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A COLLECTION OF GENERAL ARTICLES.

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SOUND PROBLEMS WHEN CREATING VIDEOS

Brian Lemin (September 2007)

As you will know from my last set of videos shown at the club, they suffer from pretty well all of the sound problems that that an amateur can have. At least I now never record sound from my in-built camera mic. That was a lesson hard learned but one which must never happen again.

The other ones are �not my fault��. Of course they are my fault; as I travell the journey of video making I have realized that my �she�ll be right mate� attitude (which is why I love Australia so!) just does not work. Making videos just take time, effort, and a lot of forethought.

I was once a reasonable still photographer and my family used to get so mad at me taking pictures. I would take a reading, compose the picture, set the hyperfocal distance etc etc� then I would finally take the picture. The result was good, usually; but it had taken time and effort. Point and shoot video has spoiled me; I hope not forever, but I now have to learn once again to be patient and painstaking, or at least try to be patient and painstaking.
As I have said before I have much to learn about my new Canon HDV as it has many (but not all) the manual functions; but before I master them I have to sort out my sound problems.

In my most recent film. Which you guys have not seen yet I have WIND NOISE problems. My excuse is that I was shooting a documentary that was only to have voice over as the sound track, then by chance, on the shoot I met an expert in one of the scenes that I was shooting. I was outdoors, it was wet and windy, but I could not refuse the opportunity of having him on tape. I told him all I had was the camera mic and he spoke into it well, but for about ten seconds (I discovered when I got back) the wind noise had intruded on the sound track. I need to tell you that as yet I have completely failed to eliminate it in post production (Audition). So let�s talk about wind noise for a moment.

You all know it is caused by the wind hitting the mic and that causes rumbling and loud noises on the audio track. I know how to stop it from occurring, i.e. by using a Zeppelin or Blimp around the mic to stop the wind from hitting the mic. I have one and use it when I am expecting the problem. Otherwise you have to block the wind somehow. Move to a sheltered position, even stand between the wind and the mic, and if you have such a thing as a �loss cut� switch on your mic, use it!.
In post you can try adjusting the low frequency end of a graphics equalizer or export it to a sound programme with more sophisticated tools ,�If� you know how to use them! I am mad because my previous �low end� NLE had a pre-set to reduce this noise, but when you want to play with the big boys you have to learn the tools. ?
When we were shooting our group production, we often had to stop shooting because of the birds, cars noise people talking etc. BACKGROUND NOISE is often a problem when you have little or no control over your environment.

There are two methods of avoiding it.
1. Use a shot gun mic that focuses the mic on only in the direction to which it is pointed or
2. Mic up the individuals in the action with TX mics or personal sound recorders.

To add to this you can use a boom mic, which will help to some extent.
In your NLE you can again turn to your graphic equalizer. Adjustments to the high end may decrease some of the hissing, machinery and traffic or boosting the middle frequencies might well improve the clarity of the dialogue.
I should add that you should not record your voice over via your computer as the noise from your computer is almost certain to come through. If you do have to do it in the same room, then build a shielding box for your microphone.
Another thing I did learn from the group shoot was the value of blankets to improve sound! We used it for the reduction of wind noise, but they can be used to good effect when recording in a carpetless or sparsely furnished room. You all know that sound �sounds different- in the kitchen from the living room. This is because of ECHO, where the sound bounces off the hard surfaces and actually causes the sounds to repeat. [Not in the valley-of-echoes sort of way, where it takes seconds for the echo to come back, but in a very short time which reduces the clarity of your recording].
Avoid the kitchen or hard surface room, choose always a nicely carpeted room and curtained room. If this is not possible then resort to the old �hanging up a blanket� trick. (Yes, 99)

I spend hours on my NLE raising and lowering the voice levels, especially if it has been a multi day/place shoot. LEVELS are sometimes too loud or soft. I hate Automatic gain, not for when it is actually recording, but for the noise it often records when the people are not talking. If you switch this off then you will need to experiment and listen closely in your headphones (you are using headphone aren�t you?) to make sure the levels are set correctly. Notice when subject move closer or farther away, make sure your booming is appropriate and accurate or again, mic up your subjects.
If you have consistently under or over recorded the sound, then you can in your NLE usually increase or decrease the gain with suitable keframe adjustments. If, however, it is altogether too soft or too loud then you have problems. Possibly the only way to improve this is t export the audio to you favorite sound editor and adjust the gain overall. But know that this in itself can give you problems with hiss and or rumble which you will be required to adjust somehow. (Possibly see above)
Failing that then you will have to result to what they call in the trade (I sound as if I know what I am talking about) �ADR�.. Additional dialogue recording. I call it dubbing. I explained to you that I had to do this with the Brmmm Brmmm spoof film. It worked, but was not perfect.

