Wednesday, November 10, 2010

More on Sonic Perspective

In film, your camera determines your perspective by bringing you closer or further away from the subject. Usually you would start with somewhat of a wide shot at the beginning of a scene to establish where the scene takes place. Then you would cut between medium and close up shots periodically for coverage of the scene, with the occasional cut back to the wide to depict any sort of movement that may happen during the scene.

In sound, there is also a perspective that comes through, depending on how the scene is framed with the camera. If the shot is wide, there usually is no way to get a boom near the subject, and hence the perspective is far away.

In this case, it seems unreasonable to expect the sound department to get a close up sonic perspective of a subject if the camera framing doesnt physically allow it right? Well, you would be surprised how many people do not consider this.

Some film makers shoot mainly wide shots in an effort to save time and money, and although wide shots can be very beautiful if done right, they can also give a sitcom effect to your picture. "But sitcoms have sound right? It's pretty good!" Well, if thats what you want, but let me tell you a little about how that is done, and why it isnt ideal for your film. First, the sitcom is a dying style, and it only works on closed sets for the most part. A sitcom has a built set with no ceiling and a couple of crane operated mic booms hanging overhead with a special kind of super long range shotgun mic that is able to get decent (but not cinema quality) coverage over such wide shots, because most sitcoms are shot relatively wide. This would be rather impossible for a "one man show" type sound person to get on his/her own. Sitcom style shooting also tends to require excessively long shots, meaning they run for a long time, and cover more than one actor. A boom operator holding a boom over their head for your wide shot can't do that all day, and usually 10 minutes is really pushing it.

Well then why not just put a lav on them? If you have read any of my previous posts, you will know that relying on a lav is never the solution. If your camera/lighting departments arent working with the sound department to make sure that everyone is happy, chances are you are not going to get ideal coverage for sound. So your picture may look fantastic, but your sound may be hollow and distant, or extra noisy.

I've worked on a number of films where the DP will say something like "I've run sound for a film, so I am conscious of what the sound department needs." That is nice to get a sympathetic person on set, but the truth is, unless you have a deep understanding of sound, both technically and in experience, you will know that their idea of what you need as a sound person in order to get good sound is vague at best. They often think that because they can hear the dialogue, the sound is good. And to the untrained ear, this will pass. But as soon as that film is projected alongside a film that did things the right way at a festival or something, suddenly your opinion changes.

So unfortunately the sympathetic DP often has no real idea of what you need, which is terribly unfortunate because your camera and lighting departments are often dictating how you do your job, without really knowing anything about what your job requires.

This is why a lot of sound people keep to themselves on set, do their job, deliver the audio, collect their check and leave. Because they are tired of fighting the good battle on every set they work on, on every setup they do. So they simply say "We can only deliver you the quality of sound that your production allows us to give you". What does this mean? Well, if your camera person only does wide shots, and your lighting crew arent making it possible to get a boom near the subject without casting shadows everywhere, then they arent letting the sound department do their job right. And to make things worse, the noisier your location is, and the further away your boom is from your subject, the worse your sound will be.

What it comes down to is this: The best place for a microphone is as close to the subject as possible. This is just how it is, theres no such thing as magically "zooming in" your audio. If the mic can't get close to the subject, they will sound more distant, and you will have a louder noise floor, or background noise.

So back to perspective. If your shot is wide, dont expect to get a close perspective from your sound, because it is physically impossible, with certain exceptions. Punch in to a close up on your subject to get good coverage, and please, do not forget about the dialogue editor! They are probably the most important person in post production audio!

No comments:

Post a Comment