 Welcome back. It is Friday at least here at this time. This is stupid. It is Friday That means it's an FNA Friday and today we're going to talk about audio and that means audio clips for your lip sync assignments How to choose your audio what to avoid what's good. What's not good subjectively where to find your audio and all those common pitfalls and Tips and tricks for your audio search Okay, first let's go through a couple things that you should not do don't pick an audio file That includes swearing don't pick a file that has anything sexual or political or racist I know this all sounds very obvious at the same time. Some of you might go why not? Why can't I use this? Well? It's inappropriate. It's not nice depending on the subject depending on the content and the overall idea is that besides Picking something that is not demeaning and not hurtful You want to pick something that also fits where you want to apply to so you're not going to find something That has a ton of swearing and just inappropriate stuff and then send that to a child-friendly company that mainly Concentrates on family values and family entertainment So just like with the demo reel where you have to research the company and kind of mold your demo reel and your shots towards What they are doing at that company. It's kind of the same thing with the audio file I would also avoid anything from famous people or famous movies But the thing is if you pick someone famous someone that everybody knows a voice that everybody knows and you're gonna watch your shot People are gonna hear this and go hmm That's this actor or this actress and I'm gonna start comparing your shot and this delivery and those acting choices To this incredible actor or actress and that's not good Of course you can argue yet But mine is so good that my shot will transcend and be much better than the original that could be It's just a tricky thing to do. It's a risky thing to do. Of course, it pays off even better for you But just in general, I think it's gonna fight you and you'd be better off just finding something that is cool It's original and creative, but not something that everybody knows like, you know, like I am your father or Blue pill red pill or you show no passing all that stuff You don't want to pick super famous parts super famous actors and the super famous movies at the same time I also wouldn't pick things from an animated movie or an animated TV show just because the source material is already animated it's already stylized and caricatured it has gone through that process of taking something and Changing it and making it appropriate for that format before that style and again It might just be too famous where people draw comparisons. It's all in all. It's not a good idea Now what I would do is pick a file that is clean and by clean I mean if you get it from a DVD a Blu-ray or online just make sure there's no like pops and hisses or weird pauses or just something where if you watch the your shot You don't go what what I don't get this make it as clean and clear as possible find a source file or source again This go whatever your medium of choice is and make sure that you can take it and rip it cleanly I would also avoid recording yourself unless you are a really good professional voice Over-artist or you know really good with voices. There's something about Especially if you use a bad microphone, that's the quality is kind of cheap and the delivery is not it just it Is very distracting you hear this and you go wait was that was that your mom that recorded this was that your brother? And it's just you can't really concentrate on the animation So to me just like with not using famous people or famous movies I would find something that is really cool that supplements your shot You can show off your creative skills without having the content be massively distracting Depending on where you're gonna apply and I'm just gonna take the states as an example here I mean I could be Switzerland could be France you know could something on François or Switzerland But you know in this example if you apply here in the states I will pick audio that is English so that people understand it And you don't have to do something where you need to put subtitles because then people gonna look at the subtitles and not look at your Animation you just you want people to be able to concentrate on your work that being said you might have worked That's from a different country. You're coming from a different country and that's all you have Totally understandable you can use that I'm just saying if you have the choice if you have the time to find something and choose something I will go through what I just said before make it appropriate and so on and so on but also in English Then you would use the language that is being used in that country or in that company I would also use something that has contrast contrast in delivery meaning that Someone goes through an emotional range where they start off quiet and maybe at the end they yell It's kind of a cliche thing where just contrast bump could be the opposite could be someone's yelling and then getting very quiet And that could be your contrast there But I wouldn't pick something where someone goes through like a heist like I'm a plan or some exposition where I don't want to explain That first you go through door one and then door to say It's boring I pick something that is entertaining and I mean entertaining it could be really sad It could be very dramatic But I think something that has texture and ebbs and flows ups and downs something that's just engaging and Interesting to listen to at the same time you can pick something. That's really really boring If the background or whatever you do around that audio file is much more energetic That can be contrast in that a couple of years ago by now probably years There was an example of a news Commentator or critic or something that was talking to the camera while his kids came into the room And then his wife tried to take the kids out