Audio Mo Fo

Too much suspense? Are you finally ready to hear... or read who I chose for my DP? Alright I won't torture you anymore. I chose the cheaper guy with more talent that didn't require lodging. Sounds like a pretty simple decision, but the alure of a Red One and the "If you're gonna do it, do it big".

But I follow a motto by (gasp) Dov Simons which makes much more sense. Especially when it comes to your first film. KISS, Keep It Simple Stupid. Plus it's always good to hire a DP who is um, skilled in...LIGHTING! Besides numerous other things he had going for him.

So that's that and that's my DP.

Now what about audio, huh. Audio as I've said before is either just there or it sucks. Unless you're some audio geek you're not gonna leave a movie talking about how crisp the dialogue was, or how innovative the room tone was in setting up the atmosphere of the final scene.

But, when audio sucks, it really sucks. It's like a lineman in football, when he does his job no one really notices, but if he fucks up, people will...I guess, I don't know. I don't really watch football but you know what I'm talking about.

Anyway, there's a quote from...some guy who had attended numerous screenings of low to no budget digital movies "I finally saw one that I could hear". I think he was an EA(guys with money for your movie), so you want to impress this guy.

So any of you thinking of skimping on audio better have a good reason. First of all the on camera mic is horrible, so unless you're innovative and know a way to get around it, don't ever use it.

Then the boompole takes a little skill to use, so whoever you get to do it better be competent and have good shoulder endurance. And he needs to know a few things like how ride the frame of the camera, which means have the mic as close to the actor/s as much as possible without getting it in the camera. Which means he/she/it needs to do mic checks with you the director, or whoever the hell is behind the camera. Also needs to make sure the boompole isn't casting any visible shadows as well. Besides that that's all there is too it.

Some of that is pretty obvious, basic stuff that you may already know, but you'd be surprised how many bad movies are made where people skip this. So if I can stop one more fucked up movie than I've done my job.

Now everyone is going to say that you should get a sound mixer as well. I didn't, and I've known others that didn't. Not to be the guy that uses this line, but you can actually fix a lot of that in post. From my little knowledge of it, sound mixing basically saves you a lot of time in the editing room.

Keep in mind we're talking about low budget movie making. If you can get it, than get it. But if you can't, you can live without it. Just make sure to avoid echo and static at all costs. You can't fix either of the two in post.

You want to shoot in places that don't have perpendicular walls, so as to avoid echos. Hard surfaces, low ceilings, and wooden floors don't help either. Non perpendicular walls, soft furniture, shelves, high ceilings are much better for interior shooting. Maybe even buy some foamcore.

Don't get any of that white noise crap going on either. If the air conditioner, or something is making noise either try to get it to stop, or make sure it's there the whole time. And recored about a minute before of just audio with that sound so you can identify that sound while editing in order to EDIT it out.

In fact always tape a minute of just audio before every scene so you have room tone. That allows you to edit that tone into the scene later one, or edit it out. Like background actors making noise. Record them seperately, then record your actors doing whatever the hell they do. Then edit them together. Don't tape at the same time!

Also, get you $100 pair of headphones so you can check your audio levels so you know if they're consistant, suck, or whatever else could be the problem. These are kind of the industry standard, Sony 7506.

Know your mics as well. If shooting interior dialogue, use a hypercardioid, or maybe just a cardioid. Shooting outside, use a shotgun. Shooting an documentary, or recording an interview use a lav mic. Pretty simple. I could go more into detail with them, but I would run the risk of misinformation, plus this is your starter page do the rest of the research on your own. If I'm you're only source than you're gonna fail big time. Always, get lot's or sources from people who know that the hell they're talking about.

A good start would be buying this expensive ass DVD, http://www.bhphotovideo.com/c/product/562036-REG/Books_DRT_DVD_Sound_for_Film.html. Don't complain either, I got it for $90. This will solve most of your problems. Others suggest visiting or working on sets, buying volumes of books. I say just get the DVD, try a few forums like this, http://www.dvxuser.com/V6/forumdisplay.php?f=29, and just shoot the damn thing.

A good place to get mics would be http://oktava.com/.

Make sure to get windjammers, or windsocks, or whatever to block...wind. Even if you're inside always use one.

Get XLR cables to run from your camera to your mic, the longer the better. Ask any girl that.

Boompoles are expensive even for the crappy models. I made my own for about $30 but ended up using a real one because my DP already owned one.

TANGENT ALERT

That's the cool thing about hiring people, they usually have their own equipment. My DP had lights, mic, boom pole, crane. So most of the stuff I bought wasn't used. He even had his own camera. A Canon XL2 that had native 16x9.

I bought a $500 add on so I could get 16x9, which is the new industry standard. But didn't even use it cause he had the newer model of the camera that was used in 28 days later. So even my camera wasn't necessary. More waste of money. Consider this when making your movie. Your crew may have the equipment you need already!

I DIGRESS

So I just gave you a lot of information. And it was on audio. Something I barely understand, and don't even like talking about.

Did I follow my advice? Somewhat. I shot in good interiors, I let my DP make the decisions cause he had the experience and I was too busy acting in front of the camera and directing actors or doing one of another hundred things.

My DP actually used a shotgun for everything, didn't use a sound mixer, but besides that I basically followed the rest of the rules.

Alright, I'm worn out from typing about something that bores me. In the future I'll be able to hire someone to do all the thinking on this subject.

Stay tuned for next time where I talk about something that's different from this.