Some thoughts on production sound

The single biggest challenge a re-recording mixer faces every day (apart from what to get for lunch) is fixing bad-sounding production sound, or 'sync' sound. In layman's terms, when a film or a TV show is shot, the goal, as far as the sound guys are concerned, is to capture the dialogue between the actors. The rest of the sound is added later, from footsteps (which are performed to picture by the Foley artist) to gunshots and explosions (added in by the sound fx editors).

Many times, thorough inexperience, or just lack of care from the production crew, the sync sound isn't good. Some examples of this are:

1. You can clearly hear loud noises in the recordings, like electricity generators, overhead airplanes, people hammering nearby, or even conversations between crew members.

A director I work with, Sheldon Wilson, is so sound-conscious that he continuosly checks the entire set himself to make sure there isn't anything making any noise. In the end, his films have very little ADR because the recordings are very clean. So the producer is happy because they don't have to spend so much on ADR, Sheldon is happy because we get to use most of the performances on film, and I'm happy because I get nice, clean dialogue that integrates nicely with the music and sound effects.

On a certain film I worked on for another director, there was a scene with a party – many people chatting, glasses clinking and two of the lead actors having a conversation in the foreground. No one told the director that, when shooting those kind of scenes, the extras are supposed to just pretend they are actually talking and making noise. But these people were just blabbing away at full volume, laughing and having a blast. Needless to say, the whole scene had to be ADR'd.

2. The boom guy is inexperienced or doesn't care, and the boom microphone is not pointing toward the actors when they are saying their lines. Sometimes in the recordings you hear their dialogue bouncing off the walls of the room instead of the sound coming directly from their mouths. 

A good location sound mixer/boom operator team is invaluable. If you can find them, hold on to them for dear life – they will save you a lot of time and grief later on. They are quite comfortable pointing out problems to the director and the producer in a very diplomatic and persuasive way. They will advise for the actors to wear slippers when shooting close ups and medium shots, because footsteps on film set floors for the most part don't sound like they're supposed to.  They will learn the scene from the script to make accurate boom moves from one actor to the next. And most importantly, they will not be afraid to ask for another take or for thirty seconds of silence to record the room tone.

3. The wireless lavalier microphones that are attached to the actors are badly concealed in their clothes, so the sound is muffled and every time they move you can hear the fabric rustling against the mic's surface.

A good location sound team will work with the costume supervisor to use fabrics that don't scratch the mic surface and create noise, and that are acoustically more friendly. They will also make the actors feel comfortable when putting on and taking off lav mics and transmitter packs.

4. The sound is distorted because the location sound mixer wasn't monitoring and adjusting his recording levels to accomodate louder lines of dialogue, or because the batteries in the transmitter packs for the wireless mics haven't been changed frequently, and radio transmitters really hate old batteries.

Again, a good location sound mixer is very thorough and organised, has a good knowledge of the script, – and has been to the rehearsals – which allows him to know the dynamics of the scene to avoid level overloads, and keeps his rig well mantained at all times, including fresh batteries, daily tested cables and mics, and a clean recorder with lots of spare media.

5. The sound crew notices any of these problems and asks the novice director for another take, but their pleas fall on deaf ears. The common response with certain directors and producers is "We'll ADR it, let's move on" or, even worse, "It's OK, they can fix it in the mix".

Usually, directors and producers who are financing the whole film out of their own pockets learn very quickly the importance of avoiding this. "Fixing it in post" is very expensive and can potentially make a project both go over budget and miss its deadlines. On the other hand, directors whose first film was a multi-million-dollar action fest tend to underestimate the importance of this problem.

More to come...