Solving Sound Unavoidable Sound Issues

Sometimes you are bound by a location and can do nothing about the challenges it may throw you. Learning to cope, and make best use of what you have and what you know can help salvage a situation.

In changing or flexible situations gun microphones are ideal for achieving passable sound from your subject while not being overpowered by ambient noise. They are easily transported and are flexible if you have to move. They should always have a windshield and a rubber suspension setting in order to prevent any other noises from interfering.

Radio microphones are useful when you are distant from the subject or when a narrator is out of shot. The sound can still be picked up but it doesn’t interfere with the camera work. They take a little setting up though so make sure you have the time allocated beforehand to get set up and calibrated.

You can also use a combination of microphones to achieve a rounded sequence. For example a gun microphone to pick up the sounds in shot, and a radio microphone to pick up narration from someone off camera. The two sources will work on two different channels and is useful in a lot of situations. Wildlife filming uses this technique a lot when on location. The narrator or guide will wear a radio microphone and a gun microphone will be attached to the camera to record whatever sounds come from what’s in frame. Both soundtracks can be set at different levels and both can be edited separately afterwards without losing context or detail.

When recording conversation outside, you have to bear in mind the technical limitations of the equipment. If two people are conversing over a distance a single microphone isn’t going to pick it all up, so you need two. Two radio microphones need to have their own channel and be in range of the sound recording equipment. When on location this can mean rushing ahead to set up a shot and then getting the subjects to speak. A bit of acting is then required in order to make it seem as though it was an off the cuff conversation, and not staged.

Often a piece to camera may lose sound, and the conversation may have been interesting. It’s fairly easy to dub the film with ambient noise of traffic or something then ask the contributors to repeat the conversation off camera which can be played during a wide shot that they aren’t in. This way you can keep the snippet if it adds value, but not have to go through another take.

Recording Atmos is another audio trick which helps in editing. Atmos or buzz track is a recording on the background sounds of the location which is used to mask changes or to add spaces to dialogue. This sound is recorded at almost the same time as the actual soundtrack to reproduce as near as possible the sound at the time.

All these techniques are used to varying degrees in every shoot. They combine to make the most of the material you have, and can mask any inadequacies during filming.