The Sound Blog - Audio Insights

Hi friends, For a location sound mixer, recording dialogue can be a challenge. Dialogue can be very dynamic. The softest dialogue as compared to the loudest dialogue, (by the same artist), can easily have a 30 db swing! In film school, we were taught how to use a compressor. But back then, I never paid attention to how a compressor could even out the dialogues, so that a soft whispered dialogue and a loud shout can be heard comfortably in the theatre. I am sure, our professors taught us all this, but somehow, I can't seem to remember it. One of my first jobs after passing out was at a place where we did not use compressors while recording music. It was a purist way of recording music. So I spent several years of my early life, working without compressors. For the first time in my life, I actually realised the importance of a dynamic compressor when I was shooting a television show, sometime in the nineties. I was new to multicam television shows. A 12-channel analogue mixer...

Hi friends, Here is a video interview with Manik Batra, a reputed production sound mixer who has been working in Mumbai since 2008. He has worked on numerous feature films, ad films, Netflix projects, etc... In conversation with will be a series of video interviews of prominent people from our industry. This is the first one in that series. Manik talks about: How his journey began (00:10) Talks about his early days (01:05) The audio recorders he has worked on (06:10) His wish list for a film shoot (08:14) About ADR films (11:26) About sync sound shoots (13:27) About the shoot of '83 (15:26) About working on a Netflix project (19:56) About what needs to change in the Industry (23:12) About life during the lockdown (25:23) About shoots starting post the Covid-19 lockdown (27:23) Hope you like this. Until next time, CC Blog: www.thesoundblog.in Website: www.cheeragcama.com E-mail: cheerag.cama@gmail.com Twitter: @cheragc PS: The music used in...

I have been freelancing as a feature film production sound mixer and television mixer for quite some time now. Every shoot is a collaboration of many many people, belonging to different departments, each doing a specialised job and working towards a common goal...to make a good film or a good television show. A lot of planning goes into getting a day's work go off smoothly, but in spite of the best of efforts towards this goal, things do go awry at times….a new camera turns up without cards, a portion of a set collapses due to overnight rain, the colour on the walls of the set don’t turn out the way the director expected them to...and most filmmakers get going with the shoot in spite of accidents, mistakes, errors, setbacks and upsets. People improvise, innovate, change, adapt….but the shoot must go on. Every department faces problems. Be it the art dept, casting, production, camera, ….. everybody faces problems at some time or another. Some problems are purely due to...

In conversation with Resul Pookutty - Sound designer of the film LOVE SONIA Can you tell us about your relationship with Tabrez Noorani, the Director of Love Sonia? RP: I have a very special equation with Tabrez. He was one of the line producers in Slumdog Millionaire. More than that, when me and Danny had a fight on set, and I walked out of the film, he was the one who actually talked to me and brought me back into the film. So I am eternally indebted to him for whatever happened post Slumdog. Tabrez was hellbent that I should finish the film. So I came back, finished the film and rest is history! And actually when they sent it to the Oscars... when they made the DVD cover, to send the film for submission, Tabrez sent me the layout with a note saying that, “I feel so proud to see your name on this DVD cover”. That's why I have kept the DVD at the entrance of my studio! So that way, he is very special and we clicked very well as friends... we became very close friends. I b...