Audio Syncing/External Dubbing Mixer and Soundtrack
The process of post-production for this project took place over the course of the 3 weeks after we returned from our final Norway trip, up until the deadline of May 1st. During this time the editor and director spent their time with the visual side of post, and I took control of the audio.
During this phase, we decided as a group to outsource the production of the soundtrack and dubbing mix. This choice was made for a few reasons. My lack of experience with both these skills, and wanting to keep as professional a workflow as possible.Â
The director and I liased with Joe to produce the soundtrack - this was created bespoke for our edit, and there was a constant line of communication between him and our director during the creative edit. The tracks themselves can be found at the soundcloud link below:
https://soundcloud.com/user-899382237-633729440/sets/sun-town-final-score
These bespoke tracks elevate the film to a new level of professionalism, and help with the flow of the documentary immensely.Â
Fred Pearson is a freelance dubbing mixer who was recommended to us by Joe. Over the course of the post production phase, the director and I spoke a lot to Fred, giving him clear instructions on how to proceed with the mix.Â
Before he could work on said mix, I had to line up the boom/lavalier/camera audio for every shot in the final cut of the documentary. Alongside this, I had to include all the relevant ambient audio, and sync up the soundtrack as well. I did this in my chosen audio editing software, Logic Pro X. This was an intense process, as all the audio had to be lined up perfectly with the visuals. I also created some simple fade ins/outs to assist with mixing process, and to give creative guidance to Fred on how we wanted the audio to come out. Fred was also able to fix the quiet audio from the first trip.
During the sync I had to extend my knowledge of Logic Pro X, utilising my two-year course on the programme. I had to work closely with the editor to keep up to date with current cuts, re-syncing shots if the timeline had moved around at all. This was a long process, but one I enjoyed overall.
Below is the list of instruction given to Fred by the director and I:
Iâve sent over the AAF and the finished film! Hope everything is as required. A few notes for you first. Iâm sure most will be pretty much common sense so donât need to be said, but just to make sure weâre clearđ
A) Can we please make sure any interjections from crew that you find within speech are removed, for example âah perfectâ at 01:04:51 . I think this may be the only case of this but keep an ear out! This obviously doesnât apply to questions from the interviewer (which can be seen in the movie attached!). So make sure we keep them in!
Also, if we can can we try and get the interview questions to a similar volume as the answers? You may need to grab the questions from a separate audio source. for example at 01:07:45 and 01:01:07 there is an interview question in there (but itâs quieter on the lav channel for obvious reasons!)
B) Iâve removed pretty much all volume automation for the music, so Iâll leave you to reduce/increase music volumes at different points where needed.
C) As youâll see in the film cut there are two music cues that require fade in/out. The first is a fade out at 01:04:45:10 for an approx three second fade on the third music cue. And the second is a slower fade in somewhere around 01:07:13:03 on the last cue for around 6 seconds.
D) Youâll notice there are some speech sections that weâve cut together to construct more pertinent sentences here and there from various points during interviews. The cuts between each clip are sometimes a bit harsh, so Iâve left some volume automation in to help soothe this. Feel free to use this or scrap it, Iâm sure youâre much more capable than me at making this sound tidy!
E) All the interview sync should be ok, but if you wouldnât mind double checking this for me and making any adjustments if necessary that would be great!
F) Youâre welcome to use any different ambient sounds for each part and adapt to where theyâre best suited. I think itâs most important that we stick with the ambience of  the bird sounds as a signifier of the start of spring in the âMarchâ section however đ Iâve also attached a folder of random ambience that I collected on the trip in case you need to dip in to any of these.
G) I believe Joe is sending you the final track mixes directly. This means youâll need to replace the music cues that I have in the AAF at the moment with his. You can use my placeholder tracks to see exactly where they come in however!
H) with the edit, weâve put a big focus on cutting shots in time to different beats. So if we can just make sure all the timing remains as is in the movie attached, that would be grand.
Refer to our cut in any instances where youâre not sure what should be where. The audio mix we have in the cut is very rough but it should show you roughly where everything should be!
For any technical questions/questions about how Iâve laid the project out, Iâll be relatively available over the weekend to answer emails. For anything to do with direction however, feel free to shoot Kieran an email, heâll be available all weekend to chat.
Again, thanks for taking this on so last minute! Good luck with the mix/cleaning up, hope itâs somewhat enjoyable. Sorry if any of the audio quality isnât great, hopefully you can make it workđâ
As you can see this is a fairly exhaustive list, and gives an idea of the level of creative input needed to get a dubbing mix sounding good. The full dubbing mix, which was done with this guidance and my extensive logic file, can be found below:
https://soundcloud.com/user-899382237-633729440/suntown-0db-internet-mix-01-280419
Overall getting a soundtrack designer and dubbing mixer on board has helped my practice in audio work immensely. In further conversation with Fred particularly, I have learned a massive amount about preparing audio files for dubbing, his process, and can use this to massively improve my work in the future. Â