a few questions

tyler taylor · November 6, 2007

To sum myself and my situation up as easily as possible, I'm a photographer/musician/audio engineer. A buddy of mine is about to graduate from the university of texas, then go to their film school.

So, we were talking, and he said he'd like for me to do all the sound engineering when he starts making movies. I've been recording bands for about 2 years now, I'd say with the gear I have, I have it perfected. But, I know nothing about audio for film. Where could I go to learn everything I possibly can about it, and the process of making the audio for a movie (hell, I don't even know what the proper term is!)

What gear would I ideally want? Lets say there's a budget, but not a small one. I'm willing to drop a pretty penny, if its what needs to be done, I can save as much as I need!

Also, just for killing time purposes, what kind of cameras do professional filmmakers/cinematographers use? as in, a movie I could see in theaters/buy to watch at home. I'm not saying I want to buy one of these cameras, I just like reading about stuff!

And I'd also like to make short films, skate/bmx videos, etc in the mean time. I have another friend who is a writer, and works at the alamo drafthouse (theater, which plays all kinds of local indie films). What's the best format/camera for me to do this? You guys don't even have to tell me anything specific, just a few links would make me more than happy.

Now, I know I'll probably get a lot of "hey, you suck, noobie!" responses, so can we please just skip that? I've got plenty of time to learn, and all that time I can be saving up for the equipment I'm learning about.

Thanks a lot in advance guys

David Mullen ASC · November 6, 2007

Generally audio in filmmaking is divided between recording on set (usually dialogue, but there's also the gathering of background sounds) and post-production audio work (editing, mixing, sound design, etc.) Many general filmmaking books cover some of the basics.

James Steven Beverly · November 6, 2007

There's a lot to learn with film making so nobody here says "hey, you suck, noobie!" because we all learn something new almost every day so in some sense we're all noobies. Theres a site called Recording.org that has a section on film and video recording:

www.recording.org/forum-8.html

It also has forums on subjects you're already familiar with.

There's a section here in the "Not Cinematography" section on sound acquisition:

www.cinematography.com/forum2004/index.php?showforum=60

There are also several books on the subject:

Sound Studio:Audio techniques for Radio,Television,Film

Recording Engineer Handbook - Pro Audio Production Book

Audio Post Production For Television And Film

AS for cameras and which is the best, there has been countless lines of posts written debating this very subject on the forums, so you might want to do a search.....in just about ANY category here but let me try and streamline the high points for ya, IF you want to sell your film when it's all said and done, your best bet is to shoot 35mm to start with which is very expensive to do BUT is the easiest to sell and usually the costs of transfer to 35mm from other formats IF you can even get anyone interested in buying them offsets the savings in film costs from using a cheaper format. The main 35mm cameras are:

Arriflex (own or rent)

Panavision (rent ONLY)

Aaton (own sometimes rent)

Mitchell (own rarely rent)

Moviecam (own or rent)

other 35mm are:

Eclair

Eyemo (Bell and Howell)

and making currently inroads into the US but VERY popular elsewhere in the world particularly in Australia and India and of course Russia are the Communist Russia era cameras from the former Soviet Union:

Konvas (own)

Kinor 35H and 35C (own)

there are also some other Soviet cameras but these are rarely seen in the US. ( Check out Commiecam.com if you're interested in these.)

The Next best choice for sales is 16mm, check the 16mm forum here for those.

Then TRUE HD digital video cameras (4:4:4 pulldown, NOT the HDV consumer codec)

Then higher end SD or standard definition digital video (Digi-beta, pro-50, ect)

Then on about the same level super 8mm, DVcam and Mini DV

Then analog video, Betacam, SVHS

and at the bottom of the barrel, poor lowly VHS.

Most of the camera stuff can be researched right here.

Also, you're gonna want to learn a little about sound formats (Dolby, 5.1, THX, Mono), sound and film editing (traditional, digital and the RARELY used anymore linear ) also scoring, foley, room tone, wild sounds, sound FX, field recorders (Fostex, DAT, Nagra, ect), various mics (Shotgun, Lavallier, ect, ect some of this you may already know) booms, blimps and something you may already be familiar with, mixers and 24 track recorders

Exciting, isn't it! B)

tyler taylor · November 6, 2007

AS for cameras and which is the best, there has been countless lines of posts written debating this very subject on the forums, so you might want to do a search.....in just about ANY category here but let me try and streamline the high points for ya, IF you want to sell your film when it's all said and done, your best bet is to shoot 35mm to start with which is very expensive to do BUT is the easiest to sell and usually the costs of transfer to 35mm from other formats IF you can even get anyone interested in buying them offsets the savings in film costs from using a cheaper format. The main 35mm cameras are:

Arriflex (own or rent)

Panavision (rent ONLY)

Aaton (own sometimes rent)

Mitchell (own rarely rent)

Moviecam (own or rent)

other 35mm are:

Eclair

Eyemo (Bell and Howell)

and making currently inroads into the US but VERY popular elsewhere in the world particularly in Australia and India and of course Russia are the Communist Russia era cameras from the former Soviet Union:

Konvas (own)

Kinor 35H and 35C (own)

there are also some other Soviet cameras but these are rarely seen in the US. ( Check out Commiecam.com if you're interested in these.)

first and foremost, thank you for the informative reply, it was pretty much exactly what I was looking for.

is there any sort of site with info on what movies were filmed/edited/etc with what equipment? that would be the best. I'd really like to be able to compare the cameras that way.

Exciting, isn't it! B)

so exciting! you have no idea!

(okay, well I guess you do haha)

James Steven Beverly · November 7, 2007

first and foremost, thank you for the informative reply, it was pretty much exactly what I was looking for.

is there any sort of site with info on what movies were filmed/edited/etc with what equipment? that would be the best. I'd really like to be able to compare the cameras that way.

IMDB.com , type in a movie, go to the " technical specs" section on the left. Click on it and it will give you whatever technical specs it has for the movie.