Audio is the bane of every low-budget and independent filmmaker's existence. It's the one thing most filmmakers have the least amount of experience with, but also the least of amount of time to deal with properly. If you want the best possible audio on set, it takes just as much work as getting a good image. Since this is a visual medium, there's no question the moving images should be the best they can be, but often the quality of the audio matters more than the quality of the video. For anyone starting out, here's a quick video and then some simple tips about getting better production audio.
Production Dialogue - Microphone Placement
It's always a good idea to get the microphone as close as humanly possible to the mouth of speaker. This may seem like common sense, but all too often the boom operator and the camera operator are not in communication and you end up with a microphone that could be much, much closer to the actors and still out of frame (this is what boom operators mean when they are asking for a frame line). Here are some tips for getting the best production audio possible:
- Work on the problem areas for the space you're in. Use sound blankets (or any type of heavy cloth material) in front of surfaces that tend to reflect a lot of sound. For example, windows are usually the worst offender in terms of sound pollution, so covering them will help tremendously.
- Always boom away from windows and other noise pollution when you can.
- Unplug any unnecessary devices that could cause issues, for example, refrigerators.
- Develop a strategy for where you'll stand if you're operating the boom. Find the closest position possible to the actors, and it will limit your strain and help keep the boom steady, not to mention help get the microphone closer to the actors.
- Going from above is usually preferable, but if you don't have a choice, booming from underneath the actors might help you get closer.
- Whenever you're recording anything without a mixer, record the levels as high as possible before clipping. This ensures that your levels will not have to be brought up in post, which tends to increase noise greatly.
Audio is one of the few places where corners can't be cut. Bad sound can ruin an otherwise brilliant film, so if you don't have the experience already or the time to learn the skill properly, try to find or hire someone who does. The audience may not notice, but that's really the goal in the end, to keep them focused on the story and not the production values.
For some other audio tips, check out the audio chapter in the DSLR Cinematography Guide, and this guide to audio post-production using Premiere.
[via Frank Glencairn & ProVideo Coalition]
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44 Comments
Nice post. If I have a static shot (Interviews or some dialogue scenes) I will even get my shotgun mic in frame, take a reference pic of the background and then mask it out in post.
http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=upQNo406fpE&feature=plcp
May 15, 2012 at 5:42PM, Edited September 4, 7:54AM
That's interesting, I've never seen anyone do that but it's a good idea if nothing is moving - pretty simple to remove later.
May 15, 2012 at 5:45PM, Edited September 4, 7:54AM
Thanks. Yeah, I try to do it as often as I can. Like you said, video is first on my mind, but if I had already planned on a static shot, I will do this for sure. I said take a reference pic but video is a little better (subtle motion/noise helps the effect).
May 15, 2012 at 5:47PM, Edited September 4, 7:54AM
That seems a bit insane to me to go through the process of cropping out the mic. Especially when in the example above you could have had it basically touching your head and at a better angle to cut out background noise etc. Also when doing interviews it's one of the few times you have a chance to set up well, and get great audio. Why not just do it on the front end and not have to do that in post??
May 15, 2012 at 8:15PM, Edited September 4, 7:54AM
cropping out a mic in a static shot with nothing moving in the background would take about 3 seconds, if it means getting better audio its completely worth minimal post time. Will consider trying it for an upcoming corporate, although sometimes my audio guy thinks getting too close with the mic isnt such a good thing and can sound "boomy", his words, not mine
May 15, 2012 at 9:17PM, Edited September 4, 7:54AM
It wasn't so much about that example, just the concept.
I use it a lot in medium shots when it's hard to get the mic close. For instance, if you were shooting an interview in 4K (Scarlet let's say), you would shoot the interview at a wider angle and use the extra resolution to crop (essentially giving you a cut away angle). When you're working with a wider shot it's a lot harder to get good audio without turning up the gain. So in a situation like that I would use this technique.
Obviously if you can get the mic close enough without having to do this you would want to but I have run into several situations where it came in really handy.
May 15, 2012 at 11:53PM, Edited September 4, 7:54AM
@Peter: The "boomyness" your audio guy is referring is a result of the proximity effect that occurs with dynamic microphones (condenser mics dont exhibit this behavior). If you are using a dynamic microphone the closer you get to the mouth, or audio source, the more your are going to hear the lower frequencies of the audio spectrum giving you a boomy sound at some point, so yeah one should keep that in mind you dont want to get too close :)
May 16, 2012 at 12:06AM, Edited September 4, 7:54AM
@carlos
All directional mics exhibit proximity effect, the electrovoice variable-d dynamics are the only directional mics I'm aware of that compensate. The only time this should be an issue with a fish pole mounted mic is the extreme close up and especially shots where framing means the mic is at the talents chest height (2 problems now since the chest area is naturally more boomy).
