AudioMedia - October 2008 - (Page 28)

ason Ouzts owns and operates TreeFall Productions, a busy audio post facility in the bustling secondary US audio production market of Charlotte, North Carolina. As a sound designer and audio mixer for all sorts of audio-for-video gigs, Ouzts spends many of his days working on long-form video gigs as well as television network programming and corporate video projects. To say it another way, Ouzts can do, and does, it all. His broadness of scope came in quite handy this past spring when he was asked to ‘round out’ the mix for an ambitious independent gothic horror film entitled House Of Fallen, starring Corbin Bernsen and C. Thomas Howell. The film’s Writer/Director/Co-Producer Robert Stephens reached out to Ouzts for his assistance after the film’s mix wasn’t hitting the spot. “He had cut it, finished it, and had some sound work done, but he really wasn’t happy with it,” explains Ouzts of the beginnings of the project. “The music was done very well by Bill Grishaw, so he was looking for someone to help him round it out and take it to another level. I got on board, and we ended up having to re-edit all the dialogue, did the Foley and sound effects – we ultimately did everything.” J ambiences, using some noise reduction tools to enhance dialogue and used stock sound effects and ambiences to fill it out.” Most notably, dialogue was a problem in some scenes shot on the beach. “They were right next to the ocean, and there was one particular actor that liked to talk very softly,” offers Ouzts with a chuckle. “That was a problem area and probably should’ve been ADR’ed. However, we were able to pull some of it out, used stock ocean sound effects to mask some difficult situations, as well as Waves Z-Noise plug-in to clean up the dialogue while minimising artifacts.” Charlotte is a city that thrives on banking and NASCAR racing, not necessarily in that order. Thus, Ouzts works quite a bit on audio post projects that involve racing, which also means he has learned, quite well, how to find salvageable dialogue amongst the roaring, midrange-masking sounds of revving Chevy, Ford, and Dodge engines. “Here in Charlotte, we have the Speed Channel and other NASCAR-related things going on,” Ouzts explains. “So, a lot of Dialogue Resuscitation Is A Learned Sk ill HOUSE OF FALLEN Getting the audio right meant more than simple audio quality, explains Ouzts; it brought about contextual clarity. “That was the straw that broke the camel’s back,” he explains of the haphazard original mix and audio post work. “Robert was saying things like, ‘I’m not exactly sure what I want to do here, but this isn’t working.’ I recognised some key things to make it happen and become more believable; the scenes really needed to be sold, so we really needed to add the ambience that wasn’t there to begin with. I really needed to add more of the scene elements that weren’t there.” At this point, Ouzts prioritised the clear needs of House Of Fallen: clear dialogue, believability, and a sense of place. “This film doesn’t have a lot of special effects; it’s very dialogue driven,” he offers. “But it still needs to be believable. People need to feel like they are in the scene; they need to be sold before they can grasp the horror aspects of the film.” times, I work on films for racing subjects. Those budgets are often difficult, and it’s a one-man show that goes out and gets the fieldwork and doesn’t pay a lot of attention to the dialogue he gets to tape. It’s really difficult to pull dialogue out of the recording, yet we can’t even do ADR for it. We really rely on the technology available to us to help us along.” A After wrapping production in and around Virginia Beach, Virginia, Stephens found that his dialogue tracks left much to be desired. More accurately, the tracks may have even left a bit too much to be desired within the tracks themselves – mainly environmental noise. “The dialogue was a challenge,” understatedly offers Ouzts. “There were some spots that really needed ADR, but the budget, unfortunately, couldn’t handle that. Yet most of the production dialogue was pretty good. Sure, there were a few situations where it could’ve been a bit better, but there’s difficulty when out in the field, as we all know. We ended up using the OMF that they originally cut on an AVID, taking the dialogues from there. I was able to pull in a little bit of the ambiences from the locations, but I mostly pulled out Devilishly Difficult Dialogue Part of the goal in mixing an independent film such as House Of Fallen, explains Ouzts, is knowing what the final viewing format will be and approaching the project accordingly. “It was a tricky one for me because the Director wasn’t sure where the final destination was,” he explains, surely adding a bit of extra excitement to the project. “My intention was that we were going to put it to the DVD market, and that’s how we were going to mix it. If it is ultimately taken to more of a film environment – as a feature in the theatre, for example – then we may have to address a couple of things. Overall though, I think the mix translates quite well to a number of environments; when the Director had a screening in a theatre, it worked!” When pressed, Ouzts admits that there are some elements he would re-address when/if the film hits the big screens: “Some of the panning, definitely. I did some extreme left and right panning, which could be more of an issue in a bigger theatre.” Where Is I t G oing? While the story must be a gripping one, the necessary excitement within the horror/suspense genre cannot rely upon story and character dialogue alone. It must be supported by a vivid setting, compelling imagery, and > Building The Per fec t B east 28 AUDIO MEDIA OCTOBER 2008

Table of Contents Feed for the Digital Edition of AudioMedia - October 2008

Audio Media - October 2008 Content Recording Post Broadcast Geofocus:�Portugal &�Spain What's Up UK IBC Report Microtech Geffel UM 930 Steinberg Cubase 4.5 ADK�Hamburg &�Vienna Final Cut: House of Fallen Lexicon PCM96 Review The Conch Awards Feature Sound Devices 788T Review Lexicon PCM96 Allen &�Heath Zed R16 Power: Fact & Fiction, PT.2 Product Sampler Plug-ins Video Guide AMSR Plasa Report Audio Technica IEM�M3 Rushes Live Mixing Techniques:�Bruce Johnston Drawmer 4x4 Kickbox

AudioMedia - October 2008

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