Filmmaker Resources

The following guide is meant to be a reference for indie filmmakers as they navigate the complex post-production sound process.  It is not meant to be an exhaustive discussion of every nuance of audio post-production.  If that is what you are looking for, I recommend a couple of books:

The Practical Art of Motion Picture Sound by David Lewis Yewdall

Dialogue Editing for Motion Pictures: A Guide to the Invisible Art by John Purcell

I hope that this website is useful as a basic guide for everything that a filmmaker needs to know when dealing with an Audio Post-Production house.  I will try my best to keep it updated as technology and standard work practices change.

If you have specific questions, I encourage you to contact me directly at kc@audiohangar.com.  I usually respond to emails within a day. 

Cheers,

KC Blake 

The Indie Filmmaker’s Guide to Sound Design

Prepping your project for the Sound Designer

Getting Files to the Sound Designer

Once you have finished editing your project, you are ready to hand off the audio to the sound designer.  You should only do this once the picture is locked.  Continuing to edit after you have given the project to the sound designer can be a real headache for everyone involved.  If you must make changes to your project after it has been delivered, make sure that you talk to your sound designer beforehand in order to minimize the amount of frustration. 

Working in Reels

If you are planning on making film prints of your finished project, it will be necessary to break your projects into reels.  Only about 20 minutes of film can physically fit onto a reel in the theater.   If you are only planning on releasing on BluRay, DVD or Video, you probably don’t need to worry about this and can just hand over the project as one complete file.  There are a few rules of thumb when breaking the project into reels:

- Keep each reel under 20 minutes.

1. -The reels should break on hard cuts (not on fades, etc).
   

2. -Audio must also be on clean breaks.  Music or sound effects should not carry over.
   

Standard Leader Sequence for film and video

There is a standardized way to format the Leader Sequence for your project before you hand it off to a post-production house or broadcast facility.  The project Leader Sequence should follow this format:

    For Film:

    01:00:00:00 - Beginning of Reel 1 - Academy leader starts at 8 and counts down to 2

    01:00:06:00 - 2-Pop occurs – One frame of the number 2 shows on the screen with one

            frame of corresponding 1 kHz audio.  You can download an audio file here.

    01:00:08:00 - First frame of picture

    Exactly 2 seconds after the last frame of picture (LFOP) another 2-pop occurs

    02:00:00:00 - Beginning of Reel 2

    For Video:

    00:58:50:00 - Beginning of tape - Black

    00:59:00:00 - 30 seconds of Bars and Tone

    00:59:30:00 - 10 second Slate (Project ID) including project name and contact info

    00:59:40:00 - Black

    00:59:52:00 - Academy Leader starts at 8 and counts down to 2

    00:59:58:00 - 2-Pop occurs. One frame of the number 2 on the screen with one frame of

            corresponding 1 kHz audio.  Download audio file here.

    01:00:00:00 - First frame of picture

    Exactly 2 seconds after the last frame of picture (LFOP) another 2-pop occurs

Timecode

When exporting video for your sound designer, you should include burnt-in timecode to ensure that everything stays in sync and as a visual reference as the sound designer is working on the project.  Click on the links below to learn how to add timecode to your video.

Adding a timecode burn-in window in Avid

Adding a timecode burn-in window in Final Cut

OMFs/AAFs

Chances are that you have edited your project in either Final Cut or Avid.  In order to deliver the audio to the sound designer, you need to export the audio from the timeline as an OMF or AAF.  These are standard file formats that allow you to transfer audio data from one program to another.  For most projects, OMFs will work fine.  When exporting files, you will be asked to select handle lengths.  This is the amount of time that will be added to the beginning and end of each clip.  The longer the handles the better.  10 second handles should work fine.

For detailed instructions on exporting OMFs from Avid or Final Cut click on the links below.

Exporting an OMF from AVID

Exporting an OMF from Final Cut

Note on Sampling and Bit Rates

While there are numerous formats for Sampling and Bit Rates, any sound designer worth their salt should be able to deal with whichever format you throw at them.  In the sound design world, there are two common standards for Bit Rates (16 Bit and 24 Bit) and four standards for sampling rates (44.1 kHz, 48 kHz, 88.2 kHz and 96 kHz).  Most video and film projects are done at 16 bit 48 kHz and you definitely can’t go wrong with this format.  If you would like to work at a higher bit or sampling rate, talk to your sound designer about this.

