Large Scale Central

Frustration!

Model Photography
#1

You never really know how noisy the world is, even in a relatively quiet residential area, until you try shooting video outdoors. I’ve been shooting a lot of new video of my layout recently, and the background noises are driving me nuts! Of course, it doesn’t help that we live near Miramar MCAS, so there’s LOTS of jets, helicopters and tilt-rotor “Ospreys”. I wait and wait for a break in between flights, then try to shoot something quickly before the next one goes by. I really hate it when I spend several minutes setting up a shot, and as soon as I start to roll, suddenly here comes the roar of another jet.

And in between times, there’s lawn mowers, leaf blowers, speeding cars, dogs yapping, phones ringing and children squealing. Arrgh!

#2

That’s why movies are shot silent and then have the sound added :slight_smile: Sorry Ray

#3

I think that is good advice…unless you have a killer sound system to wanted to feature. Video without sound and add a music track over it.

#4

Good heavens, NO MUSIC TRACK, PLEASE!!! Nothing ruins a video more for me than cheesy music dubbed in in lieu of natural sound. I’d much rather hear the jets and lawnmowers.

I do agree, getting “quiet” in the background of videos outdoors is near impossible, but at the same time it’s the environment. If you want to create an alternative environment, you’ll have to dub in sound. That’s precisely why I have a library of train sounds recorded on various railroads and from various vantage points from which I draw when I do my videos.

Later,

K

#5

Well, it’s taken several days but so far I’ve managed to accumulate a lot of good shots. It helps that most are short clips.

I tend to agree about the music tracks. It can be ok if tasteful, well done and not too loud – but far too often it’s none of the above.

#6

Ray,

You could also use some of the steam recordings you can find on the Net and add them. With an audio editor you can add reverb, doppler and whatever else you want.
Probably the best bang for the buck is CyberLink PowerDirector Ultra64 complete with Wave Editor, easy to use but has a lot of features to get all the “good stuff” without wading through tons of menus.

#7

I’ve fought with the background noise a lot.

When I knew I wanted to shoot a good plow video working in the snow (something I couldn’t reshoot without more snow) I went out before anyone else got up. Right as I was finishing the video we heard the first snow blower of the day fire up.

For lawn mowers and the like I have sort of learned the schedule of my neighbors and actually 1230 or a “late lunch” seems to be the locally preferred time to put down the tools and have some bites to eat. If someone is going after some weeds in the summer and I want to video, I just use that time to ensure I’ve setup my shot properly and that the equipment is behaving.

I have had to dub audio three times onto my videos, however. The first was because I had the camera-mounted mic plugged into the wrong input and thus it was muted. The second time was due to chain saws going all day due to clean up from a recent storm, and the third time I planned to do it since I had found some good clips on youtube of real freights going by the camera and I figured I could sync their audio up to my clips, just as something to play with. In all three cases it turned out well, and adss more variety to my video line-up so it isn’t just all natural sound.

But when I have natural sound, it is great. Birds chirping, the real clickityclack of metal wheels across rail joints - that I love.

I won’t bore you with links to any of the previously mentioned videos, unless someone asks.

#8

Just take the shot and don’t worry bout the background noise so much. “it is what it is” that’s life.
Or if you just shout "Silence on the set before you shoot your video might work.
I don’t care for music over a video. Remember your taste may not be the same as others.

#9

You might shoot twice. Once in the daylight and noise, once after dark. Then take the second sound and put it on the first video.

You laugh, but it’s cheaper than building a sound stage around your layout!

#10

We tend to get so used to the ambient noise that we don’t even realize it’s there until you try and do something like shoot a video. Several years back when the Hunt brothers were playing with the price of silver, there was actually interest in reopening some of the silver mines in Georgetown, CO. The State came up and did some ambient noise level sampling to help determine the impact of opening the Capital Prize mine. While standing on the tailings pile of the mine, during the noon hour, which is supposed to be the noisiest time of the day, the man doing the testing told me that the noise level was very low. As a matter of fact, he said in Denver, it’s never that quiet, even in the middle of the night! Funny what we can adapt to!

#11

I did a dangerous thing, I was thinking.
Well if you have a lot of noise maybe if you narrate the movie as you shoot it.

#12

Ray, I agree with Charlie, go out early or late and do your shooting–if the light is the way you want it. Or go with Dick’s idea: shoot the same scenes twice, once for the picture and once for the sound, then mix them in post production (editing). BTW, I think editing is a given if you want a nice looking video (right, Kevin?) and there are dozens of cheap and easy, digital programs available.

Dave, not to be a smart-ass (again) but movies are not “shot silent and then have the sound added.” Picture and sound are recorded simultaneously, although not necessarily on the same device (there can be a camera and a sound recorder that are linked and synced together), and if there are no problems, the shot is “in the can.” If there are difficulties, the actors can go back to a studio and dub in the correct/suitable dialogue or whatever. But I doubt if a cast of thousands working on a major film, troops back to the studio to re-do all their scenes. BTW, recording picture and sound independently is called “double system,” as opposed to “single system,” which is where both video and audio are recorded in the camera. Most videos, home and TV news, are shot this way, because it’s simple and compact. But a major drawback is continuity. For example, if you’re shooting, say, a singer and you stop photographing to change camera position or make some other adjustment, with single system you have also stopped recording the sound (the melody) leaving with a huge vocal gap. With double system, you still have the sound, although you will have to put everything together in the editing bay. And ya can’t leave out a chunk of picture, so there’s gotta be something else (a cutaway of another image, perhaps) to fill in the visual gap that occured while you were futzing around.

So how’d I do, Professor Strong? :slight_smile: