Tip #75: Don't forget the bonus audio commentary!

By Dan Parkes (Director)

It has become a reasonably recent phenomena: the indepth audio commentary with cast and crew explaining as you watch the film how and what went into making it. Apparantly the very first audio commentary was on the 1984 laserdisc version of the original "King Kong" movie, with film historian Ronald Haver. Then later in 1997 the DVD version of the film "Contact" contained a bonus audio commentary with cast and crew which at the time was considered a gimmick to show off the capacity of new DVD technology. Now it is almost expected on DVDs and Blu-Ray, with most cast and crew happy to provide one, although directors Woody Allen and Steven Spielberg have yet to record a commentary believing a film should speak for itself.

While often the source of parodies and used for entertainment value, audio commentaries can serve a very useful purpose -allowing behind-the-scenes glimpses and filmmaking tips as the scene unfolds before your eyes. No doubt there has been a lot of thought and hard work that has gone into the production and this can also be an occasion in which to point out possibly overlooked work done by cast and crew. Maybe there is an unknown backstory or message behind a piece of dialogue or a production design decision that can be highlighted.

Rider Strong and Eli Roth recording their
audio commentary for the "Cabin Fever" DVD.

The recording of an audio commentary uses essentially the same tips as outlined in the previous two blogs on ADR (http://bit.ly/ADRtips) and Voice Over (http://bit.ly/voiceovertips). But here are some extra things to think about:

1. Before recording your commentary think of as many cast and crew who might want to be involved
2. Prepare beforehand by making notes of things you don't want to forget to mention
3. If there is going to be more than one person speaking decide beforehand of any particular scene they might want to speak about so you can co-ordinate it.
   
4. Have a method of syncing your audio commentary in post -using visual or audio cues at the beginning or end of the record session.
   
5. During playback make sure the commentators are wearing headphones to listen to the film itself at low volume
6. Commentaries do not have to be one hundred percent of the time -allow occassion for the original film audio to be heard.
   
7. Once you have finished recording your commentary it may need to be edited (to remove mistakes etc)
8. You will need to mix it with the original film's audio, with film's audio very low in the background but if there are moments of no commentary then bring it back up to almost full volume.
9. Add it is a separate track on the DVD that can be selected via a DVD menu option.

Tip #73: Record high quality voice over

By Dan Parkes (Director)

"In a world...."

We are now all familiar with the seemingly ubiquitous deep film trailer voice that sounds like he has smoked a hundred cigarettes a day... (epitomised by the legendary late "Don" LaFontaine -picture left- who never smoked!). But that deep, crisp and velvet like voice over is now something possible for even low budget filmmakers to achieve.

In Ambleton Delight we had narration as voice over that starts and finishes the film and this was recorded in a living room.

Here are some tips on what we learned along the way:

1. Is voice over really necessary? There are times when it is a too easy or safe option. Other times it is necessary for backstory.
2. Reading written narration can -depending on the person- be quite an art form and require some practice to make it sound natural. Audition and rehearse as you would for any speaking part.
3. If you can't record in an actual studio then try to replicate one. Reverb and echo is what will ruin your recording -eliminate it by recording in a small enclosed space, or by creating one using duvets, sleeping bags, blankets, cardboard, egg crates etc
4. Treat the recording session the same as when directing actors on set -give as much or as little direction, back-story, motivation as required.
5. Don't underestimate the power of a good microphone. That does not necessary mean an expensive one -you could possibly borrow or hire one for the day. Generally speaking capacitor microphones are better than dynamic for voice over.
6. Make sure you have a pop guard -something that goes between the microphone and mouth to help reduce the puffs of wind from such things as the letter 'p'. You can use stockings to create one.
7. Have large-print print-outs of the voice over, double spaced and a paragraph or less to a page. Don't have any notes that require page-turning as this will make a noticeable noise.
8. Use a music stand to hold the voice over notes.
9. Record high quality uncompressed digital files such as 48K WAV files.
10. Make sure someone is monitoring with headphones and have this option also for the voice over artist so they can monitor themselves.
11. Number takes and label accurately.
12. Add compression and other effects as required afterwards (Pro Tools has a 'voice over' setting).