Camera Workshop 3: Sound & Shooting on Location

For our third camera workshop we looked at sound and shooting on location. We began by going back over the kit and what comes in the bag just to double check everyone knows. Ferg then showed us some of the sound equipment that is available to us, this includes:

• Rode NTG Mics
• Lavalier Mics (Clip-on mics)
• Blimps (boom mic housing)
• Dead Cats & Dead Wombats (wind protection)
• Boom poles

There is a lot of sound equipment which means we have a good selection to choose from when it comes to deciding how to record audio on a shoot. We continued with the session by splitting into pairs and setting up an interview like situation to help us look at using the boom mics. For my shoot I asked my partner, Cheyenne, some questions. I started but asking her to speak whilst I worked on the audio controls, adjusting them to a good level (so the levels hit about -12db). Once that was complete I started my interview. Here is some of the final product:

Looking back at it I think the audio is okay but I may have had the levels up too high as there is a lot of background noise. Next time I think I will spend a little more time working on the controls (maybe looking in the on screen menus) to ensure there is less background noise (if possible).

Next we moved onto shooting on location. This meant we had to think about health and safety and think about how to shoot audio on location. For my shoot I chose to use a clip on mic instead of a boom mic because it gave my actor (me) the ability to move more and stand quite far away from the camera (something I am thinking about utilising in my story-telling project).  Before starting I patrolled the area and looked for any hazards. I spotted one, a hole in the group, and maybe everyone on my crew aware of it. I also covered it up for safety. Once potential hazards were identified and the audio and camera where set up, we began shooting. Whilst shooting I did stray into areas I had not done health and safety checks on and unfortunately it did mean I almost tripped up. I should have thought more about where I was filming whilst I completed my checks to ensure this potential accident never occurred. Unfortunately, due to a low battery in the mic receiver, a lot of my sound was not recored so I had to scrap the footage. This is something I will have to think about to ensure it doesn't happen again.

Overall I enjoyed the session and I learnt a few things about what I should and shouldn't do next time.