It's All About the Sound!

The Notes has two weeks off from filming! Next week is Spring Break, and so many students are taking the week off to go somewhere else. I am not traveling anywhere, but taking a break from filming couldn't have been more welcomed! The team is exhausted and personalities across this entire program have started to flare. I could tell you plenty of stories about my experiences over the last couple of weeks on my set and others, but I'm in the business of positivity and growth, so let's talk about the next steps!

Briefly, I would like to mention and give thanks to James Redpath, who is another director doing a film called "Masterpiece". I spent a day on his set with some alumni and really professional people and it was a great experience. I'm glad I attended and I am so excited for his film!

Secondly, I spent a day on Jeremy Pether's set, the director of "Out", and though we ran into some roadblocks, I can see the makings of a great picture! I admire Jeremy's vision of his film and I hope we can all make that come true for him. His message in this film is so powerful and I can't wait to see everyone's reactions!

Now onto the SOUND!

When I started filming The Notes I had gone into the process with sound at the top of my priority list. If you've ever made a video, you know that sound absolutely makes or breaks it. You also know that designing the sound can heavily rely on post production. I knew we would need to create some folly(recording of sounds) for the film, but as filming went on, I realized I am going to need a full blown sound design created for almost every scene we've done inside the school. Let's talk about a few factors.

1. Heating units: There's no way to turn off the heating units running in the school. Ok, let's be real. There's a way, but I'm not about to start asking for permission to do that because I don't want to be laughed at. Heating units pose a major threat to sound. Especially if they are going on and off or the air is moving at different rates, causing a major shift in the ambient sound. Am I putting you to sleep yet? Even if the unit stays constant and your ears adjust to the ambience, there's a good chance you will end up with a horrible humming in the background that could compromise your audio entirely. To combat this, we ran a boom mic and we used lavaliers that will not pick up the humming.

2. Sounds we can't make on set: There are several sounds that we need to record that cannot be made on set, or more likely, we cannot catch them with the microphone during the take. For example, the crumpling of a note, which the boom cannot pick up without being seen in the frame or the sound of Samantha being called to the principal's office over the (non-existent) loud speaker in the chem lab. All of these sounds must be created.

(Photo credit: Joel Congleton)

3. Mistakes! Yes, it's true. Mistakes are inevitable! We try to avoid sound mistakes on set by watching

our sound meters and using our ears to listen for anything that could compromise the sound. But, there are just so many factors to take into account. Luckily, most sound issues can be fixed in post. Gross mistakes may require reshoots! What we have done so far is taken actresses into the sound booth for ADR. This means we have them speak their lines into the mic in a sound proof room and we will dub their voices over the track. This isn't the best option for full lines or speech, for sure. You really want to nail that on set, but sometimes when mistakes are made, this can be the solution.

An example we faced was that during a wide shot on a RONIN(stabilizer that the camera operator walks with handheld) the gaffer(lights) was walking behind the camera man, and the boom operator(microphone) was following him, trying to capture sound from multiple locations following a trail. This is not easy! He has to run and he has to run quietly. To make matters worse, the actress says the first part of her line facing the camera, but then the camera passes her and she delivers the second part of her line facing the opposite direction. We had to ADR this line. Luckily, this was no big deal.

Music!

I am so excited to announce that my brother, John Williams, is scoring my film! No, not THAT John Williams. My brother is an extremely talented guitarist based in Tampa, Florida. He has been a musician and writing music since he was 10 years old. He is currently part of the line-up in the Tampa metal band, Psykotribe, who are signed to

Megadeth's record label. John also co-wrote a song released last June on a David Ellefson record. I can't think of another person I would rather have writing the music for my film. This week, John and I have started discussing what's most important for the vibe and time period of the music. Luckily, John was a teenager in the 90s, so he knows exactly what I'm after. John is also the father of my lead actress, Samantha Williams. Call it a family affair! I am so proud of my family for helping me put this film together and I am extremely excited to share our work with everyone. Please check out Psykotribe on facebook!

We still have one shooting day left mid March before we wrap, but if you can't tell from this post, I am extremely excited for sound design. I know I have some work cut out for me in the coming weeks, but this is kind of the cherry on top of the cake. As we approach post production, I am starting to feel fired up about putting all of these pieces together, the real art in film, in my opinion. Post production is where you take the pieces of the puzzle and you manipulate and organize them into a masterpiece.

Challenge: Sound creates the tone and makes a film believable! It truly comes to life once the sound is added. Go watch a video that you like, now turn the sound off. Watch it through and imagine the sound effects that are missing. Does the video fall flat for you? Does the tone shift? Could you change the feeling or meaning of a scene by taking out or changing the sound? Truly dig deep to see why this blog post is so important! Thanks for reading and I will see you all next week!