PRODUCTION BIBLE

CIU212.4 Progress Deliverables

CIU212 Major Project Development

Benjamin Parkes, Jasmine Millen, Patrick Bourke, Ryan Hodkinson

SAE Institute

Sydney Campus

Submitted in partial fulfilment of Bachelors of Audio

Date: 12.08.19

Word Count: 3,296

United Coordinator/ Lecturer: Grace Kingston, Sharon Jakovsky

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 Table of Contents

Name 3

Tagline 3

Overview 3

Planning so far 4

Reference material 4

Marketing Goals 8

Materials produced so Far 1​3

P​roject Scope 1​4

Timeline 1​8

Contingency 1​9

Bibliography 20

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NAME
The Posties

TAGLINE
The Posties are a comprehensive solution for all audio and musical needs for any and all productions.

OVERVIEW
The Posties are an audio production team that covers all aspects of audio and music for different media.
We’re in charge of everything from location recording to post-production editing as well as original
compositional scores.

Our team consists of four members. Each member has different responsibilities in order to keep the workload
manageable and kept to a professional standard. However, we’re still very collaborative and work together to
achieve our desired end result. Below are each member and their roles within the team.

Benjamin Parkes - Responsible for ADR and Foley.

Jasmine Millen - Responsible for film scoring and musical director.

Patrick Bourke - Responsible for sound supervisory and location recording.

Ryan Hodkinson - Responsible for sound design and atmosphere recording.

We decided to work as a team so we could replicate what the production audio industry is like currently. This
gives us and other students experience working with production teams as well as it lets us be involved in
various projects so we can understand the different workflows of productions.

In total we are working on three different SAE student projects:

1. “Death at a Museum”​ is a short film about a suicidal hitwoman who meets a precocious little girl and
together they form an unlikely friendship.

2. “​Emphysapien” i​ s a short film about a psychological scarred elderly woman who is reminiscing on her
most regrettable creation, homo sapiens. The arthouse style of the film and metaphorical references
explore the relationship between humans and mother nature.

3. “​Fracture Freaks” i​ s a top-down isometric party game that includes characters who have various
abilities and combat styles (similar to Dota). The game is fast-paced where the players fight to the
death in various arenas.

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PLANNING SO FAR
Once we had decided on the projects we were going to work on, we made sure to attend as many production
meetings as possible and work out a plan for pre and post-production requirements in order to work as
effectively as possible. We have broken down the scripts for the short films and made assets lists for all
projects, as well as discussing with the directors on their visions in order to make sure we’re able to help
them accomplish this.

REFERENCE MATERIAL
Death at a Museum ​(Short film):

When discussing with the director (Sam Heath) he said the short film is inspired by television shows and
movies such as ​Barry, Cowboy Bebop, Killing Eve and Drive. T ​ he overall film is a darkly comic, violent styled
adventure neo-noir short film. We were also given a playlist Sam had made so we could get an understanding
of the genre of music he would like to have in the film. The editing of the short would be closely related to the
music being played in the scene, therefore the soundtrack is a critical part of the film. The playlist is heavily
influenced by ​Gotye, Queens of the Stone Age​ and T
​ he Basics​. Using this information we are going to research
into bands in Sydney that are of a similar vibe and hopefully get them to record some tracks and then use the
recordings for the film.

Emphysapien ​(Short film):

As ​Emphysapien​ is an art film with the amount of symbolism and minimal dialogue, having a variety of
references is essential to understanding the director's vision as much as we can. Some films that were are
pieces of inspiration are ​Fruitvale Station, Mid 90’s​ and the television show ​Mind Hunters. ​There are also mood
boards for production and character designs as well. For the soundtrack of the film, the director (Kyle Porter)
gave us a list of compositional score ideas for different scenes in the film. Some of the scores are inspired by
composers such as Stanley Kubrick, Hayao Miyazaki, Akira Kurosawa and Phillip Glass.

Fracture Freaks (​ Game):

For ​Fracture Freaks​ each character as their own style and abilities. The characters include a monk, a cyborg, a
gun maniac, and a Viking. Using this information we will be sourcing and making sound effects in order to fit
the style of the character. The creators (Jesse Smart, and Adam Coote) are open to different sound effects we
want to use and have given us the creative openness to come to them with any ideas or inspiration to develop
the characters sonically. Each map for the battles will have a short soundtrack to compliment. There are four
levels in total at the moment, a tribal level, a desert level, a snow level and a roof level. For each map, we came
up with different inspirational tracks to match the style. The tracks range from old school to new age games,
however as the game is a retro-style we want to stick to the classic old school game music such as Super
Mario, Pac Man and Sonic the Hedgehog. The tracks will also be fast-paced in order to match the quickness of
the rounds.

