A soundtrack for old 8mm movies (artistic/creative question?)

Question

A soundtrack for old 8mm movies (artistic/creative question?)

Hope it’s OK to ask such a question here....

I’ve just finished editing a 30 minute project culled from hours of 40 year old silent 8mm movies. A simple easy soundtrack would result in 30 minutes of projector noise or silent film style piano music - not exactly appealing. Laying a lot of authentic sound effects tracks and music would be very time consuming, and unwarranted in this case.

Most people will probably expect the DVD to have sound. If I burn the DVD “silent”, I’ll need an appropriate title somewhere on the menu, so people know not to bother cranking up the volume, or phoning me saying it’s a faulty DVD.

Wondering if anyone else has had a similar project (using silent footage) and what was done about a sound track?

Any ideas or suggestions appreciated.

Regards. Robert.

G4/1.5GHz 1.25 GB Ram, 2x120GB intHD, orig AGP & Radeon 9200 PCI (5+ y.o), Mac OS X (10.4.3), 2monitors, CRT TV, FCP5.0.4, DVDSP4.0.3, STP1.0.3, Comp2.0.1, LT2.0.2, QT7.0.4

Posted on May 26, 2006 8:49 PM

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Answer 1

May 26, 2006 9:11 PM in response to Robert Downunder

I give film transfer clients an option: music, or no music. Its their choice. I do charge for adding music so some don't go for it. Some have even provided their own score (hey, I'm in music city after all).

The key is to make sure they know up front what they're paying for ... as long as you meet or exceed your client's expectations, you and they will both be happy.

-DH

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Answer 2

May 27, 2006 6:55 AM in response to Robert Downunder

I'd just go...

chicka-chicka-chicka-chicka-chicka-chicka-chicka-chicka-chicka-chicka-chicka-chi cka-chicka-chicka-chicka-chicka-chicka-chicka-chicka-chicka-chicka-chicka-chicka -chicka-chicka-chicka-chicka-chicka-chicka-chicka-chicka-chicka-chicka-chicka-ch icka-chicka-chicka-chicka-chicka-chicka-chicka-chicka-chicka-chicka-chicka-chick a-chicka-chicka-chicka-chicka-chicka-chicka-chicka-chicka-chicka-chicka-chicka-c hicka-chicka-chicka

Into the voice over tool... sorry -- there's nothing you can do for the smell of those old 8mm projectors.

CaptM

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Answer 3

May 27, 2006 7:30 PM in response to Captain Mench

Remember SMell-0-viSion?

bogiesan

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Answer 4

May 27, 2006 9:44 PM in response to Robert Downunder

It depends on what the content of your silent movies are, but if the traditional piano is too boring, you might want to consider adding music from Smart Sound. They have a royalty-free canned music library that is quite good -- i.e. it's not just synthesized music, it's extensive from orchestral to jazz to techno. If you use their software you can fairly quickly arrange it into segments that are the right length for your films. This is what I use for many of my projects. I haven't done old silent movies, but I do a lot of work where I completely replace the audio with royalty-free or low-royalty music.

The downside is that you have to buy their software to make the music track ($199) plus the CDs of the music at about $60 each if you get them on sale. (Jazz & Swing is on sale this month.) The music is hard to edit from within FCP, so you have to lock picture first and edit your score from within their program.

--Beth

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Answer 5

May 29, 2006 4:36 PM in response to Robert Downunder

Thanks everyone for your feedback.

My deadline was approaching, so some sort of “executive” decision about what to do had to be made.

For the eventual DVD I’m burning, I’m using a theme from iDVD with a motion background (old movie projector). It has an accompanying authentic sounding “clatter-clatter” sound effect. Both work fine and look good in DVDSP.

I’ve laid that same sound effect as a loop continuously throughout the timeline. The end effect is certainly much better artistically and creatively than I could ever have anticipated. No chika-chika needed at all 🙂. And no need for a “silent” DVD.

I own and use SmartSound – excellent software that is really properly integrated with FCP – but for reasons of extra client cost and time it was decided against in this particular case.

Regards. Robert.

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