Camcorder Microphone
Best practices
When filming with a camcorder microphone, most people prefer to use shotgun microphones. Not only is a shotgun mic a great all-purpose camcorder microphone – providing an organic tone to dialog and sounds you want to record, but they also reduce the unwanted noise because of their design. Shotgun microphones also work great outside of a closed set, providing an environmental tonality so that your productions doesn't feel dubbed.Not everyone is going to be using a shotgun microphone that costs thousands of dollars, just as very few people are going to build their own shotgun mic, McGuyver-style. Whether you are working for the big studios or that personal or student project for your own enjoyment, this article is going to give you some basic best-practices to keep yourself from having to do retakes because of bad audio, and to save you a ton of headaches in post production.
5. Keep It Strapped, Son
If you are using a shotgun mic – be it mounted directly onto your camera or on a boom arm – you need to make sure all of your cables are secure. This isn't just meant in the common sense way that if your cables aren't plugged in properly, your equipment won't work. This is meant in the sense that if your cables aren't grounded, and if they are dragging along the ground or flying everywhere, your microphone is going to pick up some rattling, buzzing, and hissing noises which – unless you're filming the next SyFy film Octosnake Vs. Bumbleshark, are only going to detract from your audio track and necessitate retakes. Your best solution to this is to wrap the cables around the boom arm and secure them with zip ties, or the independent film director's friend, duct tape.
4. Mic Check 1, 2, 3...
This one is also pretty obvious, but you have no idea how often it is overlooked when it comes time to actually film a scene. You want to make sure you are picking up audio through the camcorder microphone as well as your ears, so you put on a headset and tap the mic head. You have noise! You're good to go! You film a few sequences, play it back while your lead actor (and also part-time barristo) is off using an employee's discount to pick you and crew up some free coffee, when you notice the dialogue sounds nothing like what you heard with your own ears.
What happened?
The answer to this is any number of things – but if you checked your cables and they're plugged in, then it had to be an external force, right? Maybe you shouldn't have had the microphone placed right next to the air conditioner. Maybe you shouldn't have hired that cast who did an authentic production of The Miracle Worker because they were super-affordable. Maybe you shouldn't have cracked those PBR cans while you were filming.Whatever the reason, there's a good preventive solution for this. Do some test filming a minute or two before the real shooting begins. That way you can monitor and check the voice and ambient sound levels so that everything's okay for when you really start to film. Common sense you say, but often overlooked when people are actually on the set. Best to burn a few inches of tape to check your levels, than to throw away entire boxes of cassettes to retake whole scenes.
3. Keep Your Distance
This is not the go-ahead for stalking the object of your desires while legally still adhering to the restraining order you were served a few months back. This is about respect for the other equipment around you. Cell phones, lighting fixtures, computers, televisions, radios, anything with a built-in fan – practically anything that uses or generates power has a magnetic field, and generates noise that your ear may not even pick up. Unfortunately, shotgun mics are sensitive things, and are capable of recording resonance and sound form everywhere. Even with noise cancelation and filters (which most shotgun microphones have in their design), some noise and magnetic fields will distort your audio tracks.
The solution here is simple – think of it as the tale of Daedelus and Icarus. You don't want your camcorder microphone to get too close to the ground, because you will be picking up more of the sounds of people shuffling about than you will what you intend to record. On the other hand, you don't want your mic raised up so high that all you are doing is recording the sounds of ceiling fans and the hum of the lights. Tryy to find a middle ground, and stick with it.
2. Humans & Machines Both Need Breaks
If you are trying to cram in every scene into one day of shooting, you are going to end up with cranky actors and a shoddy production. You don't need to be a SAG member to attest to that. Even boom operators get tired arms after a while, and need to rest so they don't drop and damage your camcorder microphone.
Likewise, a microphone that's on for many hours straight is going to get hot and “tired.” This means that if you overwork your equipment, the more likely the sound will distort. This isn't just a short-term thing. Remember that everything has a life cycle. Leaving your shotgun mic on and overworked only decreases its life cycle, and you will find yourself shelling out even more money for a replacement
Likewise, a microphone that's on for many hours straight is going to get hot and “tired.” This means that if you overwork your equipment, the more likely the sound will distort. This isn't just a short-term thing. Remember that everything has a life cycle. Leaving your shotgun mic on and overworked only decreases its life cycle, and you will find yourself shelling out even more money for a replacement
1. This Is My Shotgun Mic! There Are Many Like It But This One Is Mine!
Your camcorder microphone is a valuable tool. It's saving you the hassle of getting individual remote microphones for each part of your set and praying that the channels don't overlap when you're recording. Even still, you want to make sure you get the most out of it.
Keep your microphone clean. Use an anti-static wipe, and cover it with a wind sock. Yes, the advantage to using a shotgun microphone is that it has the technology to reduce unwanted noise while also keeping an organic envelope around the audio you're recording so that quiet romantic scene doesn't sound dubbed or like it was recorded in an echo chamber – but a wind sock reduced the noise factor even further AND gives a layer of protection to the mic head in case it's accidentally jostled or dropped.
So, armed with this knowledge, you can take the basic steps to ensure great audio recording during your film projects. There's no reason to over think your setup, but you also shouldn't let the elementary pitfalls keep you from getting the best production possible.