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Presents Sound Design

This is a day by day account of my process of editing Presents and recording foley. As it is now, the project still lacks some sounds, especially footsteps, because I took it over a few days later since I started Next Stop a few days later and there were only a few days left till equipment store closed for holidays. However, I didn’t check that in advance and was left in a situation where I couldn’t take out equipment to record those extra sounds I needed due to my lack of foresight. Had I prioritised recording rather than planning I could have recorded those sounds, but since I prioritised foley and setting up the session, as I thought I would have time to record outside later, I couldn’t make it in time.

The holidays also interfered with my ability to get feedback and work uninterrupted, and on top of that I have pulled my neck and became unable to sit upright for longer periods of time. I had to take breaks and lie down, so I did a lot of my work from home rather than in SAS. However, despite the obstacles I am quite happy with the results and will definitely revisit the sound to fill in the gaps before we submit the film to festivals and competitions. 

One thing I am not happy with, however, is the music and specifically how it is mixed and how dramatic it is, especially in the scene where Jake and Maria are having a conversation at the table. It is very dramatic and over the top, and I have discussed this with David many times, but in the end he has the final say, even if I don’t agree with it.

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Music problems - Next Stop

In the beginning, after first receiving the music I had trouble making it fit to the film. It just didn’t sound right mood and tone wise and was a bit awkward. After playing about with for a while, however, I have discovered that the same tracks fit much better in places they were not intended to be, such as the track meant for the ending fit nicely in the beginning, and the beginning track sounded more like a credits track. I also moved then to slightly different points in the story and cut them up and changed duration to convey my ideas to the composer. We had a meeting with Andy (the composer) and Matteo to explain where we want to go from now on. However, there seemed to be some miscommunication, as the rerecorded tracks I received fit less and were much longer than the roughly cut up demos I was using. The mood in some of them also seemed to have changed in a direction that simply didn’t work. I expressed this to Matteo, trying to push him to give feedback to Andy as I didn’t want to overstep my boundaries, but in the end I ended up taking over and giving feedback to Andy myself, although I did my best to keep it more technical. I made a precise list with timecodes for music, so that there would be no misinterpretations, but one of the reworked tracks just didn’t work no matter what. In the end, on the last day of the edit with various versions in front of us, both me and Matteo decided to use the original demo we had for the monologue scene, as it still fit the best.

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Post logs for Next Stop

This is a log of my day to day sound design process.

After some feedback from Zoe I also decided to record some extra stereo sounds in a tram. This was very last minute but has improved the first scene in the tram greatly.

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ADR for Next Stop

Due to some miscommunication (I thought we were only using the fighting shots for “behind the window” footage and the wildtracks I have taken do not mach up with what they say in front of the camera) the young couples lines had to be rerecorded in post. We also decided to rerecord the boyfriends lines inside of the tram because of his bad delivery (and since he was facing away from the camera they shoud’ve been easy to replace). However, the actor was not used to ADR at all and despite me doing everything I could to make him comfortable he could not match his performance at all. It is especially apparent in comparison to the skill of the female actress, who recorded her lines pretty perfectly. I did my best, with Zoe’s help, to make his lines match, and even though it sounds slightly better it is overall still pretty awful delivery. I will attempt to take the attention away from his acting through other sounds in the scene and muffle it as much as possible once John gets on the tram.

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Initial Presents Post Sound plan

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Initial Post Production Plan for Next Stop

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Next Stop editing and green screen problems (late start)

Due to green screen and editing problems Next Stop if off to a late start and it looks like I will be starting the sound edit at least two days later than planned. I have had to step in and help with final edits and preparing the footage for the green screen editor, and have also discovered that some shots don’t have all of the sound tracks synced to them. I have had to manually check now many tracks each recording has and then check that against recordings used and make a list of shots that need to be resynced. (pictured below).

