Wayne:

Hi, my name is Wayne Pashley.

I'm referred to as a sound designer, re-recording mixer or supervising sound editor.

First of all, before you go out shooting, and you've got your sound recording gear, you want to be very careful about the actual location that you want to shoot in.

Look, sometimes the pitch is, is always going to be, drive that situation.

You go, "Oh, well I really want this location, but there's a highway behind me." You know you're going to be in strife when it comes to the post-production of the sound design, of the dialogue recorded on the day.

Sound design, itself, we can add all that sort of stuff and change it, but once you, those dialogues are that, are that damaged, because of the location choice, you just, you just kind of have to weigh up the pictures versus the sound, you know.

Is there, can you change, you still use that location and do it at night, instead of day, where it's going to be quieter?

You know, that's the sort of stuff you want to think about. Also, of course, filmmakers, like we said, need to look at their script before going in and to say, "Well, can we save money by using sound, instead of shooting that?" Is there a way to go, "You know, what?

We're going to, instead of, instead of this content of this dialogue on screen, how about we do it through voiceover? You know, we'll record the voiceover later."

Well, shoot it mute. Shoot it so that there's lips flapping and stuff, but you could just have, you know, a voiceover over the top of it, you know.

There's ways to look at the sound in your story before you start shooting to say, "Is it going to be more successful if we do that? Or are we going to take the hard road, as well?"

So I think, if filmmakers, like, you know, talk to their sound editor, you know, prior to shooting, the sound editor can help early on in the process. And to offer up options around the script that could pay really big dividends.

What advice would I give a first-time sound designer, a student sound designer and director about sound and going to their first short film?

The advice would be: How best can we use sound to tell our story? What are the, with all the things we talked about with dialogue recording, ADR, sound effects, emotional sound effects, be it the environments that we talked about, the atmos, you know, and music?

How best can we use what we've got to tell the story? Be it, be it simply, you know. Sometimes, short films, I have to tell you, are some of the hardest things to do.

The reason is, is because there's a lot of ideas in a very short space of time. You know, and those ideas in the story, through sound or through image are, tend to get a bit jam-packed.

Be careful not to jam-pack too many ideas in there.

If it's a 5-minute short or a 10-minute short, you know, be clear. Be very clear what your intent is with your cast, with your shooting style, with your sound, with your music.

I tend to think the most successful short films are ones with a more simplistic endgame.

Whether it's a punchline to a gag or whether it's, you know, a simple metaphoric piece about love or grief or whatever it might be, keep your ideas clean and simple. Because the tendency is, you jam too much in there, you're going to get tied up.

So that's my advice, I think, you know?

And, certainly, for the sound designer and the sound recordist, you know, make sure your gear's working and make sure you, you know, you're not going out on location with a microphone cable that doesn't work, or batteries.

You don't have enough batteries to run your little portable record gear. You get out there, into the outback, and you realise you don't have enough batteries, well, that's not good.

So, just to reiterate on that, it's the five-P principle, as well, when you go out and shoot. Five Ps. How many people have said these things? But this one is a bit different.

Proper planning prevents poor performance. I honestly cannot stress that enough.

Before you go out with your camera, with your crew, with your cast, and the props and the costumes, plan it properly.

Because you could end up in a situation that is very embarrassing and completely...

the show will not go on if something is not properly planned.

Please adhere that, a bit of advice.