Sound reports - what to fill out

[marmie]

I'm beginning a sound career and have a 4 day Super16 short film that
I am mixing. I'm decent at recording sound but have never learned
things like this.

If I am recording to compact flash, what is my sound roll #? does
that only pertain to DAT? do I need to know the film roll number?
I've looked at gotham sound's report for multi track which I will be
recording discreete sp? channels as well as a mono mix of the boom and
lavaliers.

Does anyone have a picture of one filled out online to see as an
example. Sorry about the rookie question.

[s***@sbcglobal.net]

Post by marmie
I'm beginning a sound career and have a 4 day Super16 short film that
I am mixing.  I'm decent at recording sound but have never learned
things like this.
If I am recording to compact flash, what is my sound roll #?  does
that only pertain to DAT? do I need to know the film roll number?
I've looked at gotham sound's report for multi track which I will be
recording discreete sp? channels as well as a mono mix of the boom and
lavaliers.
Does anyone have a picture of one filled out online to see as an
example.  Sorry about the rookie question.

Are you delivering on compact flash? or will you mirror to dvdram?

I would call the first Compact flash or DVD sound roll one, the next,
two and so on. I don't bother with putting down camera roll numbers
but you can. Make sure you put down the title, production co, date,
sample rate, bit rate, time code rate and reference level. Do a
verbal slate with this information with a 10 second refernce tone as
your first segment on the roll.

[Jay Rose]

Post by marmie
I'm beginning a sound career and have a 4 day Super16 short film that
I am mixing. I'm decent at recording sound but have never learned
things like this...

Sounds like a rookie production (no disrespect intended). Please try to
make sure there's also someone keeping a -detailed- camera log
alongside the lined script, that indicates which film takes belong to
which sound rolls and scenes. That's not your responsibility, but will
make audio post a lot easier.

[Jon Ailetcher]

Post by Jay Rose

Post by marmie
I'm beginning a sound career and have a 4 day Super16 short film that
I am mixing. I'm decent at recording sound but have never learned
things like this...

Sounds like a rookie production (no disrespect intended). Please try to
make sure there's also someone keeping a -detailed- camera log
alongside the lined script, that indicates which film takes belong to
which sound rolls and scenes. That's not your responsibility, but will
make audio post a lot easier.
--
Jay Rose CAS
tutorials and other sound goodies at dplay.com

I happen to also write the timecode on each take but I think I'm in
the minority on that one. If you do any iso tracks, make sure you mark
who's on what track. This will help them in post. E-mail me off group
and I would be happy to send you one of my sound reports.

[Eddy Robinson]

Post by Jon Ailetcher
I happen to also write the timecode on each take but I think I'm in
the minority on that one. If you do any iso tracks, make sure you mark
who's on what track. This will help them in post.  E-mail me off group
and I would be happy to send you one of my sound reports.

Me too. Here's my advice for a rookie production...

Take the offer (or issue a demand) for a boom op. You'll need to spend
time training him/her but if you don't have one you'll be exhausted
all the time, won't have time to keep proper logs, and you won't get
the same respect on set because you are a department of 1.

Roll #s - every time you take out the CF card and copy it to a
computer, it's a new 'roll'. Put each 'roll' in a suitable numbered
folder on the computer. Do not trust the assistant editor to get this
right for you - they probably won't, but you will get blamed for
anything that goes wrong. The 'right' info to put on your sound report
i detailed above.

On day 1, at the safety meeting, just remind evryone briefly why you
take room tone and how a quiet rehearsal means you find a sound
problem early rather than just before a take. Also, that your mics are
sensitive and 'vibrate' does not equal 'silent' when it comes to cell
phones. They must be OFF, because otherwise you will record the radio
waves. You must do this - if you let the AD say it then nobody will
really listen to you, the set will be noisy all the time and the AD
will shout 'QUIET ON SET" very loudly before every take so you will go
half-deaf. What you actually need is a nice, quiet set.

If you are friendly and respectful to the camera and grip teams, then
you will have a great shoot. remember, you are not competing with the
other departments. Sometimes people will come at you with a big ego
about why their job is more important than yours, but this just means
they are nervous. Smile, ask how you can help them do their job
better, listen, and then tell them politely what they can do to help
you.