of the room. It was fantastic And what will it mean for I would be surprised The region North Korea North now I was not listening to the audio to me. It was boring and I was completely Focusing on what was going on in the background It was such a good contrast of him trying to be the news guy and then in the background all this chaos It was so good So of course in anything that I say they can be an exception except the things that are inappropriate But if you have something really boring, then maybe that's on purpose and that's gonna supplement and make the background action That's more energetic that much more energetic because of contrast This is not exactly a tip It is more kind of a pet peeve But if you have a sound clip and then you add animation either before or after I would try to find audio that kind of supplements that preferably from the same source Where there's maybe ambient sound it's something in the streets or in a park or in a restaurant So it doesn't have the audio and the sound and everything sound effects and then cut and silence And then your animation continues and to me it's even worse when it's all silence and you watch the animation and suddenly bam The sound starts and then your auto clip your lip sync then starts as well It's just kind of jarring and again If you have the choice if you have the time to find something make it more one piece that fits and the whole thing has a Nice flow and no distractions. I will go with that now what you could do again That's not specifically a tip so just suggestions that I would give to my students just to make your shot more interesting You could find a clip that has pauses. The reason why I like pauses is because With lip sync you're kind of tied to the rhythm and the delivery to some degree of the source Any character has to perform and do things and blah blah blah the lip sync But when there is a pause you can take over and if you go through some of my acting analysis examples I've had some of those in there that showed oh if there's this pause you can do this or if the audio ends I just didn't wonder about I Tonya that had exactly that the audio ends and the character does something Behind a character and you can do your own acting thing but in general I think that could be really interesting if you have an audio piece with a pause That's for you to be either super dramatic and do nothing where you can have crazy acting and then it's just this Whatever it is like this pause and then you continue for a very specific accent or just for more drama or something more sad Or you do something where then suddenly someone starts thinking and changes his or her mind And it's a different delivery or you can completely change the intent or the energy of the shot One of those examples would be in midnight run when you have Robert De Niro just yelling and cursing And he tells the guy on the phone that if you don't do this for me I'm going to kill the person right next to me and at this point spoiler in the movie They're kind of friends and the guy hearing this goes wait what and you see De Niro talking goes No, and then continues yelling So it's one thing that he tells to the person on the phone But at the same time we know as an audience he doesn't really mean it and again that like a pause in your audio clip Gives room for that change for your extra creativity in your performance If you have an audio piece with one character talking you can still add a second character in there You could just have a classic over the shoulder where you just kind of blurred out You see part of the head and the kind of the shoulder and that person is talking to that person And maybe the other you know silhouetted peck and kind of move a bit or react But you can kind of imply a second character and then have a relationship between the two And maybe your acting will be different because of that Maybe that character gets closer to the other character and then so on to you have that spatial relationship That's just there because of the other character. That's technically not fully animated And I think that could also be a bit more interesting in terms of again Contrast and relationship and just visual composition instead of having a character that's kind of in an empty room Just performing to an empty room or not to the camera But it's kind of off-camera It just kind of it looks like a test and sometimes at least to me It's more interesting to see a character interact with another character or interact With an environment or just aware of the environment or what's around him or her Just because it's just rare that in the movie you're going to animate something where someone says something Alone in an empty room unless you're in the matrix where you go, you know, there His knee was listening to to morpheus and you got that that specific empty room Of course, there are always exceptions But in general, I think if you're already practicing animation and you're practicing performance I would also go a step further and at the same time practice How is this character reacting to another character or to another character in an environment or doing something like secondary action While performing the audio delivery and so on and so on now what you could also do Which I don't see that often in animation And it's a bit tricky because it relies on the person watching real having the audio on to some degree By that I mean is what if you have an audio piece and this could be one character talking or two Whatever it is, but the character you're animating is not talking the person you're animating is listening to whatever is being said Now if the audio is off There might be a thing where if you're watching is like, I don't get it I know why is this person doing this and I don't know if you want to have a sign at the beginning of the real Saying there is audio. I mean, I guess which you could so it's a bit of a risky thing I'm not sure if I want to do do this a hundred percent But I think it could be interesting just because