Quote to do sound editing

[deardaddy]

Not a bad idea at all to first ask the producer what is his budget for the sound editing ..... will think about that.

Pascal

[nucelar]

I certainly am *very* familiar with documentaries. I know reality is fabricated in most documentaries but my comment is referring to this particular scenario, Mos footage from Ww1. When I mix a documentary and have this kind of decision to make I always think of the enthusiasts, what would they like to hear. I'm not sure if a WWI expert would like to hear recreated battle sounds, or if it defeats credibility. Or maybe the director prefers entertainment value over authenticity. Furthermore my opinion and general industry practices are not always coincident.


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[rogerhavoc]

+1 for asking the producer. If they are biased towards working with you, they will let you know how much you should bid.

Good luck,

Roger

[thermisonic]

I've done a few of these WW1 era archive docs and the key is finding out how the director or producer wants the sound done as others have said. I went into the first years ago thinking I needed to spot and cover every last little sound, but this doesn't really work because it seems almost too good - and therefore more 'faked' than using broader brush strokes. Battle scenes need key explosions, vehicles, crowds, shouts and broad foley, chosen accurately, but if it is plastered with voiceover and music you won't want to fill it out too much with synced elements. A lot of the shots had little ambience unless it really begged for it as it often made the B+W pictures mismatched to the technicolour sound. Trying to age the audio didn't work for me either, as there is so little recorded audio from that era that there is no convention in the audience's mind to expect it - just making sure it wasn't too detailed in the highs worked in smudging the sound enough.

As with anything, ultimately it depends and is down to taste. I don't think there is one way to do this, despite what I found myself.

Rob Walker

[BobbyDazzler]

Are there any sequences that require lip sync? If you have all the incidental sounds in a scene with talking heads, it becomes painfully obvious that you should be able to hear the dialog.

[fork-media]

hah - classic - bobby -D

yeh I had a client that used to insist we did just that.. every door - footstep an cup etc... but then the CU on the face - gaping open mouths an not sound!

I did explain it seemed a bit weird - he didnt agree - an I was happy to bill him accordingly!

yeh some good points on this thread.. dont quote for what you think they need - ask them! I agree with the 'muted' sound - just large explosions vaguely heard is my opinion... the approximate era for plane drones.. its alright bein 100% accurate - but thats nigh on impossible /expensive

also ask by when - also put in your quote proviso's for the 4th redo on the music.. over running the schedule by a week as well.

of course gets harder to do if u have to work with them regularly.. the get more power to pi$$ u around

[deardaddy]

Thanks for your replies.
Another thing I learned from you guys is to ask "how far" the producer wants me to go with sound design of the historical scenes.

I know that a project is not another but could some of you share some numbers ?
I'd like to have an idea of how much time it took some of you to do that kind of job.
I know that it depends on so many things but could you please share ?

Thanks for your time.


Pascal

[thermisonic]

I think it was about an hour of track laying per minute of screen time on the last one like that I did. It also had drama style reconstructions so needed dialogue editing. That was fairly dialogue and music lead but still needed a full FX track done in the style I mentioned above. Mixing was about 3 days. I've been using Pro Tool since 1998 so that gives you an idea of how fast I work. The time spent is not equal - you rattle through three minutes of screen time in half an hour, you spend three hours doing foley for the bits you need. VO records and laybacks on top of those hours.

For something like that (probably 120 hours total) getting within ten hours of your estimate is pretty good.

Your mileage wil definitely vary. Why not do a test on some random archive and see how much you can get through in a hour?

Hope this helps.

Rob Walker

[fork-media]

noting that you will get faster- since prep is a big part of the job ....

so an hour doco - is taking you a week to do ?

[deardaddy]

Thanks Rob , this helps a lot.
I don't know how fast I am with PT compared to others but I've been working with it since 2000 so I guess I will not be too far from what you mentioned.

Preparation is a key to do a good job on this one too ...


Thanks guys for the replies.


Pascal