Audio production for V48

true. i kind of wish they did that here, ride the levels i mean. in auckland it definitely seems like they do their best to just guestimate the average levels of all the shorts and just leave the volume there, meaning anything mastered at -10 is way, way quiet.

Audio production for V48

feature mastering for cinema is usually done at 0, not -10 to -6. broadcast is strictly -10.

Audio production for V48

peaks at -6 is good - i wouldn't worry!

Avid Symphony: Faster than crap

:rolleyes: :P

(brb about to layback your ep 5)

Submitting a better render?

in reply to Andrew Todd:

your future career in broadcasting isn't going to be ruined by your audio being 3 frames out of sync in a 48hours film.

you know what... it actually really bums me out to know that some people think like that. treat it like what it is people - a fun weekend with your friends!

to whoever this team is - get a grip!

Audio production for V48

it will be fine, definitely not something to stress over. but i suspect it will probably a bit quieter than the others at the heat.

Reflections on what was and could have been

we were really conscious about getting as much script time as possible this year which meant writing through the night, waking up early and going straight to first location. it's the first time i've ever directed anything without having made even just a basic shotlist which i will never, ever do again.

i mean i don't regret spending more time on the script than usual but i need to work out a way to have both done before shooting.

Audio production for V48

one other thing - if you use a professional post-production sound guy who mostly does broadcast work he or she will by default mix everything to -10db, which is the standard for delivering to tv stations.

but this will DEFINITELY be too quiet in a cinema for the heats. make sure they mix closer to 0 db. this year we compromised and mastered at -6 i think.

Audio production for V48

there is one item we fork out money to rent every year and that is a decent sound mixer.

it's a bit easier to borrow stuff like a shotgun mic, boom pole and if we're lucky a couple of radio mics.

we have one dedicated sound recordist on set who swings the boom and mixes. we always make sure we have a camera that at bare minimum has xlr inputs - that way the mixed audio is recorded in sync with the pictures and there's no fucking about with sync in post.

in editing after we lock our cut we tracklay as much as sound effects and music as possible and then export an aaf for a dedicated sound mix in pro tools. i strongly feel that it is worth the time to do this - the ratio of return in terms of time:results is huge. it doesn't take long at all to make a massive difference, and it's also a fresh pair of eyes at a time of the weekend where everyone is exhausted.

once that's done we export a .wav out of pro tools and import it back into avid to export the final pictures and audio together.

HORROR STORIES 2012

we were in the middle of a big hero jib shot with 20+ extras when one of them fainted in the middle of the take. everyone thought i had asked her to do it on purpose and not told anyone in order to get genuine reactions for the camera. i hadn't. thought to myself... "it's finally happened, someone has died on a hybrid shoot."

she was ok.

Academy audio system...please get it sorted this years heats.

the problem is unfortunately inherent with the Academy sound system. put simply: it sucks at any time of the year.

i took the photo that dylan is referring to above and it is absolutely horrifying.

Avid Symphony: Faster than crap

in reply to DylanReeve:

Pretty sure you and I have identical work stations (or close enough) and yeah - no problems for me either :) Symphony 6.0.1

[VIDEO] Auckland finish line countdown

in reply to Ant Timpson:

sweet my producer is friends with the guy who shot it so will see if she can pull some strings :)

Trying to import .MXF but apparently they're locked?

Did you just import the mxf files directly or did you keep the directory structure in tact? With formats like p2 it's very important to keep the directory structure that the camera records in tact.

[VIDEO] Auckland finish line countdown

attention anyone with footage of the auckland countdown:

if you're happy to have you footage included in a cut of this moment email me at alastair.t@imagesandsound.co.nz so we can a handover :)