. How to Create Professional "Sounding" Films The importance of sound in filmmaking: Sound & sound editing Sound is arguably on par with video as the most important element to be able to manipulate and control during production and post production. Too often filmmakers focus all of their attention on video footage and ignore the quality of their sound. Interestingly enough, audiences seem to be more annoyed by poor sound quality than by poor cinematography. You will often hear filmmakers who have recently finished their first film respond to the question “What would you do different for your second film” with the answer “I will focus more of my attention on sound quality”. All new video recorders are manufactured with built in microphones. Some of these may even produce half decent sound results. However, simply due to its location on the camera, your in-camera microphone should be replaced with a sound and microphone system that allows you to have more control over the quality of your sound. Some pro-sumer video cameras have areas were you can attach external mics to their base, or they offer an outlet where you can plug in an external mic. This allows you to set up wireless mics, boom mics and higher quality directional mics. The purpose of this lesson is twofold. First, we want to teach you creative and technical ways to ensure you get the best sound while shooting on location. This will help you to solve sound problems in post production and give you the best raw sound as possible. However, due to budget restraints or limited capabilities of your video camera’s mic attachment, you may be forced to make sound corrections in post production. The second objective of this lesson is to help teach you how to fix audio problems using common techniques in popular non-linear editing systems. After we’ve covered the basics of attaining proper sound levels we’ll go into more details about sound manipulation. For example, you may need to know how to create a faint voice in the background or you may need to know how to mimic the sound of a voice through a telephone and so on. This lesson will help teach you about specific sound tips surrounding issues like the ones above. This lesson will also provide numerous sound examples so you can hear the outcome of what is being discussed in the lesson. You’ll quickly learn to differentiate between poor sound quality and good sound quality. Capturing Sound Before we start discussing how to fix, enhance and manipulate sound in post production, we’re first going to discuss the various ways to ensure you capture the highest quality audio when you are shooting on location. The best way to ensure your film sounds professional is to get the best quality sound from the source. Unfortunately, film audiences don’t notice when sound quality is good. It’s often just expected. However, poor sound quality is noticed immediately. Sound designers have debatably the most important role within the production of a film and at the same time one of the most thankless jobs because most people don’t recognize the brilliance, difficulty and importance of their work. Continue Below... The Importance of Sound & Audio in Film What is Dynamic Range? Sound Frequency The Role of Equalizers Sample Rate Bit Depth       .

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