May 16, 2012 at 5:55AM, Edited September 4, 7:54AM
The extent to which a condenser microphone is affected by the proximity effect is extremely minimal when compared to dynamic microphones, unless the mic is in your mouth you should be fine. With a dynamic microphone, as you said the more of a uni-directional polar pattern it has, the more prevalent the effect of lower frequencies boosting will be in terms of the proximity of the mic in relation to the audio source. those being polar patterns being cardioid, super cardioid, and hyper cardioid. But all mics will exhibit it to some extent im just saying in these situations those are the ones to look out for.
May 16, 2012 at 3:46PM, Edited September 4, 7:54AM
Ha! Never thought of or seen that. Excellent idea where it suits. Cheers Luke.
Joe, really enjoying your blogs.
Cheers
Lliam
May 16, 2012 at 9:41PM, Edited September 4, 7:54AM
Another great idea very similar to this is to make sure you have a few seconds of silence with your subject in place. This way you have a reference shot of the static room noise as well. For two reasons.
First you can use this as environment noise should you have to cut something out of the audio such as off editing the dialog of the subject, screen noises, or generally distracting sounds.
The second is sometimes you end up having to shoot in an environment that has some sort of sustained noise. A floro light, electrical/signal noise, an AC, rain... etc. using the moment of silence as a noise profile generally you can use this to effectively isolate the background issues and remove them all together while preserving the talent's voice. Most high-end audio editing programs have a way to capture a noise profile and use it to remove sustained noise like this.
Basically the same as Luke did with the reference image except with audio.
May 29, 2012 at 12:03AM, Edited September 4, 7:54AM
For anyone wanting more of the above, I just finished watching a pretty good training DVD on production sound that can be found here:
http://www.amazon.com/gp/aw/d/B00194G1KY
It's a bit dated and doesn't touch on the most recent DSLR workflows, etc, but most filmmakers know that well at this point. This covers fundamentals of mic selection, placement, boom technique, editing dialog, room tone, etc. Worthwhile stuff.
May 15, 2012 at 5:57PM, Edited September 4, 7:54AM
This is a good tip but only for a static background....
May 15, 2012 at 7:00PM, Edited September 4, 7:54AM
Haha, nice name bro.
May 15, 2012 at 9:46PM, Edited September 4, 7:54AM
Yeah, real nice names bros.
May 16, 2012 at 6:52AM, Edited September 4, 7:54AM
Way to go with your names, bros.
May 16, 2012 at 8:18AM, Edited September 4, 7:54AM
You guys seriously can't come up with anything more original?!
May 16, 2012 at 8:21AM, Edited September 4, 7:54AM
I win...
May 16, 2012 at 11:22AM, Edited September 4, 7:54AM
(Some passive aggressive comment with military undertones).
May 16, 2012 at 12:20PM, Edited September 4, 7:54AM
I'd like to frame this comment sequence and post it in the hall of fame of comment sequences....
May 19, 2012 at 6:36AM, Edited September 4, 7:54AM
Damn, I lose.
May 17, 2012 at 4:34PM, Edited September 4, 7:54AM
We've had better days...
May 19, 2012 at 6:38AM, Edited September 4, 7:54AM
this is all 1 person posting.
as the resident troll on this website, i will say that y'all aren't funny
May 16, 2012 at 8:30AM, Edited September 4, 7:54AM
This thread... it is a silly place.
May 16, 2012 at 8:23AM, Edited September 4, 7:54AM
It would be much easier for us to learn if cameras didin't have such shitty built in audio. I would gladly accept a camera that is a pound or two heavier because it has a built in field recorder/zoom h4n type of thing that syncs automatically with the image
May 16, 2012 at 8:29AM, Edited September 4, 7:54AM
there are plenty of those cameras, actually every camera meant for video does that.
May 16, 2012 at 9:05AM, Edited September 4, 7:54AM
Ah, not with the quality as a zoom or something similar though,
May 16, 2012 at 12:17PM, Edited September 4, 7:54AM
Why dont they make it though? Instead of having the pain of dual system sound and dealing with elitist sound recordists who give you attitude, why cant a camera have sound quality as good as its image quality and all you do is plug in a boom mic to it? Again, I do not care about power draw, size, or weight. I might just go ahead and patent this
May 16, 2012 at 1:56PM, Edited September 4, 7:54AM
Many do. You just don't use them.
