Film Assembly
Overall I really enjoyed myself this month in Film Assembly and I feel this course met my original objectives from Mastery. Coming into this course I barely had a clue of what goes into the making of sound and score for a film. Watching our film grow from the assembly of our soundtrack for pre-dubbing into ADR sessions and reaching our final mix helped me grasp the workflow process that takes place to bring a film’s soundtrack to life. After spending this month with Bill and watching all that goes into the transformation from a picture-lock into an entire functioning film with visual and audio elements was extremely fulfilling.
My first objective for this month was to get software savvy. Each of our Pro Tools exercises met this objective for me. I barely touched Pro Tools before this course and I found it very helpful to have these exercises to watch and reflect on for class. Since I have mainly been on the paperwork side of filmmaking for the past few months it was great to step out of my comfort zone and learn this program. I feel our assignments helped me grasped the basics of recording and manipulating sounds through Pro Tools and this can help me as a filmmaker to take my work to the next level as I continue to perfect my skills with storytelling. I also really enjoyed watching Bill while we were in the dubstage as we mixed our film together. There are a lot of buttons on the console that I still don’t know what they do but I was super grateful to have the occasion to watch Bill pull all our sound elements together to time out and perfect each one.
My second objective was to properly manage video files. I feel this objective was met through Becca being an amazing and committed editor. Aside from a small tweak she had our film set to go when we entered this month for mixing. This course was a learning experience for many of us as we grasped the workflow process and I feel in some ways this objective wasn’t met as well, in which I take responsibility. As a Producer, it was my responsibility to make sure our visual effects along with our credits were ready for our final mix yet there were issues. I’ve also learned that as much as I ask others to delegate for me, this isn’t always the case. Danny kicked butt to get his work in on time for us yet other’s choosing not to step up and move forward with this work affected us. I also realized as a Producer you need assistance in looking over things since I made mistakes with our end credit list and having others willing to help and look over my work would have been a great assistance to me. Coming from a Producer perspective for this month I feel I continued to grow in learning what my role needs to be during post-production and to execute.
My last objective was to involve all teams during our mixing process this month. In some ways, this was met yet it was hard to involve all teams of our classmates with the needs of the film’s vision, sounds, and score. Our time in the dubstage was a huge help to keep everyone involved and also gave our class time to critique together and offer any creative suggestions. I found being able to do this each week helped our film evolve into a strong vision of what we originally pitched for Lemonade Stand. Altogether I am extremely thankful for all the work Pamela and Brandon put in for us as well as Oscar and Damian for our sounds and score. Once everything was added in for our sound elements I couldn’t be more proud of what our film has become and the story it tells.
Altogether I absorbed an abundance of information this month revolving sound. I learned the differences between background, foley, and hard FX stems that lead you to create your final mix down. I saw the importance of dialogue spotting as well as looping and all the direction/communication needed for ADR sessions. We explored the types of sound effects around original sound, analogous visualization and sounds without visual congruence. I learned the importance of adding in temporary tracks to the film’s visuals to build from. I also was able to identify songs as a source and how it creates a physical and emotional reality on screen with each choice of sound. This month has been so fulfilling for me as a filmmaker and I feel extremely prepared in the future for the workflow process of a film after production. It rang true to me the importance of having a good relationship with your sound department and always having a supportive attitude. Bill is a tremendous professor and asset to this program. I’m very thankful to have the opportunity to work with him for Lemonade Stand.
