For the filmmaker, aspiring engineer, sound designer, sound-savvy producers and directors – and students – welcome!
6 January, 2022 – Garbage In, Garbage Out, and Planning Ahead
How many times have I heard “fix in post”, or “fix it in the mix”? I’m going to say waaaay too many . . .
There are a lot (like, a LOT) of tools available these days for fixing the issues, mistakes, errors, and oversights that almost inevitably happen in the sound gathering/production phase. A lot of these tools are pretty great, almost all of them are getting better with every new rev – but alas, there are always limits to the technology, and likely always will be.
As one example, I present set noise – yes, yes, we all know there are things beyond our control on set. Finding out too late that you’re under the flight path of a major airport, finding out too late that you don’t actually have control over the HVAC system or other noisemakers, discovering that shooting during morning/evening rush hour wasn’t such a great idea, being next to that busy street, highway, schoolyard, whatever – but no one noticed that because you all scouted the spot at an off time of day.
These are all things that might not be managed by the latest post-production technology as elegantly as we’d prefer, and many of them could have been headed off with a little pre-production and some planning. First and foremost in your solution bucket would be including the sound person on the location scout, or at least involving them in a prepro meeting – these are just two easy ways to beat some of the problems before they are actually bigger, more expensive problems. Of course, you chose that set or location for a whole host of reasons – visual and storytelling reasons, setting, etc. – and none of us sound folk can reasonably expect you to change that solely for the purposes of sound. It might be nice, tho . . . but no, not really.
Rather, that extra step is about helping to manage expectations – an experienced sound person could point out that yes, we’re going to have significant noise issues, being next to that highway, shoreline, construction site, or airport – and understanding the scope of it all would all be helpful info to have before we all arrive the day of. Steps can then be taken – maybe (worst case) just resorting to planning an ADR session later, maybe we can arrange to grab some wild lines in someone’s trailer, or we can bring in extra sound-deadening tools – there are a lot of measures we can take, especially if we know in advance. Other steps can even yield more tangible and direct benefits, but need to be put into motion well ahead of time – such as finding out if we can get control of the HVAC while we roll some takes – or those beer coolers, or whatever other building, traffic, mechanical, or plant noise might be going on. But coordinating with your locations person, getting in touch through them with the right people beforehand, these are all things that require time, communication, and uhh . . . even more time to get those wheels rolling well in advance. That would all be time well spent, though – and it sure beats scrambling around on set, burning dollars and daylight!
So yes, bottom line, there are a whole host of tools and plug-ins to help fix that stuff in post – even, in the worst cases, resorting to dialogue replacement. But these post-production processes and technologies always mean some amount of compromise is going to be inflicted on that original performance – be it sound quality issues, the actor’s performance, or whatever. Ultimately, they all represent extra steps, and those steps take time, and time . . . is more money.
All to say – a little planning can go a long way.