Lvl 6 - FMP: Trick Of The Dark - Girlfriend Shoot

For this shoot i had no major issues that presented themselves, in fact this was one of the easier shoots, there was certain instances of planes and automobiles passing but they were not present throughout which made for a more consistent & higher standard of audio. For this shoot i had a basic set up with no Radio mics & we had no reason to set up any further ado sessions as i caught exactly what we set out to achieve. The equipment i had on hand was the Zoom H6, Rode NTG mic, Boom Pole & XLR cable. i had the settings defaulted as stereo & used the space around me to make sure that i caught a minimal amount of background interference. i started with capturing Atmos as normal and pushed onwards with the production, we wrapped in around 2 to 3 hours as the scene we had set to shoot weren't as intricate as some of the other cave sequences which allowed me to focus more on making sure that everything else that could use my assistance was taken care of. overall this shoot was a success & we captured what was needed to finish the film. We know going forward that we ar not going to pursue capturing some of the final scenes as there is no time and we already have a narrative structure put together due to Andrew and his incredible editing ability which i will certainly give him props for as he was able to pull this film together in such short notice.

Lvl 6 - FMP: Trick Of The Dark - ADR

Automated Dialogue Replacement is the process in which you dub over the lines that were not captured to a high quality. It is also known as Looping or Dubbing, so we thought it appropriate to using this technique due to some of our audio issues. On the third shoot for Trick of the Dark we scheduled an ADR session for the following day, which was also the day in which i helped with Echoes ADR as well. As technical as ADR seems from the image below it is actually one of the easiest tasks i have had to accomplish during my time as sound operator. I used Audacity to record the audio during the sessions, it was straight forward & only took several functions to record, save & export the different takes of audio. There were only two dials to keep in check which were the in going levels & out going levels of sound. This was to control the way in which volume was leveled.

Obviously with these ADR sessions they were predominantly focused in the areas in which we could either not gain a high standard of audio such as the sound stage or due to public interference such as unwanted talking, motor vehicles & extreme cases of wind. We focused on the two shoots which were the ending/1st shoot & the cave scenes, these are the areas that needed dubbing. The session lasted around 2-3 hours & we were able to gain all the necessary audio through multiple takes of the three.

Lvl 6 - FMP: Trick Of The Dark - Cave Shoot

So for the third shoot of Trick Of The Dark we decided on getting as much of the cave scenes completed as we could. We established that due to time restrictions from the upcoming deadline that this would be the best route going forward with this project. This was definitely successful as on returning to the uni Andrew was able to put together a linear timeline in which the film makes sense. So what has already been established is my role on this project in which sound was going to be complicated due to the surroundings in which i was capturing my sound. Gaining an atmos track was essential to this which became an issue to constant traffic of people entering the cave in which we were filming. I was able to capture some atmos but going forward with the shoot more difficulties presented themselves.

I had an issue with the XLR cable which seemed to dislodge slightly throughout a few takes but i used the spare that was there which was definitely useful as it stopped any recurring sound issues. Capturing sound without the public was no issue and i captured some rather crisp audio once i had fixed the mono & set it to stereo. I put the XLR cable into input 3 as due to the Zoom H6 being set back to factory settings it was an issue that Shaun pre-warned me about. Public became more and more present as the shoot continued which complicated sounds as they were being loud and asking the crew questions about the shoot itself, At this point we established that this was going to be a problem so we decided to schedule an ADR session for the next day to capture the sound that was not recorded on the day and make sure that we get the best audio that is accessible with the equipment at our disposal.

Lvl 6 - FMP: Trick Of The Dark - Radio Mic's

So as it is my final year of Uni & my role is a sound operator i thought that having a chance to use the Radio Mic's was an excellent idea. It gives me an opportunity to learn a new skill and add to my ability as a sound operator. We used the radio mics when we shot one of the first cave scenes inside of the studio. due to there being no outside interference i was able to capture excellent crisp audio from that sequence in particular. I was also using the boom to capture an overall atmosphere of the room & used the radio mics to capture each of the individual actors/actresses dialogue. I will be using the radio mics for the next few shoots which will allow the audio for the film to be to a higher standard than my past projects.

Professional Practice: YouTube Channel - Showreel

So i set up my YouTube channel in 2015 but have very rarely updated it, so i thought now was the time to get on top of it for Professional Practice. I have recently added some of the films that i have helped create and put together my show-reel which will be listed below. I realize that my show reel is predominantly from 3 films, but i could not gain access to footage from past projects such as the music video or Hey Presto. I do like the pacing of my show-reel though i have to admit. I feel like its paced well & catches attention from the get - go.

Professional Practice: Cupeno Shoot

Our second Shoot was suppose to be followed after an interview with the designer of a new brand of clothing/music producer who was wanting to gain some form of mainstream media/attention for his brand. We had to pass on the interview as the designer did not turn up to the shoot & instead used our time to do a further recce of the Cupeno's cafe to gain further insight for the production team on what is achievable with the video.

The idea is to promote the cafe itself & the video was based around showing the cafe in its natural state & fill in the buzzing atmosphere with extras as we were allocated to shoot after hours. Once we had an idea of what we were going to do we had lunch and came back at the set time for the shoot & began to set up the equipment. As we set up i awaited the extras i had gathered in two days notice of the shoot in which half of them turned up. In that case we had to improvise with others on set. We had all the machines turned off for Shaun to collect the greater sound we needed. We then gathered as much footage as possible in our small time of filming. We presented ourselves in a professional manor & made sure the extras were catered for. It was not a hard shoot other than the alarming amount of time we had to gather what we needed, i thought it may have been a good idea to go back and schedule a follow up shoot and will be going forward with Mohammad to set that in motion.

Lvl 6 - FMP: Trick Of The Dark - Television Scene Shoot

Our first shoot for Trick of the Dark was shot inside of the sound stage which is known to have extreme cases of sound issues. We were focusing getting the end sequence finished first as we still don't have the cave at this point that we desire to capture the right atmosphere. we used one of the sets that was there to create the look and feel of a child's television programme. I really liked the design of the set itself, when i get a chance to see the colour corrected version of the footage that was captured i imagine when it comes to the colours, vibrant will be an understatement. as i could not capture sound on set we decided that ADR was the way forward when capturing the dialogue for this scene. We have scheduled an ADR session later in the next few weeks once the actor/actress are available. As i have not yet done ADR it will give me a chance to hone a new skill & further my knowledge when it comes to sound design & taking on the role as a professional Sound Operator.

Reasons behind the sound issues when capturing sound inside of the sound stage are severe as i really had no option but to leave the audio for that specific shoot, we learned that using the sound stage may not be a viable option for the future due to time restrictions of having to set up more & more ADR sessions. This is just an effective use of our time management as we come closer to our deadline in the coming month and a bit. sadly this also means i don't have any shots of myself using any sound equipment for this shot but i do have me holding an imaginary boom pole if that helps visualise what it would of looked like. Some of the issues that we encountered on set were an influx of Avery noise pollution, we also encountered many industrial noises from the roadworks and building sites across the road & the biggest issue was a sound we could not locate which was extremely loud & would of been a hinderance to the whole production if i decided to capture audio. Luckily we still captured what we needed visually and were feeling more confident about the film going ahead.