By Jeremy T. Hanke
As I get to know more and more microfilmmakers, I am pleased to find a warmth that arises from realizing that, as Fight Club put it, “we are not alone”. While this is a good thing in the sense that this allows us to grow strong by uniting, it is a bad thing in the sense that many of us are all making the same mistakes.
So, in the interest of helping with both the former and the latter, I’ve decided to address one of the rampant problems in the micro-film community. It’s the A-word that your mom would have washed your mouth out with soap for saying.
That’s right, it’s: audio.
Even now, I hear moaning in the back: “We’re filmmakers after all! Why must we learn about audio? Isn’t that the audio guy’s job?” Well, sure, in a way, it is the audio guy’s job. However, let us not wax eloquent on the multitudes of different people we have working for us. By the very definition of micro-filmmaking, if you’re a micro-filmmaker then you and most everyone on your “crew” wears about a dozen different hats.
As such, often times, the audio guy is just your cousin Morris who’s tall enough to hold the boom mic above your talent or your crazy brother Edward who’s devised a super-microphone by combining eight $4 USB mics! Let’s be honest with ourselves! There’s nothing wrong with starting from humble beginnings, but there is a problem when we focus too much on video quality to the exclusion of audio.
As much as every one of us loves the filmic look of the high end Panasonic, Sony, and Grass Valley cameras, a better camera will not help you if you do not understand the basics of audio.
Who am I to talk about audio, you may ask? I am the filmmaker who has probably made the most mistakes in audio on this planet. While I’m sure that someone has outclassed my ability to screw up audio somewhere, I have yet to meet him. (I heard a rumor that there is a man in Swahili-land that has made more audio mistakes, but I discount that rumor because I don’t think Swahili-land exists.)
On my first film, I was putting a cheap shotgun mic 5, 10, and 15 feet away from my talent, allowing my camera person to “proof” the audio from a day’s shooting with $4 headphones, and accidentally putting the mic-in plugs into the line-in ports on the switcher. Oh, and, just for fun, I shot an entire shooting day with the audio muted! The fact that I caught that last element is shocking, since I was “too tired” to actually proof any of my dailies as I was shooting!
Needless to say, when I finally hooked up with my eventual audio guy, John (John waves from the corner, sipping an iced mocha), after a year of editing and re-editing the film, John tore out all his hair. You think I’m lying? John used to have a full head of hair…now he’s bald! Oh, wait…that’s me. He’s the one with the pony tail. (John smacks Jeremy, being careful not to dump his coffee on his audio console.)
So, am I saying that in order to get good audio we have to be masters of sound design? No, although familiarity with that art can help you create a more three dimensional film. (If you’re especially interested in that, you can read the review we did of David Sonnenschein’s bookSound Design in this issue.) Instead, what I am saying is that you need is to simply be aware of audio and its importance.
Most filmmakers think that the footage you capture is about 40% of a film, the editing is another 40%, with audio elements “filling” in the other 20%. The reality is that the audio is actually more like 70% of the film and the shooting, editing, and snappy titles are only 30%.
Think I’m wrong? Explain The Blair Witch Project, then.
A very poorly shot film, it was nonetheless watchable because Artisan spent a lot of money sweetening and re-looping the audio after it was purchased. (Of course, good audio can’t salvage films that break every rule of visual filmmaking, like Paul Greengrass’ migraine-inducing The Bourne Supremacy. But that’s a bit more of a rarity than bad audio.)
Imagine what you can do if you combine competent shooting with decent audio? Literally, the world is limitless if you can get your hands on both of these.
So, where do we start?
Well, I’ve always felt that a good way to do it is with a nice top 10 list. So, without further ado, let’s get to it. (Some of these points will be very obvious to some of you. If you are one of these, you can skip ahead. I would rather proceed too slow than too fast to accommodate any new filmmakers.)
The Top 10 Audio Basics Every Microfilmmaker Must Know
- Realize that audio is 70% of your film. I know we just went through that, but repeat it every time you step onto your set.
- Realize that the camera microphone comes straight from the bowels of hell. Never use the camera microphone on anything unless you are simply not going to be recording any dialogue and want mediocre nat (natural ambience) sound. Pretend it does not exist and hope that it gets the hint and goes away. If you ever record any dialogue with the on-camera microphone, you will regret it, as the on-camera microphone picks up all the camera noise of your camera operation as well as all sorts of background noise that you don’t want in your film.
