Sound For Film

What is Sound? Overview of the physics of sound and psychoacoustics. How we hear; frequency, amplitude, pitched and non-pitched sounds. Noise and types of noise. Listening to sound and developing a vocabulary to discuss it critically. Microphones: An investigation into the properties and operating principles of modern microphones. What the various types of microphone are and how we chose the best one for a particular application. Inverse square law, phase cancellation and proximity effect as related to the use of microphones. Production Sound Recording: Single and Dual system recording is explored in the context of recording dialog for fiction and non-fiction films. Location mixers, recorders, laviller and shotgun microphones will be examined and utilised in practical exercises. Correct protocols and techniques for on set dialog recording will investigated with a consideration of the aesthetics of dialog recording. Critical listening to identify and correct sound recording errors will be developed. Post Production: Delivering production sound to the editor including correct sound coverage and a complete sound report will be explored. Synchronising sound and image in picture editing software and exporting sound and image from this software using the correct output formats. Basics of editing sound in audio editing software with an emphasis on understanding how production recording influences post production sound editing. Post production processing techniques including noise reduction, compression and EQ will be introduced and examined. Class assignments: There are four in class dialog recording assignments that explore various shooting scenarios and recording systems. The final 2 assignments include a dialogue editing component. There will also be 2 in class quizzes covering more theoretical aspects of sound, sound recording and post production.