Technical Skills and Development - Sound Recording

Technical Skills Development

Sound Recording for Films and Video

Thriller films are types of films which give the watcher intense excitement by creating suspense and anticipation to know what is going to happen next. Thrillers cause uncertainty, anxiety, and nerve-wracking tension…This is what makes it effective. A genuine thriller is a film that relentlessly pursues a single-minded goal - to provide thrills and keep the audience cliff-hanging at the 'edge of their seats' as the plot builds towards a climax that’s why thrillers are made abstract or shadowy. 
To get all this right it is vital in production to have the right soundtrack as it heightens all these senses a thriller is meant to have and may connote characters and their feelings together with the setting, it adds atmosphere.

On-Camera Microphone:
Most video cameras have some sort of audio capture built-in. You can usually find a hole or a slot on some the front of the camera, behind which rests a tiny microphone. This microphone captures not only the noises your talent make in front of the camera, but also the noises the camera handler makes, the noises the wind makes. With most camera microphones you might need to keep it closer to the camera filming crew so that the sound can catch on and be more understandable. Some types of cameras have zoom lens on their mikes these are called ‘zoom mikes’. It behaves as a non-directional mike when the lens is zoomed out to its widest angle. When the lens is zoomed in it gives more close up clearer sound compared to the zoomed out angles.
Off-Camera Microphone:
There are instances in filming production when it's better to use an external microphone.

Room acoustics:
Whenever a room has smooth, unbroken walls or uncarpeted floors, reverberation (slight echoes) can be a problem. Moving mics closer to subjects is the simplest solution, but that's not always possible. Other solutions include using highly directional mics, adding sound absorbing materials to walls, or placing objects within a scene that will absorb or break up sound reflections.

Shotgun Mic:
Because of their highly directional characteristics shotgun mics can be used out of camera range at distances of up to 10 meters. As with all directional mics, they have to be carefully aimed, preferably with the aid of high-quality earphones. Shotgun mics are often mounted on fish poles.

Fish Poles:
The quickest solution for picking up audio, especially in on-location shooting, is to attach a directional mic (shot-gun mic) to a pole and have someone hold it just out of camera range. A sound person equipped with an audio headset can monitor the sound being picked up and move the microphone according to changes in camera shots and talent position.

Microphone Booms:
Microphone booms range from a fishpole mounted on a trip od to a large perambulator boom it is very heavy and takes two people to operate. The largest booms have a hydraulically controlled central platform where operators sit and watch the scene on an attached TV monitor while controlling such things as the:

· left or right movement (swing) of the boom arm

· boom extension (reach of the arm)

· left to right panning of the attached microphone

· vertical tilt of the microphone 

Hanging Microphones:
A mic can be suspended over a performance area by tying it to a grid pipe or fixture just above the top of the widest camera shot. The disadvantage of this approach, of course, is that the mic can't be moved during the production.

Both boom mics and suspended microphones should be checked with the studio lights turned on to make sure they do not create shadows on backgrounds or sets.

Hidden Microphones:
Its sometimes easier to hide a mic during a seated or standing scene, this makes it much easier to hear the characters. It will eliminate both the need for personal or handheld mics. Microphones are sometimes taped to the back of a prop or even hidden in a table decoration, such as the vase of flowers shown here. However you may find during an editing session that the audio from different mics used at different distances will not be able to be edited without noticeable changes in quality.