The Ten Commandments of Sound for Picture
 

Run, don't walk, to Christian Dolan's blog and be sure to read his Fifteen (drops tablet, ala Mel Brooks) Ten! Ten Commandments of Sound for Picture for all to obey. Inspired by Mike Curtis of HD For Indies, his guidelines make such excellent sense that everyone should read, review, print and keep them. And thus... an instant sticky for this forum.

Excerpt: "Thou shalt accept the fact that... there is no such thing as a remove echo filter."

Part One: http://www.syncsoundcinema.com/2007/...etten-ten.html

Part Two: http://www.syncsoundcinema.com/2007/...en-ten_24.html

And on a related note...

"An Open Letter from your Sound Department"
located at http://filmsound.org/production-sound/openletter.htm

This letter is being written by audio professionals to help directors and producers understand how good sound can be recorded on the set. We want to help you make the best film possible.

Thanks to Mike Curtis for passing this on.

Chris,

Thanks! This is my first sticky'd blog post . :)

(Also, you're the only one so far that has gotten [or at least mentioned] the Mel Brooks bit.)

Thanks to all who've stopped by.

-Christian

Dear Christian,

I enjoyed reading your Ten Commandments.

In part 5, you prefer "Booming from Above", over "Booming from Below".

I realize that these are your preferences and that you will use "Booming from Below" when it is advantageous.

I feel that in many cases "Booming from Below" is very desirable. For example, less problem with shadows, less problem with unintended floor noises, and it is easier to hide the boom operator (in some cases).

Could you elaborate on why you prefer "Booming from Above"?

I can't speak for Christian, but I have a number of reasons why I feel boom ops should boom from above and not below. Here are some:

- Celings are rarely carpeted, nor do they usually have as many furniturelike objects on them and their hard smooth ceiling surface can cause your sound to be overly live

- people's legs are frequently touching the floor, as are, usually, many more furniturelike objects than appear on the ceiling. These things are obstacles to a moving boom and can make it impossible to follow action or movement

- in almost any shot except a close up or extreme close up of a person, their mouth is going to be closer to the top of the frame than the bottom. closer is better

- booming from above is going to sound different than booming from below. Therefore, even during the times that none of the above mentioned things are true, I'd still prefer booming from above because it will mean the sound will more closely match all the other shots where the booming was from above because of one or more of the above mentioned things.

Are you kidding, I love HOTW Part One.

"Sire, the peasants are revolting!"
"You said it! They stink on ice."

Apologies for the OT post...

I got it. But then again, I have that movie in my library. One of my favorites.

"Occupation?"

"Gladiator."

"Did you kill today?"

So much funny stuff in there... like the chessboard scene.

-gb-

Here are two shoots in which I decided to boom from below.

1. A shoot for ESPN at a fishing tournament. The frame was upper chest and face. We were outdoors, with the sun overhead with a small HMI as a fill light.

I was worried about shadows if I boomed overhead.

2. We were indoors, in a studio with high insulated ceiling, shooting a staged scene. The studio was set to look like a restaurant, with two people talking quietly to each other.

Again, if I boomed from overhead, I would create shadows on the wall behind the actors.

I found that if I lay on the floor, the mike and boom were hidden by the table. I could get close enough and had enough room to maneuver to the speaker. It sounded great, in my humble opinion.

Isn't carpeting a good thing? I thought you would want to reduce reflections.

Chris..

Great list, but, I think you left off one so very basic that most amateurs don't even think about it.

"Thou shalt always monitor the audio whilst recording video".

Bill! You mean people *don't do that?
*faux shock*

Also, the slating tip is awesome. I don't care if you're recording in the same device, some poor editor (whether it visual or audial) is going to have to sort through that slugde.

Again, if I boomed from overhead, I would create shadows on the wall behind the actors.


you should try and get the shadows cut, I only boom from below when all else has failed, It can make the actor limit what he wants to do not to mention putting your mic at risk. But if you like lying on the floor be my guest.

I agree with attempting to get the shadows cut.

In this particular case, due to the nature of the film, the director wanted harsh "Larger than Life" shadows on the walls behind the actors. An overhead boom would have created a problem.

I also agree that it is best to boom from overhead.

one more thing to the list... let us get room tone and ambience's it takes 30 seconds out of a long day. not a big deal!

Are we up to 15 commandments yet?

My favorite line...
"It's good to be the king!"

Exactly, pointing at carpeting is a good thing and that was my point. If you boom from below, you're almost inevitably going to be pointing at an uncarpeted ceiling. That's one reason you are usually better off booming from above.

My favorite part is where he points out that wireless isn't magic. I get really annoyed with the attitude that wireless is the answer to every problem. It's more of a necessary evil.

Excellent list of commandments! I'm coming into pro video production after 10 years as a producer/engineer in the pro audio industry. Drives me crazy when people won't listen to sound people with advice about sound.

Probably a dumb question. Is it feasible to have a wireless mic capture clear voice, and have a separate mic capture surrounding sound, and mix together on the video tape?
The problem I need to solve is interviews near the ocean. It might be cool to have a little of the background sound but also to have the voice clear and dominant.
I'm hoping $700 will be enough to get some basic equipment to start with.

XH A1

I would record the voice on one channel and the ambient sounds on another.

