Research: Location Sound Recording: Boom microphones

Sidney Akhurst / / Research

To research the practices of Location sound recording, Jack Webber and I looked through many sources for inspiration. One of these sources for inspiration is the Lynda.com tutorial website, which offers tutorial videos and guides in which to learn how to operate the location sound properly and efficiently to get the best possible sound quality for the production of the piece.

 

Boom Techniques

 

Requires a certain amount of skills

Mic Patterns

 

There are a couple of different boom positions. There is no right or wrong way to hold a boom, but there are ways that are considered the best to get the particular sounds that you require when recording live actors/actresses in the movie. It is very dependent and subjective to what kind of recording one wants to do. There is a position called the “traditional boom position” in which the boom op holds the boom overhad and “nice and long’. Goof amount of of reach and lots of pro’s to using this kind of technique.

 

Boom Position 1: Traditional technique

This technique essentially means to hold the boom above ones head with the arms stretched out above, so that the microphone is pointing towards the cast’s chin

Pros:

 

Up nice and high and very little danger of getting into the frame

Can move it really quickly so that you can go between the different actors.

 

Cons:

Holding a boom microphone overhad can be very tiring , so will need regular breaks and/or someone who is physically fit enough to do the job at hand.

 

 

Boom position 2: Shoulder Position

 

Pros: Many of the same advantages of the overhead position

 

Cons: It is not as high up etc. though, and will more likely get in shot. If you are short you might have to have an apple box.

This position can sacrifice mobility.

 

Clothing noise is a con of this position because if the boom pole starts to rub against ones back/ shoulders, it will be audible in the recording.

 

Very important to use a gentle touch when operating the boom pole because having sweaty hands etc can be an issue. For instance if the boom operator unclenches his hands from the boom pole, that can make an audible noise.

 

In the shouklder position, it is possible to forget that you have an extension of the boom pole , so be very careful when moving about on set.

 

Boom Postion 3 (Down Low)

 

Pros: Very easy to hold, its not as high up so, it wont cause any stresses on the shoulders.

 

Cons: Because the microphone is held upwards and is very directional, if any aircraft overhead are passing, it will appear in the audio recording. Also, if used in a studio setting, any sound of lights and electricity above will appear in the recordings .

Location Sound Recording: Our Jobs on set

Sidney Akhurst / / Tasks

Location sound recording requirements

 

For this post, I am going to detail the requirements for location sound in the movie Petal Child. The media and FTV Students requirements are to have at least a third of the production being on location. The rest of the film is to be filmed in the Lincoln TV studio.

 

For the purposes of this film, being set in the 1960’s, the locations needed to be very specific, in that they needed to be away from any present features such as modern cars, overhead aircraft and trains etc. We had to go on a location scout, and chose places that were the most aesthetic in regard to how much background sound there was. In some cases this was unavoidable however, and I will detail this when talking about particular locations that we chose.

 

To log what recordings we used for each take, Jack and I used a “sound log form” which details the scene, the shot and the take, and the name of the recording on each microphone used.

 

 

Location recording equipment that we used

 

Sennhiesser with Boom:

 

Zoom H4N:

 

Zoom H6N:

 

Sony Radio Mics

 

 

 

Cardinals Hat

 

This was the first of the locations and was set in the back of the bar, the outside smoking area. This setting was visually pleasing because it was an old-fashioned style setting, perfect for what we wanted. The background sound here though became a challenge. There were fans from buildings that were opposite, aircraft noises and loud bird noises (as it was an old building it had a birds nest on the roof). All of these interrupting sounds meant that the director had to cut the takes. In this setting, there were 4 actresses, and this was the only take that we used the sony radio clip mics. We encountered some technical problems in using these microphones in that there were some fuzzy frequencies that popped up in the takes. This is something we tried to eliminate by changing the position of the microphones and also replacing the batteries. This still was an issue, so in the end we relied on the recording from the boom.

 

 

Garage

 

The garage scene was the most challenging set of all in all of the groups opinions. Apart from the fact that the day was absolutely freezing, the location made the sound capture an absolute nightmare. The garage scene had all 5 Actresses in, the scene where they are looking to buy the garage as a place for the band to hang out. We didn’t use the radio microphones in this scene due to the problems we had previously with them. In this scene we used the boom microphone and the zoom on a boom pole. This garage was next to a road, which appeared quiet on the time of the location scout, but on the day it was absolutely awful because cars were driving past every few minutes. This meant that even more than the last shoot at the Cardinals hat smoking area, the director had to keep cutting the shot. We had windows of opportunity between the cars driving past, and this took a long time to get moments of silence. Even when it was quiet without cars (which was a rarity) there were dogs that barked, and a low-pitched aircraft/ electricity hum. After a while, we managed to get most of the sounds we wanted, but we will need to use Izotope RX Audio repair software on some of these recordings to eliminate the hums.

 

Street

 

This scene we were most pleased with the sound and got the best results. It was a nighttime scene. We used both the boom microphone and zoom h4n to capture the audio. It was one of the longest shoots based on the amount of takes, but this was based on the actresses roles being quite difficult and getting the camera shots perfect with the actresses. This street, in Lincoln, had only one car drive through, in the 3-4 hours we were there. This meant that we could get a clear sound. The worry is how we are going to match up this clarity with the rest of the shoots.