Video Files

Along with the OMF or AAF of the audio files, it is also necessary to export a video file for the sound designer.  This is usually done as a Quicktime Video.  There are several different video formats that can be used.  Some of the most common are:

DV Stream

Motion JPEG

H.264

There are benefits and drawbacks to each of these formats.  Ask your sound designer which they prefer.  Traditionally Motion JPEGs have been the standard, but more and more sound designers are using H.264 files which have improved resolution and smaller file sizes. 

Additional Audio

Along with the audio and video from your edited timeline, it is important that the sound designers have access to all of the raw audio that was captured on set.  They will be able to use this audio to search for alternate audio takes to replace unusable dialog or production sound effects.  Depending on how you shot your project, this is probably either on DAT tapes, data DVDs, videotapes or as digital files on a hard drive.  If you shot on videotape and ran the audio straight into the camera, you should digitize all of the videotape footage with the audio so that you can just hand over a hard drive to the sound designer with all the files.

The Sound Design Process

Spotting – The first step in the Sound Design process is to spot the project.  The spotting session can include the Director, Producer, and various members of the sound department.  During the spotting session, the crew discusses the overall feel for the project, potential problem areas and the director’s vision for the sound design.

Dialog Editing – Dialog is arguably the most important single element in any project.  If the dialog is not seamless, the audience will be pulled out of the action.  The Dialog Editor smoothes the transitions between shots, isolates production sound effects, ensures that there is no distortion, clicks or pops, and organizes the dialog by shot to make the mixing process easier.  They also identify areas where it may be necessary to loop lines. 

Looping/ADR - No matter how well the audio is captured on set, there will almost always be some pieces of dialog that are unusable due to noise, distortion or poor acting.  The job of the ADR Recordist is to record actors as they re-speak their lines in sync with the shot.  The challenge in this process is to match the approximate ambience of the original space and direct the actors to get convincing performances. 

Backgrounds - Backgrounds include sounds such as birds, wind, traffic and crowd noise.  Many times a walla group is recorded to imitate the sound of a murmuring crowd.  

Foley - The primary job of the Foley Artist is to create any type of sound effects that are associated with human movement.  This includes footsteps, clothes noise, pats and grabs, etc.  The Foley Artist will act out these movements in sync with picture.  This is usually done in a specialized room called a Foley Stage.

Sound Effects - Sound effects can include anything from doors opening and closing, car engine noises, explosions, eerie sounds, etc.  The Sound Effects Editor will either find sounds from a sound library or go out in the field and record new sounds for the project.  This is a very creative process and a good Sound Effects Editor is crucial to the sound design process.  Many times the right sound for a particular scene is not the actual sound that an object makes. 

Music Editing - On most indie productions the music editing is done by the Video Editor or the Director.  Music is am important tool for setting the mood in a scene.  Finding the right music and editing it to fit the scene can be challenging.  Make sure that you use music that you can get clearances for so that you are not replacing songs multiple times throughout the project’s life.

Pre-Dubs/Pre-Mixes - Once the individual editors are done gather the different elements of a project, these elements are mixed together to create finished groupings.  For example, a certain scene might have 40 tracks of sound effects.  A sound effects pre-dub will mix these 40 tracks down to one or more tracks so that the Re-recording mixer(s) do not have to worry about as many elements during the final mix.  Pre dubs are usually done for Dialog, Music, Effects, Foley and Backgrounds.

Re-Recording Dubbing / Re-Recording Mix / Final Mix - There are many names for this process, but no matter what you call it, this is where are the elements finally come together into a stereo or surround mix that can be played in theaters or put onto DVD.  The re-recording process takes all of the pre-dubs of the different elements and mixes them together.  This process include adjusting levels, applying equalization, adding ambience or reverb and placing elements in the different speakers.  

Why do I need to mix my project on a Mix Stage?

Mixing your project on a Dolby and THX certified mix stage will ensure compatibility with theaters around the world.  Mixing on a large stage is an entirely different experience than mixing in smaller rooms.  Large cinema speakers reveal many sounds that you may have never heard before in your edit bay.  You can mix your projects in a smaller room, but if you plan on releasing your films in theaters, you should definitely mix on a stage.  

