- Jun 1, 2004
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Hi
Ok I am researching the best info on what to use for producing, putting together a soundtrack and editing Independent and Motion picture films.
What would you recommend the best hardware and software set up would be to get the best quality out there?
I had spoken to a 10 yr film producer/actor - Jack Rooney who mentioned this:
By synchronizing music with the images on the screen. Anymore, we use digital production software and dump everything into a computer and create a score in real time or with pre-recorded songs that are cut into the music track wherever the composer/director wants the music to appear.
Then it is resolved with the final dialogue and sound effects tracks into whatever format the film is using for release, stereo, quad, surround, 7.1 THX, etc., which all depends,of course, on the films budget.
There is a difference in cost between creating a sound score from scratch with all or mostly original music and using pre-existing or canned music.
However, new digital music production software and hardware has brought down the cost of music track production considerably, but you still need a very creative and skilled musician and recordist to make it
work.
Basically, it isn't that difficult, or it is a lot less difficult than most people think.
The days of gathering large group of live musicians
in an orchestra hall to score a film with conductor and musicians working in sync from a projected image is pretty much gone; it's almost all done digitally, unless you simply must have the Philharmonic Orchestra.
But it is still a lot of work to score a feature film.
It dependes a lot on what kind of music the director/producer wants and what kind of mood they want to establish for the film.
Creating the music soundtrack is an art form.
Using something like Vegas 5 and Vegas+DVD
http://mediasoftware.sonypictures.com/ would do the trick if the film has been transfered to tape with time base. You can then import to digital file with a video capture board like ATI or equivalent, and edit in real time.
Less expensive package would be http://www.pinnaclesys.com/
It can get pretty pricy by the time you include all the add-ins. In any case, you need a very high powered computer Penteum IV or greater and very fast hard drives with lots of memory and a screamer graphics board to make it go, and then someone who knows how to use the software.
My studio includes all of the above and more, but I rarely take in any outside work like this.
I do my own films and my own productions, and I do not normally have time to work on other producer's projects unless it is a film or show where I star.
My primary function is as an actor/performing artist.
The fact that I own a production studio is incidental
to my career as a performer.
There are many ways to structure a deal for hiring music production services to score a feature film.
Hourly rate of the talent plus studio rental time; hiring an employee to do it in-house with equipment you purchase (which can cost a bundle); working with an established studio or artist on a cost plus points basis as a "Work made for hire"; working under partnership agreement with a studio on a profit sharing basis (Limited Partnership, LP, or Limited Liability Company, LLC); working with an established artist and studio under "Synchronization License"; or a combination of all or the above.
There are no rules.
All artist's work and the musician's is protected by copyright, including the work of the "recordist" the guy/gal that pushes the buttons and operates the recording equipment, so you need to be aware of copyright law implications of the entire process, and make sure you get the proper releases and licenses from everyone involved.
If you just need to use music from bands or artists who already have songs recorded, like a Beatles song, or the Foo Fighters, or Jack Rooney, for example, it requires a "Synchronization License", which you obtain directly from the artist or their authorized agent(s), which grants the producer the right to use the song in the film.
I have a number of albums which might contain songs you could use if you are interested.
I own the copyrights in all my music, so I can assign and license it on whatever terms are reasonable, typically a small cash payment plus points, usually one-half of
one percent (0.05%)of the film's gross profit for the duration of the films copyright for theatrical exhibition and Video tape and DVD sales.
ASCAP (my performing rights agency) The American society of Composers, Authors, and Publishers collects my broadcast royalties directly from the broadcaster (ABC, CBA, NBC, FOX, Comcast, DishNetwork, etc), not from the producer.
Finally, you can buy royalty free, canned music from many Internet sites that sell generic music for a reasonable fee and use it anyway you like, but because it is used all the time by many different producers in their low budget films, generic music would probably not add much to
the production value of the film, and it still doesn't solve the problem of getting it synced up with the film itself.
You will still need to do that separately with either an older analogue track production studio
(many still in California and all around the western states, and also NY,) or with a digital studio like the ones above.
