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Am I On The Right Floor? My Ears Tell Me No!

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Eyes Of A Generation.com

Am I On The Right Floor? My Ears Tell Me No!

I love ‘Mad Men’, BUT…when I watch, for example, a couple of men or women walk along the “office” floors, I don’t hear a concrete skyscraper floor…I hear a wooden stage floor and the illusion is broken.

Same thing the other day on ‘NCIS’ in a scene set in a big hospital.
Most of you reading this know what I mean because you’ve been on film sets at one time or another. Unlike live television and soap opera sets, film sets are built on raised wooden floors for construction purposes and hiding cables. The sound of actors footsteps on a raised wooden floor is much different than that of walking on a hard floor.

This past Easter Sunday, I was watching ‘The Ten Commandments’ with Charlton Heston. When he was brought before the Pharaoh in chains, the accompanying sound effect add on was jingle bells…not chains. Suddenly I was back in my recliner and not in Egypt.

I don’t often climb on my soap box and will climb down now, but I’ll close with a request for the sound designers to pay more attention. 99.9% of those watching never notice these kinds of things, but for industry people trying to enjoy a television performance, this is one of the things that eject us from the theater of innocent illusion and put us back in the real world.

What are some of the other things like this that throw you off?

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15 responses to “Am I On The Right Floor? My Ears Tell Me No!”

  1. Tom Thornton

    It is all too often that Foley artists just can’t get it right. I love it when they give the sound of a piston engine for a jet turbo prop.

  2. Gary Walters

    The mention of the foley sounds brings back the thoughts of Warner Brother TV Westerns, whenever there was a windstorm. It was the same sound on an endless loop of wind.

  3. Steve Finkelmeyer

    I actually noticed this the other day, too. The other thing that bothers me in Mad Men is the duratrans outside the windows in the office. Too many times there are shots where the camera moves with the windows in the background but the perspective never changes. You’d think with the success the show’s had, they could afford to do a CGI cityscape, but I guess they’ll be using the duras to the end.

  4. Curtis R Anderson

    What bothers me is seeing movies set in the past using equipment not yet developed. Like seeing microphones from the future.

  5. Bob Rector

    Don’t get me started on movie/TV sound, not just sound effects but even worse, the dialogue. The actors all sound as if the mike is in their mouths. No dimension, no depth, so fake. Actors on the far side of a large room sound the same as those close to the camera. It’s all flat and processed and whispery. OK, stepping down from soap box. Next?

  6. Bob Hollis

    Not a favorite movie but Titanic spent all that money on correct dinnerware but not a dime on convincing me it was COLD!

  7. Bruce Hansen

    But in the movie “Airplane”, I loved the sound of the old props when they showed the JET aircraft flying along (this WAS on purpose).

  8. Jamie Litty

    I thought some of the Foley work on Ben-Hur was not great. It was on cable last week.

  9. Dave Dillman

    I started as a sound man, so it always drives me crazy when 1) people speak/sing into the dead side of a mike and, of course, 2) when a wired mike has no cable. Happens all the time!

  10. Dave Laing

    Wish I could recall the episode, Don’s is in his tiny apartment and opens a beer, old fashioned pop-top. After one sip of the beer, Don places the can on the table and we hear the sound of an empty can hitting the table. Whoops.

  11. Steve Williams

    Not related to production, but foley effects, used to drive me crazy when motorcycles and their distinct sounds were used interchangeably in films or TV. A Harley chopper would morph into a thinly disguised dirt bike for off road scenes, or various shots would intermingle sounds of both 2 stroke and 4 stroke engines for the same bike or use the wrong one for any given bike.

  12. Bob Batsche

    I know what Bobby means–when watching TV or Movies, I envision what’s taking place behind the cameras or under the flooring. The sound is so different from real life.

  13. Gary Walters

    My classic one is Apollo 13. This is when a TV Reporter is live outside the home of Astronaut Jim Lovell, waiting to see if they will make it okay. The camera they are using is not on a tripod, but a studio pedestal.

  14. Kevin Martorana

    Thanks Derek Toten, I hate the ENG cameraman too. My other peeve is seeing a cameraman hold an older style camera that is not a camcorder…and no VTR cable or battery plugged attached. They did that a lot with TK-76’s in older films.

  15. Derek Toten

    The one that always gets me is the way actors hold an ENG camera. Nine times out of ten their right hand, instead of being on the lens to operate the zoom control, will be hooked over their head and grasping the top-mounted carrying handle. This is how they picked up the camera to put it on their shoulder and they simply never let it go! Since it’s a prop, the production usually doesn’t even bother to power up the camera so the actor never has the opportunity to figure out where the zoom control even is.

    Once, back in the ’80s I was involved in a shoot for a national spot that required an ENG camera man and reporter to run down an alley way. As they did the take over and over again, the cameraman/actor complained about the weight of the over the shoulder Sony 3/4″ portable record deck, so the director had the crew empty the recorder case. In subsequent takes, the guy would run past and the case, which was supposed to hold a 25 lb record deck, would flop around like the empty, lightweight sack that it was. Reminded me of the way Hollywood portrays people carrying gold bricks. You’re actors – at least pretend they’re heavy!

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