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Manipulating Audio in Post to a voice "Distance."

Joe Taylor

Joe Taylor

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Currently shooting a western film, The Crossing, and I have a sequence where the lead psychopath is having a loud conversation with himself as he passes by another character who is hiding up in some rocks. The bad guy is seen from perhaps 150 feet away. But his dialogue was recorded with a shotgun mic from about 20 feet.

The scene takes place in the desert at night and I need to make this audio sound more "natural."

Would appreciate any advice or pointers.

Many thanks.
 
1) What's "unnatural" in this case - noisy, distant, unintelligible...?
2) Is the "bad guy's" face lit? Is it visible? A CU?
If not, looping might help alot.
 
The Bad guy is seen from a distance of 50 yards or so. His face is not visible. The problem is is that even though I recorded his ADR from about 20 feet wth the actor delivering his lines at the correct levels, his voice when played with all the other audio still sounds "too close." Unless I can manipulate it the audio to give it range, we will likely try the recording process again at further distances.
 
Joe Taylor said:
The Bad guy is seen from a distance of 50 yards or so. His face is not visible. The problem is is that even though I recorded his ADR from about 20 feet wth the actor delivering his lines at the correct levels, his voice when played with all the other audio still sounds "too close." Unless I can manipulate it the audio to give it range, we will likely try the recording process again at further distances.
Click to expand...

Ok.

Now, count in the "air loss" (gentle high roll-off) due to that distance of 50 feet, and use low-cut filter too (at 50 feet it sounds "thinner" than at 20, proximity...) and add reverberation - don't use reverb tail, only early reflections. Tune to fit.

Good luck! :biggrin:
 
Šabović Adis;1757071 said:
Ok.

Now, count in the "air loss" (gentle high roll-off) due to that distance of 50 feet, and use low-cut filter too (at 50 feet it sounds "thinner" than at 20, proximity...) and add reverberation - don't use reverb tail, only early reflections. Tune to fit.

Good luck! :biggrin:
Click to expand...


Excellent Šabović. We are going to re-record this monologue next Tuesday. Will try with several different mics. Just bought a Rode NT4 that may work out.
 
Joe Taylor said:
Excellent Šabović. We are going to re-record this monologue next Tuesday. Will try with several different mics. Just bought a Rode NT4 that may work out.
Click to expand...
I would get a really good mic instead. The NT4 is cheap, but it's not going to hold up under tough conditions.

I think it is possible to remix close-mic'd dialogue and make it sound distant, and I would say that David Peterson and Šabović Adis both make very good points: roll off a lot of the low end, add in some reverb, and it will sound like a guy who's some distance away. The key to me is that their voice has to SHOUT so that it sounds like a guy 150 feet away trying to make himself heard, and a lot of that boils down to performance.

I would say a combination of wireless lavs and a decent outdoor shotgun like a Sennheiser MKH-60 or MKH-70 would be a better choice, and those would give you some options in post. Take a look (or a listen) to Westworld, and you'll see just about every outdoor scene is a combination of both lavs and shotguns.
 
Joe Taylor said:
Excellent Šabović. We are going to re-record this monologue next Tuesday. Will try with several different mics. Just bought a Rode NT4 that may work out.
Click to expand...

Hm...why not use the same mic you used in princ. recording?
 
Šabović Adis;1757262 said:
Hm...why not use the same mic you used in princ. recording?
Click to expand...

We will for sure record with the same mic and setup. Just plan to experiment a little bit.
 
The closer the recording is to the final product the better it is.
You can work on the dialogue in the studio and manipulating is not a problem,
but re recording is the best option!
 
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