And it depends on how the film was shot and on what medium, as far as the images go, that is (film stock, 16mm or 35mm, or Video, average broadcast resolution or high definition), but as far as the audio is concerned,
yes.
The Hollywood "look" is achieved primarily with film stock, camera/lenses, and lighting.
Films shot on video, even films shot on the new DV or
high definition digital format, have a different look than films shot on film stock.
Film stocks also vary by manufacturer and type.
Some software programs can cheat to make video look more like film, and the average viewer would probably never know the difference, but you can not make badly shot film look fantastic by enhancing it with digital tools.
You can not make badly shot video look good by enhancing it with digital software.
If you shoot it right to begin with, you will have
less trouble in post production. It depends on the budget. You get what you can afford.
Audio is typically not the problem in digital post production. Audio files are small by comparison to full motion image files.
So you need a computer hardware system that is large enough and fast enough to handle manipulating very large image data files in real time, and that requires a very powerful computer.
The software will most definitely do the job, but it depends on the hardware you use to run the software editing programs.
An off-the-shelf computer like the kind you might buy at Circuit City or Best Buy will probably not do the trick. You need a dedicated system designed to just do digital editing, with very fast processor, large capacity hard drives, and latency free motherboard, graphics card, and
soundcard. You can buy turn-key systems that start around $25,000 and go up to $250,000 or more, depending on your need and your budget.
Then you need someone who knows how to configure the system and run the programs.
The system I have in my studio is a Pentium class, state-of-the art system less than one year old I installed this last winter which I would not recommend to anyone except the most experienced user who understands how these systems really work.
Its replacement cost would be around $135,000 to $150,000 US. It can do music and film production, capture, cutting, triming, editing, image enhancement, overlays, titling,
3d Graphics, special effects, morphing, animation, and a whole lot more I will probably never use, and outputs it all to high def DVD format in 7.1 multi-channel THX Surround sound...
Jack Rooney
http://home.att.net/~JackRooney
Ok I am researching the best info on what to use for producing, putting together a soundtrack and editing Independent and Motion picture films.
What would you recommend the best hardware and software set up would be to get the best quality out there?
I had spoken to a 10 yr film producer/actor - Jack Rooney who mentioned this:
By synchronizing music with the images on the screen. Anymore, we use digital production software and dump everything into a computer and create a score in real time or with pre-recorded songs that are cut into the music track wherever the composer/director wants the music to appear.
Then it is resolved with the final dialogue and sound effects tracks into whatever format the film is using for release, stereo, quad, surround, 7.1 THX, etc., which all depends,of course, on the films budget.
There is a difference in cost between creating a sound score from scratch with all or mostly original music and using pre-existing or canned music.
However, new digital music production software and hardware has brought down the cost of music track production considerably, but you still need a very creative and skilled musician and recordist to make it
work.
Basically, it isn't that difficult, or it is a lot less difficult than most people think.
The days of gathering large group of live musicians
in an orchestra hall to score a film with conductor and musicians working in sync from a projected image is pretty much gone; it's almost all done digitally, unless you simply must have the Philharmonic Orchestra.
But it is still a lot of work to score a feature film.
It dependes a lot on what kind of music the director/producer wants and what kind of mood they want to establish for the film.
Creating the music soundtrack is an art form.
Using something like Vegas 5 and Vegas+DVD
http://mediasoftware.sonypictures.com/ would do the trick if the film has been transfered to tape with time base. You can then import to digital file with a video capture board like ATI or equivalent, and edit in real time.
Less expensive package would be http://www.pinnaclesys.com/
It can get pretty pricy by the time you include all the add-ins. In any case, you need a very high powered computer Penteum IV or greater and very fast hard drives with lots of memory and a screamer graphics board to make it go, and then someone who knows how to use the software.
My studio includes all of the above and more, but I rarely take in any outside work like this.
I do my own films and my own productions, and I do not normally have time to work on other producer's projects unless it is a film or show where I star.
