"One Art" (Post Production)
Short Films
For Everyone
Updated:
The Project
This is a short film whose details I am not currently permitted to disclose (I will update this post when it's released).
The film was written and directed by Burtman.net partner, natku.
My Roles On This Project
I have plenty of fingers in this particular pie...
Sound Recordist
Foley Artist
Sound Editor
Musician
Color Supervisor
..which means?
Sound Recordist
During the production stage, I recorded location sound (actor dialogs) for two scenes. This was my first film job as a sound recordist, and I was very new to it, and to my equipment. While I was getting reasonable sound for the most part, some moments turned out to be too polluted by background sound and needed to be dubbed. So the next job was to have the actors over to the Burt-cave for dubbing.
Being entirely new to sound recording meant that this, too, was tricky, and Byron made sure to help out by walking about and making his trademark whines over all the best takes. We recorded with a sheet of foam from the camper bed as noise isolation, and despite strict cost and time restrictions, we finally got pretty decent sound.
Now, we're in post-production, and the next part of my job is to record beds - those layers of sound that bubble away underneath everything else, giving a scene a consistent and appropriate baseline soundscape. Beds are important, when the sound of a place is jarring or distracting, or when there isn't enough of it to make a scene feel smooth and natural. For instance, there might be a street scene which is interrupted by a loud motorbike or siren. Recording a bed for that scene would mean going to the same place, or somewhere with a similar physical environment, and recording the sound of the place, itself, for at least as long as the scene that the bed is for (ideally, for twice as long, so there are editing options). The resulting sound bed will later be mixed into the scene in such a way that it will sound like it was the original background sound.
As the video editing process got underway, I was not involved in the project, and spent a good amount of time learning, and improving my skills as a sound recordist. Recently, the project has come back to me, and I've begun working on an even more difficult and meticulous process called foley.
Foley Artist
Foley is incidental sound that's recorded after the original shoot, to add texture and fill in details that make a scene sound more complete and natural. During principal photography, it's not always possible to get a decent sound recording of everything that happens at a given moment. For example, while recording dialog, the sound of footsteps or objects in actors' hands may not be as clean as would be ideal.
As a foley artist, my job is to watch every scene with a keen eye on those details, noting all movements and other sound-producing actions that need to be clarified, and then using whatever is available to recreate those sounds as accurately as possible.
This process is painstaking. If an actor is writing, and the director wants the sound of the pen on the paper, it's necessary to mimic the same writing, matching every loop, cross and dot on every letter, taking into consideration the pace and pressure of the writing, as well as the type of pen and thickness of paper, among yet more details. The result, if done perfectly, is barely noticeable. If done less than perfectly, it's often unusable and needs to be done again. During this process, there can easily be more than 20 takes that make up the subtle sounds of a simple conversation or sequence of movements.
Working on foley, I'm finally ticking off something I've wanted to try for a long time, and it's much more fun than it sounds like. There's a video, below, that I've put together to illustrate this process and how it fits into a scene.
Sound Editor
With the scene sound, foley and beds recorded, the mixing process involves taking all the recorded layers and arranging them over the finished video. Once placed, they need to be leveled, so that nothing is too loud or quiet, and everything that should be heard can be. Along with levels, everything must be balanced, so that the staging (spatial positioning) makes sense. If the camera turns towards a sound source, it should not only get [appropriately] louder, it should also sound like it moves from the side to the center (or to wherever it needs to move to sound correct).
With this basic work done, mixing now takes on a more detailed, second listen, where all the subtle noise levels and changes in location tone are smoothed out, so that each scene sounds natural and works with the scenes either side of it. Everything gets equalized, and some subtle effects are added, in order to accentuate or blend certain parts of the overall soundtrack.
Mixing the music into the film is also done in this stage...
Musician
Because this is a zero-budget film, it's not possible to pay the price of using famous music, nor that of hiring someone to compose and record a score. Therefore, the entire musical component of this film (covers and incidental music) is being performed and recorded here, at the Burt-Cave.
Recording the music gives me a chance to play with mic setups and try out some ideas I didn't have time to play with, in the few musical recordings I've been a part of. Here, I'm applying what I've learned about mic positions and room dynamics, among other things, as I create my first soundtrack, in the entirely-unsuitable Burt-Cave. Despite my limitations, I'm determined to create something beautiful, and have a lot of fun.
Once this process is complete, we go back to mixing, which is complicated by the introduction of the music layers. This is the final mix. After natku gives the all clear, the soundtrack is complete, and we move along to...
Color Supervisor
The last role for me, on this project, is not related to sound. This work would, ideally, be completed before the final sound mix and music composition, but things being what they are, it's happening at the end. In this case, it's not problematic, as we both know the film so well, it's not necessary to take cues from the final work, in order to informing our compositions. If it were, then the grading (color work) would definitely need to be completed before we started tracking music.
Anyhoo, the first part of the color grading process is to perform baseline color correction, so that all scenes look natural. Since the film had no funding, luxuries like color charts had to be skipped, so this process is quite a bit more complicated. To baseline each scene, we need to perform delicate adjustments to the individual color channels that make up the picture, balancing skin tones and atmospheric light sources, managing contrast, exposure, black and white levels, luminance and more, so that the shots look as they do in reality.
Once the entire film has been through baseline color correction, and looks as "normal" as it can, it's then possible to create a thematic color palette, which will be used to stylistically color the clean imagery, to create the final look. My role as color supervisor means providing guidance and feedback on this process and the results of creative color decisions. Done well, this stage will introduce emotional cues and tones that are sympathetic to the scene, supporting and advancing each moment. The overall result is a film that doesn't just look natural, but evokes feelings and compels the viewer to invest a part of themselves in the story.
With all of these jobs completed, the film will be ready for a small cinema screening for a selected preview audience.
What happens after that is yet to be determined.