Location and Postproduction Sound for Low Budget Filmmakers

This book covers everything you need to know to master the fundamentals of location sound recording and post-production sound in a comprehensive one-stop guide.

This user-friendly book provides real world situations to analyse the many kinds of location recording configurations and post-production scenarios and offers easy-to-adopt, budget-conscious solutions to some of the most common issues that arise when working with sound. Chapters cover the theory of sound, preproduction with a sound emphasis, microphone selection, testing equipment, how to boom and mix on set, synchronization and time code, and editing sound while doing a picture cut in a traditional picture software platform. Additionally, it discusses bringing a project into a Digital Audio Workstation, and explores basic sound design, dialogue editing, ADR, Foley, sound effects, music for film, re-recording the final mix, and outputting sound to finish a project. Accompanying exercises allow readers the opportunity to try out the various techniques and drills on location, in post-production, or both.

Perfect for student, early career and independent filmmakers, as well as those considering a vocation in location and post-production sound, this book makes achieving great sound attainable for all and is an invaluable tool for anyone wanting to better understand the art of film sound.

Michael Tierno is a former Miramax Story analyst and an independent writer/director/editor of feature films. He is author of the best-selling book Aristotle’s Poetics for Screenwriters and has made four feature films including Turn Back Night, a sci-fi comedy. He is Associate Professor of Film Production at East Carolina University.