you're going to animate thought process Meaning the character hears something And is then deconstructing that new information processing it and then having different reactions to what he or she is hearing And I think that could be really cool to animate also if you've never done lip sync It wouldn't be too challenging to challenge you but it wouldn't be overwhelming where you have too much to do You can kind of practice just pantomime and thought process While having something else than another object or something that the character can react to so it's not just Another person or whatever vehicle an object or a monkey I don't like a creature, but it is something where a character is really listening to something I think that could be really interesting to me. I like that stuff But again, it's not like a hundred percent recommendation It comes with the caveat that if you don't have the audio on that maybe your shock could be confusing Now you also don't have to use audio where someone talks I know this sounds really weird, but you can also pick audio where someone just has heavy breathing Some grunting or sound effects or someone struggling for a fight or climbing up there or sliding down or something a bit more physical Or someone just going Just stuff like that inhales and hums Or whatever it is, it doesn't always have to be full audio in terms of spoken words So you can always kind of take smaller steps towards audio and go with listening and then just kind of pretending Or just saying one or two words. It doesn't have to be a full on 10 20 30 second audio clip now if it is long then you can potentially think about breaking up your shots into different shots Meaning you make a sequence out of it So you could have your first shot being kind of an establishing shot You see one or two characters and they're talking But then you cut to close up and then to the other characters close up So you can show off different skills. You can show full body mechanics Pentamimb with audio delivery and lips, you know, like good stuff But then you cut to closer thing for maybe the more emotional moment or something more dramatic or subtle And then you can show off that in that close up because you don't want to do a full body where your character You know, that's your frame your character is this big and go full on subtle with your expressions and you know Lip shapes and everything because it's too far away. So you want to pick and choose So don't take a fantastic awesome subtle or just whatever fantastic audio clip and put that over a Full body mechanic shot where the character is this small jumping around I mean, I guess you could and there's always something awesome Someone's gonna potentially comment and say well, I found this and it's going to be awesome. Sure. There's always an exception I'm just saying be mindful of what you're using and when and how and so on and so on Another example would be if you're doing pantomime in full body mechanics And you want to just kind of start off with lip sync just going back to previous example You can start with someone Opening a door and running in and it's full body and it's what's going on and then runs towards camera and goes Where are they? Where are they? And then that's it where you have short amount of audio It's not too much lip sync, but you can start practicing But it's mostly body mechanics, mostly pantomime But again, you're using depth of the scene Someone comes in full body stuff pushing a door and then getting closer for more Facial acting more subtle stuff or more exaggerated stuff But so you don't go straight from edit the weight lift and I'm doing a 20 second dialogue piece I think you want to go gradual and like you know said in the previous fna You don't want to take on too much You want to push yourself for sure But you don't want to take on too much and then be completely overwhelmed with all that being said you might ask Well, where do I find audio pieces that work for just everything you said? It's a good question There's a lot of stuff online. So you can for instance take radio plays There's some radio plays online where it's not going to be that known and it's all through audio performance There's nothing visual that's connected with that. That could be something you could use the 11 second club And I said you could just because it's a good side You have the monthly deadlines, which is good the flip side of that is that if you pick this audio piece There are a ton of other people that have picked it as well If you put this on your reel to recruit or whoever's going to watch your reel might go again Really, I don't want to hear this again So it's kind of might be too overused and probably not the best idea at the same time you could argue Well, if mine is really really good, it's going to stand out because people are going to go I've heard this 50 times 50 thousand times and then suddenly go Oh, that was really good. That was a really good creative new take on something I've heard forever And that might give you a better chance to get hired or I don't know you might stand out better Who knows again, it's something like animating the character that just listens to something It's interesting to me, but it's potentially risky. So 11 second club. They're a good example There's a lot of great stuff out there at the same time. It could be too overused I'll also put some links in the description of audio websites that have just audio There are some movie clips websites trailers or specific moments from movies where you can just rip the audio And if you have any other examples that are not listed here, feel free to comment I would love it and if you have any other questions or concerns, whatever it is Leave me comments. That would be fantastic. If you like this, give this a like As always, subscribe and hit the bell button if you want to get all the updates And if you listen to everything until the very end, thank you so much for all your time I appreciate it and I will see you next week for the next FNA