When you are starting out as a filmmaker and want to capture audio there are several things to keep in mind. Whether it’s for your own short film or you were hired to film a corporate video, promo or anything that has to do with audio, is that sound makes up 70% of the film. No pressure right?
That means that it plays a very vital role in your project and you have to make it flawless because if it’s poorly done and painful to the ears it will pull your audience away from the story. You can have an amazing story with great actors and cinematography but if that audio is bad it will ruin the whole project. Sound is something that is very unforgiving when its bad it should be something unnoticeable.
Don’t do your own film in hopes to take it somewhere and not care about audio. Invest in a good boom op that knows their craft. You also don’t want to have bad audio for promo videos because it will be noticeable and can hurt your career. Remember it doesn’t matter how beautiful the image is.
WHERE SHOULD YOUR AUDIO LEVELS BE?
For dialogue the audio levels should be around -18 to -12 dB and anything from -6 to 0 you will be peaking. Once its peaking there’s no saving it and if the levels are very low you might hear hissing when raising the volume depending how low it is.
WHAT SHOULD YOU USE?
When I do my tutorials or film in noisy environments I use a lav. For any other shoots especially with multiple people we bring out the boom pole. I say we because I’m the one shooting and my sound guy is the one that handles all of that. I’m not a fan of putting a shotgun mic on the camera because there is a significant difference in audio when you do that vs pointing the boom pole down at the chest. Also have a recorder so that you are able to mix and adjust while filming is taking place. I will provide a list of some audio equipment that is budget friendly with good quality below.
THINGS TO LOOK OUT FOR
When putting the lav on an actor make sure its hidden in their shirt but not rustling under the clothes because that sound will come out. There is a tape method using gaffers tape to make a little triangle folded wrapped around the mic so that the fabric doesn’t cause any noise. The mic will be in between each end of the tape protected from fabric. For interview shots it’s usually ok that the mic shows but keep it nice with the cable tucked away.
Cotton and Wool are less likely to cause noises but silks and synthetics are noisier and difficult to deal with.
If you are using the boom pole be sure to capture 30 seconds of room tone for every new scene for editing purposes. This will allow a smooth edit with the ambience and you will not hear the audio cutting in and out between multi camera dialogue.
Another thing you will want to do is have a dead cat for those outdoor scenes. Especially on a windy day a dead cat will save your audio because it protects against the strong wind sounds even from a slight breeze.
Finally, I know this should go without saying but don’t leave your headphones at home!
