Film Production Sound

Visual worlds for the ear – Sound:

Sound plays a no less important role in films than the image. In addition to the music (which only complements the film image in the post-production phase), the language of the actors and the ambient noise are also included in the sound. Many sounds, such as an atmosphere, are recorded directly on location knows the fixer germany.

Atmo refers to (background) sounds that can be heard on location and give the viewer an impression of the room while watching the film. Without the Atmo, the recorded scenes would appear artificial in the finished film. During production, the soundmen and soundwomen make sure that speech and other sounds are always recorded in the best possible quality. This means that they pay attention to disturbing noises such as aeroplanes, the ticking of a clock, etc. and – if necessary – even interrupt a scene if the sound cannot be captured cleanly. To capture the sound, sound engineers use various recording techniques, such as a boom or clip-on microphone.

The essence of beautiful images – the light:

Lighting and lighting design is an extremely demanding task. After all, the quality of the image – and thus our perception of the film – depends not least on it. In video production, a fundamental distinction is made between natural and artificial lighting. The use of the respective light always depends on the location, the desired mood and the concept. For example, light can make a film location appear warm or cold, an action threatening or harmonious. Most films make use of daylight that is available anyway and supplement it with some light sources to highlight certain things, such as actors, a product, etc. However, if you want to have full control over the light and its effect, the light can be staged completely. This means that the lighting situation is then deliberately controlled and changed using artificial lighting.

This happens during production:

  • Hiring of film equipment
  • Procurement of the props
  • Preproduction of required animations and graphics
  • Possible acquisition of additional material and archive recordings
  • Editing planning / planning of sound recordings
  • Search by speaker
  • Shooting
  • The postproduction
  • The shooting is finished, the material is in the box. But it is only in the post-production phase that the film comes to life.

Viewing, viewing, viewing:

The existing material is put together by editing and sound in such a way that the individual scenes form a logical and harmonious overall picture. For this purpose it is first of all necessary to thoroughly view the entire film material. This is the only way to assess whether all the necessary pictures have actually been taken and which scenes are needed for the final video. During the screening of the material, individual images that are not required are repeatedly screened out. At the end of the process, a clear number of scenes are left over, which are used to create a first cut version.

On the way to the film – the cut:

Editing is a very responsible task, because it is technically possible for the editor – nowadays also called the editor – to literally turn the words around in the mouth of the actors in the film.

In the first step, individual scenes are selected and put in a sensible sequence to determine which settings can be used to tell the story. This process, also known as rough cut, already gives a first impression of how the finished film could look like. The rough cut is usually longer than the planned finished film and usually does not include visual effects, music and narration. However, comprehensible changes of time and place are just as important in this phase as tempo, rhythm and mood. Due to the almost infinite possibilities in film editing, it is possible for an editor to cut an almost endless number of completely different films from one and the same material.

Events that in reality take up a longer period of time are of course usually reduced in the film. If this were not the case, the audience would lose interest quite quickly. Your trade fair appearance, for example, took several days? In your trade fair film, the highlights of your appearance reflect the most interesting events in just a few minutes. Experts differentiate here between „narrated time“ (final length of the video) and „narrated time“ (actual length of the trade fair). During a cut, the film time is thus shortened more and more in relation to real time.