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Technical Requirements

As we are in charge of all audio and musical aspects for the project we’re working on making sure we want all
the necessary equipment and studios is crucial to recording and producing the best work possible.

Studios

● Digidesign D-Command sound desk studio & live space (recording ADR and foley)
● Avid S6 post-production mixing desk studio
● Neve Custom 75 recording and mixing desk studio
● Critical listening mastering studio

Operating Equipment

● Mac O.S
● Pro Tools - music software
● Izotope plugins (Ozone, Aloy & RX)

Instruments

● Drum kit
● Piano
● Bass guitar
● Amps
● Guitar
● DI Boxes

Recording Equipment

Field Recordings

● Tascam DR-44WL
● Zoom F8
● SD cards
● Double-A batteries
● Sennheiser EQ100 G3
● Rode NTG-2 Shotgun
● Boom pole
● Fur windshield
● Blimp (shotgun microphone windshield and shock mount system)
● Gaffer tape

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Foley & ADR Recordings

● Rode NTG2
● Microphone stand
● Windshield
● Neve Preamp

Musicians Recordings

● Beyer M88 - Kick (In)

● Audix D6 - Kick (Out)
● Beyer M201 - Snare (Top)
● Shure SM57 - Snare (Bottom)
● AKG C451B-EB - Hi-Hats
● Sennheiser MD421 - Tom (Floor)
● Sennheiser MD421 - Tom 2 (Floor)
● Sennheiser E604 - Tom (Rack)
● AT ATM450 - Overheads
● AKG C414 XL II - Room Mics
● EV RE20 - Bass (Amp)
● Radial J48 DI - Bass (DI)
● AKG C414 B-ULS - Piano (AB)
● Rode K2 - Piano (XY)
● Shure SM57 - Guitar (Amp)
● Royer R-121 - Guitar (Amp 2)
● Radial J48 DI - Guitar (DI)
● Neumann TLM102 - Vocals
● Neumann AT 4047SV - Vocals (BV)
● Distressor outboard gear

Essentials for all recordings

● XLR cables
● Headphones
● Splitter boxes
● ¼” inch jack

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Roles Within Each Group

Death at a Museum (Short Film):

Producer - Casey Hukins and Alex Luong

Cinematographer - Indra Hatton and Bec Truong

Editor - Aaron Herrera and Indra Hatton

1st AD - Annarita Polazzo

1st AC - Kie Lay and Marcus-Henri Williams

2nd AC - Angela Do

Gaffer - Austin C. Brooks

Production Designer - Angela Do and Bec Truong

Head Makeup Artist - Jessica-Lee Spry

Colourist - Alex Luong and Kie Lay

Sound Recordists - Patrick Bourke, Ryan Hodkinson, Benjamin Parkes

Sound Mixer - Ryan Hodkinson, Benjamin Parkes, Patrick Bourke

Soundtrack Recordist - Jasmine Millen

Graphic Designer - Bryan Leyton Castro

MUA/ SFX MUA - Jessica-Lee Spry

BTS - Angela Do

Emphysapien ​(Short Film)

Writer/ Director - Kyle Porter

Co-Writer/ Exec. Producer - Lachlan Moss

D.O.P - Liam Upfold, Luke Trapman

1st AD, Marketing Director, Colourist - Casey Hukins

Production Design/ Art Director - Alexandria Gardiner

Production Design/ Assistant Art Director - Annarita Palozzo

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Sound Recordists - Benjamin Parkes, Ryan Hodkinson, Patrick Bourke, Jasmine Millen

Sound Mixers - Benjamin Parkes, Ryan Hodkinson, Patrick Bourke, Jasmine Millen

Score Composer - Jasmine Millen

Fracture Freaks (​ Game)

Project Manager/ Lead Programmer - Jesse Smart

Director of Art and Animation - Adam Coote

Studio Production - Jasmine Millen

Post Production - Benjamin Parkes, Ryan Hodkinson, Patrick Bourke

Soundtrack Recording for ​Death at a Museum

The Artist - Oscar Gross

Recording Engineer/ Producer - Jasmine Millen

The Assistant Engineers - Benjamin Parkes, Ryan Hodkinson, Patrick Bourke

MARKETING GOALS
The Outcomes From Market Research

With our group The Posties, we want to replicate a real-world audio industry company. We will be taking a
similar approach as the number of other small and large post-production companies within Australia. All
these studios are similar in how they promote themselves, which is useful in gaining an understanding in a
less competitive and money focused environment such as SAE. This allows us to make more mistakes that are
not costly, as well as see in what areas we excel at.

