The Audience is Listening: Capturing High Quality Audio on Micro-Budget Films

The two go together. But which is more important? Either, neither?

Chances are for just about any decent movie that you've ever seen the answer would be both. But now which was better? We tend to concentrate all of our energy getting the best shot. That perfect movement that really makes the scene sizzle. But did we skimp on the sound? Does it match what you're looking at or does it sound somehow off? Does it make you feel that you are a part of the story or simply watching it? Possibly the worst scenario would be to pay for your actors and props and equipment, shoot all day (or for a week or more), then upload your footage and all you can hear is background noise, maybe a little from your actors and a whole lot of camera sounds. You know the sounds I mean. The tape sounds, the motor sounds, the zoom sounds. Everything, but what you really needed.

The key to getting great sound is to forget the built-in microphone. It's great for shooting your childrens' concerts, sporting activities or just special occasions. But when it's time for something a little more professional here's a couple of ideas. First thing you are going to need is a better microphone. Sometimes it's all in the timing. I am currently helping the Fondy Fire robotics team do their Chairmans Award video for competition in both Milwaukee and Chicago. I also just received the Senheiser K6 power module and ME64, ME66 and ME67 capsules that go with it from David Missall in charge of National Marketing Development. (They have an excellent Audio for Film seminar coming up on September 13th in New Orleans also at the House of Blues. I hope to bring a review back in an upcoming issue on this seminar, hopefully one that's coming to Chicago before the release of this issue.)

I am going to suggest two or three microphones for your audio kit. The first mic you need is a shotgun mic which needs to be away from the camera. For ENG (electronic news gathering) style work, which most documentary or interview work falls under, I mount mine on a separate holder higher and to the right or left of your camera. Higher to get away from the internal camera sounds , left or right depending on where the lighting is coming from to avoid shadows on the lens. For traditional filmmaking, you can mount these to a boom pole so the boom operator can get as close as possible to the talent without being in the shot.

I have used Shure, Electro Voice, AKG and a few others in both studio and live recording work. These Senheiser Microphones are by far the best microphones for audio for video that I have ever used. (According to editor Jeremy Hanke, this system is actually the most commonly used by successful micro-budget filmmakers worldwide. They've become as ubiquitous with modern high quality microbudget filmmaking as Panasonic's DVX100 and HVX200 cameras.)

Ideally I like to use two shotgun mics. For the rear audio I use the Camera mounted Senheiser ME64. This gathers the sound nearest the camera while also avoiding the camera sounds. Next I use a boom pole mounted Senheiser ME67. This mic gathers the voices of the talent. This microphone should be aimed down to the person speaking at the time and re-aimed when the next person is speaking.

This mic should be as close as you can get to the talent as possible while still remaining out of camera view. In this shot the boom mic is about 18 inches from the subject and still a couple inches out of view. This is easy with a stationary object but much more challenging with a moving one. Blocking the scene becomes necessary to know where everything starts and ends in the scene. This is so that the audio assistant knows the position of the actors and can move the microphone for consistent audio. The assistant will keep the microphone out of camera view and aim towards the actor speaking at the time. For lower budgets, or no budgets, dialogue can be blocked to not involve movement and this boom mic can be mounted on a tripod (or mic stand) and placed in position.

The next microphone I like to have in my audio kit is a lavalier, both wired and wireless. I have had great success with the Nady DKW-1. It has excellent range and clarity. If I am happy with the audio that I'm getting from the boom mounted shotgun, I like to place the lavalier between my actors as a backup or just for foley to get some more of the ambiance. The nice thing about today's lavs is that they are very small. They can be taped behind a picture on a desk, or behind a coffee cup or just about anything. No matter whether it's a two mic or three mic setup, I run all the audio into a small microphone mixer. The Azden Cam3 provides 3 inputs and a stereo output that goes to the microphone input on the camera. The key to getting the sound correct is to use your ears with a good quality set of headphones (ideally ones that cup around the ears to help block out noise in your immediate vicinity). I use a pair of Behringer HPM1000's. The nice part of the external mixer is that you can control the two or three mic levels individually. Depending on which mic is gathering the best audio, you can raise the level on that channel and lower the others.

Typically there are four audio recording scenarios.

1. The subject moves.
2. The camera is moving.
3. Both are moving.
4. Both are stationary.

In the first scenario, it's hard to use a boom mic unless the operator can move with the subject and stay out of camera view. In this case I like the wireless lavalier and the camera mounted shotgun.

In the second scenario as the camera moves the boom operator moves with the camera to stay out of view. The camera mounted mic and lavalier can both be used here, as well.

In the third case with both the camera and subject moving, a little practice is needed to coordinate the actors, boom person and camera person.

The fourth, of course, is the simplest to mic. Here everything can be preset perfectly. An example of this would be the news set I worked on for a couple years. Permanently mounted lighting. Camera marks on the floor and a lavalier for each person on set.

The hardest of the four,, of course, would be the third with everything moving. But with any kind of work it's all practice, practice, practice. The more you work at it the better you get. (Until you're proficient, of course, you might want to pre-consider how you layout scenes in the scripting and blocking stages. The reality is, even in the real world, people have a tendency to try to stop moving to communicate with one another, so it doesn't seem strange to the eye if you choose to find ways to do the same.) All four examples can achieve far more professional results with proper microphone techniques.

For the audio comparisons in this story I used the stationary subject and camera. I played the same audio clip 3 times. In all 3 examples the camera microphones, both the internal and rail mounted mic are exactly 10 feet away from the audio source which was a portable boom box. The first clip is with the camera microphone.

You can see the hot spots above 6 db and below –6 db. The part not seen is the camera hum and sounds embedded in the audio track. You can hear the hot spots through the head phones. Always use head phones to listen to what you are capturing. If you hear it in the head phones you will definitely hear it back in the studio when you are mixing down.

The next screenshot is the Senheiser K6 module and ME64 cartridge using the audio input and no external mixer.

The result is an excellent signal to noise ratio that only peaked once. Not surprising is the fact that the audio is both tighter and no longer has the camera hum and noise. This mic was mounted 10 inches higher and 4 inches to the right of the camera.

The last clip is using the Azden Cam 3 mixer, the Nady DKW 1 lavalier, the Senheiser ME64 mic, and a Shure SM 57 mounted on the camera rail sytem.

This was by far the best of the 3 clips. It had no peaking and excellent sound quality with zero camera noise.

The key to all of this is to practice your craft. One set up is not necessarily perfect for the next. Play with the mic placements and levels. Don't let the audio peak or crackle. If you can hear it in your headphones they will definitely hear it during the presentation of your project. Video can be corrected to a point in post production but bad audio usually can not. Do it right the first time and use professional microphones and good pair of headphones.

And again… practice, practice, practice.

Know your equipment, how it works, what its' limitations are, and have fun.

Darren R Wiczek is a writer, director, producer, camera-man, editor with over 27 years of experience. His company Dangerous Productions in Oakfield, Wisconsin is currently working on an action picture about car racing. Our motto is " if you give it to us we'll shoot it".

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