 

Bedroom

 

This was possibly one of the easiest and shortest shoots needed, with only a few words of dialogue involved, so we had only used the boom microphone in this part of the shoot. This took about an hour, as the actresses (Stephanie and her mum) took a while to learn lines. The set wasn’t in the studio either; it was in a member of the group’s house that had a bedroom most reminiscent of the 1960s.

 

Field

 

For this part of the shoot, all 5 actresses were involved, and we had to go out to the field ‘west common’ in Lincoln at night. This took ages to set up and it was raining on and off as well, so recording was a challenge here. Also, it was fairly windy too. We had to use umbrellas over the microphones because of this rain, and wear plastic bags over our feet because it was so muddy and wet on the ground. In this recording we used boom microphones only and for short bursts of time. It was rather frustrating as there wasn’t actually that much dialogue, but we would have preferred to do this seeing as ADR is an issue (the main actress lives near Glasgow and could only act in the short space of time that we had)

 

Huckleberry’s (Kitchen scene)

 

In this scene, which was also quite short in terms of dialogue, we captured audio using a zoom h4n and the boom microphone. There were certain issues with this setting though, in that there was background noise that fluctuated in the background. This noise was the sound from the fridge in the background in the kitchen. Jack and I hope to remove this in post production with Izotope RX.

My Role in conjunction with the group

Sidney Akhurst / / Production Posts

My roles for the production of Petal Child are as follows:

 

Foley Artist

Sound Design

Music Composer

 

My group member Jack Webber has the role of chief location sound recordist and sound engineer/ mixer. In conjunction with Jacks role, I have to provide all of the music cues, on one music track in the form of a WAV, all of the atmospheric sounds for each scene on one track, and all of the Foley sound on a third track. These processes will be explained to a fuller extent on separate posts within this blog. In terms of the processes used to do this, my main equipment to perform this will be on Logic pro 9 and Pro Tools 10/11. I have decided to use logic pro 9 because it’s a software DAW I am used to and comfortable with making sounds, as well as its ability to accommodate my vast software add ons, including Native Instruments Komplete 10, as well as Native instruments Reaktor 6. These are the most useful plugins in terms of effects for the sound within the film. For example, the LSD trip scenes will be including an array of effects within these add on software’s, which will encapsulate to a greater creative extent the good and bad trips. The randomization/ mutation tool in Absynth 5 is a great place to start with the creation of these creative types of atmospheres. Jane, Hearst, the director of the film, has said to make the trip scenes “Sid”, which basically means to make them sound like music/sound I am used to creating (Experimental/ dark, strange).

 

My official roles consist of mainly postproduction, but I did get involved with the pre production and planning of the film as well as the recording of the dialogue on set. Also, our skills were put to the test with our other group member, Yuan Ding (Aka Shaun), who is an international student. He is an FTV student, but his role in the film is also sound, but his specialism didn’t lie in sound, so we had to talk him through each job we were doing and explain it a number of times due to the language barrier. We managed to build up a rapport with Shaun and he has begun to understand our concepts of sound through teaching and practice.

 

Aims, Objectives and Learning outcomes

Sidney Akhurst / / Learning Outcomes

Aim: To Produce the entire soundtrack to the film “Petal Child” .

Objective 1: Record all voice acting with a variety of microphones, both on Location and in the studio, with the rest of the sound team ( Jack Webber and Yuan Ding)

Objective 2: Record and produce all Foley sounds to be included within the film

Objective 3: To Create the musical score for the film using instruments and music software

Objective 3: To capture and present all sounds in an authentic way that sets the scene for the 1960’s (the time that the film is set)

Learning outcome 1: To learn to use Location sound recording equipment (As this is something I havent done a great deal of before) Especially with using the sound devices and boom microphones , radio microphones, in a professional way, so that I will be able to do it again in confidence that I wont mess up , to get a good quality of sound. To be able to do this, a great deal of practice is needed, and research. Working as a group to be able to do this is key, but also on an induvidual level.

Learning outcome 2: To learn to create Foley sounds from scratch using various recording and foley production techniques (spending time in the sound theatre producing foley sound). This will take place by researching the various methods of foley sound production and by practice of using the sound theatre. I feel that this will be easy to pick up and with all the practice, the concept of foley sound will become easier to plan when it comes to the actual production. Watching other films and listening to how the foley is mixed down may be one of the most appropriate ways of doing this, as well as watching and reading online “how to” videos

Learning outcome 3: To learn about/ research the 1960’s and the psychedelic rock genre, so that I can capture the vibe for the music and sound that will accompany the visual images of the film. This is extremely important in that capturing the correct feeling for the film is the best way to make good sound design into great sound deign.

Learning outcome 4: To learn how to work with a team of people to create a film (Will be a learning experience to say the least as I am usually a gremlin with my music and sit in my own world following my own rules). I have never worked on a film production of this scale before so I would say that the entire creation of the film will be a learning experience. Working with people efficiently and to not take over on certain tasks , and by listening to what other people have to say is my most important learning outcome here.