It’s always great to look back on past projects in your career, particularly ones where you work with a new director or new client for the first time. Back in 2021, I worked on a little short film called Boredom, written and directed by George Bartlett. In this blog, I’ll be taking a look back at working on the short film, from first meeting George all the way to completing the post-production sound.
Pre-Production
George first contacted me about joining his project as his sound recordist back in March 2021. The film tells the story of 3 teenage boys who come together to open up their GCSE exam results together with varying results and reactions.
What was really refreshing straight away was George’s appreciation of the sound department and it was clear how much he valued good sound for a narrative film. I really enjoyed reading the script and we quickly began discussing the approach for sound. I made it clear as soon as I could that we would need a 1st Assistant Sound/Boom Op role as this can often get forgotten about or under-valued on some independent films. To my delight, George was very much understanding and appreciative of the boom op role, especially after I explained the importance of the role particularly for this kind of script where there are multiple cast members with lots of dialogue.
The location for the film was fairly straightforward in the sense that it was just one location on a hillside in the Yorkshire Dales. George invited me to the recce of the location (which again was a delight as sound can often get left out of this process too at an independent film level), but unfortunately I couldn’t attend due to other work commitments. However, George very thoughtfully offered to take lots of photos and a video of the location so I could get an idea of the space we would be shooting in and point out any potential issues. Thankfully, the location was absolutely fine for sound, being very quiet (bar a few rogue sheep!) and spacious for our crew to work in.
Reading the script, I made my usual sound-perspective notes I make when reading a new short film script, making notes of; number of characters, locations, props, costumes, notable action and any notable camera positions and movements.
Filming
In June 2021, we shot the film with George the director, Melissa the producer, 3 cast members, a small camera team and my boom operator, James Lister.
The location was a short walk up a hillside in the Yorkshire Dales and we were lucky that we could then settle there for the day due to there being just one location. After watching a rehearsal with the cast in their final positions and wearing their final costumes, myself and James then miked up the 3 cast members with concealed radio mics.
We used my Audio Ltd A10 radios and DPA 4071 lav mics on the cast, with the lav mics concealed on their chests underneath their t-shirts and the radio transmitter packs placed inside URSA waist straps that wrap around the performer’s waist underneath their t-shirts. We then discussed the best positions for James to stand with the boom mic (using a Sennheiser 416 shotgun mic) and figure out how close we can get to the cast without coming into shot.
The hillside location proved to be useful for us in some shots where the camera is looking up the hill at the cast, allowing us to easily place the boom mic over the top of the cast due to their proximity to the camera. However it also had it’s challenges too when the camera was facing down towards the hill with the cast further away from camera, which often resulted in too much headroom above the cast so our boom would end up being seen. Thankfully, George planned good coverage of shots, ensuring we got plenty of mid and close-up shots for us to capture good clear and clean dialogue.
The weather on the hilltop location was overall very pleasant, but did have a pretty consistent breeze blowing across us the whole day. Despite not having any wind protection stuck to the lav mics, they held up very well and the t-shirts acted as a good natural windshield. The other issue with the weather wasn’t something that affected our sound, but actually affected all of our bodies… sunburn! The sunshine combined with a slightly chilly breeze blowing across the location fooled a lot of us into not even thinking about needing suncream and we paid the price for it for days to come. I was certainly feeling very red and sore for some time after the shoot! Lesson learnt, sunshine + cold wind still equals potential sunburn!
Post-Production Sound
During the project, at some point I discussed with George about completing the post-production sound design for the project as well as recording and mixing the sound on location too. It was something I wanted to start offering to clients, especially for independent films, as I have a big passion for creating sound design for narrative films. Since then, I now offer Sound Design services to most projects I work on.
We quickly began discussing what we wanted from the sound design and despite the premise and location being quite straightforward when it comes to sound design, there were still a lot of fun elements we got to play around with, including;
Creating an atmosphere for the hillside location, e.g. sheep nearby, church in distance, distant light traffic and tractors.
Adding special effects such as an EQ effect to make music sound like it’s coming from a handheld portable radio.
Mixing in additional sound effects and applying necessary reverb effects for the location, e.g. boy being sick onto rocks, mobile phone ringing, paper crinkles and cans being opened and thrown.
I worked on the post-production sound design from my mini-home studio setup, using Adobe Audition software at the time (since then, I've learnt and now work with Avid Pro Tools). When it came to feedback from the director, George gave clear and concise notes on areas he wanted something changing or adding which made it very straightforward for me to navigate to the exact points in the project and make the necessary changes or additions.
Boredom Short Film Final Thoughts
Overall, Boredom was a great film to work on and I’m very proud of the quality of sound we captured on location and the intricate sound design I mixed in post-production. George was a joy to work with and having James as my Boom Operator is always a fantastic asset to my sound team.
You can watch Boredom in its entirety on YouTube below:
Since Boredom, George did start developing a new short film project that I was excited to work on with him again, but is currently on hiatus. Whenever the project or something new entirely, comes through, I will be excited to be a part of it.
George is currently doing some fantastic charity work outside of the film industry, involving running 127 miles to raise money for Dementia UK, a cause very important to him and his family personally. If you’d like to donate, you can do so by clicking here to go to his Just Giving page. You can also follow him on social media here.
Dan Guest
Sound Recordist
Comments