Today we finished off filming the scene we’d started blocking before the break. I was put in charge of the audio.
The director immediately set up the camera in a strange position. Like I noticed in an earlier tutorial, the height was all wrong. Last time the camera was far too low and tilted up, and this time the camera was far too high and tilted down. The camera was also far too close to the actors and using a short focal length lens, when we wanted to be using a longer focal length lens. This seemed to be anther case of just setting up the tripod at an arbitrary place and to an arbitrary height, and framing the shot from there. As I’ve brought up with Robin, I would like to look into bringing more reason and motivation into this camera-positioning process, rather than just shooting from wherever the camera happens to be. I pointed out that the crew should move back and use a longer focal length lens, and they agreed. They proceeded to move back about a foot which made almost no difference. Eventually, Robin initiated the move right back to allow for the use of a longer focal length lens, as well as the lowering of the camera. I really liked the resulting shot on Jonah.
I didn’t push my suggestions to the director too hard because I felt wasn’t my job to do so. The director seemed to be spending enough time on the shot she had already set up, advice from other crew members would only slow the process down further. Maybe this is just what happens when someone is new to directing, which most of us are.
I learned a few things in my position as audio recorder. Firstly, I learned that a boom mic operator should swing the mic around to follow the action. I used this technique to record Vanessa’s entrance to the scene, as announced by a bag dropping, followed by the dialogue exchange between the two characters. It was an interesting challenge to move the boom without making any noise, and without getting in the way of the actors or the shot. I could occasionally hear the microphone’s cord bumping against the boom as I moved, which I realised was a problem. I think this would have been fixed if the cord was properly taped to the boom, or maybe I just needed to develop a better movement technique.
I also worked out that different ventilation vents in the room were making different sounds, which produced a different overall background hum depending on the direction in which the microphone was pointing. This could be problematic, but it also helped me realise that it was ideal to have the mic pointing straight down at the actors from above.
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