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Outside

I also helped out on Outside as a boom op, both operating and teaching Sam how to do the recording and mic people up, so he could do it on the days I wasn’t available on as well. It was a very enjoyable and refreshing experience, concentrating on the boom without the pressure of concentrating on recording and the levels, as in both of my previous shoots I was not only recording but also supervising and teaching boom operators, as most of them very doing this for the first time.

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Presents shoot

Presents was a much more pleasant set sound-recording wise – it was a relatively quiet flat, with the main problem being seagulls and squeaky floors. I tried to grab as many sounds as possible to use as a reference for foley later or even instead of foley. The main problematic bit worth mentioning is Jake’s and Maria’s hug, where they say some lines while in the hug in a really tight, hard to boom space (and lavs are squished between their bodies so not very useful). Knowing that the quality is not as good as all other scenes I also got multiple wildtracks of the lines, to use for characters facing away from the camera, as the boom was picking up pretty well the lines of the character facing towards in each of their shots respectively.

After doing some research I have decided to not record slow motion shots as the sound captured would be too distorted to use in any way after slowing it down so much.

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Next Stop Shoot

The recording for Next Stop has gone worse than I expected and prepared for. Due to a huge amount of shoots happening at the same time (plus a sound tutorial) the available sound equipment was very limited and after many negotiations I managed to get what I could work with (except for a stereo mic for recording sounds on the moving tram – I will have to recor it with the same equipment that I have booked for the shoot). However, on the pick up day it turned out that there was a mistake in the system and that one of the lavs was only booked for the first day of the shoot. Ben offered an analogue lav microphone that works through a XLR cable rather than wirelessly, which took a bit of getting used to and was quite inconvenient whenever an actor had to walk or a shot was wide enough to make the cable at the feet visible. We also were not allowed to turn the air conditioning off nor use the electricity from the tram (and used a generator instead), which resulted in recordings much noisier than I expected.  Since the levels are fine I should hopefully be able to work around it.

Another problematic area are wide shots shot from the other side of the platform – we worked around some of them, but the sound quality isn’t great. For the scene of the couple fighting I resorted to taking multiple wild tracks, as they will be only heard distorted as if coming through a window and not seen normally.

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Recording - Tram recce

We recently been to the Edinburgh tram depot to have a chat about options available, what we want, what we can do and so on. We were also allowed to get on a tram and look around, take some pictures, plan some shots. The tram people seemed to be very accommodating, and even offered to provide me with their sound files for stop announcements, bell tones, etc. However, upon getting on a tram I immediately noticed how noisy the air conditioning was, even with the tram stable and engine off. I was reassured that we will be able to turn the air conditioning off and use electricity from the tram (without need for a generator) so the recording should be fairly smooth, with the main potential issue being the narrow space that the boom operator will have to navigate in while keeping in mind shadows, lighting and character and camera movement.

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Presents

I started preparing ideas for how I wanted to use sound design as a creative tool back in last semester and carried that over to this one, pointing out parts that could be tricky to David, like the wedding bells. We did have short discussions through multiple meeting, but the first big meeting we had for discussing Presents was together with the composers, as David had previously already had a meeting with them without informing me (despite me asking to be put in contact with them ASAP), so I wanted to present both David and the composers with my ideas and see what their ideas were. It was a very productive meeting that had to be extended into another meeting as we had lots of material to go through, discussing the workflow, creative ideas and which parts are better suited for extensive sound design and which – for music. The main big disagreement we had with David was about music being used over the opening sequence, and as he was not willing to back down we reached a compromise of deciding to create music for that scene and deciding in the edit whether it should be used or not.

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Preparation and meetings - Trains

We had multiple meetings with Matteo discussing the sound design ideas that we have, and even though I have a lot of ideas of how the layers of tram sounds can be used, both in a more realistic way and in a more subjective to the character way, I’m not completely sure what direction Matteo wants to go in, which is completely fine at this stage as he is concentrating more on the visual side and the script in preparation. However, I am worried about his stubbornness in using music without specifying where and with what intent it should be used. This seemed to be confusing the composer as well, but after a long meeting we had some ideas to start building on.

