Saturday, December 13, 2008

SimSound

Last Wednesday, after my meeting at Audioquip, I met with John Sims of SimSound.

John and I talked about using the Red camera. John was a little dubious about the audio features of the Red camera. He suggested that there be a double system for audio on set. He talked about using a hard drive recorder with timecode; or, as a fallback, using a DAT. The issue is that the DAT does not do HD format, so I should check with Splice Here to see if there are any issues syncing up from either WAV or DAT files in the final mix. I will check on this.

John likes the Schoeps mic and the Sennheiser 416. He described the vampire clip which is small and can be hidden. He said a "turnaround cable" turns a mic into a wireless so cables are not in the scene. He also offered to let me use his blimp on the shoot if I need one. He told me a lot about using mics on set, including making sure the actors are wearing clothing that does not make a lot of noise. (very interesting!) He suggested cottons, and natural fibers. Don't get the wireless mic too close -- it should be placed at the sternum.

John recommended strongly that there be a two-person sound team -- a good boom operator and a mixer. Make sure that we get ambiance and room tone at all locations. And that we record outside sound, such as cars driving by both from outside the car and inside.

He suggested that we need to get good sound reports on each shot -- scene/take/timecode. (I told him I had an excellent script supervisor - Mark Thompson - who gets reports from both camera and audio after each shot)

John said that when we shoot inside a house we should check for floor creaks and use rubber mats if that's an issue. Always be aware of the noise environment you're shooting in.

John also strongly suggested using a process trailer during the car scene because it is a much quieter environment if the car is not being driven.

John went through the entire script of "The Egg Timer" and told me what sound issues I would be dealing with during the shoot. He was great and told me that he might be able to do the sound himself for the car scene. That would be fantastic. He will also try to find a sound person to work on the film.

Thank you so much, John!

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