HOME

TheInfoList



OR:

A sound stage (also written soundstage) is a soundproof, large structure, building, or room with large doors and high ceilings, used for the production of theatrical film-making and television productions, usually located on a secured
movie A film also called a movie, motion picture, moving picture, picture, photoplay or (slang) flick is a work of visual art that simulates experiences and otherwise communicates ideas, stories, perceptions, feelings, beauty, or atmosphere ...
or
television studio A television studio, also called a television production studio, is an installation room in which video productions take place, either for the production of live television and its recording onto video tape or other media such as SSDs, or for ...
property. Compared to a silent stage, a sound stage is sound-proofed so that sound can be recorded along with the images. The recordings are known as ''production sound''. A silent stage is not soundproofed and is susceptible to outside noise interference; therefore, sound is not generally recorded. Because most sound in movies, other than dialogue, is added in post-production, this generally means that the main difference between the two is that sound stages are used for dialogue scenes, but silent stages are not. An alternative to production sound is to record additional dialogue during
post-production Post-production is part of the process of filmmaking, video production, audio production, and photography. Post-production includes all stages of production occurring after principal photography or recording individual program segments. Th ...
(known as dubbing).


Early history

Structures of this type were in use in the motion picture industry before the advent of
sound recording Sound recording and reproduction is the electrical, mechanical, electronic, or digital inscription and re-creation of sound waves, such as spoken voice, singing, instrumental music, or sound effects. The two main classes of sound recording ...
. Early stages for
silent movies A silent film is a film with no synchronized recorded sound (or more generally, no audible dialogue). Though silent films convey narrative and emotion visually, various plot elements (such as a setting or era) or key lines of dialogue may, whe ...
were built, either as a three-wall open-roof set, or with large skylights, until
electric light An electric light, lamp, or light bulb is an electrical component that produces light. It is the most common form of artificial lighting. Lamps usually have a base made of ceramic, metal, glass, or plastic, which secures the lamp in the soc ...
ing became powerful enough to expose film adequately.


Contemporary building requirements


Extensive soundproofing

With the advent of electric lights, enclosed stages were built in Hollywood and rapidly converted to sound stages with many
mattress A mattress is a large, usually rectangular pad for supporting a lying person. It is designed to be used as a bed, or on a bed frame as part of a bed. Mattresses may consist of a quilted or similarly fastened case, usually of heavy cloth, conta ...
es placed on the walls. With the coming of the talkies in the late 1920s, it became necessary to enclose and fully soundproof these stages to eliminate noise and distractions from outside, including limiting access. The
ceiling A ceiling is an overhead interior surface that covers the upper limits of a room. It is not generally considered a structural element, but a finished surface concealing the underside of the roof structure or the floor of a story above. Ceilings ...
s and
wall A wall is a structure and a surface that defines an area; carries a load; provides security, shelter, or soundproofing; or, is decorative. There are many kinds of walls, including: * Walls in buildings that form a fundamental part of the s ...
s of the building containing the sound stage must be heavily soundproofed, so the structure must be sturdy and capable of accepting such additional features and loads, or a new building specifically designed with the features and to bear the loads is required, which often is the less expensive alternative to retrofitting an existing structure because of
engineering Engineering is the use of scientific principles to design and build machines, structures, and other items, including bridges, tunnels, roads, vehicles, and buildings. The discipline of engineering encompasses a broad range of more speciali ...
issues. Buildings without soundproofing still are referred to as silent stages and may be used where the dialog and other sounds are recorded as a separate operation. This separate operation usually involves the principal actors doing synchronized
dialogue replacement Dubbing (re-recording and mixing) is a post-production process used in filmmaking and video production, often in concert with sound design, in which additional or supplementary recordings are lip-synced and "mixed" with original production sou ...
voice recordings over a working cut of the film, specialized language actors doing a secondary language dubbing or for the filming of special effects. A sound stage, unlike a silent stage, requires caution to avoid making noise anywhere within range of the audio recording equipment.


Enclosed stage

An enclosed stage makes it easier for the crew of a production to design and build the sets to exact specifications, precise scale, and detail. The art director of a production makes an
architectural plan In architecture and building engineering, a floor plan is a technical drawing to scale, showing a view from above, of the relationships between rooms, spaces, traffic patterns, and other physical features at one level of a structure. Dimensio ...
and carpenters build it. On a film the head
electrician An electrician is a tradesperson specializing in electrical wiring of buildings, transmission lines, stationary machines, and related equipment. Electricians may be employed in the installation of new electrical components or the maintenance ...
is credited as the '' gaffer'' and the assistant as the ''
best boy In a film crew there are two kinds of best boy: best boy electric and best boy grip. They are assistants to their department heads, the gaffer (in charge of electricals) and the key grip (lighting and rigging), respectively. In short, the best ...
'', regardless of gender. After a set is painted, the ''set dresser'' furnishes it with everything that the ''set designer'', under the direction of the ''art director'', has selected for the interior.


