two legs), and what is dual-mono (a stereo channel which contains the same audio on both tracks) is an important task, so if you’re not sure, it’s best to leave it stereo. Blowing away the right/left leg of an actual stereo track could be disastrous.

A quick and easy method to check if both legs are the same (dual-mono), is to reverse the phase of one of them. If you’re using FCP, then you can download this AU plug for free (http://www.sonalksis.com/freeg.htm) which will flip the phase for you (Phase is represented by the symbol ø). If both the legs are the same (dual-mono), then they will cancel each other out and you will hear absolutely nothing (complete silence) – if they’re different (stereo) then you will hear the same sound but it may sound different, often described as sounding ‘hollow’ or ‘phasey’. (If you do this, remember to disengage the plug-in before continuing!)

Remember. Stereo = Good. Dual mono = Bad.

3. Don’t get too attached!

When tracklaying temp SFX/Music, it’s extremely easy to get so attached to them, that when they’re changed in the audio process, the first thought is often one of dislike. This causes a sensation of the audio not sounding ‘right’ or ‘correct’. Because of the time spent hearing the temp FX/Music in the offline edit, anything else sounds completely wrong. It’s important to remember this when tracklaying temp FX and Music and to stay objective when listening to the sound re-design. If there’s a sound that really has to be in your project, then let the audio team know – chances are it’ll go in, but there are times when the quality is not good enough so an alternative must be used.

4. Audio EDL / OMF

This is potentially the most important point. If you don’t know how to export these in your Video Editor program, then stop reading this post and go and learn as soon as possible!

EDL stands for Edit Decision List and shows the original TC (timecode) in/out points and the current timeline position TC in/out points of audio/video. When exporting for the Audio Dept. make sure you them an EDL containing only audio information, as video fades/effects aren’t useful and just clutter up the important stuff.

If you’re sending a pre-final cut of your project, then this is super important – any changes that are made need to be referenced using EDLs. Two EDLs will suffice (pre and a post edit), however, another useful thing to provide is a change-list EDL. This provides the TCs of the original location of the picture/audio followed by the new position of the picture/audio and gives the audio team the ability to perform a conform of their pre-edit session to post-edit with relative ease.

OMFs / AAFs are a way of exporting your session on a 1:1 basis. All of your regions/clips remain intact, along with their positional infomation on the timeline, automation data and fades (depending on the settings used). This will most likely be the first port of call for the audio team. It’s a quick way to see how complete the audio is, what needs doing to it and what your rough idea for the audio aesthetic is.

5. BITC

BITC (Burnt In Time Code) is audio’s best friend. It’s a supremely useful tool when spotting SFX to specific timecodes. It also gives the ability to double check the framerate of the video with the session frame rate. Nothing gives you piece of mind more than seeing the BITC on the picture and your Timecode Window running exactly in sync. It’s also extremely handy when swapping notes between the audio team and yourself, the director/editor. Saying “Can you do ‘x’ to the SFX at 10:24:04:02″ is a much more efficient way of communicating than “Can you change the SFX where ‘lead character a’ opens the door in scene 4. You know, the bit where he goes into the house. No, further back, further back – no, too far…” etc.

Make sure your picture has BITC.

6. Audio Rushes

Make sure that you send all the audio rushes, not just the ones which have been used or the ones which are deemed useful. There are so many hidden gems in apparently ‘useless’ rushes that never get to be used because they’re not sent to the audio team. Extra rushes are absolutely riddled with alt takes/room tone/accidental sound fx and are just begging to be used.

This applies even more-so if you’re sending your project to someone who is editing dialogue. They really can work magic with the dialogue when given just a few alternative takes for lines, so make sure you include them all.

If you follow these steps, you’ll ensure that your audio team has more time to concentrate on making truly great audio, rather than spending the time fixing or finding bits that are vital to the process. Not only that, but a torrent of gratitude will be showered upon you for making their jobs easier and for sending well documented, easy to decipher material.

3D or not 3D?

I’m going to start off by saying that I used to hate 3D. I’d purposfully avoid it every time I had the choice between seeing a film in 3D or 2D. This wasn’t a choice I made because it was controversial or I wanted to be awkward, but because 3D simply didn’t work.

Before yesterday, my 3D experiences had been plagued with problems which included: crosstalk between the two images, eye strain, headaches, shiny metallic looking surfaces and being unable to focus on certain objects (generally closer ones). These problems all contributed to one thing – pulling me out of the film rather than immersing me further. It was safe to say that at this point, I would never consider adopting 3D. But as they say, never say never.

I was lucky enough to be invited to the Dolby Christmas screening of Puss in Boots 3D at the Empire Theatre in Leicester Square, London. I was expecting another experience full of the problems I listed earlier, but wanted to attend anyway because it was a pretty special event. To my suprise, none of these problems occurred during the WHOLE of the film. I was completely immersed and thoroughly enjoyed the 3D aspect of it. For the first time, I thought that the 3D helped immerse me into the film.

I was wondering how my experiences with 3D could variate so drastically, and was lucky enough to have a chat with an ex-Dolby Film Sound Consultant who explained some pitfalls of 3D. The main and most common problem, is calibration. Whilst it’s quite easy to calibrate the two (or four) projectors to somewhere close to where it should be, it takes a long time to calibrate the projectors perfectly. In fact, for this Dolby Screening, they had 2 Dolby employees setting up and calibrating both the audio and video for two days before the screening (which clearly made a lot of difference).