Thanks Dan, the XHA1 has the two channels so I'll hook up a shotgun mic to one and the wireless to the other, point the shotgun at the ocean and turn down the volume for that in comparison to the wireless on voice.

After recording 2 channels of sound on one stream of video, how do you capture the 2 distinct audio (stereo) lines in the editing software (Adobe Premiere Pro)?

Dear Bob,

Sorry for the delayed reply.

When you capture the video, you should automatically capture the two (stereo) audio tracks.

Then, in your Non-Linear Editor, you can separate the two channels into two separate tracks, then adjust the levels of each mono track as desired.

This will give you one mono channel of voice combined with the ocean background at whatever level you choose.

Just so I'm clear your arguing over whether to boom from above or below? You boom from the angle that works best in your situation. Above, below, sideways - depends on the environment. Come on guys, there's enough folks on this list that are clueless please don't add to the clutter.

Shouldn't that be "Thou shalt always monitor the audio whilst recording AUDIO"? because, of course, the AUDIO guy ought to be doing the AUDIO - NOT the VIDEO guy (who should be doing the VIDEO!).

Obviously, when you're a one-man production team, that's not possible - but it's what we should be trying for... Many's the time I wish I'd had a seperate sound guy.

Brilliant
 

Chris,
i'm about to produce, direct, and act in my first short film. The only budget I have is for equipment. I've now made my way to audio and was blown away by your article. It's given me a new perspective and sincere appreciation for sound. Thanks for sharing and influencing my approach for good film making!

Here's how I'm shooting. Sometimes it's even triple-system....

I run wired mics whenever possible, use a boom operator, etc.

I route the mics, whether wired or wireless, to an Alesis Multimix 8 USB2...Which is a multitrack USB mixer. Each of the 8 channels is captured at 24-bit 48k res in Sound Forge. I use one of the two monitor outputs of the mixer to create a 2-channel mixdown, and route this to the camera. This makes syncing easier, later...You already have a reference track. And in a pinch, the audio is typically usable, anyway (even though it's definitely not as clean as the 24/48...)...Definitely good enough for dailies!

In addition, I often run one of those Samson H2 4-point digital recorders...capturing also in 24/48 WAV, 4-channel. I can use the audio tracks from this recorder to get good room tone, as well as use the 4-point system to get full surround if needed...After a little processing.

Each take is slated, so I have record of what goes where....

Post may take a little longer than single-system in-camera sound, but lemmie tell you....It sounds unbelievable in the end. Gives you lots and lots of audio to choose from!

I was wondering if you still like this mixer? I was looking for for something with Phantom power for my Rode NTG-3 and spotted this unit. I was considering a JuicedLink CX231 but this unit seems to offer so much more with the ability to record to the computer as well.

How well does the audio track sync with video? I want to avoid the situation people face with the Zoom recorders with having to adjust the timing (except for ambient sounds).

Thanks so much for this post, it was most useful and humorous.

I've printed it out and will consult it while arranging all my future productions.

Haha, shoot-it-again filter, priceless!

Missing Link
 

Has anyone saved the documents from this link?

Or know a site with similar information??

Thanks

Dead links..
 

Yes the links are dead. Would love to read them!
Thanks!

Someone helpsies
 

Lets get em back up lol.... as if it's that easy.


But in all seriously someone must'a saved them! :-p

Hope this helps
 

I copied it into a Word document for reference. (Hope that isn't illegal!) Here's a PDF of it.

Thank you Mary!!!

You're welcome!

Re: The Ten Commandments of Sound for Picture
 

Many thanks for the update.... Really like the websites Chris.

We have just published a guide which may be a good companion to the Ten Commandments
 

Rough Guide to Location Sound Recording - https://sites.google.com/site/iconta...ound-recording

"It is easy to get carried away with the visual side of filmmaking and let sound take second place; this is a big mistake. Generally sound is as important as picture and sometimes even more so. While picture can grab us emotionally it remains detached and outside the body. Sound by its very nature can be subtle and subconscious or even felt physically. It gets inside you, vibrates you and grabs you emotionally from within. It is almost impossible to be totally immersed and feel something is truly real with images alone, but shut your eyes and listen to a high quality sound design and you will feel that you are actually there. It is generally not possible to fix sound problems but a lot of visual problems can be rectified. If a crucial part of an interview is ruined by mobile phone interference the sound is useless; however If you have camera wobble or are re-framing during the same crucial sentence a cutaway can be used to fix the problem."...

Re: The Ten Commandments of Sound for Picture
 

The document seems to be disappeared from Sync.Sound.Cinema again.

IME, this is a more reliable source that has never disappeared:
An Open Letter from your Sound Department - A Production Sound Manifesto written by audio professionals

And here is the document with some updated discussion:
https://jwsoundgroup.net/index.php?/...epartment-v15/

Re: The Ten Commandments of Sound for Picture
 

Also,

There is now this.
Still, best to not have reverb/echo there in the first place if you can help it. Granted, it's amazing what tech can enable us to do these days.

Andrew

Re: The Ten Commandments of Sound for Picture
 

These links are working for me...

Part One: sync.sound.cinema: The Fifteen [drops tablet]...Ten! Ten Commandments of Sound for Picture! (Part One)

Part Two: sync.sound.cinema: The Fifteen [drops tablet]...Ten! Ten Commandments of Sound for Picture! (Part Two)