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Future research plans and reflection on the agenda

Comparing now to what I set out to do in my research agenda, there certainly are deviations from my original plans. I set out to work without music as much as I can, but will be collaborating with composers for both of my projects, although the use of it will still be quite minimal.

I have looked a bit into how sound works in terms of physics and how human brain interprets it, but would like to know more and will look into in over the winter.

I have also improved in terms of both my recording skills and editing skills: I have learned how to use a wider variety of recorders and mixers, how to better use radio microphones, how to record ADR and mix sound with a physical interface. I am also preparing to take a ProTools exam in January.

I would also like to continue looking for films that have similar styles and elements of what I am trying to do with Presents and Trains, although I already have a few good exaples, like Utopia, The Handmaid's Tale, The Happiest Day in the Life of Olli Maki, Before Sunrise and Spirited Away. If we can't get access to filming in a train and decide to film in a car, then I would also need to research the sound design of films shot in cars, although except for the sound scape the approach would be the same. I would also have to do some research into car types and engines and what sounds do they make and how to capture these sounds.

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Presents sound edit

Since our test shoot only happened 4 days before the deadline there was almost no time for sound design, but we managed to spare an afternoon for it, which I mostly spent working on the dialogue, as due to my lack of collaboration with the production designer the sweaters actors were wearing made a lot of noise and I have failed to get a recording of a quality I wanted. However, that serves as a good reminder of the importance of collaboration between wardrobe and sound.

I will finish the sound design of the test shoot before 2nd semester, and would like to continue working on the dialogue, replacing lines with better takes where it is possible to do so, reducing the noise to make it sound more bare. In this particular scene I also want to put a lot of work in the part where Jake stands up and slams the table, as that is the culmination of the scene and the way the sounds in this sequence of actions fit together is very important. I want to work on recording some foley for that scene, focusing on creating sharp, crisp impacts, that would build up and supplement each other, finally exploding with a slam, shaking everything around and Jake loses his calm.

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Making of the test shoot sample for trains

Right now I am working on the sound design example for the materials we got during the test shoot. It is quite bizzare adding train sounds to a scene shot in a classroom, but at the same time it is quite a fun and interesting experience. I am mostly working with library sounds and dialogue captured on set (plus voice over we recorded at home) as there is no time to go out on a train trip and gather sounds or record any foley. However, I am hoping that library sounds would at least work in proving a more tangible idea of sound design style we are going for. I have divided my work into sections as follows:

tidying up dialogue and voiceover, some premixing

creating the train sounds from different samples found in the should library

creating the feeling that there are other people in the train

adding sound library “foley” - footsteps, sitting down sounds, doors.

working on the voiceover

EQ and mixing to make the scene cohesive and create the “subjective POV” where John is hearing more of what he is paying attention to.

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Presents test shoot

Due to various circumstances (we had to reschedule because the kit was booked out on the days we planned, then the actors couldn't do the new dates and the location wasn't always available either) the test shoot ended up very late in the semester. However, that gave us time to prepare, as we are aiming to use the footage for crowd funding. I decided to go with by now a standard set up of two radio mics, a Shotgun and Sound Devices pre10T plus a tablet connected to it for keeping a log of shots, takes and other notes about sound. There was one problem I knew I will have to deal with before shooting and that was the traffic outside, as the flat we were shooting in was above a busy street. However we had curtains over the window and I also used the angle of the Shotgun to avoid catching the sounds of the traffic outside (and we waited out a few ambulances and particularly noisy buses) and that worked quite well. The lav mics didn't pick up the traffic either as it was out of range, so that was good too. That doesn't mean that the recording was ideal though, there was one thing that I forgot to take into account  - wardrobe. Both of the actors were wearing knit sweaters with no undershirts, and the sweaters have proven to be quite noisy. I have tried to compensate for that by making the triangle “pouches” out of skin safe tape and trying to stick the microphones to both the skin and the sweaters so that the material wouldn't rub against them as much, but there is still some noise in the recordings, although not as much as in the first takes.