Another difference is the type of 3D used. I’m not too knowledgeable on the different types of 3D, however, I’m of the understanding that my bad experiences have all been using the Real3D glasses system which use Poliarized 3D glasses and my good experience was using Infitec (Interference Filter Technology) Glasses. I’m not sure on exactly how these systems differ, but considering the Real3D glasses are considered disposable whilst the Infitec/Dolby glasses aren’t, I’m under the assumption that the Infitec technology is the better of the two.

I believe that the main reason for my dissapointing experiences has been down to calibration rather than the tech used, which is a total shame that I’ve had to wait this long to see 3D properly. If the cinemas spent some extra time calibrating their rooms to produce picture and audio in the way they were intended to be viewed/heard then it would be a much more enjoyable experience and would certainly encourage me to see more 3D films. In fact, I’ve got a bit of a gripe with cinemas on the audio side of things as well which I’ll run through on my next blog post.

I’d love to hear your views on 3D, whether you like it or not and whether you agree/disagree with me, so please leave a comment!

Helicopter Recording

So a few months back I wanted to try out my Rode Blimp and NTG-3 so went to my local (small) airfield. I wasn’t really expecting to find much, but what I did come back with was a load of Helicopter recordings. I think someone was having a lesson so they kept flying over the airfield which led to some great fly-by recordings.

I also almost caught a plane taking off right over me, but a member of the public started chatting to me about what I was doing and whether any planes had taken off today (I think he was a plane spotter). Luckily I managed to stop him talking just as the plane started it’s taxi toward me although, not so luckily, the guy got back in his car and slammed his door just as the plane was overhead. At this point, there was nothing I could do but hope for a chance at another plane, which unfortunately, never came.

Here’s a quick sample of a helicopter flying past me overhead:

Motorway Recording

After finally fitting a stereo pair of NT5s into my blimp, I decided it needed to be tested, so I drove to the local motorway bridge that runs over the M40 to record some car passes from above.

I ended up sitting on the top of the bridge with the X-Y pair pointing down towards the road, which meant that the left facing microphone was directed towards the outgoing traffic and the right facing microphone was directed towards the oncoming traffic. I left the recording running for around 45 minutes so I could get a decent amount of audio. I also managed to get some car horns as some people who drove by saw the deadcat so naturally had to cause a ruckus! Although, this worked to my advantage and gave me some interesting sounds.

Here is a short sample of the recording:

I went out to get some general driving atmos of a motorway, and although it wasn’t my intention, I ended up getting some cool sounding horns as well (unfortunately, not in the preview clip!)

Screeching Bin

Me and my recording buddy Matt Meachem (
http://mattmeachem.wordpress.com/
) were walking through a corridor when I heard this horrendous noise. I looked back, and saw that Matt had an excited look on his face whilst looking at this bin. It turned out that Matt had just hit the bin lid which sent it spinning round making this wierd screeching sound. I whipped out my little H2 recorder to get a sample of it because it sounded pretty unique.

We spent about 10 minutes getting different speeds of the bin lid, until we’d practically exhausted it.

Here’s one of the tracks we managed to get from it:

It kind of sounds like train brakes squealing and screeching.

Just before we left I managed to get a photo of it:

ORTF/NOS Hybrid in a Blimp

I’ve been meaning to go out and record some ambiences and stereo material recently, but have been worried about wind whilst out in the field. Whilst there is no current (as far as I’m aware) solution to fitting a stereo pair within a Blimp/Rycote, I decided to give it a go myself.

I came across this article:
http://audiofieldrecordings.wordpress.com/2010/09/09/rode-nt5-microphones-modified-ortfnos-recording-technique/
which explains how to fit a pair of NT5s into a Rode Blimp. Perfect!

I followed the guide but adapted it slightly. I liked the idea of having two XLRs running through one length of cable, but I wanted a quick fix and didn’t have time to quickly knock my own up, so I settled for plugging the tail cable that came with the Blimp into one of the NT5s and a standard Mogami XLR cable into the other. It took a bit of re-jigging and came up with something that looks like this:

What I ended up with was something which looks a little wider in degrees than ORTF(110 degrees)/NOS(90 degrees) but this was necessary to fit within the Blimp. I ended up taking it out and recording all six lanes of a motorway from a bridge, which I’ll blog about, with samples, when I’ve downloaded the files later this week.

Birds Recording

I’m currently visiting my parents in the countryside on a two week break (and bought my recording gear with me just in case) and after living in the city for three years, the first thing that struck me was the amount of birds singing in the morning. After not being used to it for so long, it kept waking me up, so I got up one morning at 5:00 a.m. to record some of it.

I decided to use the Zoom H2 for this, as it can record 4-channel surround audio @ 48 kHz/24-bit. Whilst I’m a big advocate at recording at higher sample rates, the surround sound option was more important to me in this scenario. There was a little bit of wind about on the morning I decided to record, so I didn’t want to take a chance on the standard windshield that was provided with the H2 recorder, so I adapted my Blimp to take the H2. This involved replacing the little rubber bands and mic clip with larger rubber bands which spanned the whole diameter of the metal rings.

The first photo shows how the H2 fit into the metal rings with the larger rubber bands. The second photo shows the fit within the Blimp:

I left the recorder going for an hour and went to bring it back in at 6:00, when most of the birds had quietened down. Here’s a sample of the recording, although it’s only a 2o second stereo file @ 44.1/16-bit:

There’s a bit of road noise in the background (The house is about a mile from the nearest motorway), which I intend to try and knock out with Izotope RX2 when I get back, but the birds have come through really clear. It almost sounds like a jungle (minus the monkey screeches!), which is mad considering it was recorded in the middle of Warwickshire.