Grants Past workshops

Related to LO1

Last year we had a number of guest lectures from Grant Bridgeman, an industry expert with regard to sound for visual, and specialising in location sound recording. Therefore it seems a good idea to refer back to the lecture he gave last year. He is also holding a refresher course on the 11^th of November, of which I am booked on to participate. (If the shooting dates don’t conflict.)

The link to the presentation is as followed: Location Sound 2 – Revisit

Grant started by explain the definition of location sound: “The art of capturing sound on location (generally dialogue) without compromising the image.” (Bridgeman, 2014)

Grant then explains the importance of concentrating more on recording the dialogue than everything else. This is mainly because any other sounds made, can be recreated. However the actors voices can’t, (unless they use ADR, which isn’t time or cost efficient) therefore it is important to get clean quality dialogue.

He then explained the importance of the location you are recording in. His slide asked the questions:

• Is it quiet ?
• Is it controllable ?
– Why is this a problem ? – Editing
• Planes, Trains & Automobiles
• Reverberation
– Why is this a problem ?
• Wind Noise – can be prevented

These are all issue i will need to consider with regards to recording the audio. I will need to liaise with the media production group to insure that I have a more controllable location. The group also mentioned a tunnel scene. This would be a issue, regards to reverberation, therefore ADR may have to be put in practice if it is bad quality.

Grant then went into the features/details/things to think about with regards to some of the equipment.

“Equipment 1 – Shotgun
• Shot gun (or short gun) Mic and Boom
Pole
– Sounds Open (Natural)
– Very sensitive
– Directional – (on axis)
– Wind Protection
– Phantom Power (+48V)
– Handling Noise

Equipment 2 – Personal Mic

• Personal Mic’s. (Tie Clip / Lavaliere / Wire)
– Sounds “closer” (too close?)
– Wires can be restrictive to movement
– In View / Hidden ?
– Clothes Rustle / Movement Noise
– (Radio mic’s too)
– More prone to wind noise…

Equipment 3 – Recorder

• Sound to Camera or Separate Recorder
• To make the best of having two microphones record
them to two channels.
• Allows comparison
• Stops a single problem ruining both audio tracks.
• Place the personal mic at the sternum
• Keep the boom mic pointing at the dialogue
• (aim the mic ‘at the chin’ of the person speaking)
• Don’t play back both mic’s at the same time!
• Phasing – Picture editors often don’t know this. ”

After considering these points, it might be a good idea to consider using a boom microphone and personal microphones. In post production I can then use the better quality sounding microphone, or a mix of them both. The boom mic is effective if the actors are moving around alot, as personal mics will pick up clothes noise. However in big wide shots, it might be difficult to get a boom cloth to the mouth of the actors.

Grant also talks about sound levels. Sound levels are really important because if levels are troo quite, there will be alot of background noise, however if it is too quite, it will be prone to distortion. The pictur below demonstrates the perfect levels for certain loudness of sounds.

Grant also mentioned a technique of using a boom microphone pointed away from the actors, and a personal mic blended together, so that the sound of the radio mic doesn’t sound like its so close. However i do not remember the details of this technique so will research more into it.