Planning Audio for Film: COVID-19 Lockdown

With COVID-19 hitting the world in this special year 2020, we all got used to a new normal way of living life. Things moved online and so did a part of the creative industry. Just like any other project, creating audio for a video is a mammoth task and requires in-depth planning for perfect execution. From recording dialogue on the sets to mastering audio for commercial release there are a number of tasks that are performed a number of professionals. It requires team effort and extensive planning to achieve all of these tasks and maintain quality on each step.

I am a part of group of three and we are given a task to create audio for a trailer. We have work equally divided amongst us - Music for the trailer, Foley and SFX. There are no dialogues in the trailer. A part from just creating these parts we need to plan and divide role for audio compilation, mixing and delivery.

Our team has Josh who is a music producer based out of Adelaide. There is James who is an audio engineer and guitar player based out of Melbourne. And lastly, my mixing and music production skills too were brought to use on the project. We had several meetings on Zoom to discuss and divide work amongst the team members. Before starting with the individual tasks, we created a space on Google drive to curate all the material in one place. Also, a Trello discussion board helped us keep the meeting pointers accessible to everyone at all points. To take a look at our Trello page click here.

After our meeting, we decided that Josh will take up music for the trailer, James will take up foley and I will do the SFX for the trailer. For the secondary tasks, Josh agreed upon compiling the work, James would be mixing and I'll manage the website for the trailer delivery. In the first week, we plan to create a draft work and compile it to check how we are going. We'll receive feedback and plan for the next week. In the second week, we will take it further and compile all the work that we have and start preparing for delivery.

As part of our research, we have different things to focus on. My research was more of based on analyzing the films that inspire me and create a benchmark for myself. Then I need to search for sounds to be used as SFX. Here I have a choice to either use websites like Freesound.org, BBC, Splice, etc. or to record sounds myself. With the restrictions during COVID-19, I think I'll be utilizing the online libraries for the sounds. I must be able to both gather all the sounds and place them in the ProTools session in the first week. In the following week, I'll do some minor tweaks and work on the website.

All such projects require a lot of planning and coordination. COVID-19 has forced us to stretch our boundaries and do what has not been done before. Working remotely from our personal spaces is the new normal in this COVID-19 era. Isolation often brings out the best of a lot of creatives and hopefully everyone reading this article too have a productive year 2020.