The way to prevent all these issues is to have a very good set of sound-isolating headphones on the person monitoring what's being recorded so that they can hear if there are problems immediately and stop recording until it's taken care of. Additionally, the person who runs the audio needs to really spend a lot of time practicing getting a mic 1 to 2 feet from the actor's mouth and aimed directly at it. They also need to experiment with different angles to try and figure out which sounds the best. Because of this, it's best to find someone who will be your sound guy who really is interested in sound and/or music, as they're more likely to put in the time to do this. (You can read more about the best ways to get good audio in our early audio article here.)
Perhaps one of the simplest ways to help some of the visual issues in this film is with sound effects. The fight scenes that didn't work due to their visual problems also lacked believable sound effects. As such, there effectiveness could be improved 200% with crisp, brutal sound effects. Additionally, the first pistol execution scene, which looks good, isn't terribly believable due to an extremely underpowered gun sound effect. Sound effects should often be mixed at –6 Db, while dialogue is normally mixed at –12 Db.
Overall, the musical score for this film was proficient and helped uphold the mood without feeling too over the top. The only problem it regularly had was the fact that sometimes it was mixed too loud and would start to override dialogue. The way to prevent that is to mix the music bed about 6 decibels below the dialogue. (If you mix dialogue to –12 Db, you want to mix the music to –18 Db. Only have the music come up to –12 Db if there is no dialogue and you're entering a montage or other non-dialogue sequence.)
The overall budget that was used on this film was excellent. $1200 for a feature film is extremely impressive. With that said, for future films, it would be wise to look at a little higher budget that could afford a camera that has more manual controls and some additional audio gear.
While the concept of the man who will stand up for what he believes in against all odds is quite compelling, the number of issues the film currently has makes it one that I'm unlikely to watch again.
I'm extremely impressed by this creative team's hard work in this difficult genre. While these filmmakers' current effort suffers from too many leaders and some varied acting performances, I feel that their ingenuity and artistry will yield some really impressive films in the future! I look forward to seeing what they come out with next!
