Recording good quality sound for your film or video as cheaply as possible

Why do we need to record sound when we’re filmmaking?

Well, there are generally 2 types of audio that need to be recorded when making a film. Mostly, we’re talking about making fiction films, or “drama” (I don’t mean the genre called drama, but films which have a fictional story are usually made up of dramatic action).

The most important sound we need when filmmaking is that of the actors’ voices. Essentially, the clearer you can record this sound, the better. Nice, clear voice audio saves time in post-production. It also gives your film higher production values.

The 2nd type of audio we need to record is background ambience and individual sounds (or “foley”).

For example, you might want a background ambience from inside the living room in which you have filmed a scene. You want to capture the sound when no one is talking or making any other noises. The sound designer than uses this as an underlay, over which to place the other audio – like voice or foley.

Individual sounds might be a car door closing, or a kettle boiling, or footsteps. You can also capture this kind of audio after the shoot has finished, at any time.

Personally, on my low-to-no budget shoots, we don’t have time for this. So I capture – or find online – anything I need when I come to editing.

The important difference between recording audio and video

Capturing the moving image part of your story is a creative process. When working out how to film a shot, there are infinite possibilities. Choosing shots is all about how you want to express your story, visually.

Recording sound, on the other hand, is mostly a technical process. It’s all about getting the best audio quality possible in the situation the sound recordist finds herself. That’s not to say the sound recordist doesn’t need to be innovative and able to improvise. Actually, this is really helpful if they can.

But with sound, the expressive stuff is done in post-production. So, your sound designer (which in micro budget situations is probably you) will thank you if you provide them with the clearest, crispest possible voice audio.

Early experiences taught me the basics

My first ever role in a film shoot was as a sound recordist. This is because I was a composer-sound engineer for years, so I had an understanding of the technical side of audio.

In that first shoot, I was using a Sennheiser 416 shotgun mic + boom pole, connected to a reel-to-reel nagra. Yes folks, I was alive in the days when sound recordist had to feed magnetic tape through a recording machine in prep for a days film shoot.

I remember that first day well. The director had hired Stansted airport for a few hours. But we spent most of those hours, it seemed, filming a wide shot of a car driving towards the airport.

It was raining. And I was positioned on a grassy roundabout near the approach to the airport, recording the sound of a car passing. Trying to remember how to feed this tape through the machine correctly, whilst keeping it dry…

In no budget filmmaking, you have to do what works

If you employ a professional sound recordist, they will want a boom + shotgun mic, radio mics, a portable sound mixer, recorder, and one or more assistants. They will also want to record every spoken word by every actor in every scene, no matter if the actor is on camera or not.

Which is great. If you have those resources (and time) at your disposal.

But low-to-no budget filmmaking means you often do not have these resources. I have shot several shorts, a feature, and a feature-length web series, and I’ve only had a pro sound recordist for one of those films. Every other film I’ve made, either had me recording sound or someone who had never recorded sound until the day they showed up on set.

The most important advice I can give you when shooting with limited budget – and this goes for all departments from camera to make up – is not to emulate what “should be done”, just do what works.

Equipment

When I shot my feature for £4000, I spent £700 on a microphone. It was the most expensive piece of equipment I bought, even more than the camera (£600). I knew that getting the best quality sound was essential. I was going to be spending years making this film, so a £700 investment made sense.

Shotgun mic: Best shotgun mics under $400

Boom pole: Best boom poles

Pistol grip shock mount (the shock mount protects the mic from bumps which cause unwanted noise)

Windshield (there’s 2 levels. 1st is the case, which protects from gentle winds, 2nd is the case+dead cat, which protects from heavier winds)

Audio cable

Field recorder: affordable field recorders

Headphones (with good isolation, so you only hear the audio from the mic)

It’s possible to connect your mic to your camera, but I prefer not to do this. Although it has the advantage of your audio being synced to your picture, I find it messy and restrictive when filming. I like to move the camera instinctively, so I don’t like the camera to be tied to the sound recordist.

But if this works for you, then do it. It also saves you purchasing a separate recorder.

Shotgun mic

A shotgun mic is what is known as a “directional” mic. In other words, this microphone has the seemingly magical ability to focus in on the sound coming from a narrow source (ie: an actor’s mouth).

You don’t need to know how it works, just that these mics are perfect for cutting out much of the background noise, whilst picking up the voice of an actor as cleanly as possible.

When using one of these mics, you can use them a bit like a gun. Imagine a line shooting out from the barrel of the mic like a bullet. Now try to aim the “gun” at the source of the sound you want to record.

Positioning the mic

Getting the best audio is mostly about having the mic in the right position. The big challenge with fiction filmmaking is to get the mic as close to the actor’s mouth as you can without the mic appearing in the shot.

This picture above illustrates how the mic is kept as close to the actors as possible while remaining out of shot.

You can position the mic above the actors heads. You can also position the mic below, aiming upwards, if the shot/scene allows.

Indeed, you can place the mic wherever works. Just aim the shotgun mic like a gun, drawing a line in the direction the mic is pointing, aiming for the actor’s mouth.

The advice is to get as close to the actor’s mouth as possible. However, the optimal distance depends on the mic. You can actually get too close. So with a shotgun mic, I’d place it about a meter away, if possible.

