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Feature film sound tutorials?
  • tonalttonalt

    There's many tutorials about shooting, editing, color grading etc.. But I haven't found good tutorial about sound. This is the area in video production that I'm most unsure.

    I would like to see tutorial (I prefer video tutorials) that explains from recording to post-production all steps in feature film sound production. How to place mic tips, recording, foley, syncing, post-processing (mixing, compressing etc.), how to attach post-recorded sound to scene so that it really sounds like it's from the scene and not from my clothes room etc...

    IMO this is now the area that really makes difference in between amateur and pro videos.

    I enrolled to online course called "Introduction to Digital Sound Design". https://www.coursera.org/course/digitalsounddesign . It gave excellent information about sound theory and music, but didn't really tell how to do things in practice for feature film.

    So great tutorials, are there any?

  • 10 Replies sorted by
  • Vitaliy_KiselevVitaliy_Kiselev

    Check http://www.personal-view.com/talks/discussion/7456/free-courses-related-to-sound-and-music#Item_1 for few more coursera courses.

    But I think that it is best to seach it part by part. From simple basics of mike placement and working with recorders on set towards other stuff. As usually it is all made by different people.

  • spacewigspacewig

    @tonalt Are you only interested in video tutorials or can you handle reading a book(s)?

  • tonalttonalt

    @spacewig I'd keep books as second last option, but if you have some good book to suggest then shoot!

  • spacewigspacewig

    5 days have elapsed and I'm going to assume that you've not found any video tutorials on film sound production so your second-to-last option seems to have moved up the priority ladder. That being said, here are three books (in order of workflow) that I felt gave me a very good foundational understanding of sound as it pertains to film:

    RECORDING: http://www.amazon.ca/The-Location-Sound-Bible-Professional/dp/1615931201

    EDITING: http://www.amazon.ca/Dialogue-Editing-Motion-Pictures-Invisible/dp/0415828171

    MIXING: http://www.amazon.ca/Audio-Postproduction-Video-After-Shoot/dp/0240809718

    NB: I had almost 20 years of musical sound recording/mixing experience prior to reading this material so many topics and concepts were familiar and redundant for me.

    Have fun!

  • arumarum

    This tutorial is pretty basic, but I enjoyed it and if I had not read Jay Rose's book in advance, I would have learned almost the same (It does not cover editing music at all) in way less time.

    http://www.dvxuser.com/articles/dvxshop/SoundDVD/

    Also, you may have seen a post I have made about a kickstarter they are doing for a second edition. As things stand, it does not look like they will succeed, though.

  • jleojleo

    various tutorials and Walter Murch on Hollywood Sound Design

    https://www.youtube.com/playlist?list=PL7A9BCDA0E787B117

  • MirrorManMirrorMan

    Compared to the visual side of filmmaking, there's relatively little information about sound, but more and more is surfacing. Michael Coleman's 'Soundworks' series has loads of profiles of sound design for various big budget Hollywood films that give a rare insider view. They're not exactly step by step tutorials though: https://vimeo.com/channels/soundworkscollection

    For a good theoretical overview, definitely go through Walter Murch's tutorial at Transom http://transom.org/2005/walter-murch-part-1/

  • arumarum

    Found this one. I have not watched fully yet, but it is the first one that I find about mixing that looks decent.

  • Vitaliy_KiselevVitaliy_Kiselev

    Remember, our FAQs are improved with time - http://www.personal-view.com/faqs/camera-usage/audio-faq

  • DrDaveDrDave

    If you go to different sets, different venues, and especially different countries, you will see that professional sound engineers, "tonmeisters", or whatever, use different techniques. So out of all these competing styles--which are often dramatically different--which one is the best? And if there is a best one, is it in a book?

    And the answer is simple: There is no best one, and the answer is not in a book. Or there are many answers in many books, but not all are useful.

    So if you are just trying to up your skill level, do what Vitaliy suggests and draw on different articles "part by part". Find something that works for you.

    If you are really serious--like you want a career in sound--then there basically is one good school, and that school is Detmold.

    For the foundation, most people have not read, nor can understand, this book: http://www.amazon.com/Principles-Digital-Audio-Sixth-Edition/dp/0071663460

    Professional media is a 5 percent market. That means basically that the top five percent have reasonably good work, depending on how you define it of course. So you can read books and study online material and so on, but that is available to the 100 percent, and doesn't put you in the top 5 percent.

    Most books have a mix of useful and useless info. So if you average that out, you wind up in the middle.

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