Workflow for the all in one post mixer question

[djgizmo]

I've some how roped myself into a rush project and of course got into a heated argument with director / producer on what the birds eye view of the post work flow for film festivals with a short deadline should be. (30 day Action film challenge, 48hr film fest, etc).

From my experience, after the footage is shot, picture is edited and 'LOCKED'. Then a copy of the locked film is sent to both VFX/Colorist and Audio at the same time. Audio also receives the OMF. Each department (or usually person) does what is needed and then sends those specific assets back to the video editor to sync back up to the timeline and once in sync, all the editor should have to do is export. (This of course is all dependent on the director approval of each departments work and final export) This workflow of both the colorist and audio working at the same time reduces the amount of lag/dead time the audio department has waiting for the 'pretty' version.


In short, is that an appropriate post work flow for small team for a short deadline film festival?

Do you have any recommendations? (besides not to work on rush projects. )

Thanks!

[dr.sound]

Sounds like the way it should be. It should be locked and stay that way when budget is a major concern. Be efficient or make them pay overages.
They have to learn to let go to let you have the time to deliver the type
of work they want.

[georgia]

Are you doing this as a team? or are you getting paid for your services?

IF my my team and I were producing this end to end.. thats NOT how we would do it. We would set up a story board to assure we don't screw up the project is the heat of fast shooting. While we were shooting, i'd have an editor create an amimatic from scanned storyboards and start sound design with the animatics right away. (stick figures or PreViz doesn't matter as long as we all know what we're shooting) Every day ( or if necessary, every scene ) of shooting would end with immediate log/transfer/transcode and syncing sound. We would edit roughs as quickly as possible. as soon as we have a scene or even a minute of footage, we'd replace the hand drawn shots in the animatic with actual footage, and the sound team would hit it again. This would happen on continuing basis until the film is finished. picture, sound, whatever all in parallel... Doesn't matter if it's a 48 HR battle or a 30 day battle from start to finish. We would do this so everything runs in parallel and the delivery is absolutely NOT serial processing.... no time for that luxury is a speed race.

IF i were hired to do post for someone on one of these speed shoots, I would do the same thing.. but i'd get paid by the hour , not the project.....

It's a totally difference world than a "normal" shoot. And its a totally different issue if its' my project, or on a team job that i'm doing as part of the ownership... or if i'm just getting paid. Either way, its about TIME not convenience in these speed shoot.

You can't afford to wait until the picture is locked, because you won't have time to do any sound... you need to work hand in hand and start pulling sounds, ambiences, music as soon as the green flag is dropped, and you'll be doing picture editorial, conforms and mixing every bloody 15 minutes.... if you know the premise and have boards you can easily start to sound design right away, as well as do dialogue cleanup as it come in... This ain't a normal work flow but it's about SPEED and QUALITY in a speed shoot

Its fun in its own warped way.... but its not for people who need strong rules and structure....

cheers
geo

[djgizmo]

Thanks for the replies.

Geo,
Thank you for the insight in regards to the animatics with storyboards. I'll have to use that for any projects which I'm involved with pre-production. Normally I flush out sound fx and ambiance from shot lists and the shooting script.

Yes, I am getting paid, but of course bottom feeder rates. (need the money and something to add to my portfolio).

Geo,

When you said if you were just hired to do just post audio, you'd do the same thing, did you mean the same thing as your team response or the same thing as I mentioned in my op.

Thanks as always.

[georgia]

If it were just a paying gig, I'd try to get them to lock picture as Dr. Sound suggests, but having been through these in the past, It's just not going to happen. These guys will end up cutting to the last second, doing reshooting in the middle of mixing, etc. etc... so unless the gig is amazingly well planned and executed.... getting a LOCKED picture is probably a pipe dream....


Therefore, I would set a PRICE , A SPECIFIC period of work time (in days, or hours ), and A Specific DELIVERABLE. I would also set a price/hour when the work exceeded the SPECIFIED time.


cheers
geo

[insomaniac]

Originally Posted by georgia

Therefore, I would set a PRICE , A SPECIFIC period of work time (in days, or hours ), and A Specific DELIVERABLE. I would also set a price/hour when the work exceeded the SPECIFIED time.

This. I've had so many "Locked" pictures go back and recut midway through with a deadline coming up, and I've had even more projects drag on for weeks or even months while they decide if a scene should be 3 frames shorter or only 2. Nothing is more frustrating than surprises at the last minute.

I once worked on an indie feature that ended up in post for over 2 years, with reshoots, a slew of different editors, etc. When we started, I was still in college and worked as the sound mixer/boom op. I was slated to edit and mix it with a small team, but as time wore on and it missed the festival submissions over and over again, the whole team graduated, and we all moved on to other things that would pay us for our time. I think that movie screened recently, but I'm not sure...

[djgizmo]

Thanks everyone.

Also, I experienced a sync issue over the summer with another similar project... The colorist did his work and provided his timeline back to the editor. Same with me. I synced my audio to exactly the timeline I was given. When the editor assembled it back together, of course the sound didn't sync up.

Is there something I can do to dummy proof this? My thoughts are the editor should provide bars/tones that way everything aligns to that?

[georgia]

2-pop both visual frame and audio 1-khz, tone exactly 1 frame in lenght two seconds before first frame of action and the same at the end... the end pop can be anywhere as long as its documented to the frame as it's location.

Do this on all tracks in picture editorial and get it delivered to you with these... Then when you deliver keep them in , the editor can cut them out... Or, once you are approved and it's locked you can deliver without them.

cheers
geo