Category: Process Management

RESEARCH: Penalties for breaking picture lock

13421070 / / Process Management, Research - Company

(Outcomes – PER2, GR2)

This post deals with the perennial bugbear of audio post production for films – editors and directors breaking picture lock.

All of the clients bar one who provided us with a picture lock version of their work ready for post production subsequently made changes to the picture, sometimes after discussion with us and other times surreptitiously (apparently in the hope we wouldn’t notice…duh). This is always an issue when fine post production work has started, because changes to picture mean the resyncing of large and complex audio tracklays in the DAW.

We’d seen this happen in the first term, and several questions existed for me about the problem which is apparently widespread enough to spawn memes on the internet. Having receipt of a picture delayed or having changes made to it at the eleventh hour could impact an audio producer who has a busy schedule of work, and cause them issues with completing other jobs they’ve taken on.

I turned to Grant Bridgeman for some research here and asked him whether it is normal to contractually stipulate penalties for productions which do this. The answer was the inevitable ‘…depends on the client!’, but he did send me his Sound Post Production Delivery Specifications documentation (this was furnished by email to the markers as supporting material, as I was asked to keep the documents out of the public domain). This document has a clause which directly addresses the problem and, whilst the document isn’t a contract as such, I would think it would provide some protection against the ramifications of the issue in the future. [PER2]

Practically for this project (and since no money is changing hands no renegotiation of fee is possible) we knew from experience last term that there is nothing to disincentivise these kind of changes, so decided upon a policy of Morton’s Fork – the proverbial rock and the hard place. At the discretion of the supervisors for each film we were prepared to make one or two changes after picture lock, but as deadlines approached we simply refused to accept new versions (once the version we had was of good enough quality for our hand-in, since we are not marked on picture) and suggested the film editor would have to be asked to cut and resync the final audio supplied.

This worked well for us in the academic environment but realistically such a hard-line method would be deployed only as a last resort with a trusted client in the real world. [GR2]

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KEY POINTS – 

Research into managing productions which break picture lock. – Research

  • [PER2] To develop a better understanding of the wording and content of contracts, agreements and rate cards offered in the film audio field.


How we dealt with it for our productions – Process Management

  • [GR2] To organise and fulfil an operating strategy and schedule which deals with multiple productions simultaneously, and which maximises efficiency and minimises issues or risks to delivery.

P + P – Omni Gaffer Production Schedule

13421070 / / Planning, Process Management, Research - Company

(Outcomes – GR1, 2)

This post is a quick visual precis of the planning process for the work we carried out, which we kept track of with a google calendar. Each film is colour-coded, as are planned absences and important dates etc. [GR1, 2]

This was our production schedule at the beginning of March, with each film’s post requirements married to facilities bookings –

Production schedule at beginning of March
Production schedule at beginning of March
Production schedule at beginning of March
Production schedule at beginning of March

This was the production schedule after we reorganised post facilities bookings and attempted to squeeze work into other facilities –

Production schedule at beginning of March
Production schedule after facilities cancellations
Production schedule at beginning of March
Production schedule after facilities cancellations

…and this is how the schedule looked as the final week approached –

OG Productions Calendar 3 - Final Week

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Key Points –

Evidence of forward-planning and adaptation of organisation – Process Management

 

  • [GR1] To professionally operate as a small to medium size company (or other recognisable business entity) in the audio production / post-production field might.
  • [GR2] To organise and fulfil an operating strategy and schedule which deals with multiple productions simultaneously, and which maximises efficiency and minimises issues or risks to delivery.

 

P + P Other – World Building – Street Scene

13421070 / / Contribution, Individual Reflection, Process Management, Research - Film Audio

(Outcomes in this blog – <IN3> – <PER 1 + 3> – <GR 1, 2 + 5>)

I very much wanted to tackle the sound design for the futuristic, post-nanotech city scene from Immort as part of my work on this project, and was able to make a start on this as the film was being shot thanks to early provision of an animatic of the film. Below is the evolution of the scene from my initial mockup to the picture lock version handed over to the supervisor who also mixed the film.

Immort’s supervisor had initially produced a detailed sound design plan for the film, which formed the basis of my initial approach to the scene’s construction.