My primary function is as an actor/performing artist.
The fact that I own a production studio is incidental
to my career as a performer.
There are many ways to structure a deal for hiring music production services to score a feature film.
Hourly rate of the talent plus studio rental time; hiring an employee to do it in-house with equipment you purchase (which can cost a bundle); working with an established studio or artist on a cost plus points basis as a "Work made for hire"; working under partnership agreement with a studio on a profit sharing basis (Limited Partnership, LP, or Limited Liability Company, LLC); working with an established artist and studio under "Synchronization License"; or a combination of all or the above.
There are no rules.
All artist's work and the musician's is protected by copyright, including the work of the "recordist" the guy/gal that pushes the buttons and operates the recording equipment, so you need to be aware of copyright law implications of the entire process, and make sure you get the proper releases and licenses from everyone involved.
If you just need to use music from bands or artists who already have songs recorded, like a Beatles song, or the Foo Fighters, or Jack Rooney, for example, it requires a "Synchronization License", which you obtain directly from the artist or their authorized agent(s), which grants the producer the right to use the song in the film.
I have a number of albums which might contain songs you could use if you are interested.
I own the copyrights in all my music, so I can assign and license it on whatever terms are reasonable, typically a small cash payment plus points, usually one-half of
one percent (0.05%)of the film's gross profit for the duration of the films copyright for theatrical exhibition and Video tape and DVD sales.
ASCAP (my performing rights agency) The American society of Composers, Authors, and Publishers collects my broadcast royalties directly from the broadcaster (ABC, CBA, NBC, FOX, Comcast, DishNetwork, etc), not from the producer.
Finally, you can buy royalty free, canned music from many Internet sites that sell generic music for a reasonable fee and use it anyway you like, but because it is used all the time by many different producers in their low budget films, generic music would probably not add much to
the production value of the film, and it still doesn't solve the problem of getting it synced up with the film itself.
You will still need to do that separately with either an older analogue track production studio
(many still in California and all around the western states, and also NY,) or with a digital studio like the ones above.
And it depends on how the film was shot and on what medium, as far as the images go, that is (film stock, 16mm or 35mm, or Video, average broadcast resolution or high definition), but as far as the audio is concerned,
yes.
The Hollywood "look" is achieved primarily with film stock, camera/lenses, and lighting.
Films shot on video, even films shot on the new DV or
high definition digital format, have a different look than films shot on film stock.
Film stocks also vary by manufacturer and type.
Some software programs can cheat to make video look more like film, and the average viewer would probably never know the difference, but you can not make badly shot film look fantastic by enhancing it with digital tools.
You can not make badly shot video look good by enhancing it with digital software.
If you shoot it right to begin with, you will have
less trouble in post production. It depends on the budget. You get what you can afford.
Audio is typically not the problem in digital post production. Audio files are small by comparison to full motion image files.
So you need a computer hardware system that is large enough and fast enough to handle manipulating very large image data files in real time, and that requires a very powerful computer.
The software will most definitely do the job, but it depends on the hardware you use to run the software editing programs.
An off-the-shelf computer like the kind you might buy at Circuit City or Best Buy will probably not do the trick. You need a dedicated system designed to just do digital editing, with very fast processor, large capacity hard drives, and latency free motherboard, graphics card, and
soundcard. You can buy turn-key systems that start around $25,000 and go up to $250,000 or more, depending on your need and your budget.
Then you need someone who knows how to configure the system and run the programs.
The system I have in my studio is a Pentium class, state-of-the art system less than one year old I installed this last winter which I would not recommend to anyone except the most experienced user who understands how these systems really work.
Its replacement cost would be around $135,000 to $150,000 US. It can do music and film production, capture, cutting, triming, editing, image enhancement, overlays, titling,
3d Graphics, special effects, morphing, animation, and a whole lot more I will probably never use, and outputs it all to high def DVD format in 7.1 multi-channel THX Surround sound...
Jack Rooney
http://home.att.net/~JackRooney
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