Australia is home to thousands of creative firms which have international co-production agreements with
large companies such as Universal, Warner Bros and Disney. “Today, Australia has a thriving industry of
around 2,500 creative businesses working across feature films, visual effects, animation, post production,
television drama, sports and live events, children’s’ programming, documentaries and news.” (Screen
Production VP, 2011). Therefore, it is the most ideal location for screen productions meaning there are
always opportunities. With the increased government support, there have been accelerating changes in both
visual and sound editing technology over the past five years. As there has been a large shift from the use of
analogue to digital technology it has allowed post-production to become more open and therefore allow for
co-production agreements. “Over 160 official co-productions have been completed since the program began,
with recent activity including the China - Australia feature film Guardians of the Tomb, and the Australia –
Singapore television mini-series Serangoon Road.”(Screen Production VP, 2011). Australia has these

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agreements with countries such as Canada, Italy, United Kingdom, Germany and China. However, Australia
has the talent, facilities, costs, and government support to make notable films in the country. Below is a
comprehensive list of some of the remarkable movies made in Australia:

Name Year Studio Australia Worldwide Box

Location Office (USD)

The Matrix 1999 Warner Bros Roadshow $463.5 million

Entertainment,
Gold Coast

Aquaman 2017 Warner Bros Roadshow $1.148 billion

Entertainment,
Gold Coast

Thor: Ragnarok 2017 Warner Bros Roadshow $854 million

Entertainment,
Gold Coast

The Great Gatsby 2013 Warner Bros Fox Studios, $351 million
Sydney

Referring to information about the industry statistics and market size gathered by IBISWorld revenue is
currently around $531 million dollars with an annual growth of 6.2% between 2014 and 2019. As this steady
increase continues there will be an increase in employment in order to continue this growth.

When it comes to major studios in Australia there are four in total:

1. Fox Studios, Sydney

2. Village Roadshow Studios, Gold Coast

3. Dockland Studios, Melbourne

4. Adelaide Studios, Adelaide

Within Sydney, there are a number of firms that range in size. Our hope as The Posties is to use the same
workflow as many of these post-production studios in order to develop high-quality work, which would be
expected of a firm in the real world.

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Our Marketing Efforts

Some marketing tools we have implemented in order to try and compete with smaller scaled post-production
companies is to create a website and a social media account.

Our main point of focus would be on our website called The Posties. Ryan Hodkinson will be in charge of
updating and maintaining the website.

On our website, we included the following information

● A concise biography of each member of the team

● What our aim is as a firm
● Information on current projects we are working on
● Examples of our work
● Contact information
● A link to our social media account

We have chosen Instagram as our social media platform. On this account, we will fill in our bio with a link to
our website and the members. By having an Instagram account is allows people to see the behind the scenes
work we’re doing for productions in the form of video​ ​or pictures. We can also upload to our story to give

followers real-time insight into our ventures and working progress. We will also tag the accounts of other
productions we’re working with such as Relapse Films for Death at a Museum, this will hopefully garner more
people into being interested in watching the short film.

We will use popular and relevant hashtags in our posts in order to get as many eyes on our account as
possible. We will be clever with our posting schedule as we have gathered information on what times during
the day Instagram is at its highest level of engagement during the week. Our account will also be following
other audio companies, audio practitioners, and the productions we are working with.

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 (Later, 2019)

Our account will be active by engaging with other accounts by liking photos, commenting, tagging etc to
attract people who might be interested. Some examples of hashtags we would use that are relative are
#audio, #sound, #film, #postproduction, #music etc.

(Hodkinson, 2019) (Bourke, 2019)

When it comes to our Instagram, there are social media ideas we will apply to help us plan our posts and
achieve optimum engagement. Firstly we will be posting teasers of work we're doing on a shoot, in the studio
or produced pieces such as trailers. This gives our followers an idea of what is to come and hopefully generate
some hype around the work we're doing with the different productions. Teasing music or work is something
a majority of artists, actors and production studios do.

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The story tool on Instagram has the ability for its users to add polls to their posts for fan engagement. It also
lets us get an understanding of what our viewers are interested and therefore carter our posts towards
whatever it may be.