By now you guys all know that I love to make films and I always make mistakes in them. You will also know that I love to read about my hobby. I think that the combination of these two parts of my personality combine to tell you that you should do as I say and not do as I do. But I am trying to get better

NOTES FOR PERSONS NEW TO VIDEO FILM MAKING:

Please note that these are general notes and are based on principles that �prosumers� (i.e. video makers that take their hobby seriously or even work professionally) generally agree upon. We do not endorse any particular product or computer etc. We do not take responsibility for the advice we give but

it is given with the best intentions of getting you started with as few problems as possible.

CAMERA CHOICE:

We would recommend that you chose a camera having the following features;

1. A 3CCD chip.
2. A mini tape as the recording device. At this time we do not recommend a DVD recording device, neither the Hard Disk, come to that. The reason for this is that
   a. The DVD disk is �little� sluggish to start recording. OK for most people but could mean a �missed shot� for a keen videographer.
   b. At the moment the most stable and long lasting archiving is on digital mini tape rather than DVD disks.
   c. The hard disk format as well as the DVD format both compresses the video you take and there is a certain amount of quality loss.
3. You should realise that the smaller the camera, the more difficult it is to hold steady.
4. We would think that a 10x or 12 times optical zoom would be sufficient for most filming applications.
5. Ideally you should be able to transfer your film to the computer via a �fire wire� or at least a USB lead.

Please note you can get started with almost anything, so don�t rush out and spend money unnecessarily.

CHOICE OF ACCESSORIES:

1^st, 2^nd and 3^rd would be a tripod. Shoot on a tripod as much as you can, only hand hold when you have to. If you have anything more than say 4x zoom in operation then a tripod is essential. The reason that we say this is that camera shake is one of the worst faults we see in beginner�s films.

2. At least two batteries each capable of about 1 hour recording.

3. An �off camera� microphone. Built-in camera microphones are less than satisfactory. But they do work.

CAMERA TECHNIQUES:

1. Use a tripod when ever you can.
2. Move the camera VERY slowly in what ever direction you want to go.
3. Never go back and forward and/or up and down in the same shot. One direction at a time, then stop and take another shot of the scene you want to cover.
4. Use Zoom sparingly and if you do, zoom VERY slowly
5. Each shot need only be of short duration, say 5 to 10 seconds; BUT there will be exceptions to this according to what you want to record.
6. Do not use �digital zoom�. It ruins the quality of your picture.

CHOICE OF COMPUTER:

1. Ideally a computer dedicated to you video work would be great, but very few of us mange to achieve this!
2. You need as large a hard disk as you can afford (sometimes two disks in the computer) as video footage takes up a lot of disk space.
3. You will need a DVD burner to burn your productions on.
4. Memory (RAM) is very important to your editing program. 2 gigabytes would be great, but again we do not all manage to have this.
5. You should have a good graphics card ideally with 512 ram memory. Many get by with 256 graphics RAM.
6. As fast a processor as you can reasonably afford. Say equivalent to a Pentium IV.
7. A big screen is nice too if your money runs to it.
8. A good microphone for recording your voice over on your productions.

As with all this advice, you can probably get by with the computer you have got if it is reasonably modern.

VIDEO EDITING PROGRAMMES:

Our members use a wide variety of video editing programs and each member will be certain that the one they use is the best!

Most of us start off with the program that is given to us with our camera and that suffices us during the initial stage of our learning curve. There are a number of �entry level� programs that are available. U Lead products, and Pinnacle Products come to mind initially. But start with the program that comes with your camera. At least that will give you an idea about video editing. There are a number of high end editors that are put out by companies such as Adobe (Premiere) Edius, Sony Vegas, Final Cut Pro. These are probably the industry leaders and most have a fairly steep learning curve.

Your best bet is to ask around club members and your friends

DEDICATED COMPUTER VIDEO EDITING SYSTEMS:

Some of our members use a specific computer system, which does only video editing and can not be used as a PC. The main brand names are from the Casablanca family.

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WHAT IS "NAT SOT"?

Introduction.

So what is it? I hear it on almost every club video I see. Sometimes it helps the video greatly, sometimes it spoils it completely.

Nat = natural

Sot = Sound on Tape.

What about it?

