rss feedInterview with Filmmaker Edward Grabczewski on Post-Production Audio
Q. Some filmmakers wait until the final hour to begin considering post-production sound. Did you plan ahead regarding sound design and audio sweetening or did you consider the audio aspect early on? Were there any pros or cons related to your timeline of post-production sound?
A. The Sound Manifesto is a group of filmmakers that specialise in providing sound department services to filmmakers in the UK. We typically work by heading up the sound department in preproduction with a Director of Audiography (see Wikipedia). Since we’re present at the very start of a production, we get the chance to plan for sound early-on. It also gives us a chance to feed back to the production office about locations and costs, as well as creative ideas and a full work breakdown.
Q. How did you handle audio sweetening, mixing, and mastering? (hired a sound designer, found someone to work for free, did it yourself)
A. On the last two shorts (”The Last Time I Saw You” and “Mike”) we did the sound editing ourselves and coordinated with a rerecording mixer at Pinewood Studios in England. In one case I was involved in preproduction as the Director of Audiography; in the other case I joined later in postproduction as Supervising Sound Editor. My colleague, Yang Xu, was Sound Editor on “Mike”.
Q. Were there any pros or cons related to your strategy for audio sweetening, mixing, and mastering?
A. Of course, using OMF or AAF files to pass work from the Sound Editor to the Rerecording Mixer and Picture Editor suffers some loss of information, for example, if you use plugins then they get lost in translation. You have to decide whether or not to conform your processing. There are several technical issues that can arise in addition. But the greatest pro in using a Rerecording Mixer is to be able to hear sound at the correct level in a proper Dolby 5.1 environment.
Q. How did you handle securing sound effects to use in your film/s? Did you use a sound effects library (CDs or downloads?), a foley artist, or did you create your own?
A. We used a mixture of library CDs and recording our own sound effects. There’s usually time to do this for shorts since the number of effects is usually small compared to a feature. Sometimes we used effects recorded by Production Sound, but they can be noisy.
Q. Did you encounter any difficulties or set-backs with your choice of securing sound effects? (ie “foley artist wasn’t good enough,” “Sfx CDs too expensive”). Or, did you find your choice of securing sound effects perfectly suitable?
A. The sound effects CD library we used was a well-known one, with generally good samples but since we’re in the UK, some of the effects were too US based (you can tell the difference between a UK crown and a US one. Same goes for traffic sounds). Sometimes, the effects just weren’t as good as they should be (just how difficult is it to get a good sound for glasses or bottles chinking?). There’s never enough samples to satisfy your needs in a library of 2500 effects. Looking at many web sites was disappointing – many of the sound effects were fewer and more disappointing. Some sounded synthesized! Others were just too amateurish. It just goes to show that it’s difficult making good sound effects.
Q. How did you secure music for your film/s? (Royalty-free or stock music, volunteer musician or composer, paid a professional composer to create a unique score for your film)
A. A professional composer was used in both cases, although the music in “The Last Time I Saw You” could easily have been created by a Sound Designer or Sound Editor.
Q. Were there any pros or cons to your method of finding music for your film and would you do anything different next time?
A. The more I get to know about the art of filmmaking, the more I realise there should be no “out of the box” solutions. Besides, neither of the films I worked on would have been able to afford the copyright fees for recorded music. What little money there was went to a local talented composer.
If you’re a filmmaker interested in achieving great sound visit The Sound Manifesto for tons of great information and practical tips on these pages, with more to come.
“The Last Time I Saw You” (2010) is about a paedophile father who meets his estranged son in order to explain why he left the family.
“Mike” (2010) is about a woman street artist who protects a boy from her money-grabbing boyfriend. Written by Prodromos Papadopoulos and Henry Lloyd-Baker, this short film was made for the London Film School as a graduation project; I don’t expect it to be released anytime soon.
TrackBack URL :
