sound with fans

[jimbib]

Hi guys...next filming, i'm planning on using fans for emotion n atmosphere (you must know what i'm on about!!), and was wondering how I can go about getting good audio? If not on set, how do I do some ADR and not make it look like a terrible dubbed foreign film? I don't have anything like Adobe Audition, just Premiere Pro... Thanks

PS: do you think a couple of tall-standing house fans will be enough to get some hair and clothes flapping, I can't afford a fancy wind machine or anything smile.gif

[busbyvideo]

Hi Jim

Problem with fans is that they can be noisy. If you can hide tie clip sized mics on the actors you may get away with it. There's a set of Azden radio mics in the classified section of the forum.

[Unicorn]

If not on set, how do I do some ADR and not make it look like a terrible dubbed foreign film?Make a silent film with dialog cards smile.gif .

More seriously, a good directional mike may eliminate much of the fan noise, and you might be able to cover the rest with background noise or music. I've shot footage next to a steam train which sounded like crap on the camera's internal mike, but had only a small hiss in the background with the main mike.

[rbarry]

Bouncey castles are fed by either a petrol or elctrically driven remote fan, the latter being far quietier. The fan is connected to the inflatable with an umbilical plastic material tube. Depending on your location for the shoot, you could possibly hire an electric blower (without the inflatable castle/giraffe !), and place it far enough away for it not to affect the sound. If the shot is indoors, you could arrange the tube to come through a window or doorway. The pressure of air is fairly strong, so adjusting the blast is a simple case of positioning the tube closer or further away from the subject. I can't believe the hire charge would be that much.

[jimbib]

Thanks everyone - rbarry, as for that blower, do you know the wattage of the device? I am filming in the middle of a field (nightmare for power) and am either using an 800W generator, or similar battery pack thing.

Cheers

[rbarry]

These guys may know, and are located in Kent:

http://www.krazy-castles.co.uk/Bouncycastlefans.html

or these guys:

http://www.silverbox.co.uk/index.html

and here (Maldon, Essex):

http://www.gibbonsfans.com/uk/index.htm

Whether this is the sort of blower you need I can't say, I've never used one for the purpose you propose. However, I used to be involved with corporate entertainment and have seen these things "in action" !

[DAVE M]

HSS

<http://www.hss.com/Fae.asp?sysPage=wsHomePage&wsCountry=UK&sysLanguage=[BASE]&resetToGroup=YES>

They don't say what power but my 12" desk fan is 45w

So long as you shield the mike from the air blast you should be ok - try solutions by sticking a mic out of a car window or sunroof.

Be aware thast if you have the hell of a wind, the sound will be carried on it

[jimbib]

Thanks everyone, i will look into those blowers. However, so far, no-one's mentioned the option of ADR? Does this mean it is a bad idea? Because, if there is the slightest bit of fan-noise in the background, i will have to rebuild the soundtrack from scratch, ambience & re-recorded dialogue (should be interesting!) Although, i will try and shield the shotgun mic as well as possible from the air flow.

[DAVE M]

I've done ADR and it's just very time consuming. But if you watch a lot of 1 hr tv dramas, they do it all the time - and I think badly. They hardly ever get the ambience right.

A mate runs a facilities house in SoHo and I've seen what they do and it's just as basic as you'd do at home only with more buttons.

[Unicorn]

Because, if there is the slightest bit of fan-noise in the background, i will have to rebuild the soundtrack from scratch,Why? Personally I'd rather cover up the fan noise with other background sound or music than use anything but the best ADR dialogue. I find bad ADR far more distracting than background sound... and most of what I see on low-budget productions _is_ bad.

[Mad_mardy]

ok this is what we did
the location was a country school in the middle of the night in the middle of the country, no lighting at all.

we had 2 blondes , 3 red heads , 2 2.5kw floods
and to power most of that 2 generators ( i can't remeber the power size but they were powerful)

the noise was incredible, we stashed them halfway down a field to reduce it somewhat.

what we did was to shoot the images under generators and lights and then switch everything off and run the scene again for sound pick up
and post sync it, admittidly there wasn't much dialogue and we were very careful to replay the scene almost exactly as it was in the original shots but it worked. sound was very important for the scenes and a lot of the sound track was made up from scratch, but it definatly doesn't sound like it was added on afterwards and out of the whole program its the bit i like best.
if you want to see the paticular scene in question i could try and get part of it uploaded
to the web.

the problem with bad ADR is that its not necessarily bad sync its that the accoustics in the voice don't match the accoustics of the room
couple this with actors not speaking the lines EXACTLY as said in the images witht he right inflections and tones of the voice and it seems that the voice is just floating on the top.
get the actor to speak the lines in similar or the same locations ie images in a field record in a field. try a few experiments and see what happens