i hate satan

I've never been one who clearly understood the art of sound with filmmaking. I often get very confused whenever I think about it for too long. So basically, I'll just shell out the question in hopes that some of you film God's will enlighten my amatuerish little mind.


SCENARIO-
Say you have 2 camera... Camera A and Camera B. You seet them up a different angles, and of course, in the manner of which neither camera would capture the other. You have a beautiful shot gun mic. The scene is just two guys talking. How do you shoot that scene with two cameras, and sync'd audio? For example. do you start both cameras recording at the same time, then get the clapboard and then sync it up in post? Also, what if you want to switch the angle of one camera, but keep the angle of the other. Do you have to start the scene, do it, stop recording everything, even sound, reposition the other camera, and start all over to get continued sound? I'm sure this sounds confusing, but I've always wondered how in movies they were able to change angles so often, with good flowing audio, even while some shots would show where a camera would be. Thanks.

I think that what you're missing is that the sound is not recorded onto the film. The sound is recorded onto a separate digital format. The clapper you see visually claps in front of the camera so we can see the clap, and the sound recording hears the clap- when they are alligned the sound and picture are synched.

Quote:

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I've always wondered how in movies they were able to change angles so often, with good flowing audio, even while some shots would show where a camera would be

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<font size="2" face="Verdana, Helvetica, sans-serif">Usually shots are set up for one camera so that you can light it properly, therefore one scene would have numerous set-ups- hence continuity errors! Usually the only desirable sound is the dialogue- once you have clean dialogue recorded you can add in effects and music in post-production, also adding to the illusion of one continuous piece of action in a scene.

Well.

If life were only like that...

Most films are only shot with one camera. Usually only scenes with stunts are shot with multiple cameras and sitcoms because they have such a tight production schedule.

Basically, a scene is shot as follows...

Master Shot. This is a wide shot that shows the entirety of the scene and gives the audience a general overview of the scene and where everything is. It's not used very often in a final product except to establish were the actors are compared to their surroundings.

Close ups. You know what this is. Each is shot seperately. Pretty much they run through a scene with the camera pointed at the actor. They do this to everyone in the scene and its what most final scenes are composed of.

Cut Aways. These are shots that make a scene seamless. They're the CU of objects and anything the actors may use in a scene... ie. someone picking up a drink off the table, a clock...

Now, you may ask why this done like this? Because films are shot on 35mm film. The lighting takes a painstakingly large amount of time to plan and setup so adding a second camera would be ridiculous.

Sound is recorded seperately using a Nagra, DAT or other digital recorder and synced up in post. This is what a clapper/ slate is for. The snapping sound that it makes is what editors use to sync the sound up, but now with timecode, this is just done as a backup.

As for the final product... it's all done in post. Colour correction (nothing is ever as it appears), sound editing (ambience, sound effects, additional dialogue recording), and a bunch of other post stages bring the sound and picture together as if they were shot in one take.

That's why they call it movie magic!

Here's a good website you could take a look at about film sound design and theory:

http://www.filmsound.org/

PS what's this got to do with satan?

<font color="#a62a2a" size="1">[ January 30, 2004 04:41 AM: Message edited by: Justin M. ]</font>

I love you Justin.