"Documentary films need to have a soul, and the soul itself is simple and complex at the same time. At the 20th (Guangzhou) International Documentary Festival, Dutch director and producer Peter Riem Dekron opened a master class.
Peter Reem Dekron has been making documentaries since 1991 and has won more than 140 awards at international film festivals, including the Amsterdam International Documentary in the Netherlands, as he explores the relationship between man and nature.
In this master class, Peter recorded several natural documentary films, whether it was using the 17th-century church organ of Pervom Island to imitate the spatial atmosphere of the tides, or using the vocal breath to set off the rhythm of the deep jellyfish, the industry audience was amazed.
Peter Rim Dekron.
Since "A Bite of China", more and more documentary practitioners have begun to realize the importance of sound and originality for documentary production, and the industry has reached a general consensus that the sooner sound design enters the production process, the more effectively it can achieve expectations.
The chirping of birds, the sounds of nature before the storm ......These can make you feel the hidden vitality from the sound, which is far more wonderful than the artificially created **. ”
Most documentary filmmakers like to add ** and narration to the picture, but Peter willfully changed this method, in "The Silence of the Tide", which tells about the ecosystem, he believes that "breathing" is the theme and tone of the whole film, no narration, no **, the entry of nature sounds and human voices makes the picture look more interesting. "We also conveyed the essence and soul of the film through this breath and breath, and between the breath of the tide, we portrayed the entire environment of the Wadden Sea. ”
Coincidentally, on December 7th, at the "Sound - The Power of the Neglected" theme forum, the guests had an in-depth discussion on the importance of sound directors, the technology of sound in documentaries, from collection to presentation, the necessity and characteristics of originality, how directors can effectively communicate with **, the display of AI singing vocals, the elaboration of the aesthetic trend of documentary dubbing, and the impact of new technologies on the commentary industry.
The late stage is not omnipotent, and neither is AI.
Ling Qing, a senior sound director of the documentary, took the lead in pointing out with a scene from the fourth season of "Flavor World": The later stage is not omnipotent.
He emphasized that in the script stage, the sound director should work with the director to plan the key points of the sound, so that the director knows which scenes cannot be recreated, and which important sounds are done together in the pre-production and post-recording.
Flavor of the World Season 4 poster.
In the early stage, you can use a strong directional microphone and a wireless microphone to record, and a strong directional microphone can be completed by picking a rod, because of the local shooting method, it is easy to achieve a picking", Ling Qing took "Flavor World" as an example: "In the early stage of this project, head recording and Dolby Atmos production were also used for the first time, and two versions were made at that time, one is a panoramic sound version, and the other is a binaural version. Before shooting, we also had to communicate with the pre-recording team, mainly discussing how to better match the pre-recording and post-production sound, and how to make good use of the pre-recording and head stereo microphone to do better sound capture in the later stage. The advantage of a head-mounted stereo microphone is that it can capture information in the live environment, giving it a greater sense of presence. In order to provide more details about the sound, we added the 416 and the Little Bee microphone to supplement the point sound source, so that we could adjust the spatial and detailed sound according to the scene during post-production. ”
The Power of Voices to Be Ignored" was so crowded that many documentary filmmakers were even pushed out of the door, and many stood to listen to the entire forum.
At the forum, the audience gathered.
In a scene where a plant breaks through the ground and grows, the young shoots are given a strong vitality, which is due to the sound director's use of a lot of foley. Through the post-recording of **, according to the changes of the plant, there will be a change in tone, different heights, and every bend and back of the plant growth has been sublimated.
Ling Qing believes that sound directors must do their homework, in addition to pulling tabs to collide, but also ask some topics they want to know: such as what kind of food tastes?Is it sour or smelly?After that, we will refine the audio-visual sense according to the specific feelings.
For example, acidic foods will be displayed with some pungent and impactful **.
The fourth season of "Flavor of the World" has the least commentary, and whether the voice needs to be left blank is also the focus of discussion. Ling Qing believes that a good ** should complement each other.
Nowadays, the platform is diversified, the ** device is also diversified, and more people are Xi watching on their mobile phones. How should the sound of the documentary be presented on the mobile phone?
We will do some experiments on the mobile phone terminal, what effect will be presented by external amplifier and headphone listening, and we will take all these links into account in detail. Ling Qing added.
He concluded that what the main creator and the team should do in terms of sound, first, the early intervention of the sound director, the second is the standardization of the work process, the third is the close connection between the front and the stage, and the fourth is the communication and collaboration between the sound director and the director.
After that, sound engineer and mixer Shi Hanxiang showed everyone the sound recorded in the subway station and the corridor after AI restoration, after the restoration, the noise and echo are obviously gone, and the sound is clear and solid. But Shi Hanxiang believes that this state of restoration still needs to be supplemented with some ambient sound in the later stage, because it is not as real as the recorded interview environment, "The sound repaired by AI is especially like finding a new recording studio to re-record." ”
Therefore, if you want to have an immersive audio-visual effect, you can't be lazy in sound design, you have to brainstorm.
We want plants to grow with their own special language, and the movie "Avatar" developed a language during filming, can we also develop a special language for plants?In the end, we also found a lot of materials, and many of the sounds were simulated with slime glue, and we used a lot of anthropomorphic means to achieve the final effect of the sound. At the time of the season 4 trailer for "Flavor of the World", we also made the grain feel like Star Wars. In addition, Shi Hanxiang also mentioned some tips when doing foley for animal documentaries.
