Sound Recording

During the production of the film my other role consisted of the sound recording which included the dialogue when the protagonists were speaking. To do this the piece of equipment I used was a rode shotgun mic connected to a boom.

The initial set up was fairly straight forward- due to the small amount of components it was pretty much self explanatory. The components consisted of:

• boom 
• shotgun mic 
• cable 
• dead cat 

Firstly, I made sure that the cable was long enough to run the length of the boom, across the floor and to the camera. After this, it was obvious, the mic attached to the boom , the cable attached to the mic and the other end of the cable attached to the jack socket in the DSLR camera.

Before I grips with the techniques of sound operating I came across some difficulties, these were:

• making sure that the microphone was directional towards the characters mouth in order for the sound to be loud and clear
• finding the best technique to keep the mic still and steady so no movement affected the sound 
• making sure the mic wasn't in the shot

After experiencing these difficulties I over came them by finding more effective techniques. Whilst filming I found that the best way to hold the boom was by placing it on the back of my shoulders. I found this was effective it could get quite tiring when holding the microphone for long periods of time. Also, the chances of me moving or knocking the boom were reduced therefore other sound wouldn't interfere as easily. When the camera used a closer shot i held the microphone underneath the bottom of the cameras frame and pointed up, i found this easier than when they were longer shots and had to hold the a few inches offers the top of the cameras frame pointed down. Primarily, it was important for me to communicate with the the camera operator for them to let me now where the top or bottom of the camera frame was (depending on where I was holding the mic) to make sure I was a few inched above/below so the mic couldn't be seen in the shot. Another thing that i had to do was get the camera operator to watch out for shadows from the mic cable and even the microphone itself  and let me know if it was necessary to move the microphone so it couldn't be seen. 

Overall, I think that by having this role during the production of our film opening I learnt that it is much more challenging than it looks and it does require skill and the correct approach. As I had never had any contact with this type of equipment before I believe it went considerably well and I am pleased with the way I applied my initiative to find the right techniques through trial and error.