Trying to get our posts to relate to trending hashtags will help increase engagement on our profile by
appearing on people's timelines. By posting reactively, it allows us to come into contact with new people who
may not necessarily have found our account beforehand. However, we will make sure to be relative because if
not our account could be perceived as spammy and therefore people will not like it as much.

Short videos and using GIFs has been known to be used for high engagement. As videos on Instagram are
autoplay, it means people can watch our content without even needing to press play, which means users may
be more likely to continue watching then scroll on.

Other Forms of Distribution:

For Death at a Museum, the distribution channels are a locked Vimeo link for those donated to the GoFundMe,
as well as a digital copy of the soundtrack used in the short film. As the director (Sam) is hoping to screen this
film on the independent Australian film circuit if the film was to be released for free it would no longer be
eligible.

Emphysapien is planned to be distributed on Vimeo.

Fracture Freaks is planning to be released for on Itchi.io. It is a website for indie games that can be
downloaded for free by anyone.

On our personal website, we could also contribute to distributing both Emphysapien and Fracture Freaks.

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4. DELIVERABLES

MATERIALS PRODUCED SO FAR

During this trimester we had experience with using the location recording gear by recording audio for a
crowdfunding video, and an interview with one of the actresses. This experience went very well and it
allowed us to gain more confidence in our techniques and gear as well as what to keep in mind when sound
location sound recording for the upcoming short films.

Sound Rec: (​https://drive.google.com/file/d/1wd4b74if6L6whIdyoZnD2VASEcdc8azT/view?usp=sharing​)

We re-worked the audio for a fight scene from Sam Heath’s previous short entitled ​Wolf.​ This fight scene was
used as an example of the cinematography and vibe ​Death at a Museum​ will be. For that, we added more
realistic punches, hit noises, bodies falling, clothes rustling, general phone noises, neck-snapping and
re-editing the music slightly for sync to what is happening on screen. We have some atmosphere recordings
off of both the interior and exterior of the Australian Museum.

Fight scene remake: (​https://igg.me/at/deathmuseum/x/1756094#/​)

We have sourced soundscapes and sound effects for ​Emphysapien​. With these recordings, we’re going to use
them as a bed of what could potentially be the sounds the director is looking for, and therefore work off of
them to achieve the desired sound. A soundtrack demo for the orchestral opening title of the short has been
made as well.

Soundscape: (​https://drive.google.com/open?id=1wcE8WBdErElVg9UQ4bRUyumwpDnQLExf​)

Demo: (​https://drive.google.com/file/d/12jpdKLp0Iu4XqWB8PRQ3wxxUG5gprF-W/view?usp=sharing​)

For ​Fracture Freaks, ​we have become developing demos for different maps. With these demos, we will discuss
with our other members and see what else we could do to develop further. Sound effects for the characters
are being sourced and made to achieve using the asset list. A soundtrack demo for one of the maps has been
created as well.

SFX: (​https://drive.google.com/drive/folders/1V1B3oo33gjvZ0PTk3yu_RB43LSTSoRwm?usp=sharing​)

Demo: (​https://drive.google.com/file/d/1KHsJiHsxZ8gwAbKzepMF3_62IPhLz3xr/view?usp=sharing​)

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PROJECT SCOPE
Roles

Benjamin Parkes - ADR and Foley.

Jasmine Millen - Film scoring and musical director.

Patrick Bourke - Sound supervisory and location recording.

Ryan Hodkinson - Sound design and atmosphere recording.

Assets for “​Death at a Museum”

Fx (derived from our sound library or from location recording)

● General phone noises

● Paper falling
● Neck cracks
● Throwing something in the bin

Atmosphere (derived from our sound library or from location recording)

● Busy city atmosphere

● Suburban atmosphere
● Museum interior atmosphere
● Cafeteria atmosphere
● Bathroom atmosphere

Foley (recorded in D-Command and live space)

● Cloth rustles
● Scrunched paper
● Playing with plastic toys
● Cardboard box movement
● Scribbling on paper
● Fingers tapping on a computer
● Plastic toy propped on a counter
● Money crumbling
● Touching briefcase
● Fondling with paper
● Footsteps, stomps and jumps
● Paper crumpling

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 ● Touching face
● Ice cream cone movement
● General briefcase movement
● Door slamming
● Gun pullout, drop
● Stink impact
● General punches and body blows
● Body drop on the bathroom stall door
● Door opening and closing
● Handclap
● Phone drops

Automated Dialogue Replacement (recorded in D-Command and live space)

