Was reading through the latest posts over on Film Sound Daily, and came across this brilliant video of the sound recording techniques employed by Wes Anderson on Fantastic Mr Fox. Never one for conventional techniques, Anderson recorded his actors in the great outdoors on location at a farm; which looked like great fun!
Just watched this great video from soundsnap.com on sound designer Frank Serafine. Frank records all his own sound fx, and has made a great deal available to the public via soundsnap.com. This really is a revealing and interesting watch for anyone who loves sound, and I highly recommend you take a look, before checking out Franks FX at soundsnap:
I've been reading a lot into the work of sound recordist and gatekeeper of David Lynch sound designer Alan Splet's archive, Ann Kroeber (more to come on her shortly) and came across this handy guide to building a contact mic from kit thats cheaply available at your local Maplin.
A contact mic is attached to a surface, and picks up vibrations and sound created on this surface. So for instance if you were to freeze the mic in a ice cube, you would pick up the cracks and creaks of the ice cube melting; pretty cool eh? Or in Kroeber's use, blend it with a conventional mic to create new and excting recordings which sound like they're from outer space!
Check it out; I shall be indulging in the build and experimentation myself shortly.
If like myself you have recently seen and enjoyed District 9 from South African director Neill Blomkamp, you'll be interested to hear the history behind the film. Blomkamp recieved the backing for the film from the Lord of the Rings himself - Peter Jackson. Jackson had originally signed up Blomkamp to take the helm on his translation of video game smash hit Halo on the strength of one of his shorts, but the project fell foul of studio wrangling. Seeing the potential in the young prodigy and feeling bad for seeing his big break fall through, Jackson suggested turning his earlier short film 'Alive in Joburg', into a feature film. And the rest is history. So without further ado, head to the video below, and enjoy 'Alive in Joburg'.
I've been discussing with film-making friends today, the possibilities of recording a short film using the Canon EOS 5D MKII. Of course, alarm bells for me ring when considering how to record sound with the camera being as it is a stills camera. It can record onboard sound and has a 3.5mm jack input for connecting an external mic or break out box, but the camera offers no gain control and so would add auto gain to your incoming audio - not good! A bit of internet research led me to this video - which ironically has slightly ropey sound - but is no less a great tutorial on using an external device such as the Zoom H4N with the camera. I would be looking to employ my Fostex FR2-LE with the camera if possible, but I guess you would just substitute the Zoom out for that.
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