Single Camera Sound Roles

Further to the experience I have had in studio sound roles, I would like to reflect upon my single camera sound roles and the skills I have acquired from my experience. The equipment I have been working with is a Zoom mic connected to a Boom mic. I have found this a very useful combination of equipment as it allows the sound to be recorded separate from the camera and records much clearer sound for both speaking and environmental recording than a camera mic.

However, it is still important to record camera sound for sound synchronizing purposes. It is also ideal to use a clapper in view of the camera and to say what it is you are recording and what take of the sound you are recording is to allow easy syncing by the editor as they can then follow the wave-forms on both tracks and achieve an accurate match of sound and video.

The benefits of using a boom mic outside is that with the use of a dead cat, dead space between the mic and the wind is created. This eliminates the sound of wind being picked up by the encased mic. This came in particularly useful when recording an outside interview for my TVP documentary group exercise on a very windy day. However, it was important to remove the dead cat for recording interviews indoors so as not to greatly and unnecessarily muffle the sound quality recorded. Feedback from the editor was that I had recorded very clear, easy sync sound and so I feel I did a good job for my first experience of using this equipment.

This experience made me want to research the equipment further. I found out how to save sound to certain folders and name files by date and time and explored different recording formats, such as stereo and 4 channel recording. I also hired the equipment to practice at home and become more confident in using it.

In terms of knowledge and practice of syncing sound in post, my current work experience at The Global People Project has given me the opportunity to gain experience of this and it is a task I feel very comfortable and confident in carrying out, particularly when using Avid Media Composer.

This came in handy for recording sound for the long shot short film sound recording as I was able to support the sound recorder, whilst I was directing, to record easy sync sound in conjunction with what the camera was recording. I was also able to record very clear voice over from our actor and avoid distortion by adjusting the levels of the zoom mic. I was careful to not record at too loud a level because it is better to record too quiet and turn up the volume in post rather than record distorted sound and have to re-record at a later date.

Overall, I have thoroughly enjoyed working with sound both in and out of the studio and I feel this is an area I am now more confident in.