Sony EFP cameras have XLR inputs and record excellent sound, just like they have for the last 25+ years. No need to re-invent the wheel 8-0
May 16, 2012 at 2:46PM, Edited September 4, 7:54AM
ew, sony look
ew, tiny sensor size
ew, overpriced shoulder mounted old man videographer camera
im living in a post-dslr world, and i have post-dslr expectations
May 16, 2012 at 3:04PM, Edited September 4, 7:54AM
Super 35 is a tiny sensor size ???
May 16, 2012 at 11:42PM, Edited September 4, 7:54AM
my comment went out to the majority of ENG style cameras that you references being tiny CCD sensors and are super expensive from the dinosaur age.
super 35 is fine. but super 35 camcorders with good audio/xlr outputs are still rare. i can count them on my hand. fs100/fs700, c300, c500, f3 etc and none of those are priced in the indie range
May 16, 2012 at 11:58PM, Edited September 4, 7:54AM
@john every camera you mentioned is in the indie range, maybe not the no budget range, but definitely indie.
May 17, 2012 at 12:53PM, Edited September 4, 7:54AM
The Zoom is a low end recorder.
May 16, 2012 at 2:39PM, Edited September 4, 7:54AM
The FS100 has dual xlr inputs..plug in a wireless lav/high quality condenser mic and youve got great quality internal audio.
May 16, 2012 at 5:16PM, Edited September 4, 7:54AM
It is precisely the fact that cameras have crappy built in audio that gives filmmakers the necessity to learn good audio recording principles and technique.
Even if good audio was built into cameras, you'd still have to use second system sound to achieve consistent quality audio. Camera placement is key to the kind of ambient and acoustic qualities you receive from your audio. The further the placement your audio recorder is from your subject, the more you allow the characteristics of your environment to affect the type of sound you receive. Thus second system sound will always be essential on set in order to allow for flexible camera movement as well as high quality production sound.
May 19, 2012 at 6:43AM, Edited September 4, 7:54AM
The big mistake rookie do is use a shotgun microphone indoors, use small cardioid microphones then you wont get echo, shotguns accept sounds from the front and back that creates echo in a small space
May 16, 2012 at 9:09AM, Edited September 4, 7:54AM
Depends on your room's acoustic profile, but in many, you are right. I do, however, often have to use a shotgun indoors to get the proper sound. Rules are meant to be broken though - you just have to use your ears to listen to what sounds better.
In the case of the video posted in this article, the shotgun microphone sounded better than the cardioid.
May 16, 2012 at 10:13AM, Edited September 4, 7:54AM
I feel compelled to add (in a bit of corporate blowing of one's own horn) that the recognized deficiencies in the audio section of the Canon 5D 7D 60D series can be largely remedied by using an audio balun (balancing transformer) that has an XLR connector on one end and a 3.5mm mini plug on the other end of its 18" cord. Users can thus directly connect a high-performance mike like a Beyer or Sennheiser directly to the DSLR camera jack with (importantly) a balanced signal facilitated by the miniature balun transformer circuitry contained within the XLR shell. The Model PA911 Audio Camera Balun is available from Energy Transformation Systems, Inc. (www.etslan.com) .
May 17, 2012 at 6:09PM, Edited September 4, 7:54AM
I'm going to invent 4K audio that records at 1 gigabyte per second to ensure maximum quality.
May 17, 2012 at 10:21PM, Edited September 4, 7:54AM
Joe, can you explain more about the PA911 and why it's necessary.
Is it only necessary for long cable runs between mic and camera ?
May 21, 2012 at 12:46AM, Edited September 4, 7:54AM
Yes, the practical difference between balanced and unbalanced audio tends to show in longer cable runs. Any RF interference (and it can come from standard AC wiring) will produce hum, buzz or other kind of noise that will make audio useless. A long balanced cable run will be rather immune to such interference. If the little balanced-unbalanced DI box is close enough to the camera, the quality of audio will be preserved.
May 21, 2012 at 2:13PM, Edited September 4, 7:54AM
Did anyone else notice that in the Vimeo comments that the creator lets us know which mic it is? I was wondering why a shotgun sounded so dang good indoors.
May 21, 2012 at 7:40PM, Edited September 4, 7:54AM
Whoa...that guy was one of my Directing class instructors in college. Awesome.
June 2, 2012 at 9:55AM, Edited September 4, 7:54AM