I looked immediately to Blade Runner – which includes the great street scene of sci-fi film with an insanely complex audio mix carried out by Graham V Hartstone – but the feel for Immort is intended to be different in terms of the behaviour of the characters. Lot’s of the specific things seen on screen in Blade Runner have their own tiny, almost momentary sound narrative set against the extreme bustling of the city defined by sirens, wails and pulsing humanity. By contrast, people in Immort’s world are quiet and contented, even if they are constantly beset by their connectedness thanks to their constant HUD’s. My initial mockup backdrop tried to hit similar notes to Blade Runner in the sound of humanity being strongly signified, though it’s very difficult without the specificity of actual picture available to work from. The mockup below is constructed almost entirely of heavily manipulated samples, with a couple of simple keyboard drones from Protools soft synths. It’s ugly, but gives an idea of where I was going. <IN3>

I had to change approach after discussing with Immort’s supervisor during the session in which I constructed it. He’d just come off set for the film with a better interpretation of the directors requirements and the outcome of the actual shoot for the scene. His location experience with the film told him that the extras would be considerably sparser than first implied, so lots of humanity in the audio pallette would likely not work. We arrived at an idea of generally quieting the people with bursts of the sound of their personal soundtrack as they pass-by, and the base layers defined by the unearthly hum of a nano-technological city. <GR5 + PER1>

My first attempt at following this direction up was done to a rough, no vis-fx rough cut of the film, and can be seen below –

Seeing this actual picture, the visuals turn out to be much more down to earth. Both budget constraints and a lack of extras mean the scene has ended up much sparser and near-future than the one I initially envisioned even if we discount the lack of VFX in this cut for the moment. As such I retooled the atmos more in the direction of Invasion of The Body Snatchers (the 1978 version), muting the drone of the people and trying to bring out a sense of disconnectedness (largely using manipulated foley FX and further samples, in line with the protaganists desire to be unplugged from the matrix and the suggestion of enslavement to their technology causing them to take greater care as they move around the real world. <GR5>

Instead of solid footsteps the extras feet are muted and shuffling, for which I referred to multiple scenes from Bodysnatchers like the scene linked below which dispenses almost entirely with ‘human’ foley even in crowded scenes to emphasise the distinction between the protaganists and the masses. This feel was fortuitously enabled by the incredibly well regimented ‘crowd’ at the end of the scene. There is a nod to the Blade Runner approach however, in that the HUD’s of some of the extras are momentarily given life in the audio realm as the protaganist passes them. <IN3>

Finally, this work was passed over to Immort’s audio supervisor in stem form and was incorporated into his final mix of the scene, which is backed by a music track to heighten the sense of chase and sounds which relate to the new visual FX absent from earlier cuts. <GR1 + GR2>

Reflecting on this work, I think the whole process here demonstrates once again the power of picture over the audio dimension and the importance of finding synergistic balance between them. As such I think I may have wasted a little time attempting to construct anything useful for this scene from the animatic and should have foreseen that the production would not achieve the levels of production they desired, though the early work was still very useful as an opportunity to dissect the scene’s from Blade Runner and Bodysnatcher’s critically and take lessons from them, and it certainly informed the final piece in an overall positive way in the end. <PER3>

Furthermore, the process is an example of the way the group of audio producers collaborated on aspects of the films. If I had been limited to working on the film I supervised, which was shot entirely in one location, I would have been unable to build, experiment with and compare and contrast the atmosphere work in various films as I did here, a process with which I was able to usefully fill time prior to the arrival of work on my own film, which in turn benefited the group outcome. <GR1 + GR2 + PER1>

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Key Points
Examination of Blade Runner and Invasion of the Bodysnatchers as reference for work – Evaluate similar works

  • [IN3] To better my understanding of sound design with at least some reference to the science fiction genre – (Sound Effects Editor)

Construction and evolution of the audio for the scene – Application of skills and conduct in production

  •  [PER3] To expand my knowledge of the theory of and audio techniques deployed in films similar to or influential upon those we will deliver.
    [GR5] To produce soundtracks comprising of foley, SFX, dialogue, music and atmospheres to client specifications that synergistically support the other components of their films.

Reflection on the work – Individual reflection on learning and team role + Process Management.

  • [PER1]  To develop a better understanding of the pros and cons of business structures, processes and agreements which might enable film audio producers to collaborate on multiple projects.
    [GR1] To professionally operate as a small to medium size company (or other recognisable business entity) in the audio production / post-production field might.
    [GR2] To organise and fulfil an operating strategy and schedule which deals with multiple productions simultaneously, and which maximises efficiency and minimises issues or risks to delivery.

 

P + P – Final Progress Report – April

13421070 / / Descent Contrib., Individual Reflection, Learning Outcomes, Process Management

(Outcomes – GR2,5 + IN1)

This will be the final situation update for this project, taking place after our final review of the work in progress for all of the films that comprise the artifact. The date of this entry is one week prior to our deadline, so any other pertinent information on the actual carrying out of the project will be included in my final summary.

We have received picture locks for all the films except Immort throughout the early part of April. All of these have, naturally, then been broken by the various editors and directors in charge to a greater or lesser degree after we have started work on the fine audio work, mostly due to a lack of understanding of the import of the word ‘lock’ on the part of student filmmakers.

