student in need

Hello all,
I'm an audio student in Seattle, WA. and I just got a job doing sound
for a film. I'm doing all location, Foley, and post production. I'm
actually the entire sound department. This is the first project that
I've worked on with the exception of school projects. I'm wondering if
anyone can offer some guidance in the way of things to look out for,
anomalies, mistakes to avoid, anything at all really. My first three
day's went well, but I have months to go.

This may not be the appropriate list for this posting, if anyone can
tell me of a better place to post this, please advise. Thank you all in
advance. Feel free to email me directly -

~Topher Farrell~

We tend to encourage replies on the forum directly - that way other people benefit too. As for what you are asking - it's easier if you ask specific questions rather than general ones. Since we don't know anything about the way you're working, what sort of film it is, how big the rest of the crew is (although I'd guess this is small too), etc, it's rather difficult to tell you anything specifically useful. Obviously there are  basic things like 'don't take any location audio on trust - monitor it all the time' - but I would have thought that they were pretty obvious, and hardly worth saying. OTOH if you haven't recorded for real on a set before, it's worth making sure that you get plenty of wild BG sound, and some set silence from each location - you'd be amazed how useful this can be in post. It's just the same as cutaways in TV - you can never have too many of them!

Thanks Steve. The film is a crime/drama piece with little action, there are two scenes with shoot-outs and a total of 8 to 10 people are killed. I am the entire crew, I have one guy, part time, helping me as a boom operator. I monitor from as far away as possible, everything is going to DAT. I'm using an MD88 for room tones, and I'm alternating between two different sennheiser mic's. One is a narrow stereo image, the other mono. I'm using a -20dB pad on the DAT machine itself, Seattle is a very noisy city, so I need all of the help that I can get when it comes to noise reduction.

I'm guessing the noise and hiss reduction tools in Audition would have a tough time reducing 'ambient city noise' as it won't be a particularly constant signal - so noise reduction would have to start at source with your recording.  Although, I guess that is kind of universal advice and should apply to every situation

Good luck with the film Topher. The background noise problem might be reduced by the iZotope Ozone plugin. If you like, you can email me a 1 minute MP3 of soundtrack audio with the background noise in it, and I'll send it back to you after a pass with Ozone, and you can compare and decide whether it works for you.

One is a narrow stereo image, the other mono. I'm using a -20dB pad on the DAT machine itself, Seattle is a very noisy city, so I need all of the help that I can get when it comes to noise reduction.

It's the classic bind! You need a mic in the camera's field of vision...

If you have a boom operator, make sure that he has direct contact with the camera person, or even better, can see a monitor. This way he/she gets as close to the action as possible without getting the boom in shot. It's very inconvenient using even a medium-length rifle mic like an AKG CK9 on a boom - because it's over 2 feet long with a wind-gag fitted, and I guess the Sennheiser is the same or similar. But using something like this, and getting the best signal you can at source is the key to minimising your problems here. And obviously the boom operator has to be able to monitor the mic output with a highly directional mic - otherwise you're stuffed from the outset. Sometimes using a fishpole is a rather more flexible option than a boom... or is that what you actually meant?

It is, indeed, a fishpole that I'm using. and for some of the tighter shots I place the mic inside of a blimp with a low-medium fleece and just aim back and forth with the dialog.

Thanks for the offer on the  iZotope Ozone plugin, Once I start transferring from DAT to HD, I'll pull a sample out that has a lot of city noises, and I'll send it your way. Thanks again...