- Pick yourself up a good quality shotgun mic. While shotgun mics aren’t cheap, you don’t have to spend thousands of dollars on them either. Sennheizer makes a great shotgun in the ME66 capsule (official site) which they charge $320 for plus the cost of the required K6 power module which is $319 for a total of $639. I bought the same capsule & power module combo off Ebay for $325 total and have had awesome results with it. (Note: The ME66 is a short shotgun mic which will require you to get closer to your talent. The comparably priced ME67 is a long shotgun mic that allows you to get a little farther away.)
Warning: Make sure that you get the K6 power module and NOT the K6P power module. The K6P module requires the camcorder to power it via a specification called Phantom power, which is usually not available on most prosumer cameras (like Canon’s XL1-S, for example.). The K6 (Official Site) uses a standard AA-battery to power the microphone. - Rather than trying to purchase an expensive boom pole, a simple telescoping microphone stand can be collapsed and used. A head that will fit the mic will run less than $5 at most music stores and the actual mic stand can be purchased new for $25 or less. A shock mount is a more stable holder for the mic on the stand, as these cushion any impact from the boom pole holder, but they are extremely expensive to buy. As such, we published two how-to articles on making your own shockmounts in this issue.
- Invest in a good pair of earphones. While many indie filmmakers try to make do with cheapy $9 earphones, these never really allow your audio person to clearly hear the tone of what’s coming through the mic. As I mentioned before, I tried to do that on my first film and ended up botching the entire audio because they simply didn’t allow us to hear that we had the mic too far away from subjects to get clear audio. A pair of Sony’s Pro MDR-7506 headphones will run you about $99 and are the same type many studio professionals use. If that’s a bit out of your price range, you could go down to the Sony MDR-7502 Pro Stereo Headphones, which run about $49 at most retailers, and would still give you a pretty good sound.
- Most shotgun microphones that are not exorbitantly expensive need to be placed within two to four feet of the person speaking. If you’re using a short gun mic like the Sennheizer ME66 you’re looking at two feet while the 18″ Sennheizer ME67 will probably give you 3-4 feet. While this isn’t very far away, it can be accomplished with a little creativity. Try hiding the mic behind a computer monitor or plant that a person is talking behind. Use the mic stand as an actual stand, rather than a boom pole, in order to get great audio when you can hide it behind something. (As always, practice makes perfect. So give yourself some time to check distances with your mic and your shooting camera before you start your shoot!
- Have a designated audio/boom person. As I brought up before, many times we as microfilmmakers want to try to wear too many hats. We want to direct and be the camera person and pay attention to the audio levels, but we can’t. While a director can run the camera, they just can’t be paying the critical attention to the audio that it requires. Make sure your boom operator is the one wearing the good headphones and that they are given access to the camera’s audio controls periodically to make adjustments throughout the shoot.
- Make your talent memorize their lines. A lot of times, we as low budget filmmakers want to allow our talent to improv to make the dialogue more fresh so that we don’t stifle the film’s creativity. There’s nothing wrong with a little improv from time to time, but when all of the lines in the film become improv, your storyline becomes very muddled, hard to follow, and very difficult to mic properly. In the end, everyone is just talking over one another and your boom operator is having a fit. Remember, you’re making a movie, not recreating your family reunion!
- Mix your dialogue to a consistent level in post. This will increase the watchability of your film because volumes won’t be all over the place. A common film audio level for dialog is around -12 Db (decibels). (If you have difficulty with this, Oakwood Sound Design is offering a basic mastering service for a very low price for Microfilmmaker readers. Go to our Links & Savings page to find out more.)
- Lower the music volume so that all dialogue can be clearly understood. I’ve seen many beginning filmmakers leave their music too loud and end up eroding much of the overlaid dialogue this way. (I even ran across one or two filmmakers who actually left the audio at the level it was on the CD, which nearly blasted your brains out when you tried to watch the film!) A common level for music is -18 Db when it’s underneath dialogue, and -12 Db when there is no dialogue present.
While that’s not everything you need to think about in regards to audio, that’s definitely a good primer and will make your films much more professional if you can it.
Oh, two last minute things in closing!
- Watch your dailies on a good television with good speakers. Don’t make my opening mistake by not watching the dailies! No matter how tired you and your crew are, you can catch audio issues the first day of your shoot if you’re meticulously watching those dailies.
- Do not mount your shotgun mic onto your camera! While it’s marginally better than the onboard mic, mounting a shotgun on your camera still picks up the camera’s vibration and, by definition, means your shotgun is as far away from the action as your camera is!
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