How do you ensure your sound design and recording meet industry standards?

I honestly believe you should always use lavalier microphones plus a boom mic while filming any scene with dialogue. I might add that getting room tone is essential. Room tone is used to help piece audio together during edit. To gain room tone you should tell all the cast and crew to maintain silence while the audio man uses a boom microphone for 30-45 seconds. Boom/shotgun microphones are great for documentaries other than interviews. If you don’t have a good microphone selection, look to licensed resale companies like Amazon for used versions. Always use Prime and your equipment gains an immediate guarantee.

Based on my own experiences, achieving the perfect sound can be quite challenging during the post-production phase. That's why it's essential to capture the highest quality sound right from the start of the shooting process. Opting for top-notch equipment with premium standards designed for film production is a wise choice. It's also a great idea to not solely rely on a single microphone; incorporating multiple recording devices can yield fantastic results. For instance, when using Lavalier microphones to capture a character's dialogue, it's equally beneficial to simultaneously record using a boom microphone. This approach sets the stage for achieving exceptional outcomes during the post-production stage.

It doesn’t cost a lot of money to record great inset sound. A lot of boom ops are excellent sound mixers as well. With modern equipment miking up actors and booming them is fairly straight forward. Share with them any Ideas you have for post prod sound design. They may record differently if you plan on a low rumble throughout for example. Actors might not whisper either so all around clueing in the whole team is sometimes beneficial. Hire pros. Bad sound is fatal.

In my experience directing an MPAA rated Union motion picture w/ dialog along beach in Malibu, there are several key steps 1) If you think you have enough mics, you don’t. Use Boom, lav for every actor even if no lines, & place mics hidden on set / practical near scene blocking 2) A multichannel mix board for all the mics, plus PSM can 1st pass mix every actor’s raw vox live. PSM will also maximize your quality & options for ambient noise bed, unpredicted audio, other things vs. a slimmer kit 3) Sound crew = 3-4 min. PSM, 2nd PSM/asst, boom op & asst. Need more hands than people think if doing shots with motion 4) Process your audio in a pass via DIT as if w/ video 5) Gear/crew wise you get what you pay for. Audio = 1/2 of experience

Recording clean and professional sound on set is half of the film's quality. A teacher of mine used to say: If you watch a film and the image is a bit grainy or shaky, but the sound is amazing, the audience will buy into it as artistic freedom. But if your image is grainy or shaky AND your sound is terrible, then that's just a bad made film. I thought this is really true. So, investing in good sound equipment and a professional sound recordist is really important, because, no, you can't save it all in post-production as some might think.

The sample rate and bit depth of your audio files. The sample rate is the number of times per second that the audio signal is sampled. The bit depth is the number of bits used to represent each sample. Higher sample rates and bit depths will result in higher-quality audio files.

I agree with all of this. I’d like to add that train schedules might help. You don’t want a train spoiling a scene. As far as natural acoustics, you will still want to add a lavalier and a boom.

Planning is the most important step to make a better project. Your planning for audio post should have multi-layered approach. 1. Basic 2. Detailed 3. Depth 4. Polished In Basic, just write down what all you feel you need on hearing the audios/reading scripts, to start working. In detailed layer, break each portion, and look for what needs to be done! In depth segment, you need to work on smallest piece of sound (ADR, SFX, Folay, Live, Mix & Master etc.) to generate, correct & elevate it. The last one, Polished, When your dish is ready, you need to enhance it to make it more appealing, effective and impactful. You sound should have to be the backbone of your project.

My last two feature films were shot in extremely opposite conditions. The first one was very controlled, almost solely interiors, which made the recording pretty straight forward. But in my second film, I'm Cris from Tierra Bomba, we had five different countries (and eight cities in total), that should also feel different on screen, as we wanted the audience to travel through different soundscapes as the character was doing, too. We had to figure out, how these places sounded like, what were typical noises and sounds. So it was a quite fun challenge.