Finally, when something goes wrong (this will always happen), never
hide it. Own your mistakes and bring them up straight away, everyone
will respect you more. If you have a boom operator, own his/her
mistakes as well - camera or director complaints about the boom should
come through you, if they get flack you must step in and take
responsibility. If you need to criticise them, do it quietly and don't
humiliate them. This is just basic stuff that is true about any job,
but some people never learn.

[EricWallace]

Sound reports are a great way to cover your ass. Write down everything
on everything. The important information is:
Prod Title
Sound Roll #
TC Framerate
Sample Rate
Bit Depth
File format (poly/mono bwf/mp3/whatever)
Your Name and Contact Info

Write this information on everything. If you burn a DVD with the sound
write it on the jewel case label. When you put that and the reports
into the envelope, write it on the envelope. Make sure that there is
(practically) no way that they could miss the important information.

Also extremely important is to write down the file name of what you
record.

As far as the notes column goes, just write abnormalities in the take
but try to be specific if you can: "Truck under line '...the store'".
More general things work too like: Camera Noise, Plane, etc.

As far as keeping track of camera rolls, for me it depends on the
camera. For film cameras I always keep track of the camera roll and
start a new report when camera reloads regardless of whether the sound
roll stays the same. For video cameras shooting to tape I also do
this.

For cameras shooting to cards like the HVX or the RED I tend not to do
this. First, they tend to blast through cards so you'd be lucky to get
an entire scene on 1 page. Second, is that ACs seem to have a tendency
to not announce that the camera is reloading with the cards. Third,
the HVX can shoot back to back on cards. So if you have a shot on
multiple camera rolls things can get a bit confusing.

This is just what I've been taught to do. Some of it might be totally
wrong but I've never had any problems so far.

-e

[johnpaul215]

Post by marmie
I'm beginning a sound career and have a 4 day Super16 short film that
I am mixing.  I'm decent at recording sound but have never learned
things like this.
If I am recording to compact flash, what is my sound roll #?  does
that only pertain to DAT? do I need to know the film roll number?
I've looked at gotham sound's report for multi track which I will be
recording discreete sp? channels as well as a mono mix of the boom and
lavaliers.
Does anyone have a picture of one filled out online to see as an
example.  Sorry about the rookie question.

On top of everyone else's suggestions, i can chime in too. I also had
a lot of experience doing other audio recording before jumping to
location sound.

If you have the opportunity, i suggest backing up your CF on your own.
If you can bring a laptop to set and do it there, or maybe take the
whole unit home and then turn in burned DVDs every day (or few days).
1) they WILL lose your files. I have even had this with my PD6 discs.
They don't look like anything else, so who knows where they go. They
rarely lose camera tapes, but audio files are like mercury.
2) you can go back an listen to your work later. very important when
starting out! you also never know what bonus "sound effects" you will
pick up.
3) you have proof of how you did things. I have recorded things on a 2-
track FR-2 only to get a complaint in post that i recorded everything
mixed to one channel. In the one case i was not hooked into the camera
at all, and the mysterious mono track on the film also had the camera
mic track smashed in. Obviously a goof up in Final Cut, but i guess it
was easier to blame me. They would not even open the files on the DVDs
i turned in to recheck. Amazing. It was easy for me to pull out my
files and in about 20 seconds you could tell that one channel was a
boom and the other wireless mics. I eventually had to play those for a
producer, who was 99.9999% sure i didn't screw up. I had been doing
studio work with him for 10 years, so he knew i wasn't that green.

However you do your logs, consistency is important too. If you do
something a little unusual, the post people should be able to figure
it out as long as you keep it consistent. I mainly mean things like
how you log wild tracks, false starts etc. Gothmam, and a few other
places, have sound logs you can download and print. It might be worth
looking at a few and find what works best for you. If you have the
budget, Gotham sells 2-track sound reports that have carbon paper, so
you automatically have backups. I always end up photocopying mine, or
scanning them to a PDF. Backup files are a lot more useful if you can
figure out what they are. if post can't understand your on-set
scribble, it also helps to have a copy in front of you.

Assuming you have a script supervisor, this would be a good
conversation to have with them. It's nice if you both have somewhat
compatible logs. They are also the person you can check with for scene/
takes etc. As long as you give them working headphones, they will be
your friend.

ok, that was longer than i intended, but hopefully something in there
will be useful.
good luck, and have fun with it
johnpaul