You can ask your own questions to this month special guest Tim Nielsen. Just leave a comment or send your question(s) to miguel [at] designingsound [dot] org.
Art and technique of sound design
by Miguel Isaza
You can ask your own questions to this month special guest Tim Nielsen. Just leave a comment or send your question(s) to miguel [at] designingsound [dot] org.
Favourite sounds from your recent travels?
If I give you money, can I be an intern?
In light of this Q&A, I have finally seen “The Prince of Persia” today with my wife and daughters – it’s so much more intense to watch childrens’ movies with actual children ;) I lost my critical listening after about 10 minutes and fell for the drama; hoped and weeped, and waited for that first kiss :)
Being a very demanding movie with a lot of action, CGI, unfamiliar places and magical devices, crowds, crashing boulders, and sand in all of its incarnations, it is beyond my grasp to assess the magnitude of work that needs to be done on such a project. I see a lot of names on IMDB, but that, of course, doesn’t tell much – some of the people might have took part for only a day, while some may have invested their heart and soul. Could you please, as close as you can, estimate how many man-hours was spent on The Prince of Persia (from dialog editing to printmastering), or, if that would be in violation of your NDA, then, how much man-hours do you think it would take to do a movie that is almost the same ;)
Crowds – considering the film dialog is in English, did you record or use English or Persian language crowds and group loops? I’m asking because I must admit I don’t remember really hearing any specific words, although there definitelly was this ‘middle-eastern’ sound to them…. I’m a real crowd-fan and I’m always in fear, uncertainty and doubt about my films until I get good crows in there. Since this film is full of crowds, crowd reactions, different armies from all perspectives and what not, I wonder how you felt about the crowd sounds – and were they high on the priority list of Mr Mike Newell, the director of the film?
Ostrichs – when the princess sets them free and they start running – is that what they sound like in reality??? Or is that a bunch of stoned foley artists on a late night session ;)
Pet sounds – do you have some pet sounds in this movie? Ones that may not have obvious exposure (like hits, explosions and arrow bys) but that you always feel great about hearing when you stumble upon them? Like an odd footstep, or some sand sparkle?
Sorry for all these hard questions, but if any of them is not interesting to you, please go ahead and skip them, and focus on the ones that could have interesting stories behind.
Thanks,Danijel
Tim, you know, I love the simple sounds that remind of the place the best. Stupid things like the crazy traffic in Manila. We had a huge Thunderstorm here the other day, and the rain was so hard, I’m sure the recording won’t be great, but the car alarms here are set so sensitive, that with almost every thunderclap several go off, and it’s a sound that invoke that memory for sure!
Zack, how much money are we talking about? :) Hah, in all seriousness, if I’m ever able to take an intern, I’m happy to keep you in mind. I think internships and apprenticeships are really useful, and I wish there were more available for people starting out. I’m always happy to try and be a virtual mentor. Tim Prebble did something like that that I think was very well received, and those of us on this site I think all hope we can help people starting out.
Danijel, wow. That’s a lot of questions! But I’ll answer as best I can. But maybe I’ll wait and do it at the end of the month with the other questions. But I promise I will do my best to answer your questions!
Good evening Tim. I’m an up and coming post-production professional in the industry for film and animation. I really dig sound and have broken away from my video editing to explore the endless possibilities the career has to offer.
I would like to inquire about your MS recording post and wanted to learn more on how to process LCR sound files.
I’d really appreciate a resource to learn from, possibly the protools video capture session to setup up the template.
Thank you for your time.
Best
Craig W. Northrop
Could you comment on your preference of mic technique for sounds in motion (ie fly-bys, drive-bys, whooshes etc)
Thanks!
desert island mic kit – 1 shotgun, 2 small diaphragm condensers, 2 omnis. which and why?
thx!
Ok Tim I’m gonna buckle and ask the most asked question in this industry….
What can a sound designer / audio mixer do to stand out from the crowd in terms of employment? I am and have been struggling for a while now to break anywhere near any type of employment in the sound design field. Is it a case of ‘It’s who you know”?
because I don’t know anybody ha ha..
Is there greater of chance of employment in the USA due to the vast amounts of companies? (I’m in London by the way).
Any advice would be greatly appreciated, a job would be much more appreciated though ha ha.
(sorry for asking the question, just wanted to get an idea from a true professional)
Cheers Tim
Graham Donnelly
Hi Tim, I’m learning about Sound Design by Internet tutorials. My equipments now are not good enough for sound design work (because they are bought for my small music studio): AT2020, Tastar SM5b mics, TC Desktop Konnekt 6 Interface and KRK5 G2 Monitor. Could you suggest me a good starter and essential equipment? Can I get “good enough” sound with just one Mic or Zoom H4? What kind of mic should I buy to record sound, foley (condenser or dynamic or…)? I can’t afford high-end equipment. Thank you very much. Sorry for my bad english.