HOW TO IMPROVE YOUR VIDEOS – Sound Trick – by Linden Hudson

HOW TO IMPROVE YOUR VIDEOS – Sound Trick – by Linden Hudson from Linden Hudson on Vimeo.

Try this little sound trick on your next video. It’s pretty cool and really simple. Linden Hudson has been a sound engineer for 40 years. 20 years in studios then 20 years doing sound for films and hi def video. This simple audio trick is worth knowing about. Try it sometime. Have fun.
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If you want to get brave and use multiple mp3 recorders on multiple actors or speakers, go ahead. But, you’ll need multiple audio track capability in your video edit software. And, you’ll need to stay alert and keep track of the takes and always verbally slate the takes so you can be organized during edit time. If you yell “take 5″ (or whatever) and then hold up 5 fingers in front of the camera (or have 5 written on a little chalk slate) then you can marry them together in edit without going crazy. If you want to get really brave, you could also use multiple mp3 recorders AND multiple cameras. Just verbally slate and visually slate each take so you can bring the right sound together with the right picture. Let me repeat the important part: be very careful to make sure all recorders are rolling and that you clearly slate each take (verbally and visually). If you stay organized and you’re very careful, THIS IS EASY. (Or, just keep it simple like the video demo and just use one recorder and one camera).
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This whole idea comes from working on film sets (in the old days) and is not new (except for using an mp3 or wma micro-recorder directly attached to the actor, that’s the new trick). In theory you don’t really HAVE to slate takes on a film set. They could figure out how to match the right sound to the right picture if they wanted to, but it costs more money to do it that way because it’s harder and takes more time. So, to save money and speed things up, visual and/verbal slates and/or time code are used. Many of you already know this, but some of you don’t.
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To give a further example of a way to marry sound (from an external recorder) to video or film later, we’ll tell a simple story that’s true. In the late nineties Linden was taken out into the boon docks to work on a documentary. It was shot on film and Linden was handed a DAT recorder. They did not have a slate for Linden to use. So, Linden described each setting into his recorder before they did each shot. For example: “interview with a woman in a red blouse, palm tree in the background”. Then someone would clap hands in front of the camera (sync point, makes it easier later). Later Linden called the post-production facility and said “sorry there was no slate, was there any problem marrying up the sound?” The answer was “no, your descriptions made it easy, the sound is matched up.” This is a crude method of matching sound to picture, but it works when sound is on a different machine from picture.
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Linden has worked with director/cameramen (on film shoots) in the past who would start the camera (constantly) without saying “roll sound”, so Linden would just keep the recorder recording all the time to avoid missing sound or slates. The sound guy gets in trouble when he misses sound or slates. (added note: as of lately there’s not much film work around, it’s almost all hi-def video. But, for modern film shoots most audio is recorded on hard drives or memory chips).
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By the way, the website listed at the end of this video is not there any more. Linden just lists his resume’ and credits on Vimeo now. No need for a website. Resume’ at: http://vimeo.com/15616858
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In Linden’s film/video career he’s done sound for ABC, NBC, MSNBC, CNBC, CBS, CNN, FOX, Discovery Channel, History Channel, Food Channel, BBC, PBS, Dr Phil, NASA, MTV, VH1, Court TV, Nightline, 20/20, Good Morning America, 20th Century Fox, Warner Bros, Paramount, Bloomberg Television, Americas Most Wanted, Paul McCartney, Lance Armstrong, ESPN, Inside Edition, American Journal, Dell Computer, Reebock, Ricky Lake, Showtime Boxing, Oklahoma City Bombing, you name it. Linden has worked with 4 different US presidents and many famous people (Linden worked with Francis Ford Coppola recently in 2010 on a wine promo project in which Mr Coppola talked about his wine products. This was great because Mr Coppola is one of Linden’s all time heros). Microphones (to name one specialty). Field sound production, oh yes.
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Linden Hudson once wrote a song for the ZZ Top “Eliminator” album. The song was “Thug”. Then Linden spent 5 long years suing ZZ Top for his money. This was a bad time for Linden as he had a newborn son at the time and was having trouble paying the bills. Why do stars do things like that to the little people? Are they afraid of having one less Mercedes in the driveway? This info is easy to verify on the internet. Do some research on this if you’re interested. Anyway, Linden survived and went on with his life. But, this was the last straw for Linden and the music business and that’s when Linden began engineering sound for films and video (1989).
For more on this topic see:
famoustexans.com/zztop.htm
houstonpress.com/1996-02-2…
classicbands.com/zztop.html
weblo.com/celebrity/Singer_Musician/ZZ_Top/455102/
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Linden teaches people how to record at home. He has many video tutorials that are free. See some of these tutorials at:
http://vimeo.com/19984655
http://vimeo.com/20001741
http://vimeo.com/19996747
http://vimeo.com/16069618
http://vimeo.com/14751806
http://vimeo.com/15775653
http://vimeo.com/17241845
http://vimeo.com/15698080
http://vimeo.com/15430122
http://vimeo.com/15379788
http://vimeo.com/15264227
http://vimeo.com/14858238
http://vimeo.com/14625922
http://vimeo.com/15485053
http://vimeo.com/14131812
http://vimeo.com/14075709
http://vimeo.com/14074442
http://vimeo.com/14073745
http://vimeo.com/13914433
http://vimeo.com/13812955
http://vimeo.com/13792702
http://vimeo.com/13772711
http://vimeo.com/13144865
http://vimeo.com/12979343
http://vimeo.com/11878807
http://vimeo.com/11872777
http://vimeo.com/10679964
http://vimeo.com/10568081
http://vimeo.com/19863400
http://vimeo.com/17993032
http://vimeo.com/17339372
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Just a sound man from Texas. Thanks.