Finishing your project

When the sound design on your project is finished, you will be given several files.  Trying to navigate all of the delivery formats can be confusing for even an expert.  Below is a guide to help you out.

Pro Tools Sessions - This is a file that includes all of the separate elements of the project broken into tracks.  If the project was mixed entirely in Pro Tools, it will also have all of the mix information so that the mix can be recreated.  Depending on the system used, it is not a guarantee that another mixer will be able to open your Pro Tools sessions.  Different systems have varying capabilities and plug-ins so be aware of this if you need to make changes to your project. 

5.1 Surround Sound Mix

If your project was mixed in surround sound, it is most likely a 5.1 mix.  This means that you have 6 channels of audio including Left, Center, Right, Left Surround, Right Surround and Low Frequency Effects.  The sound designer will give you a set of files (usually AIF or WAV files) that includes all 6 channels of audio.  This is sometimes called the Printmaster. If your project was broken into reels, you will have a separate set of files for each reel. 

Stereo Mix - The Stereo Mix is simply a left and right channel mix of your project.  For most projects, a stereo mix can be created directly from your 5.1 mix.  Most DVD players do this automatically if there is no stereo mix on the DVD.  To create a stereo mix from a 5.1 mix simply to the following the each of the channels:

    Left - Pan to the left

    Center - Pan to the center and lower the volume by 3dB.

    Right - Pan to the Right 

    Left Surround - Pan to the left and lower the volume by 3dB.

    Right Surround - Pan to the right and lower the volume by 3dB.

    Low Frequency Effects (LFE) - Pan to the center and lower the volume by    

            3dB.  Depending on what is on this track, sometimes you might not

            add it in at all.

Dialog Music and Effects Stems (DM&E)

Dialog Music and Effects stems (DM&E) are mixes of your project broken down into separate elements.  If you placed these three stems onto a timeline and played them together, you would hear your final mix.  This can be in both in surround and stereo, but most of the time they are delivered simply in stereo. DM&E stems are useful for numerous reasons.  Their primary purpose is so that if your project is sold for foreign distribution, the dialog can be re-voiced in another language without having to go back and remix the whole project.  DM&E tracks are also useful when cutting trailers and commercials because the music and effects from a certain scene can be removed or replaced.

Layback

At some point you will need to marry the audio with the video.  Depending on what the final format is of your project (Film, DVD, Videotape) you will need to go through different processes to convert your final mixes into the appropriate format.  A whole book could be written about that.  If you have specific questions, please feel free to contact me at: kc@audiohangar.com

Notes about releasing on Film with Dolby Encoding

If you plan to release your project in surround sound in theaters on film, you will need to have Dolby encode the audio.  This requires that you purchase a Dolby License for your film.  Part of this license includes an engineering fee to cover the cost of the Dolby Engineer coming out to a facility to run the encoding.  This does not include the costs of the mix stage or the stage engineer.  Dolby encoding for film must be done on a certified mix stage.  For more information contact one of Dolby’s offices. http://www.dolby.com/about/contact_us/locations-english.html

The Dolby mix for film ends up on a special Magneto Optical disc that is synced with the film print at the theater.  A Dolby Surround mix is also created at this time and is converted into an optical track that gets printed onto your final film prints.  For more information on this process contact NT Audio.  http://www.ntaudio.com/contact/

The QC Process

Most distributors and broadcasters require that your project go through a quality control screening to ensure that it meets industry standards.  In this process, someone will check to make sure that there are no errors such as a boom mic in a shot, colors that clip, distorted audio or missing sound effects.  This can be grueling process and it is critical that you use a sound designer who is familiar with the types of problems that can come up.  This will save you many headaches.

Note for filmmakers about playing at festivals

Most festivals are in the dark ages when it comes to exhibiting your film.  The most common format for a festival is BetaSP.  Because this format only allows four channels of audio, you will not be able to exhibit your full 5.1 mix.  This means that you will either need to exhibit your film in stereo or Dolby Surround.  

TOPICS:

Indie Filmmaker’s Guide

Working in Reels

Standard Leader Sequence

Timecode

OMFs/AAFs

Sampling and Bit Rates

Video Files

Additional Audio

Spotting

Dialog Editing

ADR/Looping

Backgrounds

Foley

Sound Effects

Music Editing

PreDubs/PreMixes

Re-Recording/Final Mix

Why mix on a Mix Stage?