I’ve been a professional sound engineer for 18 years, so when I got involved in making an independent movie, I thought recording the audio shouldn’t present too many problems. How wrong I was. Here’s how to avoid all the mistakes I made, and record high quality audio for your movies.
Thumbnail image via lucky kidXX.
There’s a pretty important decision you need to make before you start filming anything, and that is whether you want to record your audio onto the video tape or not. Whether it’s MiniDV, HDV, DVCPro or one of the new tapeless systems, you get the choice of recording onto the camera, or onto an external device like a hard disk recorder or even a laptop.
Both methods have their advantages. The mic amps on even good quality Digital Video Cameras aren’t that great, but audio captured on the camera is already in sync (pretty much) and far easier to keep track of. Then again, cameras generally only have 2 channels of audio, sometimes 4, but with an external device you can have as many channels of audio as you like.
We decided to record our audio on the camera, just to keep things as easy as possible.
Next, you’re going to need mics. Ditch the mic that came with your camera. Even good cameras have so-so microphones on them. Get yourself a decent shotgun condenser. They start at about $300 for a good one, but you can spend as much as you like. Get the best you can afford. If budget allows, get a wireless tie-clip mic too. These can be hidden on the actors and capture a very clean sound.
All you need now is a boom pole for your mic. You can make one (there are plenty of websites that can show you how) or buy one. Even the cheapest ones work very well. A really important device is the suspension mount for the mic – these stop physical knocks and jolts from ending up as rumbles that get into your recordings. A large majority of these come from just handling the boom pole.
You will also need a fluffy cover for your mic to stop the wind from giving you trouble. There are plenty of these on the market, but the market leaders are expensive, and in my experience are worth the money as they do a much better job.
Finally, you’ll need a decent set of headphones. I use Beyer DT100s. Anything with a decent frequency response will be fine, but I find a closed design works much better when shooting in noisy environments.
You’ll find that holding the mic just out of shot is quite tricky, but you need to perfect the art as the more distance you put between the mic and the actor or actress, the more of the ‘room sound’ you will pick up. This can be bad.
Take the time to listen to a few test recordings form your set. You might need to damp the set with blankets and foam (out of sight of the camera, of course) in order to get a dry enough signal to tape. The tie-clip mic will really help when you’ve got less than ideal acoustics on set as it is close enough to get the voice loud and clear without too much ambience.
Operating the boom takes practice. You need to point the mic directly at the mouth of whoever is speaking. If it’s a conversation, you need to rotate or turn the mic to each speaker in succession. It’s quite hard to do, but the results when it’s done properly are far better than just getting the mic roughly in the right place.
Here are a few tips I picked up along the way:
- Make sure the director and crew know not to shout “cut” or anything else until the scene is properly over. You need a little gap after the last line to make the edit easier.
- Make everyone on set turn their mobile phone off.
- Check the set for squeaky chairs and floorboards – deal with them before you start shooting.
- Capture at least one minute of room tone before or after you’ve finished the scene. Room tone is the noise of the set without any dialogue. It comes in really handy during the edit for patching takes together.
- Do a site visit to any outdoor sets. Traffic noise, building sites and other odd noises can make a set unusable.
Always check the audio before anyone leaves the set, just in case you need to do it again. It’s too late once they’ve gone and the set is no longer available!
Enjoyed this Post?
Subscribe to our RSS Feed, Follow us on Twitter or simply recommend us to friends and colleagues!
Join our newsletter!
Create a Tutorial, Get Paid!
Have something to teach the world? Want to earn money doing it? Tutorials, screencasts, and articles published here on Audiotuts+ are largely contributed by readers just like you! We'll pay you great money for good content. Find Out More
really insightful stuff Sean… great to see some fresh subject matter too. nice work.
Thanks for sharing this insightful information. I am interested in recording HQ audio for film and TV.
Still, if we just want to record audio from movie for special usage, it is very easy now. I come across an easy way:
http://www.recordstreamingaudio.org/record-audio-from-movie.html
Just did a boom job on a golf course some weeks ago; it really improves the sound.
