Audio Post Production for Film

One of the most intricate professions in the audio industry has to be post production; Mixing audio for films. All aspects of audio have to be considered for an audio post production professional; The music either has to be sourced, mixed or composed, foley has to be recorded, mixed and synced, sound effects have to be created and mixed, dialogue has to be compiled from numerous mics, edited, mixed and all of this is to be done to the direction of the film’s project manager meaning this process can sometimes go back and forth until they're happy with your work or the project reaches its deadline… yep it’s a lot to be proficient at to be a pro in this field!
I don’t have a huge amount of experience in post production but I’ll be taking what I have learnt, looking through some articles and watching videos to bring together some valuable information.
I’ll take a look at what type of people thrive in the sound for film industry, breaking down some workflow points taken from experience and videos and going through the most important skills to develop when working as an audio post production professional.
Dialogue
Mixing the dialogue for film should be one of the first places to go when the session is in place, much like lead vocals in most songs the dialogue is usually the point of focus in the scene and should be treated as such; Make the lines loud enough to be understood, above background noise and music and use EQ for clarity.
Once you’ve completed the hefty task of sorting through recordings from different mics to compile all the clearest recordings, bringing all the dialogue clips volume up to a good average level then using compression and automation to bring up the quieter spots and push down any spikes is an ideal phase to be so the whole track can be brought up or down together and then it’s a matter of finishing touches with EQ and blending the lines into context with suitable reverb and underlying atmos.
The video below shows a professional doing some dialogue compiling and EQing; Take note of the session layout and how smooth this makes the workflow, also how using space between lines can be used as atmos to tie dialogue together:
This whole channel’s content is on post production, here’s the first video if you want to watch the whole series in order:
I’ve also done another blog specifically on dialogue which mainly covers location recording, mic choices, voice acting and ADR:
Foley
When working post production your session should have foley sounds included in which case, much like the dialogue they have to be synced and mixed into place. However there may be notes on sounds that they need or in some case the film editor may have missed something that you pick up on, in either case the foley needs to be recorded and added into the session. Foley can really add character to objects, keep the viewer immersed in the film and even add emotion to scenes, so take finding the right sound and recording a great performance as seriously as dialogue. This is an obscure example but look how added foley turned a hidden easter egg into a comedic moment:
Check this link for a more in depth blog on sound effects and foley:
Atmos
As I mentioned in the dialogue section atmos serves the purpose of tying the sounds together or placing all the sounds in the atmos you choose, essentially it’s background noise that should be congruent with the scene (if the scene is near a busy road having traffic atmos is essential to the scene working). The ambience of the actual filming location can often be recorded between, before or after filming takes but isn’t necessary, in other words the sounds of one city can be used in place of another; This video shows a professional’s take on recording good city atmos:
The main points to note on atmos are to use them to place characters and sounds in an environment, check recordings making sure for volume spikes or unwanted sounds and have the atmos at an appropriate level for the scene.
In this blog I go into more depth on layering and recording atmos:
Additional Skillsets
On top of these audio specific skills there are some more fundamental skills that make a good producer and will make this industry a whole lot easier.
Project management is one of those skills that will make a big difference in how overwhelming projects are and how smoothly your workflow will be. This goes from session layouts (recommend using templates for a starting point), file naming (including dates helps, but ultimately a system that’s easier to understand) and overall organisation which includes your sound library, project folders etc. Going on from data organisation and management doing the same within yourself and knowing where you’ll start and what order to do things, workflow is incredibly important, having a plan going in always make the process easier on your mind which means less fatigue which means you can work for longer. This goes onto endurance; majority of the time post production is no small task, especially if your a solo contractor taking the whole workload on, so being able to look at the same project weeks at a time and sometimes progress slowly through more intricate sections is a skill that may have to be built if it’s not already there otherwise this may not be the field for you.
Finally, as comes with any cooperative project, especially inter-discipline ones such as sound for film communication needs to practiced. To be able to ask the right questions to get the answers you need to move forward while being able to listen to those answers in a way that sticks (which may involve taking notes during conversations) is essential to delivering what your client or collaborator is expecting. Like all other skills these also improve with practice.
Happy mixing!
JDuggan
