Camera Audio Simplified

Location Audio for Camera Operators

Dean Miles

• Publisher: Routledge
• Year: 2016
• Print ISBN: 9781138185357, 9781138185357
• eBook ISBN: 9781317289296
• Edition: 1
• Topic: Media & Performing Arts
• Subtopic: Film & Video

You've spent a lot of time learning how to use the features of your video camera to take amazing pictures, but chances are the audio always gives you trouble! Today, with production budgets shrinking, many are being asked to go-it-alone and sound is a frequent pain point that can drag production value down to an amateur level. To achieve great sound to go along with great video, you need to go beyond "automatic" mode and take control – know as much about microphones as you do about lenses with the help of Camera Audio Simplified. Author Dean Miles gives you the skills you need to capture quality location audio with your camera mic, wireless system, lavaliers, and handheld microphones. You'll get step-by-step guidance to help elevate your sound from amateur to professional – and build your career and video production business.

CHAPTER ONE

Introduction

SHARING THE KNOWLEDGE

You might think that a book for camera operators, written by a sound operator, doesn’t really make sense. Unless, you’re one of the thousands of camera operators who take great pictures but struggle with recording sound. If so, then this marriage makes a lot of sense. The contents of this book are what you’ve been searching for!

You’re not alone. In fact, the majority of camera operators I’ve worked with over my 25 years as a professional location sound operator have very little understanding of location audio. And today, with production budgets shrinking, many of you are being asked to go-it-alone. As a result, audio is giving you nothing but frustration and in many cases, dragging your production down to amateur level.

Camera Audio Simplified is designed to give you the skills to capture quality location audio with your camera mic, lavaliers, and handheld microphones, as well as give you the basic theory of why we need certain sound elements to produce great sound to go along with your great pictures. You probably already know how to shoot creative and professional quality video, now you’ll learn how to capture audio that will be just as good.

SO, WHY IS THE AUDIO IN VIDEO PRODUCTION SO BAD SO OFTEN?

I’ve heard some of the strangest comments come from camera operators, directors, even producers that make all the problems with location sound recording make sense.

•  “Who needs headphones? I can see the meters moving.”

•  “If I can hear it, my mic should be able to pick it up!”

•  “Audio’s not my concern: I’m paid to take pretty pictures.”

•  And my absolute all-time favorite: “Don’t worry. They’ll fix it in post!”

The sad part is, some of these comments were from seasoned professionals. Now, from working and teaching location audio, I realize that not all these comments were coming from a place of arrogance. They’re more from a place of just not knowing. As the video industry evolved, crew size dwindled from the four-person crew to three, to two, to the one-person camera crew. Camera operators didn’t need location audio skills until now.

A camera operator’s entire skill set is based on visuals and creative, compelling storytelling. Those skills included camera operating, frame composition, lighting, directing, even wardrobe. Everything was visual and sound was usually taken care of by the sound operator. But as crew size diminished, most camera operators could still successfully produce quality video since they had the skills and techniques needed to handle most—if not all—aspects of video production, except for sound. And now, in today’s video production world, with no sound operator as part of the crew, the camera operator needs audio skills, and they don’t usually have them.

A LITTLE ABOUT THE AUTHOR

Since 1989, I’ve been working as a professional location audio operator for major television networks, motion pictures, high-end documentaries, corporate and industrial video and everything in between. Through it all, I’ve encountered every sound problem imaginable and have developed my own tried-and-true solutions, techniques, and easy-to-follow tricks and tips.

Since the release of Location Audio Simplified in 2006 (location audio techniques for sound operators), I’ve fielded hundreds of questions from camera operators looking for location audio techniques they could use as the one-person camera crew. Now, at first, I wasn’t interested since, in my opinion, it wasn’t possible. Most—if not all—video productions would suffer from poor sound. I’ve cut hundreds of shows with bad sound to arrive at this conclusion. But as the industry changed and more equipment was being developed and targeted the do-it-yourself camera op, it made sense to start helping out.

Since 2009, I’ve held workshops and seminars for camera operators to teach the needed skills and techniques to record quality dialogue with today’s cameras and audio equipment. It’s a lot of fun.

