Category: Group Meetings & Tutorials

Group Meeting #5- 18th October 2016

Our primary topic of discussion in this meeting was the location. As an audio crew, we stressed the importance of the most deadening and quiet location possible as it can effect the dialogue track drastically. The ideal location for the set is a basement so we discussed where possibly locations in Lincoln could be. We decided that one person from the audio crew would go location scouting with Hannah, Lauren and Jamie so that we could give an audio perspective.

Just prior to the meeting, we had come back from Lincoln Drill Hall to look at their basement for a possibly location to shoot in. I went and felt like the setting was great but audio wise not so much. There was busy traffic just outside and a busy public foot path, which would cloud dialogue. I explained that if we were to go with this location, the audio would potentially be compromised.

These are the draw backs that were discussed about the Drill Hall

>The shoot would be rushed as we would only be allowed to be there 10am-4pm. This is including emptying the basement from Drill Hall property as the basement is used as storage and also time to dress the set up.

>The dates for shoot are too spread out as we would only be aloud to shoot on the 31st of October, 14th of November and the 17th of November.

>Too noisy, compromising the recorded dialogue.

>Low ceiling restricting overhead booming. As discussed in my research, this would effect the dialogue track as we would only be allowed to scoop, cutting out the higher frequencies resulting in a mid heavy track.

The agenda for this meeting was to see where everyone is at regarding own research and job roles.

We discussed the current state of the script and when it would be finalised so we could have more of an understanding of what sound design we can implement for the film.

I brought up the subject of costume design as I wanted to know what sort of materials Lauren had in mind. I stressed the importance of soft materials such as cotton; this is because if we decide to use a Lav microphone, we need to be able to reduce the noise of clothing as much as possible and having soft materials can help reduce this risk. Lauren gladly took this on board.

I also asked that when it came to the size of the Actors/Actresses that we were to be told. The reason I brought this up is because I have been looking into buying body belts and ankle straps specifically designed for Lav microphone packs. These make it easy to hide the transmitter from the camera and eliminates the use of clipping it to belts or trousers to have it then be covered by another piece of clothing.

This then brought us onto the subject of the budget. Me, Dan and Sam are to strictly keep ours audio based whilst the others are to use theirs for other aspects of the film.

Overall a good meeting as we discussed further plans of the project, established where everyone is with research and the script and established a budget.

 

This meeting was just specifically for Me, Sam and Dan to discuss what roles we would take on and the techniques we would need to research before we start shooting our film.

Location Sound

As there will be three of us on set, we established the roles that needed to be undertaken and who would do them. These roles are:

>Boom Operator who concentrates on capturing the dialogue with a boom microphone and applies a Lavalier Microphone when necessary.

>Mixer who’s job it is to control the levels recorded into the mixer, making sure that it doesn’t clip or isn’t too quiet. Checks and gets rid of sound sources that might interfere with the recorded dialogue track.

>Ambient and Wild track recordist. We decided to make this a role as from previous experience, we found it crucial that the connection between Ambient/Wild track and Dialogue should be similar. This creates a smooth and coherent relationship between dialogue and sound design in the post-production stage of the film.

As the shoot will be limited to just 3-5 days, we figured it would be fitting to allow each person to take turns in taken on these roles for location sound to gain experience within the field.

Post-Production

We discussed what jobs would need doing and what we wanted to do for when it came to post-production. Sam expressed that he would like to concentrate on editing Dialogue and Music track. Me and Dan decided that we would switch the recording and mixing process of Foley and Sound FX. Dan would record and produce the Foley and I would mix it and I would record and produce the Sound FX and Dan would mix it.

As a whole, we felt this meeting was useful as it established what was need to be researched and who was doing what. We felt like we had divided the job roles fairly allowing nobody too have too much or to little involvement in the project.

 

 

 

This meeting was attended by all members of the project and the main aim was to discuss dates and times of when people couldn’t do filming and also when we could possibly start filming. We also discussed a rough timeline of when the edit and picture lock should be done by so post-production sound could start.

With things being as organised as they, we should hope to have the film shoot finished on the 18th of November given Tom (Editor) enough time to edit the film and have the picture lock to us by early December at the latest. We stressed that when we received picture lock, nothing could be changed in the film as it could throw off the sound on the film making everything out of sync. I know this from past experience as I have had to re-do audio for a certain scene as here was a different edit. Tom took this on board and assured us that he would work to his deadline.

Lauren showed me a few drafts a costume design which was incredibly useful as it gave me some indications on where to place any Lavelier microphones that we may use on set.

This meeting helped us achieve progress for our project as now we have deadlines to work to, helping us organise our time with other work.

This meeting was all about catching up with each other after a long summer of researching for our project. In the summer we set up a Google Drive folder for everyone to share their research so each and everyone of us could contribute.

Me, Dan and Sam met Jamie for the first time as he was unable to attend meeting #1 so it was a great opportunity to share our previous work with each other and to break the ice.

We then went on to discuss our thoughts on the fourth draft of the script; Everyone seemed to be impressed and enthusiastic about the script and the whole project as a whole.

The Audio Team (Me, Sam and Dan) put forward ideas of how to go about the Location Sound aspects of the project. Basically explaining the importance of when location scouting, it is incredibly important to try and get the quietist location possible as it can effect the dialogue captured. The production team took this advice on board.

Overall the meeting was successful as it outlined what needed to be done in order to pursue this project and to make it successful.