Catwalks and ceiling lights

On a sound stage, the camera may be placed exactly where the director wants it. Achieving the desired lighting is easier because each stage has a metal framework with catwalks and lights suspended from the
ceiling A ceiling is an overhead interior surface that covers the upper limits of a room. It is not generally considered a structural element, but a finished surface concealing the underside of the roof structure or the floor of a story above. Ceilings ...
. This makes it easier for the
cinematographer The cinematographer or director of photography (sometimes shortened to DP or DOP) is the person responsible for the photographing or recording of a film, television production, music video or other live action piece. The cinematographer is the ch ...
to have the '' grips'' position each flag or bounce and the ''
lighting technician Electrical lighting technicians (ELT), or simply lighting tech, are involved with rigging stage and location sets and controlling artificial, electric lights for art and entertainment venues (theatre or live music venues) or in video, television, ...
s'' to position each light to get exactly the correct lighting for every shot.


Cameras, rentals, and special techniques

Television production generally uses multiple cameras and cinema production generally uses a single camera. This is not universally true because the choice varies, very much on what the director is trying to achieve. Rental of a sound stage entails an expensive process, but working on a sound stage saves time when setting up for production as long as access to all of the necessary technical equipment, personnel, and supplies is readily available. As all the scenes can be filmed on the sets inside the sound stage, using it also eliminates having to move the production from location to location. With the use of blue screen or greenscreen techniques (whereby backgrounds are inserted electronically behind the actors in the finished film) and a sound stage, extensive control of the production process is achieved.


"Soundstage" of an acoustic recording

The term ''soundstage'' refers to the depth and richness of an audio recording and usually relates to the playback process. According to audiophiles, the quality of the playback is very much dependent upon how one is able to pick out different instruments, voices, vocal parts, and such exactly where they are located on an imaginary 2-dimensional or 3-dimensional field. The quality of this soundstage can enhance not only the listener's involvement in the recording, but also their overall perception of the stage.


Special effects before post-production

The latest technology and software can render basic ''
previsualisation Previsualization (also known as previsualisation, previs, previz, pre-rendering, preview or wireframe windows) is the visualizing of scenes or sequences in a movie, prior to filming. It is also a concept in various creative practices, including an ...
'' effects into scenes in real time while recording, before
post-production Post-production is part of the process of filmmaking, video production, audio production, and photography. Post-production includes all stages of production occurring after principal photography or recording individual program segments. Th ...
, with the use of sensors detecting the position of actors and elements, in the staging of the frame. The director during filming can view what the composition of the picture is with basic digital objects and surfaces included and how it appears, assisting the creative process.


Virtual production volumes

A newer form of set being used in both the production of films and television shows is the virtual production "volume". Different from the volume of a conventional motion capture stage (where often no physical image is being recorded for the final product), a virtual production volume is a stage that is surrounded (in varying degrees) by screens that extend the set. These screens, most commonly large arrays of LEDs, show a version of the set that was constructed in 3D (using software such as
Unreal Engine Unreal Engine (UE) is a 3D computer graphics game engine developed by Epic Games, first showcased in the 1998 first-person shooter game '' Unreal''. Initially developed for PC first-person shooters, it has since been used in a variety of g ...
) that tracks its motion in real time with camera movement. A static display can function similarly for a still camera, given there is no
parallax Parallax is a displacement or difference in the apparent position of an object viewed along two different lines of sight and is measured by the angle or semi-angle of inclination between those two lines. Due to foreshortening, nearby object ...
. However these volumes allow the scenery to adaptively move and distort according to how the camera ought to see it if it were moving in a real environment. Benefits of such a setup include total control of a scene; dusk and dawn can last all day. Not only can time of day or number of light sources be manipulated at will, but portions of the volume off-screen can be turned completely white to add fill lighting from a given direction, or they can be turned off to darken that area. They can also function as a typical green/blue screen for
chroma keying Chroma key compositing, or chroma keying, is a visual-effects and post-production technique for compositing (layering) two images or video streams together based on colour hues ( chroma range). The technique has been used in many fields to r ...
by displaying the solid color behind the performers. Having a physical space where actors can see their environment and inform their performances accordingly is something that most greenscreen sets lack. The controlled visual environment also allows directors and cinematographers the ability to better create mise-en-scène, with greater control over the set, and the ability to see the final image as they are creating it. Where these volumes are especially beneficial is in having light behave perfectly realistically on transparent, translucent, and very reflective materials. These types of objects, such as eyeglasses, glassware, and shiny armor, are often very difficult to deal with in a conventional chroma key work flow. This technique also minimizes the amount of tedious
rotoscoping Rotoscoping is an animation technique that animators use to trace over motion picture footage, frame by frame, to produce realistic action. Originally, animators projected photographed live-action movie images onto a glass panel and traced o ...
work required in post-production to cut out what was not picked up by chroma keying. The downside to this setup is that unlike with greenscreen, whatever was filmed is final in terms of visual environment (as is the case with filming on any normal set or location). By contrast, a greenscreen film segment can essentially be swapped to anything at any point in post-production.


See also

* Wig-wag * History of cinema *
Set redress In film, a redress is the redecoration of an existing movie set so that it can double for another set. This saves the trouble and expenses of constructing a second, new set, though they face the difficulty of doing it so the average viewer does n ...
*
Sound localization Sound localization is a listener's ability to identify the location or origin of a detected sound in direction and distance. The sound localization mechanisms of the mammalian auditory system have been extensively studied. The auditory system us ...
* 007 Stage


References

{{Reflist Film production Film studios