The Importance of Audio in your Film

Getting your audio right can make or break your film, so it’s important to get it right! You need to make sure your dialogue is clear and can be heard… if not then you’ll have to shoot your scene again. If this isn’t feasible then you’ll have to do ADR.

ADR (Automated dialogue recording) is the process of recording your dialogue in post production and then mixing it with your footage to make it sound like it was recorded during the shoot. This is all well and good, but it’s quite difficult to get your lines synced perfectly with your original footage.

There’s also one major problem with ADR. When you add it to your footage you’ll have to mute your original audio which means you’ll lose the background sounds. If you’ve got some footage of a guy delivering his lines next to a busy road then it’s going to look a bit strange if all you can hear is him talking and nothing else!

There are ways around this though. The best is to record what’s known as room tone or a presence track. This is basically capturing the ambient background audio of your scene. All you need to do is leave your camera or sound recorder running for a few minutes and then combine this with your ADR work to give a realistic sounding scene. The length of this track depends on what the background sounds include. Even if your dialogue is perfect then it is useful to record a presence track anyway as then you can play with the levels in post to give a more rich sound and add different layers to your track.

If you’ve done and dusted with your shooting and it’s not possible to record a presence track then you’ll have to resort to creating your own presence track or buying some stock audio. Stock audio is available form dozens of high quality stock footage and sound effects providers, but it may be difficult to find the exact clip you’re looking for. Scenes in busy streets, restaurants and offices mean you’ll be able to pretty much take your pick, but if your shot was in the mens toilets of a nuclear submarine then you might have more difficulty!

Obviously the best solution of all is not to have to use any of these techniques at all! If you’re using external sound then make sure the microphone is as close as possible to your actor without being in the shot. Make sure it has a wind sheild if using outdoors and a furry cat if it’s windy. If there’s considerable background noise then is it possible to shoot from the opposite direction so the noise is behind the mic?

If you’re limited to the built in microphone on your camera then there’s not too much you can do about it, but make sure you plug in a pair of headphones to check the audio. If you’re having trouble hearing your talent then it should be possible to adjust the audio levels or you may have to resort to moving your camera closer to the action.

Last but not least, make sure you listen to your film when it’s done! I mean actually just sit and listen to it without watching it. Why? You’re looking for anything that sticks out audio wise and it’s easier to do if you’re not analysing the visual element at the same time. Listen for any spikes in sound; does the sound peak or drop when the scene changes? Does anything sound out of the ordinary? Does one actor sound loads louder than another? If you pick up on any problems then you’re going to have to go back and fix them in your editing software by playing with the levels. Or… you could just leave it! But if you’ve spent weeks or months creating a great looking film then it would be a shame if you didn’t at least give the audio the care and attention it so rightly deserves!

Stay tuned for the next post which will be on the importance of music in your film!

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