Descent and Sour Puss are nearing the final mix stage, with foley, dialogue, music and SFX all largely complete. We estimate these films will require another 12 hours of work between them to complete.

Remember has fallen behind schedule due to poor practice on the part of it’s editor complicating our dialogue edit. We estimate another 15 or 20 hours of work will be required here.

Feel Good is still technically incomplete because the production team have failed to factor production of the montage sequences they’d slated throughout into their timeline, but it’s supervisor assures us we will be handing in the version slated to arrive at end of play today or, failing this, the one we have already been working on regardless of further changes to picture. This will require a further 15 hours of working time.

Having seen it’s ambitious plan for the ‘real-life’ aspects of the film largely stymmied, pressure on the visual FX team working on Immort appears to have increased. This has caused an extension to be required to the production, but we are still required to deliver the film with audio complete on the 5th, in time for it’s premiere. In addition, the repeatedly delayed VFX cut of the film is now promised to us on Monday the 2nd May – 4 days prior to our own hand-in date. This is not ideal, but the supervisor of the film is confident it can still be delivered since much of the work on the film (such as scoring, dialogue and foley editing) is complete. We’ve collectively agreed that this is the concrete outer limit of what we consider achievable, and that we will be required to hand in the version without VFX we’ve already largely compelted if this final deadline moves any further. It is difficult to estimate how much time the film will need, since the VFX could make the current audio obsolete, but we’re prepared to commit a further 8 hours if necessary (the film is relatively short). [GR2]

My contribution has largely been made to Descent since it’s pictures began to arrive, with some extra sound design work for Immort based on the concept art for the as-yet-incomplete VFX and basic atmosphere work for Remember also taking up some creative time. Foley editing of Descent has proven quite complex, as the mix of production audio and foley I’ve settled on is difficult to achieve the correct balance of in terms of the environments depicted. The dialogue edit (which was largely handled by another member of the group) also suffered from unpleasant room effects (despite being of good quality), and required a large amount of treating and balancing to complete. [GR5 + IN1]

Time spent on admin has noticably dropped off this month but has essentially been replaced with internal quality control meetings driven by the interminable watching of the different edits as they’ve come in and the transfer of sessions and data around different facilities, and the changes to ostensibly locked pictures have also lost us extra time resyncing audio. Elsewhere, the cancelling of our facilities bookings have also continued to reverberate, with us having to stake-out the Sound Theatre three days of each week and second guess the movements of other students in an effort to find extra time for foley, VO recordings and sync work.

Reflecting on the situation presented here, we’ve been reasonably fortunate that only one film has been significantly delayed in production and even then in a way which has enabled us to work on it regardless, but the final week sees us in a position just shy of the required number of facilities hours we need to complete and mix the films, a situation which could become severely problematic if further issues arise from Immort’s incomplete state.

The process of collaboration and feeding back amongst the group during the post phase in April has been very useful to everybody, not least in my case with Descent – This film has been an exemplary example of the collaborative effort we undertook in post, with dialogue edit, music construction and foley / SFX all benefiting from a significant collective contribution which has then been brought together, finessed and is just about ready for mix. I have learnt however that this process is similarly time consuming and that it effectively takes the place of the administrative work from the earlier part of the process, though I believe it is just as critical for achieving our desired outcomes.

In the sense of effective collaboration the project has undoubtedly been a success, with five films now largely complete to a much better standard than we could have managed as individuals. [GR2]

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KEY POINTS – 

Overview of situation with a week to deadline, and plans moving forward. – Process Management
[GR2] To organise and fulfil an operating strategy and schedule which deals with multiple productions simultaneously, and which maximises efficiency and minimises issues or risks to delivery.

Breakdown of work carried out in April so far – Contribution
[GR5] To produce soundtracks comprising of foley, SFX, dialogue, music and atmospheres to client specifications that synergistically support the other components of their films.
[IN1] To successfully manage the provision of service by the business for the film Descent with regard the assignment of resources, specialisms and working time, liason with the director, editor and producer on a practical and creative level, and communication of information on their needs and requirements for the piece in order to appraise the efficacy of the collaborative approach to working on the piece – (Supervisor and Company Officer)

Reflections on the process – Individual Reflection
[GR2] To organise and fulfil an operating strategy and schedule which deals with multiple productions simultaneously, and which maximises efficiency and minimises issues or risks to delivery.