Zhu Lexian, the producer of the first two seasons of "Flavor of the World 4" and the producer of the first two seasons, recalled the content that tortured the sound director the most, and the most impressive thing was how to show southerners eating snails.
The snail is so small, what should I do?But it is necessary to create the best power of food through the shaping of sound.
At that time, we spent a lot of money to build a professional atmos studio to make "Flavor of the World 1", and at that time, we also hoped to have some breakthroughs, and sound breakthroughs were an important part. Atmos production presents a new challenge, as it can take three times longer than a typical stereo production, which many teams may not be able to do without adequate funding. ”
How to quickly find the original ** style of your own film.
There is a lack of integration and unification of domestic copyright. Around 2000, China did not pay attention to the copyrighting of originality, and the audience could often hear Ryuichi Sakamoto in many **. Talking about the importance of originality, producer Liu Ying shared her creative experience with the audience from a practical point of view.
Near the end of the theme song of the CCTV variety show "China Archaeological Conference", there is an instrument with a very sharp pitch and bright timbre, which is the oldest musical instrument in the world - the bone flute. The bone flute became the treasure of this theme song.
The reason why the bone flute was chosen, Liu Ying explained, in terms of content, conforms to the huge historical dimension of archaeology, which is very long, and in terms of time, it can also be used as a characteristic instrument for this piece. The electric guitar is the main theme played in the climax part, combining one Chinese and one Western to achieve a ** style that combines national style, rock and electronics.
Forum site. In another original ** of "Looking for Ancient China", there is a song called "Mysterious Cool"**, the main instrument Da Ruan imitates the performance method of the bass, and the taste of Chinese and Western combinations also comes out.
* Creation is not only to communicate with the director, but also with the choreography, lighting, and tone, all of which together determine the direction and positioning of the composition, **In the initial creative stage, melody design, orchestration style, paragraph structure design, these are all to be taken into account, and then the communication between MID production and arrangement, as well as the later instrument selection, performance personnel, recording engineers, mixers, etc., the birth of a piece of music is really the hard work of many people. Liu Ying said.
In addition to **, narration is also a key part of documentaries, and narration plays a pivotal role in Chinese documentaries. With the vigorous development of online documentaries, the voice with a "network sense" has gradually become the voice that directors are eager to hear.
Mesozoic dubbing recitation artist Zhou Yang is the queen dubbing of CCTV's large-scale documentaries, you can hear his voice in many documentaries such as "Awesome, My Country", "Internet Age", "Mountains and Seas", "One Hundred Years All the Way", and his dubbing works have also won many awards at home and abroad. He feels that the director has been "more and more tormented" to him recently, and he is always seeking new and change in dubbing.
The most important requirement, you don't want a broadcasting cavity, you have to be simple, natural, and sincere, simple, natural, and sincere is also a magic weapon that I have insisted on creating for so many years, but it is very difficult for us practitioners. Zhou Yang said, "After "A String of Life" came out of the circle, many food programs asked us to match that voice, 'Do you have a string at home?'"I said that this is really impossible, how much smoking, how much drinking, how many times you have been to KTV to smoke this throat, we really can't do it, but we can feel the appeal of this era, he hopes that your voice and expression will be more real, more simple. ”
A String of Life" season 4 poster.
The general view in the industry is that the narrator should not be a person who disturbs the work, and the voice temperament and the temperament of the work must be highly consistent. The process of creation is the process of empathy with the audience.
Zhou Yang believes that the narrator also needs to be able to tell a story, and at the same time, he is also a person who can accurately convey the message, attitude and tone, and he is a person with a director's perspective.
At the scene, Isabel Riva, a multi-time Emmy Award-winning producer, shared with you the most advanced AI tools in the world: vocal synthesis, input text and keywords can be quickly and automatically synthesized**, adjust instruments and timbre, creators can have their own coding, can create their own cases.
Regarding whether he will be replaced by AI, Zhou Yang said firmly, "I'm not afraid", "After I finish recording a film, I and Teacher Yan Dong can still drink some, can the machine?"”
Zhou Yang said frankly that instead of being too afraid, it is better to optimize yourself. He thinks that in the future, it may be that fifty or sixty percent of the voices will be replaced, but there is still a possibility of thirty or forty. "We can do those thirty or forty, there was a director who chose me instead of using a machine, and I asked him why, and he said that every time you finish recording, you can give us something unexpected and new, that is, you must treat the voice actor as a creator, and you have to create with him. ”
Wang Shijun, deputy director of Guangdong Radio and Television Station and Guangdong Health Road, also holds the same view: "In the future, AI is likely to replace people in editing, dubbing, and ** in many aspects, it can meet the basic requirements, and the remaining 20% is related to the core of today's forum, which is emotion." Sound is emotional. ”
Talking about the creative experience of the commentary, Zhou Yang finally concluded, "I hope that my strength can be ignored, just like a piece of sugar dissolved in water, you drink sweet water, and you don't think about this sugar, I also hope that I am water, give me whatever container, I will become what I become." ”
Imagination is the first driving force in film production, and the creative part of sound is no exception. No matter what the new technology will become, everyone believes that the original intention, imagination and emotion of the documentary creator are indispensable.
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