Absolutely, this is just as important as your picture, remember sound is 50% of your film. There are other things that can cause sound issues which people won't think about, CB Radios, Police radio frequencies, I shot in a massive field once and we had to relocate due to major interference from the electrical pylons. we didn't prepare for this and had to walk 1.5 miles away for the interference to disappear. It's all a learning process! and pre planning sound is key. This should be done either when location scouting or any location visits with the Director.

When clapping the slate the audio person will be able to gain clear perspective on the boom microphone. Always check your actors microphones before you hit set. Check the dynamics with clothing. Use medical tape to secure the lavaliers.

The most consistent problems I deal with when editing dialogue for film are either a Lavalier mic that has been buried in clothing so deep that the voice is muffled beyond repair, a poorly placed Lav mic that rustles whenever the actor moves, or a poor connection between the Lav mic pack, and the Lav mic, which causes crackling. A little extra attention paid to placement and connection can make all the difference between keeping the onset dialogue or paying for studio time to have the actor come in and replace a line in ADR.

I agree with all of that and what Lisa has said below is spot on. Enough said! I guess one thing to add is record time code! This will also help the editor sync audio.

A current trend in the industry involves the utilization of software for automated synchronization of audio files. Notably, editing software like Davinci offers the convenience of auto-syncing audio. However, a manual approach to audio synchronization remains a preferable choice. Consider the analogy that, just as you meticulously curate and select video clips without relying solely on software, a similar level of attention should be devoted to your audio files. By attentively reviewing video footage and carefully listening to audio elements, you open the door to novel insights that can significantly enhance the refinement of your audio-visual composition.

SOUND DESIGN plays a crucial role in story telling and filming. Sir Charlie Chaplin's films and Tom and Jerry cartoon films are best mentor and teacher for us of how to narrate a story only through sound and actions. Also reasonable sound is only achieved during filming or on live shooting.

In my experience, it's important to do your research. Sound postproduction is such an important part of the film's process. Who has worked on films that "sound" great? How do these people work? How does their studio look like? Can I go and visit it and talk to them? Make sure they work with professional equipment that meets industry standards. After directing on set, I guess sound design is my favorite part of creating a film. Which dialogues should stand out? Which parts of the film should be silent? Where do you need more Foley or even sound effects? In my first film, Home - the country of illusion, we decided not to use music, but instead to create simple melodies using sounds that were recorded from the protagonist's surroundings.

I would also think about transition sounds which really help in pushing your story forward. If you are struggling to sync sound there is a nice piece of software called Plural Eyes which will help synch your clips in no time. I think a lot of the spec info is important for TV Deliverables / TVC's, but for social... delivery spec in terms of sound isn't really that important for social media. This is why so much is filmed with phones now online!

The overall balance of the audio. The different elements of your audio should be balanced so that they are all audible and none of them overpower the others. This can be achieved by adjusting the levels of the different elements and using panning and equalization to control their frequency content.

A little compression on the master volume at this stage goes a long way to ensure that the mix can be heard clearly in most environments.

The importance of ensuring the right output levels for different platforms cannot be understated. If you've mixed your audio for a theater, it will not translate as well to an online platform, such as YouTube or Netflix. A professional mixing facility will have an environment and equipment that allow the mix engineers to pinpoint problem areas, and precisely monitor output levels to ensure that your audio is not rejected by a platform for being too loud or too soft.

Listening to your film in a 5.1 screening room is really important. We always listen to the final film several times in different screening rooms. And then, when the film is finalized, sound is somehow always a headache, as different theaters always have their levels set differently. So, when possible, it's important to always check levels before running a screening.

There are some great you-tubers who teach on sound. A guy called Mike Russell and a youtube channel called Premier Basics will help.

Well all these things are good to keep in mind but if you are relatively new to sound design and/or music production you should also keep in mind that the fore mentioned industry standards also keep on changing. Such as how loud a song should be. And you can use different websites such as 'Youlean.co' to actually check if your song meets the industry standards or not. Then you can make necessary adjustments to your sound.

Very simple tactic but not always possible is to have total control of your environment. Outdoor shoots are never easy to control but the more control you have over your set’s environment the better your sound will be.

Rely on your crew, and always hire people that know well their profession. Your team's level of experience is in fact your biggest ticket to success.