Summer 2001 - The Association of Motion Picture Sound

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The'Olf Mg Trolley' Meettng... A SOUND EDITORS VIEW The divide between production artd postproduction sound in film and television, though irot wilful or intcntional. is irr practice very real. Both sidcs of the lirre have questions they'd like to put to the other, Lrut time ancl opportunity rarcly permit a proper exchauge. - As an editor ancl re-recortling rnixer I'm firmly routed in post production. Aparl from the courfy chairs and air-conditioning, one of the things ['ve found attractive about the post world is the everexpanding range of sophisticated equipment available to achieve our ends. Not particularly high-minded,I know, but there we are. Compared with this, the pole and shoulder-slung Nagra has always appeared rather bare and the miracles achieved by Production Mixers in acquiring usable sound far too reliant on real-time native cunning and physical endurance. This, as Production Mixer and panelist, Stuart Wilson points out, will always be a big element of the job: "There will always be a need for this 'real-time native cunning and physical endurance' as on location, aeroplanes will fly over period sets, costume shoes will clump loudly on wooden floors, sets will be too reverberant and need dampening, lighting equipment will hum and buzz and need cooperation to reduce, cutlery and crinoline underskirts will be louder than the dialogue and unfortunately no amount of high-tech equipment will eliminate these very practical, mechanical problems!" That said, after the meeting, it's clear that the array of kit now employed, by said artful individuals, is hugely expanded. Simon Bishop demonstrated SAS-like efficiency in deployment of his customised equipment trolley as, stopwatch running, he rolled the beast from the back of his van, powered-up, flipped out a few LCD displays and control panels and stood, 75 seconds later to my watch, ready to serve his glorious director. With his Deva|track HD recorder and facility for four radio mic's plus booms pltn transfer from Deva to DVD RAM, Simon would be capable of leaving options very open for the post-production department in terms of sources. [n practice, of course, ever-greater budgeUtime restraints mean that the PM's live mix is often used by the editor, with recourse to the multitrack being for emergencies only. Heart-breakin g, considering the lengths sometimes gone to to offer this flexibility. However, this knowledge makes it even more important that the PM geti the live mix as right as possible. With this in mind, Simon told of a colleague who had an interesting solution: He was using an 8-track rig where seven tracks of his eight-track recorder were fed from separate mics, with the live mix going to track eight. Having recognised that his mix for a certain part of a t0 recorded scene had not been ideal, he would wait for a break and then roll-back his 8-track, and remix the section to DAT still pr:eserving synch. The post:pro team were apparently anrazecl at the consistently high quality of the production mix. Simon is crrrrcntly looking into various models of hard disk I track, with a view to designing a systent that woulel allow irrstartt remixing {on set) bul. not necessarily archiving the B-track originals: "How many post pro schedules havc timc to even find the oft'ending shot on the 8-track tapes'/" comments Simon. Alt this alsn points up the importance of conscientious dialogue editors. It's easy for us to complain about lack of information and consistency, but it's also up to us to make that extra effort to read any notes and listen to all the takes. Time permitting... which it rarely is! Fully loaded with human ingenuity and also topping the kit-and-caboodle stakes, Stuart told of his most recent job on which he was using no less than 11 radio mics going to two eight-track recorders. [n a quasi Dogma 95-style his director was adamant about not replacing any dialogue and recording everything at all times. The film had started out as a relatively low budget project shot on DV with available light. Of course, it soon became apparent that to derive usable dialogue from this rough-and-ready approach was going to be far from easy or cheap. The director wanted to get good sound though and so Stuart was expected to do what he had to do to make it all happen - without taking any extra time, of course, save for a small allowance for getting the radio mics on before the start of a scene. Stuart: "There seems to be an idea among some directors and producers, that sound isjust'there' and as long as we push the record button, what goes down on tape will be exactly what they hoped for - a lovely, clean, ready-mixed dialogue track with minimum background noise! The fact is that to make a small improvement on location, usually involves a disproportionate amount of effort! But with a sympathetic director who is prepared to allow the time to get something better out of a challenging sound situation, there is a lot which can be achieved." One such adventure involved two of the main protagonists engaged in conversation while hurtling down a water slide, into and under the surface of a swimming pool, re-emerging to conclude their chat, covered by a second camera on the opposite side of the pool. A lesser person would have marked it down for ADR, but utilising hermetically sealed plastic bags, condoms for the mic capsules and lashings of gaffer tape (no Fairy Liquid bottles), he strapped transmitters to the actors' backs, placed mics in their hair and got the whole process as a clear and convincing single take. Tape should be removed from hirsute backs with one swift yank! r>
