Production Sound Mixer Video Interviews

Underneath all this typing it's sometimes nice to have a few videos to just watch and listen. Some of the rarest to find in the masses and masses of rubbish on youtube are some interviews with sound mixers (there the guys with boom operators) and sound recordists (they do both)


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Heres another great one from Vimeo,

The famous Wilhelm scream

The Wilhelm Scream originates from the film Distant Drums in 1951. The scene in the video below soliders are wading through a swamp and one (Wilhelm) gets bitted and dragged underwater by an aligator, the scream was re-recorded in a single take, along with 5 others. the 4th 5th and 6th are also used earlier in the movie. 4-6 are all recognisable as the Wilhelm scream by many sound editors.

Below is the scene with the original Wilhelm Scream.

Below is a compalation of Wilhelm screams

Hope you enjoyed this,
Thanks,
Matt Price

Refraction

This is the bending of waves when they enter a medium where their speed is different. This is less important than refraction of light as it affects image formation of images by lenses and eyes etc... 

If we use the example illustrated above shows that the first medium of air the light travels straight but when it hits the second medium of the glass it bends depending on which side hits the second medium first, it will bend left if the left side hits the second medium and slows down and refracts. 


Not only the direction changes but separation of the waves decreases as the frequency of the waves does not change by its source but the shower speed must shorten the wavelength.


This is also interesting in sound because if the air above the earth is warmer than the surface, sound will bend back downwards towards the surface by refraction. If the air above the earth is warmer than that at the surface, sound will be bent back downward toward the surface by refraction.


Refraction also amplifies sound sometimes over cool lakes in the morning. The water keeps the air cool near the water but as the sun comes up it heats the air higher up creating a thermal inversion. The speed of sound is faster in the warmer air and so bends some sound back towards you.


also see: Diffraction


Thanks,


Matt Price

Parabolic Refectors

A Parabolic microphone is a microphone with a parabolic reflector fitted to it. This collects and focuses sound on the microphones head like a TV dish picks up satellite signals. This has many advantages for picking up and amplifying distant sounds that you want to isolate from the rest of the environment. A classic example is bird song because parabolic reflectors are very good at picking up high frequencies. this is also used in sports broadcasting, eavesdropping and espionage. 

The high frequencies are picked up more due to the direct physical laws of sound waves. This is because they only focus waves with a wave length much smaller than the diameter of the parabola. To obtain hi-fidelity sounds including the lower end frequencies (down to 20Hz) you need a parabola around 17 metres. This is because if we say the speed of sound is 342 m/s through the air (speed of sound) 342 ms / 20 Hz = 17 metres. Parabolic reflectors will sacrifice the lower end frequencies to be more manageable sizes.

Representation of how a reflector works with microphone facing the central point  for maximum pickup.

Thanks,

- Matt Price

Q+A: What is difference between room tone, ambience, wild sound?

Hey,

These definitions vary depending who you are so this is ONLY a guide =].

Room Tone: This is the natural sound that a room "makes" from the natural reflections in the room. This is important for being able to patch over areas of sound so make sure you GET IT AFTER THE SCENE and hold your microphones ideally in the exact same locations.

Ambience: This is similar to room tone as it is the natural environment. However what makes it more specific is can be illustrated with an example of a scene in a restaurant where people are in the background, you will want to collect the general ambience (atmos) to again be able to patch over any gaps in post production.

Wild Sound: This can be any sound that doesn't need to be recorded in sync and is usually an object such as a fridge in a kitchen.

Feel i have missed anything? Then just comment =]

Thanks,

- Matt Price