Frankly it is one of the more difficult decisions that I have to make when editing a video. Well, there is one case when I do not even have to think about what I do with it. My daughter in law wants every sound and every piece of vision that she records put on DVD. My answer to this is that I give her and edited video with the option of viewing the minimally version on the next menu choice.

I have just finished a film of a soccer match, in that the sounds of the cheers of joy and groans of despair are important. They set the atmosphere of the match. The nat sot must be in the video. But all of them? I never quite realized that until I made this video there is quite a lot of the time when the crowd noise is just an ambient sound and thus, though I have the atmosphere I am losing the pace of the film.

What did I do?

I found quite a lot of nat sot sound effects of soccer matches on the net and I used a few of these to good effect, but still I needed to make a decision about a lot of �empty� nat sot footage. Of course I introduced background music, like most of us do to our videos, but then I was faced with the problem of balancing nat sot with background music.

I found that the musical �tune� of the background music did not fit into the breaks of the nat sot that I wanted to take out. As I was wanting to try and keep the pace of the film rather upbeat I decided that my music should not be tuneful but a rhythmic beat only. That was better. I still had to decide whether to take out the nat sot and replace it with studio sounds. I tried that and I felt that the people who were watching my video would think they had left the soccer ground and come into the studio.

The end result.

Well, like a lot of editorial decisions, it was compromise. A compromise that seemed to work. Where the nat sot fitted into the video I emphasized it and where the drum beat fitted in I emphasized that. When I did bring the viewers into the studio it was with some quick flash on-and-off stills of the match and the supporters. Then I brought the drums up and did not supply any nat sot at all.

What is the key?

The key is the word �natural�. The sound of our video should flow naturally so that our viewers will not think twice; they will believe it is all one seamless production rather than a blend of unrelated elements.

Organic sounds are very important to our videos and I believe that these sounds draw our viewers into our videos more than most other things we can add in the editing studio.

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STOP MOTION ANIMATION PROGRAMMES.

For most of these programs you will need to have the latest version of Direct x installed on your computer. It is a free download.

Most of these programs accept still or DV cameras. Still cameras having a capture size of 1Mega Pixel will do fine. The main problem is not usually the program but that the camera does not have the control capability.

Stop Motion Pro. Not a free program but considered by many as the best PC Stop Motion Program. This is quite well featured including �onion skinning� which allows you to view �faintly� the previous positions of your characters so you can judge the next movement; and Roto scoping, which allows you to load a video of an action beside your animation screen so you can mimic the real life with your character. This is the one I am very fortunate to own.
http://www.stopmotionpro.com/

Animator DV. Another excellent program, probably better for the near professional as its interface is a little difficult. It too is not free but there are 5 levels of program priced accordingly.
http://animatordv.wmmedia.com/

Stop Motionmaker. Quite fully featured and at a reasonable price. Very good quality learners program as it is simple to learn. Not free.
http://www.stopmotionworks.com/links/stpmMker.jpg

Stop Motion Station. Whilst very business like it would still not be classed as a complex program. Excellent on line documentation. Not free but quite affordable.
http://www.stopmotion-software.com/

Monkey Jam. Freeware and works very well. I have personally tried this program and kept it as it has some nice features.
http://www.giantscreamingrobotmonkeys.com/monkeyjam/index.html

MotionMage. There us a free version with less features but still very useful and workable. Setup needs a bit of thinking, but is still not formidable.
http://mywebpages.comcast.net/tomfoote3/BIM/id155.htm

TeePee Animator. Not free, but a very good and very simple program to use. Probably the easiest to use of all these programs.
http://www.tepee.co.uk/animator/index.php

Animaatiokone. I liked this program. I got a free version but they warned me they would soon be charging! I have kept it on my computer.
http://www.animaatiokone.net/studio

Anasazi. It does not have DV capabilities, it basically is for use with a web cam or analogue camcorder. Free.
http://www.animateclay.com/modules.php?op=modload&name=Sections&file=index&req=viewarticle&artid=24&page=1

Xipster Instant Animator. A well designed programme. Very suitable for the beginner animator. Mac or PC. Not free
http://www.xipster.com/

Frame Thief. This is what Bob was using. Great program Mac only. Free
http://www.framethief.com/

BTV-Pro Mac only. Some very good features. Not free
http://www.bensoftware.com/btvpro.html

IStop Motion Mac only. Not free. I have read both good a moderate reviews of this program.
http://www.istopmotion.com/

Notes

Most ( though not all) of these programs offer a trial period, some are crippled for the trial other are not. Only a few offer audio facilities within the program. With most you have to export in some form to another and or put it in a video program for the sound track etc. If I had not had the gift of Stop Motion Pro I would be using Anaamatikione probably as first choice and Monkey Jam as second choice.

