'Freefall' - Audiobook editing at the deep end !

The Audiobook that I edited on behalf of the BBC is now available as a 12 CD set and as a download and it's really gratifying to see something that you helped to create available as a product on the shelves !

This was my first experience of commercial editing and I learned a huge amount in a short time. I learned not just the Technical skills of 'how to edit' but so much more about creating the right pace, feel and tempo for the book. Some parts were read slightly differently to others in terms of pace, so where I could I tried to make them as consistent as possible. I learned how to master the finished audio, slice into chapters and split those chapters across cd's. All in all a great introduction and touch wood there may be developments on this front soon !

http://www.audible.co.uk/aduk/site/product.jsp?p=BK_BBCW_003198UK&BV_UseBVCookie=Yes

Practical Art of Motion Picture Sound

For anyone with an interest in film sound this book is a must - David Yewdall draws on his (considerable!) experience to give a very strong explanation of all areas of movie sound, going from the old days of film where he was editing with a degaussed razor to the modern digital age.

He looks into production sound techniques and relates examples of films that he has worked on where decisions outside of his control have caused no end of grief - usually being overruled by the director or producer, finding out there is no post production budget, actors not available for ADR due to being dead, that kind of thing.
...in fact at times he does slip into a bit of a self-righteous 'told-you-so' about some of the stories "if they'd have listened to me they'd have saved millions..." but stick with it and learn from the mistakes of others. worth a read.

filming the Bath Spa Careers event

Thu 15th Oct '09

Ved, Chris, Aleicia, Dani and me spent the day at the Newton Park to cover the Careers events that we taking place all over the campus.

Ved & Chris set up cameras in the main theatre to cover the seminars that were being given by a number of speakers - whilst the rest of us were the roving team covering the careers fair in the students union.

Aleicia, Dani & me took turns between Camera, Director and Sound and we managed to get all of the footage we wanted - we had discussed beforehand that we wanted to get plenty of student and exhibitor interviews, general views of the fair and stalls plus a 'walkthrough' of the fair that could be speed up or slowed down and used in the edit to join between interviews.

It was important to have a shotlist and a concept for the finished film before starting out filming as it made life a lot easier when gathering the footage - plus it meant that we got what we needed rather than just a random selection of interviews.

On reviewing the footage the thing that jumps out on certain takes is the level of background noise - even though we were using a Boom. It is possible the mic wasn't close enought to certain subjects but if we are filming in a similar environment again in the future I'll make sure that we have a radio mic as well so that we can get a closer perspective on the subjects.

I've taken on editing the careers fair section of the video so I'll post it up here when it's done !

Sound Recording for a 4Docs entry

Sara Barbas is a freelance animator and is studying for an MA in Scriptwriting at Bath Spa Uni - she decided to enter the '4Docs' documentary competition - she put a call out for crew so I decided to lend a hand with the Sound Recording...

The documentary is on little things we can all do to recycle - so we visited a guy who makes his own organic compost, interviewed him in his conservatory and then filmed him working in the garden. I used a 416 and Boom for all of the sound and was able to get really good clean sound on all of the takes. Next up was a spanish girl who reuses water on her plants - again not a challenging scenario technically - but good experience of bread and butter sound recording work and of working in a similar way to a news gathering team.

For the finished film I also worked with a good mate of mine to write, produce and perform the music for the doc. Sara wanted a 'Brazilian' feel so we put our heads together in his studio and came up with the piece of music that you her at the end of the doc. enjoy !

http://www.4docs.org.uk/competition/view/277/Little+Green+Gestures

being a Sound Recordist ......?

Fri 30th Oct '09

I'm very keen to get into location Sound Recording so I approached the best ones I could find in the Bristol area - and was lucky enough to be able to meet Keith Rodgerson, who after many successful years in the BBC is now a Freelance Sound Recordist.




www.keithrodgerson.com

Keith gave me some great advice on everything from microphone placement (especially a great tip for recording sound at distance with a 416 which I won't divulge !) to how to get into the business and most importantly how to survive (have a backup plan or another source of income !). Things have changed a lot since he was taken on as a BBC trainee and those opportunities don't really exist any more - all you can do learn from people like him, get as much knowledge and experience under your belt as possible, get along with people, be calm and professional on-set - and pray that you get hired again !

As Keith says "Sound Recordists get paid to travel the world, meet all kinds of interesting and famous people ........ and switch their fridges off !"

and if you do switch a fridge off
"leave your car keys in there so that you don't forget to switch it back on !"