Audio for Films – 10 Easy Tips
Films are an audio visual version, yet most film makers focus solely on the visual part. They tend to forget that without a good audio quality the film would totally loose its impact!
None of your scenes would create that horror or terror or tickle without the right background score! Some of you might think that it can happen just like that – like a magic – but, the news is that nothing in film making happens like a magic!
For a good audio impact what you need is a trained audiophile – a professional who loves to handle the boom of several wanted and unwanted noises with a microphone all through the day.
You must know that almost all the cameras have an in-built mic that records all the dialogues delivered and the other sounds during the shoot but this mic is one of a very poor quality. So, ultimately every film maker lands up working with some external mics.
Here are a few tips to understand your external mics better and enhance the audio quality of your film:
1. Look for a professional in the field who would guide you through all the technical requisites.
2. In case you are planning a lower budget, try working with a friend who is a fresher in the field. He might be inexperienced. But a well trained young talent works wonders at times, better than the far experienced ones.
3. Invest in atleast 2 good quality remote mics that must sync in with your camera. You make your actors wear these remote mics on their body. In order to make them work well, you must place them correctly.
4. Placing the remote mic is rather tricky, but once you know the right way, it is just another daily job for you. You must use your fist with the thumb extended up & pinkie extended down just like the ol’ hang’s loose hand sign. Now, place your thumb under the actor’s chin. Now where your extended pinkie ends, is where you place the mic. It means that the mic close enough in order to capture good sound, but far from enough from the actor’s mouth thereby preventing popping and sibilance.
5. For the group scenes, a mic with a boom is just excellent. The audiophiles have a real tough job that is to handle a boom for days together. But these professionals are trained for the same and are really passionate about it.
6. After the shoot and the recording of the sound done there simultaneously, these sounds are carried back to the studio. Here the film maker edits these sounds so as to match with the images. Unlike the olden days of film making, now the filmmakers have ‘the Non-Linear Systems to Edit the Non-Linear Sounds.’ Popularly this technology is known as the NLE – it enables you to move your sound clips back & forth within the video itself.
7. The sound tracks and sound effects add mood and life to the film. It is always advisable to create fresh music for the film rather than copying it from some where else. Using recorded music could lead to major legal hassles that would affix your film in the post production stage only.
8. Copyrighting laws are quite strict and violating them could cost you far too much to imagine. Remember, anything that belongs to another artist/s or their agent/s, that is if they have an ownership right to the music, no one can use the same without their written permission. There are some ways around this law but not as many and not that easy as well.
9. You can only use the music that is from the public domain. You can only use the music piece or image with no ownership attached to the same, that is there are no person/s or organization/s to claim the proprietary interest of that music or image.
10. To get original work it is always good to hire a professional. To go economical and work rather comfortable try working with a fresher or a friend who is talented enough to compose interesting soundtracks and effects. These days you shall find many budding composers & musicians in search of a chance to work for a film to expose their talent and art.