Any recommendations for a good, $300 shotgun mic?
Check out Thomann. They’ve got some decent t.bone stuff.
Rode also has some decent budget stuff.
ntg-2- $300 or ntg-3= pretty penny
Rode NTG-2 gud stuff
THANKS so much for this!!!
thankyouthankyouthankyouthankyou!
I love this stuff.
really useful! I’m doing a video production at my college university, and those tips will definitly save me alot ^^
I use a boom only when there are to many people to give individual clip-on mic’s. A boom almost always records more ‘room’ than clip-ons. Especialy inside rooms can be surprisingly noisy and have ugly frequency reflections. Also when you film a wide shot a boom renders useless cause you can’t get close enough.
Thanks for your insight.
Keep it coming guy.
Sincerely,
Keith…….
Hey Sam… don’t know about US prices…but, these are good:
AKG C 568 B £320
Rode NTG-2 £130
Beyerdynamic MCE86II £170
S
Hey Sean, great post. Confirms just about everything I’ve thought about audio for film. :-)
Sam, I have an Audio Technica AT835b shotgun that I snagged on e-Bay for $150. I bought it for a hobby feature that I did in ’07, and I’ve used it exclusively ever since. Works great, and it’s very versatile.
great techniques for beginners..
Hey there.
Have been a photographer and writer for a long while and now trying to learn more about audio recording.
Have been using a Canon XM2 for a while. Sound isn’t good. Got myself a Rode VideoMic and a BeachTek DXA-4. Planned on recording to a Sony Hi MD. Having a few problems setting up.
Set the BeachTek up ok, and mic onto camera.
Though I only have 1 mic, can I attach it to both XLR inputs on BeachTek?
Where do I plug the recording devise into (the Mini Disc)?
Also, how do I get the audio from the Mini Disc onto my Mac? To be able to use it in Final Cut, eventually.
I hope you can help.
Thank you.
MS
if you have garage band on your mac you can get a stereo mini to stereo mini cable and go from the headphone jack of your MD and into the input on your computer and record it as an instrument track in Garage band. then export that to itunes and then to final cut.
Thank you!!! Was just looking into this sort of thing for a video shoot I’m planning on doing. Awesome information!
Thanks again!
So is it possible to get good quality by just plugging a boom mic into my Mac, and recording sound with Garageband? Then I’d just need to buy a mic, the right jacks for mic cable, and take my computer on set. Right? I appreciate the help guys! Thanks
Yup that’s pretty much sums up all the mistakes I made on my first project.
Cheers really helpful. Heading off to do my first on set recording on Sunday. Will have to improvise quite a bit but thats always fun!! Think broom booms and heavy lapel mics
Hey Sean and the rest of you. I have been thrown into a 3 week crash course of recording audio for project with a friend. We will be getting paid for this. It is like a cooking show. However, it is a for a local college who wants to do online courses with video. I am trying to figure out the hardware i need for successful and quality audio. figure it will be 1-3 ppl speaking throughout and cooking as well. What mics should i use? boom. standing? portable recorder? we need multiple channels and I am concerned with the sounds accompanying the monologue or speaking roles and how to keep them crip and clear. I appreciate any help you guys can throw my way. feel free to email me.. thanks J
forgot to post my email…
clarence2society@gmail.com
Thanks for this article. I need to record high quality audio on the street while filming street magic for my website. This has helped.
Anybody out there have any suggestions or ideas on a low cost way to record audio separately? My resources (both equipment and money) are very limited and I could use some suggestions on a cheap way to get audio recorded. Syncing for me is not an issue at all. I’ve worked on enough reality to know what I need to do in order to make sure syncing goes in a breeze.
Your thoughts are appreciated!
Cheers!
this helped in my student film research, thanks a bunch, are you saying use both a boom mike and a tie clip mike? or whichever is more cost effective?
Hi guys,could you tell me some info about Sound Device, Zoom, or similar equipment?
Thank’s
Hayk