Post-production project complete!

I have recently completed the post-production audio edit for a 35 minute film I have been working on since the July. I was sceptical at first taking this project because of the very rough location audio that had a lot of destructive wind noise and interference throughout many dialogue intensive scenes. I saw the opportunity to take on an intensive challenge that would further refine my ADR and audio masking skills and add impressive elements to my portfolio and freelance business reputation. My freelance audio production business, Vigilant New Media, has finalised yet another post production project, but this one wasn't a cake walk.

The first stage in production was to do a rough edit the director and myself could determine which scenes will need ADR recording. After many review sessions we determined that roughly 1/3 of the film needed to be re-created in the studio, which by comparison to other indy films, is quite a lot. I would normally recommend re-shooting some scenes under these circumstances but the scenes were quite difficult to re-create and many of the actors are from Vancouver and Toronto, basically I was asked to make a miracle happen. The production company agreed to pay all the studio time and production expenses required to get the audio to a professional level, so I called up my good old buddy Andrew from Precursor Productions and booked about a week of studio time.

The ADR sessions were a lot of fun, all of the actors did a fantastic job despite the many takes we went through! It is a key tactic in ADR recording to use the same microphone at roughly the same placement as it was recorded on set-It is usually a safe bet to have the mic pointing downward from a raised mic stand to emulate how the boom mic is typically used on set. I was using Apple Logic Pro and engage the look take recording feature made it ideal for capturing the perfect ADR takes, because it allows you to seamlessly cut individual words from a variety of different takes to suit the scene.

Next on the agenda was a rigorous Foley recording session that took a couple months to completely re-create from the ground up. The wind noise was so destructive on some scenes that they had to be deleted completely, so every gust of wind rustling branches to every footstep and passing car had to be fabricated with some studio magic. This process was very challenging and time consuming at times, but the finished product really is something impressive. I can barely tell that the audio was re-created, it sounds to me like pristine location audio!

The most difficult Foley, however, is the roller skating scenes. I used contact microphones and boom mics spatially position around the streets at 4am - 5am when there was little traffic noise. The mixed roller skating now sounds dynamic, thunderous and amazing. After many mixing sessions with the director I finally have the finished product ready for the Cinematheque and film festival release this spring. I highly recommend checking out this film!