5 CRUCIAL Audio Insights for Filmmakers & Creators

if you're shooting film or video of any kind then these five tips will help you get the best possible audio it's really important to ensure your audio sounds crisp and clear as viewers will click off your video really quickly if they hear your audio sounds like this hey everyone please like this video If you enjoyed it do consider subscribing if you found this helpful the first tip is to understand your mic Choice there are loads of different mic types like this USB condenser microphone this Wireless lapel mic or even this shotgun that I've got boomed just out of frame above me here they all have their pros and cons but if you're just shooting on a phone or if you've only got a camera I highly recommend you get some kind of external microphone it will greatly increase the quality of your videos and your viewers will thank you for it I use a shotgun microphone the most as for me it's the most versatile and I like the sound profile a lot as my main cameras have some kind of XLR input it means I can run the mic directly into camera and avoid having to sync it later in post which I'm not a huge fan of a shotgun is great for capturing dialogue or On Location Sound it's great if you're working in a fast-paced environment or need to record audio from multiple subjects I also use lav mics on almost every sheet especially for interviews or for events where I can't necessarily get a boom on a stand in place personally I use the rode Wireless go to system for me it's been absolutely great I used to use the deity connect system but actually it was a little bit Overkill I haven't had any issues with the signal transmission from the rode Wireless go TOs and being able to record two inputs to one output is really a must-have whatever microphone you choose to use the mic placement will have the biggest impact on the recording quality a super expensive mic put in the wrong place will not capture good audio if your shotgun mic is pointing the wrong way or your lapel is too muffled or your condenser is just too far away then they'll all sound bad regardless of the quality of the actual microphone so what are some tips for mic placement well let's start with the shotgun microphone for this you really want it as close to the subject as you can get for me it's just out of frame about five or six inches I've got it mounted on a light stand with a grip head and boom pole holding combo this is how I would make any interview I also use the included foam windshield even inside just to stop any accidental wind noise when I'm shooting outside I use this rode blimp with a dead wombat and it really cuts out any of the wind noise that I'd have to deal with there are ways to digitally remove wind noise but I feel like the quality is much better if you get rid of it from the source as they say prevention is always better than cure now placing a lav mic and this can be as simple as what I've done here clipping it to somebody's shirt you can also hide them in a button of a shirt or use some stickies to hide them underneath clothes they're super fun because you can hide them in all manner of places and that allows you to get good audio in the space where a shotgun microphone wouldn't fit it's also really popular when shooting shorts to hold a wireless transmitter like this it makes it super easy to film good audio and it's easy to interview other people as well now a really important step is to record multiple sources of audio for redundancy if you do have access to audio equipment one way to ensure you have high quality is to record through multiple microphones most common is the shotgun and lapel mic combo as they record two clean audio sources so if something goes wrong or One Source sounds really bad then you have a backup and are still able to use that footage redundancy is one of the main principles of filmmaking it's why you see so many cameras with dual slot recording the same is true for audio my a camera can record the same input at two different levels so you have a backup in case your subject suddenly becomes really loud if I'm just shooting with one camera I'll run a shotgun mic into one input and put the wireless go to into another however if I'm shooting with two cameras then I'll run the wireless go to into my a camera and my shotgun mic into my B camera the B camera will also have a scratch audio track as well so I've really got three chances to get it right while that scratch audio really might not be very good DaVinci resolves voice isolation feature means that it could at least be possible in case literally everything else has gone wrong it really wouldn't be ideal so that's why I always double check my audio inputs and keep continuously monitoring the levels while shooting using multiple sources also gives you much more flexibility in post-production as microphones record in different ways certain voices might sound better on certain mics so having the option of multiple means you can choose the best one being able to choose and blend inputs can give well-rounded and clear dialogue now dialogue is for sure the most important but sound effects and Ambience can elevate your film to the next level even just adding a ding to that subscribe button that you should definitely click can have an impact b-roll over an interview will be much more engaging and you can help the viewer understand what's happening sound has just such a massive effect on how we engage with films try watching back some scenes from your favorite films and listen to everything other than the dialogue to see what the filmmakers were trying to draw your attention to shot reverse shot has an impact on the viewer and the same can be said with sound effects whether you're alerting the viewer to a moment or a scene that happened before or just accentuating it with Hyper real Foley foreign action scenes without sound effects doesn't feel as impactful driving scenes would feel disconnected and scenes in a kitchen like in the bear would lose their tense cramped atmosphere recording these sound effects is something you can do while shooting you could capture it in the same take as the dialogue or muffle that sound and shoot it in a separate take to have more control one of the most important things to capture is the room tone or Ambience room tone is really important because if you need to remove a sound or remove a line of dialogue you have to replace it with something otherwise there'll be an empty Gap and the audience will be pulled out of the scene you should shoot room tone in the exact same environment as you shot the rest of your audio in so if you have a low hum from a fridge or the sound of fans from your lights you need to record that sound so that it gels well you can always record a second version with the lights turned off but have one minute of room tone is worth far more in the edit than the time it takes to shoot it finally the last point I hope you take away from this is that audio is essential to a good film or video the audience won't really care if it's shot in 4 or 6K but they will care if the dialogue is Muddy and they can't understand what the subject is saying if you have low or no budget then really focus on audio and the final project will come out feeling like it had much more cash behind it if you're shooting commercially really make sure that you give the time to set up your audio correctly and let your client know what you need to get good audio whether that's putting a lapel microphone on them or turning off an air conditioning unit or something that's creating a loud noise and if it's a really low budget narrative production give one person the responsibility of mic placement and levels to ensure you get great audio putting one person solely in charge of audio means that at least at the end of the day you're going to have crisp clear dialogue and the project will come out much better for it thank you for listening to what I have to say about Audio and Sound it really has a big role in how we engage with film and video and I think it's so important I really hope you've taken something away from this video and do leave your thoughts in the comments down below thanks for watching

Channel: Chris Silovsky

Views: 440

Keywords: filmmaking, davinci resolve, voice isolation, microphone, shotgun microphone, filmmaker, audio, audio tips, crucial, crucial audio tips, project, elevate, improve your audio, craft, important aspect of filmmaking, room tone, mic, mic placement, mic choice, microphone placement, microphone choice, redundancy, redundancy in filmmaking, SFX, SFX and ambience, Ambience, creator, creators, creator audio, become a better creator

Id: 48yrawFZFVc

Length: 8min 9sec (489 seconds)

Published: Fri Aug 11 2023