Audio Project 2
We met with the media group to talk about the location and filming dates. They told us we were filming at Harlaxton Manor in Grantham and gave us a list of the dates.
They showed us the actors profiles and explained a bit more about the script and how they were planning to film parts.
We asked them if there were any particular audio sequences required so that we could begin planning them.
They were unsure at the time of what was needed but said they would let us know.
We met with Dave to discuss our roles within the film crew. I decided to go down the more technical route of being in charge of the 633. Joe wanted to improve his boom operation, so this worked out quite well.
We both planned to follow this route for the whole project with Joe doing more of the practical and with me looking at more of the recording aspects.
We talked about tailoring our learning outcomes to follow this theme. I would talk more about using effects, post production and the recording process whereas Joe would go more into the practical. This allowed being more accurate in our tasks.
As this was my first time recording on set, I wasn’t sure what to expect.
The location was fantastic and versatile in so many ways. Both actors were fantastic to work with and were professional throughout the whole process.
I feel the media crew is where a lot of the problems were. The script did not match the location very well at all. The script talks about them coming home and working together, yet they live in this mansion. A few tweaks to the script could have added so much more to the film.
The organisation of the days was rather non-existant as well. We were told to arrive at 10 yet filming wouldn’t start till 12.
I personally feel one of the problems is how little the media team understood our job. This didn’t lead to many issues as after the first day they left us too it.
Overall this process could have been a lot better. The organisation was poor and I think that will reflect in the final product. Some scenes weren’t shot purely to save time and this will hinder the final product.
This day consisted of shooting a lot of small scenes and cinematic shots.
This was good for us as it gave us time to sort out many different spot effects in the rooms.
As the rooms were a unique sounding, capturing spot effects on location was something we wanted to do.
We spent this day collecting footsteps, car sounds, reverb checks and atmos.
The scenes shot during the day consisted of a bathroom scene which was challenging due to background noise, and a scene where the female character drives up to the house.
We tried to capture as many sounds as we could on location to keep it authentic. This would also help in post when we would come to add reverb and other effects, as we would know what these areas sounded like.
While on set we encountered a lot of issues with microphone noise from the radio mics.
For the scene, the male lead was wearing a shirt. The microphone was rubbing against the material on the shirt causing a lot of unwanted noise.
We looked into different methods of removing this noise. Tape was one solution that we found very achievable.
This article here has a video showing some different ways to help not just hide the mic but keep it away from the material.
http://nofilmschool.com/2014/10/7-great-techniques-hiding-lav-microphones
Joe and I bought multiple various types of tape from Packing tape to medical tape. We found an article on Reddit that mentioned that the tape had to be a smooth as possible.
The medical tape after some trial and error worked out really well.
We were happy with the result.