I could rant about this and say it's a ridiculous thing to do, but sadly it seems to be the rule rather than the exception these days, so perhaps a few helpful hints might be useful? I wrote the following a while ago as part of a set of presentations for ITV production teams who might be self-shooting. Feel free to make use of any of it in your own shooting workflow.
Sound acquisition on location: A few tips for the best
results
Tip #1: Hire an experienced sound recordist with appropriate
equipment.
As a recordist, I have to suggest that first. It will cost
you more to begin with, but your results will be immeasurably better from the
start. And your editors will love you.
But you haven’t got the budget for that, otherwise you
wouldn’t be reading this. You have to make do with what you have, and more
often than not I suspect you’re on your own. So here’s a few suggestions to
help both you and your workflow.
For this, I’ll assume you have a kit with at least a boom
mic and pole, a radio mic and a set of headphones. Also that you have cabling
to connect it all, and you’re connecting to the camera via two three-pin XLRs.
First thing:
Get yourself familiar with how the bits connect together. Don’t wait until
you’re about to enter battle!
Boom mic on pole, XLR cable to camera. Phantom power on if
needed! Set input gain to “mic”.
Radio mic into transmitter, receiver into camera. Don’t mix
the two up and wonder why it doesn’t work! Set input gain to “mic” or “line”
depending on the output level of the receiver. Only one will look right; the
other will either be massively loud or completely inaudible.
Headphones into headphone socket. And turn them up.
When you’ve done it a few times, it will become easier! The
better you know your equipment, the better the results.
Hopefully you have now plugged it all up, and can hear
something coming back on the headphones.
Second thing:
If you do this, I GUARANTEE your sound will be improved.
You must LISTEN to what is coming in on your boom/radio and
DECIDE if it’s good.
How do you know if it’s good? You need to get an idea of
what “good” sounds like. Try recording yourself
with both the boom and the radio and then listening back. This is a good
habit to develop at the start of each day to make sure your equipment is
working; just because you can hear sound through your cans does NOT necessarily
mean it’s being recorded ok! The boom should be no further than 18 inches from
your mouth, and pointing at it. The radio should be clipped centre chest, no
lower than nipple-height. Play both back , and listen how close they sound
compared to the background noise. You should hear a cleaner, more direct sound
on the radio mic, but the boom should sound more “natural”. THAT sound quality
is what you’re aiming for when you start shooting, and you must always listen
for any problems, both during recording and playback. Check particularly for a
solid clean signal with no electrical noise or hums, which would normally
indicate faulty hardware. There should be no excessive hiss or distortion if
the recording levels are right. Which leads us to…
Third thing:
Recording levels! There is an optimum level that you must record at; if you go
below this you will get hiss or other noise, if you go above you will be in
danger of distortion. Scales differ between cameras, but most have “0” at the
top, with minus numbers below, sometimes with a mark at around “-20”. YOU DO
NOT WANT TO GO ANYWHERE NEAR THE TOP OF THE SCALE! Aim for no more than around
-10 for normal speech. If in doubt, err on the side of caution: a little noise
is easier to fix than a distorted signal. To make the editor’s life easier, try
and be as consistent as possible. Not always easy! Again, check the playback to
make sure it sounds ok. If you hear anything wrong, you must mention it at the
time when you’ve got a chance at fixing it. Don’t wait for the editor to find
it!
Most camera have an auto level option. This seems like a
useful thing, and indeed it will prevent you coming back with a distorted
recording, but bear in mind that the auto level is not intelligent! If your
interviewee stops talking, it will try and bring the background noise up to
match his speech level, which will sound very unnatural. This may however give you a useable sound
which you might not get with manual level; it MAY for example be safer to use
it if you’re on a top mic.
Nobody said sound was easy. So you have everything connected
and working, and you’ve checked levels and playback. Now we move to where to
stick things…
Fourth thing:
Do you use the boom or the radio? You should have noticed how different they
sound, so how so you decide which to use? Often the editor would like to have
both available, so the safest choice is to put boom on one track and radio on
the other. Seems like cheating, but it’s much safer for the editor to make the
choice back in his nice calm suite where he can hear how it all fits together.
Be VERY careful about committing to one or the other on location!
Booms sound more “natural” than radio mics; they match more
what your ears hear. They MUST be close to the mouth (no more than 2 feet away)
and pointing at it for best results. They are defeated by distance, loud
background sound levels and by echoey/reverberant rooms. If outdoors they MUST
have adequate wind protection, and they must be held carefully to prevent
handling noise.
Radio mics sound more “focused” than booms; they reject
background noise and reverberation better,
but can sound too clean on their own. They should ideally be mounted between
mid-chest and neck. They are very vulnerable to wind noise outdoors, and to
clothing noise at all times. Decide at the start if you really need to conceal
them; this is a real black art and can be very hit and miss. If you have to do
it; put them as near the surface as you can, and secure the clothing around
them to prevent it moving. You CAN’T bury them under a coat and expect to get
good results. Again, LISTEN very carefully to your results; if the mic sounds
woolly and indistinct, or if it has severe clothing noise you MUST be in a
position to hear it, and to try a different approach. Unfortunately there is no
“one size fits all” approach to radio mic concealment.
Always ask yourself: Do I REALLY need to conceal them?.....
Fifth thing:
LISTEN to your location!
When you go into the place where you’re planning to shoot,
stop a moment and listen. What can you hear? Is it appropriate to what you will
see? If not, can you control it or use it? A busy road next to your location
will be noisy and you can’t stop it, but if you see it in shot your brain
accepts it and it becomes more acceptable. If it’s still too loud when you
listen through headphones then can you change the location? Remember as you
listen the radio mic will probably sound better here. (A good tip is to listen without looking at
the lips of the talent; if you can still understand them this way then the
listener who IS looking will have a reasonable chance.)
If you’re indoors, the sounds are more subtle. Listen for
things like heating noise, fridges and fans. Turn them off if you can
(remembering to turn them on again after!). Any noise which changes or goes
across an edit will leap out later.
In either case, when you cut everything together, you’ll
still have things which don’t quite sound right. Which takes us finally to…
Sixth thing:
How to help your editor!
Good sound doesn’t just stop at recording the on-screen
talent. If you’re recording in different locations at different times, your
backgrounds will change whatever you do. To make your edits work, you need
“clean” backgrounds to smooth over the edits. So, when you finish shooting in a
location, take a few moments to record just the background sound. Even if it
doesn’t sound like much, record 30 seconds of it with nobody speaking or moving
around. The editor can then lay this over any edits which jump out at you
because the background was a little different. Don’t forget to log these so
they can be found easily!
All the above is just a start, but it’s a step in the right
direction. It might sound a lot of hard work. Which indeed it is. But if you
take the time to acquire good sound, and to understand why and how it’s done, it
will improve your end product immeasurably.