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There is a wide range of software products offered for us to make our pictures into delightful slide shows. I have decided to review two such offerings based on price. Firstly an expensive one, then a FREE one!

Canopus Imaginate 2.0

This is a fairly high end piece of software designed to animate and bring a new perspective to your still photos. It is extremely versatile and totally configurable.

To describe it very simply it is a slide show maker that includes audio support, a high quality 3D rendering machine and can handle any resolution you enter the pictures in.

The variety of pan and zoom capabilities is infinitely variable.

What is nice is that you can, if you choose, let the wizards do it all the work for you. To learn the program I initially chose this option for 80 images of my grandchildren from birth to ten years old and I was delighted with its results except for about 5 or 10% of the pans. In one of them it missed the baby altogether and focused on its nappy! I would think it would work well if all you pictures were holiday scenes.

That experience took me to the next stage of help that it offers. The �scene� wizard. That takes you through step by step what you might want to do with each picture you have loaded. This is the best mode and very easy to use. In particular I like the feature of multi panning and zooming in one image. For example I have used it to trace the Endeavour�s route from England to Rio, Tahiti, New Zealand and Australia, that was all on one scanned image. It does it well and smoothly.

Of course you can do all the work manually if you like, and I have started to do this now I am more familiar with the program.

There are multiple transitions you can use and the music is imported from a cd or MP3. The music editing functions are minimal and one part of the program that I would like to see improved (Or perhaps it is there and I have not learnt how to use it!)

You can add text titles as required. It can be rendered to AVI very easily and quickly.

For special projects I will probably choose this program. The results seem richer and smoother than Photo Story, but that is a subjective view as I would not like to do a double blind trial between the two programs!

Photo Story 3 for Windows

This program is free and if you are looking for �bang for bucks� you would not want to go any further than this program. (Download from Microsoft)

It does almost anything you would want to do with a slide show; voice, music, pan and zoom (but not multiple pan and zoom on a single image), transitions etc. It has wizards that take you through the process slide by slide.

The interface is a two picture image (the same slide), with the start on the left image and finish on the second image. It is sooo simple! The wizard takes you by the hand and leads you through adding commentary, text and sound. One special feature that it offers is that it will try to take out the black borders from images of different sizes you may have loaded up. There is limited picture editing facilities that you might want to use if you missed something during the pre processing stage. (Including red eye reduction)

The final feature is that it will actually �create� music for you if you do not want to use commercial or royalty free music from a commercial source.

The output is offered as an avi, video streaming or web upload.

I can not help but ask �why are you waiting?� Download the freebie and get started! It is amazing.

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REALLY ROYALTY FREE MUSIC.

INTRODUCTION:

I have been interested in this topic ever since I mistakenly thought that Royalty Free music was Free! In fact I found that for me, Royalty free Music was rather expensive and at the time I did not know about the FAMM licence. Not that I am the most ethical person into DV but somehow I feel I aught to be doing the right thing with regard to music.

THE SEARCH.

I have spent many hours at different times tracking down Really Royalty Free music (RRF). A Google search produces Royalty Free music of the kind that costs money and very little else. I know a little about the Open Org (freeware) movement, so I did a search on that term and amongst all the software stuff I found a myriad of articles on various forms of licensing music, anti copyright articles, legal free downloading etc. It was a start at least, and it informed meE

For special projects I will probably choose this program. The results seem richer and smoother than Photo Story, but that is a subjective view as I would not like to do a double blind trial between the two programs!

Photo Story 3 for Windows

This program is free and if you are looking for �bang for bucks� you would not want to go any further than this program. (Download from Microsoft)

It does almost anything you would want to do with a slide show; voice, music, pan and zoom (but not multiple pan and zoom on a single image), transitions etc. It has wizards that take you through the process slide by slide.

The interface is a two picture image (the same slide), with the start on the left image and finish on the second image. It is sooo simple! The wizard takes you by the hand and leads you through adding commentary, text and sound. One special feature that it offers is that it will try to take out the black borders from images of different sizes you may have loaded up. There is limited picture editing facilities that you might want to use if you missed something during the pre processing stage. (Including red eye reduction)

The final feature is that it will actually �create� music for you if you do not want to use commercial or royalty free music from a commercial source.

The output is offered as an avi, video streaming or web upload.

I can not help but ask �why are you waiting?� Download the freebie and get started! It is amazing.

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