P + P – Progress Report – February

13421070 / / Contribution, Individual Reflection, Process Management

(Outcomes GR1,2 + IN1 + PER1)

All the films we’re working on have now begun shooting except Descent which has not confirmed a shooting schedule but does have it’s location confirmed and actors onboard – The audio team have carried out the requisite location recces and have received preliminary dates for which we’re awaiting a confirmation. Issues stem from matching actor availability with the possible shooting dates, but communication is good with the production managers of the film, contingencies have been discussed and are in place should it begin to fall behind schedule.

All the supervisors along with various team members and composers have organised and met with their respective directors and teams multiple times to feedback on the direction for sound design, based initially on director notes or conversations. All the pieces of work now have a more or less solid creative direction underpinning them on which the team has collaborated through a series of creative meetings and script read-throughs, largely at my insistence, in an effort to head off the production process for each film becoming the isolated province of it’s supervisor. Supervisors retain the final say but ideas for films are sourced collectively, and our composers are assigned and largely briefed regarding each film’s musical requirements by the supervisor who then decides whether to allow the composer to deal direct with the director on their film. I will also be pushing for feedback on composition to be a similarly collective process where desirable as the projects continue. [GR1, GR2]

In pushing for this more collaborative approach across the group, I am attempting to set the agenda for something akin to an Omni-Gaffer communication management strategy. This is a concept I picked up during a brief research foray into the literature of the Prince2 project management system, a recognised qualification for managers in the UK. A major project with a larger team would likely have a written and structured system of making sure information is properly shared, and collaborative outcomes and the structure’s to facilitate these collaborations would likely be properly stratified and reported upon, which ‘…facilitates engagement with stakeholders through the establishment of a controlled and bi-directonal flow of information.’ (Managing Successful Projects with Prince2, 2009, 239) [PER1]

As Descent is filming later, I’ve tended to fall into the role of firefighter for the other supervisors who’s films are in motion and have been called upon several times to cover location shoots, move equipment and perform administrative tasks (like booking equipment when other people are on set). Creatively, I’ve managed to get a headstart on some of the atmosphere’s for Immort which will be used to explain our audio direction during a spotting session with the director this week and as a base for future work, and am collaborating as a writer performer on one of the compositions for that film. The following week (which is likely the one before which shooting will commence for Descent) will also be spent building audio devices which might be suitable for use in Descent. [IN1]

Planning research into the foundations of the ‘company’ style structure has been my focus but I’ve fallen behind in carrying this out – thrashing out a ‘formal’ agreement (in the context of academia at least) between the members of the organisation who are carrying out these services is the next priority here. We’re all tracking our hours of work on any given project and intend to ascribe some kind of goodwill value to each component and phase of the project throughout it’s life, which we intend to be the ‘currency’ in which we’re trading. I must be wary of how easy to get caught up in administration and practicalities, and end up taking my eye off the ball of the academic side of the project.

My hours spent on the project for February have broken down roughly as follows, not including academic aspects such as blogs or research –

Total hours = 42.5
Admin – 14
Meets – 11
Creative Work – 8.5
Other – 8

There have been issues, but they’ve generally been minor and have been overcome with a combination of good judgement, forward-planning and luck. If we have to have one, our main issue so far has been facilities and equipment. Pressure on these is massive, and failure on set of key pieces of equipment relied upon for location audio work has caused several production problems and extra administrative work. The next hurdle on the horizon in this sense will involve the post work facilities bookings, which are already becoming a bone of contention because of the perception that we are using facilities at our institution inefficiently.

Reflecting, it is noticable that these issues lead practically to a carousel of phone calls, time sensitive emails, time spent replanning the projects and interruption when working creatively, which collectively mean I find myself spending more time problem-solving than doing the creative pre-production work for the films I have involvement in.

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KEY POINTS – 

Overview of situation generally for the project and specifically for the film Descent –Professional practice, Process Management.

  • [GR1] To professionally operate as a small to medium size company (or other recognisable business entity) in the audio production / post-production field might.
  • [GR2] To organise and fulfil an operating strategy and schedule which deals with multiple productions simultaneously, and which maximises efficiency and minimises issues or risks to delivery.
  • [IN1] To successfully manage the provision of service by the business for the film Descent with regard the assignment of resources, specialisms and working time, liason with the director, editor and producer on a practical and creative level, and communication of information on their needs and requirements for the piece, in order to appraise the efficacy of the collaborative approach to working on the piece – (Supervisor and Company Officer)

Collaborative creative process – Process Management

  • [GR2] To organise and fulfil an operating strategy and schedule which deals with multiple productions simultaneously, and which maximises efficiency and minimises issues or risks to delivery.

Researching wider project management literature and concepts – Research

  • [PER1]  To develop a better understanding of the pros and cons of business structures, processes, regulations and agreements which might enable film audio producers to collaborate on multiple projects.

Reflection on outcomes / efficiency – Individual reflection on learning and team role.