This is how I do it

When I was learning how not to shoot a movie, as a writer, producer, gaffer, sound recordist, runner etc, I found the best strategy was to focus on getting good voice audio when you’re getting the close ups.

Important fact: the only audio you need when shooting a scene is the audio coming from the actor whose mouth is in shot.

A professional sound recordist will often attempt to “swing” the boom during a scene, from one actor to the other, as they deliver their lines. In fact, when I first recorded sound, the pro I was learning from told me we had to learn the script as well as the actors, so we could follow the dialogue with the boom mic.

Well, even the pros find it hard to swing the boom and capture every actor perfectly. There’s always a danger the recordist will miss a bit of the important dialogue (ie: from the actor in shot). There’s also more chance the mic will swing into shot or across a light, causing a shadow to pass over the actor’s face.

When you are making a low-to-no budget film, you just don’t need this extra hassle. Time should be used on the important things – telling the story, actors performance, good storytelling shots. In my experience, it’s just not worth it to try to record every actor.

Even if an actor is in shot, but facing away from camera, I would suggest the mic stays on the actor the camera is focused on.

Why focus on close ups?

Because when the camera is close on the actor, the mic can get close too. With close ups, the camera is usually still as well, so this makes capturing clear audio easier.

When you’re filming wide shots, it’s pretty much impossible to get a shotgun mic close enough. Go ahead and get the audio, but most likely it isn’t going to be good enough to use.

When you come to edit, you can lay this audio from the close ups over the top of the wide or medium shots. Usually, with some playing around, you can get the audio to fit the mouth movements of the actors.

Yes, it does dictate the way you edit, to a certain extent. But this is the way I have found works best when your resources are limited. Of course, you should try to get the best possible sound in every shot.

My point is that the close up audio is the most essential. If you make sure you capture that well, you can afford to cut corners with the other shots.

“Typically for a one-man-band situation, I would recommend using a shotgun mic, not wireless lavs. While lavs are excellent tools and can sometimes be the best possible choice (especially when shooting wide shots where you can’t show a boom), from my experience they aren’t ideal when you’re doing everything yourself.” Noam Kroll

Unwanted noise is the sound recordist’s enemy

Sound recordists generally inhabit a world separate to the rest of the film crew during a shoot. They tend to be found in the corner, headphones on, mumbling to themselves, tutting and grimacing every time someone on the far side of the room sniffs or scratches their beard.

The location a scene is to be filmed in brings its own challenges for the sound recordist. There’s a number of common issues which cause headaches. Things like air conditioning hums, aircraft passing overhead, sirens, general traffic noise, fridge hums, people nearby making too much noise, neighbours listening to music or TV too loud, building works nearby… the list goes on.

Every time one of these uncontrollable elements occurs, filming has to stop while the issue is resolved or the plane has passed. So they really are the bane of our low-budget, short on time film shoots.

What’s the problem?

When you are recording the audio, the background aircraft going over might not appear to be so much of a problem. But when it comes to editing, and the audio needs to be cut together from different takes, these noises cause a “continuity” issue.

For example, that plane noise, which is slowly changing pitch as it passes, has to cut with a take where there is no plane noise. So, imagine you are cutting between 2 actors exchanging dialogue. Each time you go from one actor to the other, the audio of the plane cuts in or out.

This is why you need the voice audio to be as clean as possible. These days, a lot of noises can be cleaned up. But the louder that background hum or hiss, the more the voice audio will be distorted when you filter it out.

Set your gear up

The mic, pole and cable can create noises themselves. So make sure the mic is properly shock-mounted so there’s no chance of the mic knocking against the mount or the windshield. Also, make sure the cable is stretched out along the pole, flat (not wrapped around it). Bind the cable to the pole, or hold it tight with your hands, so it doesn’t flap about.

Try to avoid knocking the mic into anything or exposing it to wind (such as swinging it wildly). And of course, make sure everyone understands the importance of being as quiet as possible. Cell phones should be switched to silent.

Audio levels

Set the level so the peak meters indicate the audio is not hitting the maximum level. If it does, the audio will distort and be unusable.

You might need to ask the actor to say a few lines to get a sense of how loud their performance will be, and set the record level appropriately.

Set the level too high, and the audio may distort (or you will have to move the mic too far from the actor and pick up room reflections). Set the level too low and, when it comes to editing, the audio level will have to be boosted so high there will be some extra noise.

Having said that, it’s probably safer to be too low than too high.

You can do it

When faced with too much new technical information, we often feel overwhelmed and our instinct is to think “I don’t know how to do it, I need a professional”. If you can afford one – cool. If not, you can do ok without.

Just focus on what works and understand the simple basics of audio recording. Then you should have enough knowledge to do a decent job.

When I did a Q&A after the premiere of my low budget feature, I was asked, “How did you get such good sound on that budget?” My reply was, “Maybe it’s as simple as pointing a mic at someone’s mouth.”

And this isn’t to play down the role of a trained sound recordist. They are awesome folk, often performing a highly underrated and misunderstood role in the filmmaking process.

However, we’re all about liberating you from the obstacles which stop you making films. We also want to stress how important good audio is for your movie.

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