One of the problems with newer) irnproved cquipmcnt and it's ability to achicve better results is that dircctorial expectations rise and koduction Mixers are increasingly expected to arrive with huge piles of kit. The question is, who pays? Diminishing budgets artcl rising expcclations arc bound to cause an uncomfortable Lension. The young and the keen who travel hopefully towards an intended brighter tuture afe, as in many professions, wont to work largely for the experience and for little reward. It's imperative, though, that this does not become the 'eternal apprenticeship' that other show-biz associated trades suffer from. If, instead of f-5,00O to f 10,00O worth of kit, you are expected to pitch up with many tens of thousands of pounds worth, your rates must surely reflect that. Stuarl "One suggestion is to charge per- _ track or channels provided, so 4,track or 8lrack should be budgeted for accordingly. It would be good to have a two-pronged pitch of an approach to sound from location and post-production crew to producers, to say what can be achieved and why it is worth it. For example, the aforementioned flexibility of 8-track on location should be understood, appreciated, and the extra equipment paid for. Using machines such as the hard-disk 4-track Deva have advantages, but cost money to set up. It would be relatively easy to get a production to pay for a higher resolution film stock to improve image, and it is perhaps one of the tasks of AMPS to help increase appreciation of sound in a similar way - 'higher resolution' sound is possible if allowed for. The other advantage of such a discussion in pre-production, is . that editors, having rvelcomed the idea of all '.his flexibility, wouldn't then say 'Oh what a pain, I have to deal with four tracks, instead of one or two' when it comes to the editing stage. If there is a wish to keep flexibility and separation, the post route needs to be thought through and there is no doubt that more time in post is required to edit location multi-tracks to get the best out of them. Dubbing theatres can have hugely expensive, high-tech gear, but if one is looking to use original performances rather than ADR, there is a limit to what all that gear can do with a seriously compromised original - as the old saying goes: You can't polishaturd." This and other topics of great import were taken up afterwards over lunch in the local pub including tales of mythic sound effects libraries containing such gems as 'Ash on carpet' and 'Distant shot of dog on grass'. Some things never change. JIM BET'I-ERIDGE 1l BAFTA TV FILM SOUND AWARDS The policy of AMPS Newsletter in reporting the nonrinees aild winners of Oscar and BAFTA awards lor sound lras always been to give the names of those responsible for Production Sound, Sound Editing attd Sound Re- Recording, as again in this ycar's BAFTA Film Sound awards. However, we have had difficulty this year in obtaining all the names responsible for the BAFTA TV Film Sound Awards. Several have been listed simply as'Team' and others with only one or two names. While the Team idea may appear to be a fair way of including all the technicians who worked on the nominated productions, it seems rather impersonal when other craft awards which are also team efforts are personally named. The editors of the AMPS Newsletter have always made a point in congratulating all persons making up the crews of sound award nominees and winners. BAFTA TELEVISION CRAFT AWARDS 2OOI SOUND FACTUAL BzuTAIN AT WAR IN COLOUR {ITV) - BrianAheme DUDLEY MOORE - AFTERTHE LAUGF{TER (Omnibus) (BBC1) Michael[,ax SIMON RATTLE ON JTJDITH WEIR. SOTJTH BANK SIIOW (IT\T) - Paul Vigars, Alex Thompson VOLCANO (C4) - Victor Chainev. Chris Phinikas SOUND FICTION / ENTERTAINMENT (sponsored by Future lrilm Group) A TOUCH OF FROST (ITV) - John Fountaine, Adam Severs ANNA KARENINA (C4) - listed as Team - Stephen Phillips, Stuart Hilliker avps cLocKrNG oFF (BBCl) - listed as Team - Bill Dodkin LONGITUDE(C4) - listed as Team - John Rodda ANlps, Kevin Brazier AMps, David Humphries AMPS. Congratulations to all winners and nominees and to the crews who worked on the above productions FOR SALE. Ll Full set of Sound Equipment including P/8. In full working order. All metal boxed for transit. For info contact 0208 953 1998 (tel/fax) I Sound effects library consisting of 67 Sound Ideas CDs (Series 3000, 6000 and 7000) at two-thirds price (€115O) and 24 Hollywood Edge DATs at half-price (f400), all very under-used, with catalogues. Ring Peter Musgrave on 01895 635010.
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Summer 2001 - The Association of Motion Picture Sound

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