Issue link: http://digital.copcomm.com/i/246736
Audio for Independent Films you need the big dub stages for the final mix, to get that theatrical feel, but a lot of the work can be done in the smaller rooms, which is great economically." Roden adds that more work is shifting from the mix stage to the edit room. He does a lot of prep work, as well as pre-mixing. "I do think the tools that we have, and at the prices they're at — they really are affordable to just about everyone — can help lower budget independent projects achieve a big cinema, post production house type feel." Roden adds a word of caution. "I do strongly believe that you need the experience to use those plug-ins. It's very easy to get it wrong and make it sound awful. It's great that people can afford to do this, but you really need the experience to be able to do it." Bayman agrees, "The technology is great only if you know how to use it." Heard City, which often works on spots, handled the majority of the audio post on the indie film, Low Down. 30 there was a lot of slowing down and manipulating the bike sounds we recorded to make it right," he notes. To re-create the crowd sounds, Bayman and his audio team recorded loop group sessions with Italian and French actors. He notes, "Some of the guys who came for the loop group had actually been to some Italian bicycling races, like the Giro d'Italia, so they knew what it sounded like." The loop group added the necessary detail to crowds. To beef up the crowds, Bayman used a combination of library sounds and sounds he recorded over the years from outdoor sporting events. To cut through the busy track, the loop group actors had to really shout. "The film has a really terrific score that is very dynamic, and with all the bike sounds and commentary, the main thing was to have a really loud, projected crowd that would cut through," says Bayman. "The loop group did a brilliant job and it really enhanced this film." Roden, the dialog editor on the film, notes that the editor created the film's narrative from clips taken from multilingual broadcasts from hours, weeks, days, and even different races to build the story. The recordings are noisy, with traffic, helicopters, generators, and other sounds plaguing the commentators' dialog. Cutting between these clips created continuity issues. "Keeping all those clips as a consistent, coherent sentence was paramount," Roden says. "We used a combination of EQ and dynamics to get it all sounding similar, and clean, and at the same volume." Lastly, Roden turned to restoration plug- Post • January 2014 ins. He used the Waves Restoration plug-ins, and the iZotope RX3. "It's all about moderation because we don't want to destroy the quality of what's there," he says. "Bit by bit we had to tidy it up, and using those things, we tried to build a coherent sentence like it was said in that flow, in that context." Bayman mixed the film in 5.1 using an Avid ICON digital console and working in Pro Tools 10. He also did a mix for TV. He mixed both virtually, with no outboard gear. Since he did a lot of the sound design, prep work, and pre-mixing in Pro Tools 10, the film was in a good place for the final mix in Theater 3 at Goldcrest Post in London. "It was a very easy transition going into Theater 3," says Bayman. "All the plug-ins that I used were still there. Doing a lot of the pre-mixing in my studio made the whole process a lot sleeker, which is really beneficial because we didn't have a lot of time." Advances in audio post technology are streamlining the transition between editorial and final mix. Doing the sound design, or editing and pre-mixing dialog in Pro Tools 10 for example, and then using that same system, plug-ins, and 5.1 surround speaker setup on the dub stage saves a lot of time, notes Bayman. "For a project like this, by the time I got onto the dub stage, the films was already in a good shape," he says. "The dialog cleanup was done, and for the more technical things, like reverbs and EQs, you can go a lot further with them than you actually could a number of years ago. It gives you a chance to focus more on the creative aspects, like music mixing, and balancing the sounds, when you get into the bigger studio. I still strongly feel that www.postmagazine.com The Big House, Send Cory Choy, founding member of Silver Sound, is a big fan of short films. Short films are very exciting for sound, says Choy, "because you're creating this whole world so quickly and you have to make your choices with the sonic palette. Each sound really has to count." Silver Sound (www.silversound.us) is a New York City audio post production studio that also provides location sound services.Their audio post services include sound design, original music, ADR, Foley, VO recording and editing, and final mix for film,TV, radio, and mulitmedia. They've worked with clients such as MTV, HBO, NBC, Facebook, Bungie and PBS. Silver Sound recently completed the audio post for independent short film, The Big House, directed by Musa Syeed. Syeed won an Audience Award at Sundance last year for his film Valley of Saints. Silver Sound created original music and sound design for The Big House. They also did the final mix. The Big House is told from the perspective of a child in Yemen, who finds the key to a mansion. He explores inside, jumps on the beds, and plays around before getting chased out. Syeed had very specific direction for the music, notes Choy. "He didn't want the music to feel stereotypically Middle Eastern, like, let's play some sitar now, which is what Americans think of when they think of the Middle East. He wanted something that actually felt a little bit more western, and more subtle." Choy worked with composer Luke Allen to come up with a guitar- and piano-based score. They kept the music light in accordance with Syeed's direction. "He wanted the soundtrack to have a vastness without mak-