Free video on post production sound design in Live

[Nick the Zombie]

I'm focusing heavily on free content for a while, so the first batch of those videos are about done. I've been expanding my interests over the last year into post production, but I don't have any professional experience in movie/video game sound yet. Therefore, I'm trying to build up a demo reel with re-designs of trailers and other freely available footage. I thought it would be fun to document the process and give out some tips along the way. This is the first of what will be 3 or 4 videos on the topic:

http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=1T6pvwtWVDk

Thanks for watching and I hope it's useful to someone,

- Nick

[SubFunk]

only watched it halfway through... but looks like a good basic entrance.

how you getting on with SMPTE? in Live... i am curios in the future...

[Nick the Zombie]

only watched it halfway through... but looks like a good basic entrance.

how you getting on with SMPTE? in Live... i am curios in the future...

There's no timecode here, just a trailer I downloaded. I'm just sync'ing the effects to individual frames by zooming in and out of the timeline as much as needed. I haven't used SMPTE with Live ever, but maybe someone else reading this has?

- Nick

[BlackMath]

I just scored and sound designed my friends short all in Live 8. SMPTE functionality would have been a huge plus.

We had a lot of problems syncing the tracks in Final Cut. Still haven't figured out where the problem is.


But nice video.

[subbasshead]

You can burn timecode into any video using Final Cut Pro or any number of other apps....
That will give you a timecode display onscreen which you can then relate to the master video
when it comes time to layback to original master video.....

BlackMath when you started work on your friends short you should have asked for a QT with
burnt in timecode, so that you could verify sync between your work & the master....

For post you also need to be clear about the frame rate & codec of the original video you
are working to - h264 is one of the worst for post work, as it uses interframe compression
which makes it very slow to scrub/cue video backwards.... convert it to MJPEGA or PhotoJPEG format

Not working with timecode in post is a bit like not working with a tempo or time signature in music...
ie its possible but far from ideal & not the way to develop post skills...

[Nick the Zombie]

h264 is one of the worst for post work, as it uses interframe compression
which makes it very slow to scrub/cue video backwards.... convert it to MJPEGA or PhotoJPEG format

Good information, I had no idea about this issue.

Not working with timecode in post is a bit like not working with a tempo or time signature in music...

Very true. If I had been working with a studio on this trailer I would of course have needed to sync to something in order to retain consistency. Since I was only doing this re-design for myself, timecode wasn't a concern.

[SubFunk]

Not working with timecode in post is a bit like not working with a tempo or time signature in music...
ie its possible but far from ideal & not the way to develop post skills...

well, i did not wanted to be so direct, but if someone puts out tutorials...

[subbasshead]

sorry if i am being picky... but its what i do for a living & i find it interesting how in some instances the term 'sound design' has gotten confused between the two seperate areas of synth/sound programming versus film sound design. They don't have that much in common.... film sound design is after about the film ie the story, characters, action, emotion and involves dialogue, ADR, foley, ambiences, sound effects....

But dont let technology/software stop you - the first few feature films I did I was working on a ProTools LE system with no DV Toolkit... you can do it but you have to know what you're doing because the potential for it to go very wrong is large & there is a lot at stake....
and THAT is a very important aspect of post production: preventing problems before they can occur....

[SubFunk]

@ subbasshead, you are not picky, you are correct!

[Nick the Zombie]

sorry if i am being picky... but its what i do for a living & i find it interesting how in some instances the term 'sound design' has gotten confused between the two seperate areas of synth/sound programming versus film sound design. They don't have that much in common.... film sound design is after about the film ie the story, characters, action, emotion and involves dialogue, ADR, foley, ambiences, sound effects....

No worries, Tim, you've provided some great information and clarification in this thread. I've actually followed your writing for a little while now and I respect your level of experience. I've read peoples' wariness about how the term "sound design" is increasingly used to describe both technical and storytelling skills, but I don't share that concern. I see the two skills as being so intertwined that they really need to be addressed together. I'm fine with agreeing to disagree on this one, but I wanted to throw another perspective out there.

But dont let technology/software stop you - the first few feature films I did I was working on a ProTools LE system with no DV Toolkit... you can do it but you have to know what you're doing because the potential for it to go very wrong is large & there is a lot at stake....
and THAT is a very important aspect of post production: preventing problems before they can occur....

Duly noted! These videos are obviously very short looks at both the technical and aesthetic sides of creating sound for picture, and I hope I didn't give the impression that they were comprehensive introductions to post.