Audiences forgive a soft image. They do not forgive audio they have to strain through. If you have one budget line and one crew position to spend on, spend both here.
On set
Record these every time:
- Dialogue on a dedicated recorder or a proper camera input, with a boom operator whose only job is the boom
- Room tone, 60 seconds, at every location, with everyone silent. This is the single most valuable minute of your shoot day and the one most often skipped. Without it, every dialogue edit has an audible seam.
- Wild lines for anything the location ruined
- A clap or slate for sync if you are dual-system
The three most common fixable problems:
- Mic too far away. Get it closer than feels right. Almost every amateur boom is a foot too high.
- HVAC running. Turn it off, note who turned it off, and turn it back on when you leave.
- Handling and clothing noise on lavs. Tape properly; check on headphones, not on a meter.
Wear headphones. A meter tells you level, not whether a refrigerator is humming through the take.
Music licensing — the part that ends festival runs
You need the rights to every piece of music in your film, and for a commercial recording that means two separate licences: the composition (publishing) and the specific recording (master). Getting one is not enough. A festival will ask for a music cue sheet, and a distributor will not touch a film with an unlicensed needle-drop.
The safe paths, in order:
- Have it scored. A composer working on a short is often more affordable than any licence, and you own the result outright. Music schools and the Columbus scene are full of people who want screen credits.
- Use production libraries with a clear licence covering festival and online distribution.
- Use public-domain compositions with a modern recording you have licensed — the composition being public domain does not free the recording.
Never assume anything is fine because it is short, uncredited, or unmonetised. Fair use is a defence you argue in court, not a permission you grant yourself.
Free and open sources
| Source | What it is | Link |
|---|---|---|
| Free Music Archive | Curated free music, licences vary by track — read each one | freemusicarchive.org |
| Freesound | Huge collaborative sound-effects database, Creative Commons licences per file | freesound.org |
| Musopen | Public-domain classical recordings and sheet music | musopen.org |
| Internet Archive | Public-domain and openly licensed audio, including historical recordings | archive.org |
With any Creative Commons source, record the licence and the attribution string at the moment you download it. Reconstructing that a year later, for a cue sheet a festival wants in 48 hours, is miserable.
Paid libraries
Subscription libraries exist and are convenient; verify that the tier you buy covers festival exhibition and broadcast, not just online video, before you cut to a track. Pricing changes often enough that any figure quoted here would be wrong — read the licence page.
Sound design
- Record your own effects. A field recorder and an afternoon produces better, more specific material than any library, and it is free.
- Build a personal library from every shoot. Room tones, door closes, and traffic beds accumulate into something you will use for years.
- Freesound covers what you cannot record, but check the licence on each individual file — they differ within the same site.
Mixing
See Post-Production for tools. The three rules that matter most:
- Mix at a consistent, calibrated level, and check the result quietly and on laptop speakers. If dialogue disappears on a laptop, it will disappear in a festival's screening room too.
- Dialogue first. Everything else fits around it.
- Deliver stems — dialogue, music, effects — separately. Festivals occasionally need them and a future re-version always will.
Local
- Columbus State, CCAD, and Ohio State all have students working in sound who want screen credits. See Education & Training.
- Columbus recording studios will often take a short film mix as a weekday booking. Ask; the rate is frequently lower than the website suggests for non-music work.
Related
- Post-Production
- Stock, Archival & Public Domain
- Business, Legal & Insurance — music rights are chain-of-title
Back to Filmmaker Resources.