Lefty loosey, righty tighty...

I am fully aware that I lag behind with my blog for which I want to apologise. This week, we have learned an incredible amount of basics and useful stuff and did many exercises that not only left me dead tired in the evening, but also needed to sink in before I could write them down in a coherent sense.

So today, I will be writing several blog posts dealing with various issues in order to further get me and the things I learned sorted out.

Which is why this post will be about the introductory lesson into sound in film. Weeeeeeeeeeeeee!!!

On Tuesday, we sat down with Lee and received our very first introduction into the technicalities of film sound. Here, we learned about the different types of microphones (so far omnidirectional and directional), how to safely plug and unplug that three-pinned XLR-cable into an DVX100 digital camera or to hold and use the boom, how to properly wrap up the cable that it can loop naturally and what phantom power, foleys and atmos are.

We were then sent out to record foleys (aka sound effects) and taking turns using the camera, the mic, boom and the cable. We thereby also learned how to check sound levels in order to prevent acoustic distortion or over saturation. We learned the difference of mono and stereo in sound and mono and stereo in editing and were given some pretty handy reminders, (like that with clip-on microphones you generally want to avoid synthetic materials since they create electrical build-up that can then be heard on record or how you are supposed to ask permission before you fumble the microphone under your child actor's clothes).

However, today, we furthered our understanding of sound in film with Mike, who not only gave us a short recap and sent us out to record foleys and atmos (or wild track, aka ambient sound) but who also gave us a lengthy introduction into the history of sound in film, which was a nice condensed recap to what I learned within one semester at uni. He pointed out the importance of proper sound in film and how the audience will rather tolerate strange visuals over muffled and therefore unconvincing sound (which holds true regarding the fact that I am rather willing to tolerate crappy imagery for up to 3,5 hours but barely make it through the first 15 seconds of a film with crappy sound).

He furthermore highlighted the importance of keeping the actors close in case any ADR (automated dialogue replacement, aka post-synchronisation) and to sample as many foleys as possible in order to create a more thorough acoustic world within your film. And he reminded us to best record with two microphones (stereo-record) in order to achieve a more dynamic range and a more balanced sound. With this in mind, I will definitely sit down on the weekend and repeat all that I learned about sound this week. For I still find it difficult to memorise and use all these abbreviations in English.

However, I am happy to have learned this much about sound recording already, since it was one of the issues with my previous short film. And I am even happier having learned the awesome phrase that became this post's title: If you ever struggled to remember in which direction you need to screw a lid in order to loosen or fasten it, "lefty loosey, righty tighty" may give you an handy hint. Doesn't work for booms though...