● Wolf - Talking, grunting, heavy breathing

● Rosie - Talking, giggling
● Contractor - Talking
● Receptionist - Talking
● The Mark - Grunting, moaning, heavy breathing

Soundtrack (recording and sourcing)

● Indie rock

Assets for ​“Emphysapien”

Fx (derived from our sound library or from location recording)

● VHS Tape
● White noise
● Rifle reloading and firing
● Blood dripping
● Vines growing
● Bullet cases falling on the floor
● Hollowing wind
● Torch burning
● Life support system noises
● Fox yelp and movement

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Atmosphere (derived from our sound library or from location recording)

● Lively forest atmosphere

● Calm river atmosphere

Foley (recorded in D-Command and live space)

● Cigarette burning, sizzle

● Stitching
● Skinning fox
● Compass movement
● Footsteps
● Tape ripping, general movement
● Picking up mirror

Automated Dialogue Replacement (recorded in D-Command and live space)

● Old lady wheezing

Soundtrack (recording and sourcing)

● Strong operatic score

● Creepy eerie music

Written Confirmation from Musician

(Millen, 2019)

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Assets for “​Fracture Freaks”

Fx (derived from our sound library or from location recording)

● Movement
o Run
o Dodge

● Abilities
o Basic
o Movement
o Ultimate

● Misc
o Hurt
o Death

Soundtrack (recording or sourcing)

● Island
○ Island tribal theme
● Desert
○ Desert theme
● Construction building top
○ Building theme
● Snow Level
○ Heavy drums and deep horns

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TIMELINE
Master Timeline

(Bourke, 2019)

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 (Millen, 2019)

CONTINGENCY
If one of the short film projects were to fall out then it would be complicated for us to try and help out with
another film as it would interfere with our schedule as we have laid it out to give us enough post time to do
the best work possible, therefore it would be more appropriate we think to discuss with helping our a game
or animation as they are typically a lower work rate.

Thankfully with the amount of gear available at SAE it shouldn’t be an issue with obtaining it as well as we
have our audio gear booked for location recording which is the most important piece of gear. However, we
have to know lecturers who would be willing to allow us to use their own personal piece of equipment for
such.

If a post-production specialised member of our group was to, unfortunately, leave we would split the
workload up evenly. Jasmine has experience in working in all the different aspects of post-production as well.
If our composer was to leave we would source music or find local bands in order to record the soundtrack for
the film.

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BIBLIOGRAPHY
Barry​. (2018). [television show] Directed by B. Hader. Hollywood: Warner Bros. Television.

Cowboy Bebop​. (1998). [television show] Directed by S. Watanabe. Tokyo: Viceland.

Killing Eve.​ (2018). [television show] Directed by D. Thomas. London: Sid Gentle Films Ltd.

Drive​. (2011). [film] Directed by N. Refn. Hollywood: Bold Films.

Fruitvale Station. ​(2013). [film] Directed by R.Coogler. Hollywood: Significant Productions.

Mid90s. (​ 2018). [film] Directed by J. Hill. Hollywood: A24.

Mindhunters. (​ 2017). [television show] Directed by A.Dominik. Pennsylvania: Denver and Delilah Productions

Austrailan Bureau of Statistics, Film, Television and Digital Games. (2011). Screen Production VP [Ebook].
New South Wales. Retrieved from
https://www.austrade.gov.au/ArticleDocuments/1358/Screen%20Production%20VP%20brochure%20FIN
AL.PDF.aspx

Video Post-Production Services – Australia Industry Report | IBISWorld. (2019). Retrieved 8 August 2019,
from
https://www.ibisworld.com.au/industry-trends/market-research-reports/information-media-telecommunic
ations/video-post-production-services.html

Later. (2019). ​Global Best Time to Post on Instagram​ [Image]. Retrieved from
https://mk0laterblog4vkmxupe.kinstacdn.com/wp-content/uploads/2019/01/BTTP-infographic-1024x100
1.png

R, Hodkinson. (2019). ​Frontpage of website​ [Image, screen capture].

P, Bourke. (2019). ​Instagram account page​ [Image, screen capture].

J, Millen. (2019). ​Written confirmation from musician​ [Image, screen capture].

P, Bourke. (2019). ​Master Timeline​ [Image, screen capture].

P, Bourke. (2019). ​Fracture Freaks timeline​ [Image, screen capture].

J, Millen. (2019). ​Composition/Record/Mix Timeline ​[Image, screen capture].

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