ASK & DISCUSS INDEX

12 years, 6 months ago - Yen Rickeard

Hi Simon, Aircraft noise and the hum of a distant motorway are very hard to avoid. Aviation noise comes from high up so radiates everywhere, but a good directional mic facing well away from it should leave it out. Road noise is more pervasive, it seems to echo off everything and just fill in everywhere. A directional mic will cut out some of it, but really you either need to accept the background as part of the atmosphere or find somewhere else, or ADR which is going to add to your costs.

I find an old-fashioned paper map useful. Highlight your air lanes as a five mile eitherside ribbon, and your motorways and major roads with a 2 mile ribbon. Look for the terrain you want in the uncoloured areas. Start close to your base, and work outwards. There are lots of lovely quiet woods not so far from London.
Good luck with it
Yen Rickeard

12 years, 6 months ago - Simon Brown

Hello Marlom,

There shouldn't be more than 6 of us.

For some reason I just imagined somewhere like the Cotswolds would take longer than that. I shall get back on the internet and start looking for places to visit . Cheers.

Simon

12 years, 6 months ago - Marlom Tander

How big is the crew?

Head over to the Cotswolds and we have more creepy quiet woods than you can shake a stick at. 2 hours from London.

12 years, 6 months ago - simon hornett

The idea is to achive grate sound with the tech available. When working in extream noise use a professional mic that is directionally bias. Also a well placed radio mic can cut out a lot of the background. The answer to the question How do the big boys do it is with less regard for the enviroment. A lot of films shoot the wide with a guid on the radios and use the sound from the tight shot or they just ADR the section with a atmos track that was recorded on set. It is all in the mix as they say. but if you can't afford to hire a recordist who will know the absolute best way to record then its going to get painstakingly long trying to wait for a lull in the background sound because your equipment can't cope with the situation. I would say that it is reassuring to see someone care about sound at this level, as many productions on a budget neglect to consider the audio until they show up on the day. All the best of luck.

12 years, 6 months ago - Simon Brown

Hello Ross

Thanks for the advice. It makes good sense. I tend to detour and take the long route round when things start to sound technical (unless I had the time and money). But as you're pointing out its straight forward and pays off in the results we shall include this approach in the plan. However when we get a sound person on board I shall pass it over to them and learn from watching over their shoulder! As soon as we find out what sound equipment we'll have, hopefully this week, it will all start to become clearer...

Cheers
Simon

12 years, 6 months ago - Ross A Wilson

ADR is pretty straight forward really and well worth the effort.. I would also recommend some tests by recording some dialogue with the gear you intend to use then running it through a few audio filters, low and High pass filters can work wonders. Of course nothing beats a quiet location but in the UK short of hauling it out to the country it's going to be difficult and not guaranteed even then. Tests will give you a really good idea of what will or won't work, get in close, get a good signal to noise ratio, and try some audio post.. Good luck with your search!

12 years, 6 months ago - Michael Chandler

Hi Simon
I had this issue for my first film, and it taught me a lot about location scouting. We were doing an outside shoot and I found the perfect location on an estate in battersea. Without even thinking about the sound, I got the crew down there- only to realise that not only were we under the Heathrow flight path but also slap bang in between two of the busiest railways in the country - from Clapham Junction into Victoria and Waterloo!

Anyway- my maybe unorthodox approach was to film and every time we heard the train/plane noise we would pause. A bit off-putting for the actors (and also not ideal given it was winter)- but then pulled together the soundtrack in post- editing together the best quality audio alongside an underlying background soundtrack (so I guess in your case, background noises of the forest etc). It proved surprisingly successful for me.

However, I'd go with the advice above, finding the best location first (I did learn the hard way)- but then as long as you get the audio you need, some can be done in the edit.

12 years, 6 months ago - Simon Brown

Hello Simon, Yen and Michael,

Sorry for the delay. Also, I was going to answer individually but can't seem to work out how other than submitting another question.

Anyway, thanks for all the advice, I really appreciate it. As you suggest we'll try to get our hands on some decent equipment for the shoot Itself. ADR (I had to look it up) does sounds time consuming, and a bit beyond the scope of this project. I think I prefer getting as much done on the day as possible and to "revisit" only if its in a fun and creative context rather than with a sinking feeling of trying to salvage the whole thing . As you mentioned, cars have also been a problem. I spent two hours wandering around a large country park in Kent last summer trying to get away from the sound of cars.They seemed to be everywhere. I found a small area in a dip that worked but move twenty or so meters in any direction and back they came. Maybe it was the wind direction that day? So, we'll also be continuing with the location search that works for us as much as possible. We're heading out West this weekend... wrapped up for cold weather conditions, with a flask, to add to the slight sense of adventure. I may be gone for sometime...

Thanks again.
Simon