// Watch Class 1—Introduction of the Camera Audio Simplified online course. The Camera Audio Simplified online course can be found at: www.vimeo.com/ondemand/cameraaudiosimplified //

FACING PAGE

Over 20 years of shooting together

CHAPTER TWO

The Location

CHOOSING AND PREPPING THE LOCATION TO RECORD SOUND

Most camera operators have been choosing the location in which to shoot in since they started in the industry. You learn what to look for visually in a location to have success with the picture. You choose a location that looks great, has nice lighting, and helps to tell the story—but what about sound?

One of the biggest mistakes made by camera operators when choosing a location where sound is going to be recorded is that they choose the location based on pictures alone. If you choose to ignore the sound of your location when recording audio, you’re exposing your production to delays and stoppages caused by sound problems, costly post audio fixes, and worst case scenario, throwing out shots because the sound is unusable.

Choosing and prepping a location to shoot quality audio does not mean void the location of sound, shoot everything with feathers and create a total vacuum! Choosing and prepping a location is about creating an audio environment that supports the visuals, and the visuals dictate the sound requirements when choosing a location.

It’s time to add sound to your decision-making process when choosing a location.

SHOT TYPE AND SOUND REQUIREMENTS

Believe it or not, a good location to record dialogue in is not always a quiet location!

In video, the type of shot (interview, b-reel, sequence of shots, etc.) will dictate how the location needs to sound. Depending on the shot type, this can range from a quiet environment to a noisy environment. The goal when choosing an audio friendly location, as I like to call it, is to choose a location where not only are the visual requirements being met but also the sound requirements.

Now, this can include locations where you do not have to worry about sound, to those where you must take time to assess the location’s sound and to prep sound issues.

Let’s go through the various shot types and find out which ones are going to require sound consideration when choosing the location.

SHOT TYPES:

• B-reel

• A Stand-Up

• Scene or Sequence

• An Interview

• VO – Voice Over

B-REEL

Also called B-roll, cut-aways, filler or pictures only. Basically, it means that the audio is not critical and will be edited with other sound tracks, music and/or be used as low-level ambient sound only. However, this shouldn’t mean there isn’t any audio at all, even if you want to just “grab a few shots.” There’s nothing more unprofessional than material recorded with no audio. Give the editor something to work with. He or she can always delete the recorded sound but can’t always recreate what’s not there.

Scot shooting b-reel in Haiti—conditions don’t get much worse!

The sound should always support the picture

For most b-reel type shooting, the camera-mounted microphone does the job just fine—especially if you’ve connected a quality microphone to the camera. We’ll get into camera microphones later in the book.

SOUND REQUIREMENTS: NONE

For b-reel, there are no sound requirements. You can shoot in any sound condition, and often, you’ll have to. The only thing I would try to create sound wise, if possible, is an environment that supports the pictures. For example, if you’re shooting some b-reel on a golf course of a golfer putting, take a quick listen to the surrounding ambience. If there’s a greens keeper mowing the lawn close by, maybe wait a couple of minutes until they’ve moved on so the ambience is usable. I’ve watched camera operators wait a long time for clouds to come or go. Listening to the sound of the environment should become part of your production process. This would be a sound improvement that will save you a lot of headaches when it comes time to edit the audio.

STAND-UPS

“Stand-up” is a term that originated in the news industry. Simply put, it’s a person standing there talking directly to the camera. Typically, it would be an intro for a program, a transition to a new topic or scene, or a quick wrap up. Since stand-ups are generally short in length and the audio will never be separated from the picture, you can usually allow a high level of background noise and changes in the ambience such as traffic on a busy street or a crowd at a football game. The trick is to make sure that you can hear the dialogue clearly and that the camera is seeing what is creating the noise so it makes sense—more on this later.

Stand-up

SOUN...

Table of contents

• Cover
• Half Title
• Title Page
• Copyright Page
• Table of Contents
• Acknowledgements
• Foreword
• CHAPTER 1 INTRODUCTION
• CHAPTER 2 THE LOCATION
• CHAPTER 3 SOUND ELEMENTS
• CHAPTER 4 VIDEO CAMERAS
• CHAPTER 5 CAMERA-MOUNTED MICROPHONES
• CHAPTER 6 LAVALIER MICROPHONES
• CHAPTER 7 WIRELESS SYSTEMS
• CHAPTER 8 HANDHELD MICROPHONES
• CHAPTER 9 DSLR CAMERAS
• More from Dean Miles
• Index