How to Capture Audio For Video

Audio for Video Sometimes we’ll sit through bad video as long as it has good audio. This time we are going to take look with the best ways to capture audio for video with the help of four simple steps. The first step is going to be choosing our location and surveying the environment, the second step we are going to talk about closing the distance. The third step, we are going to talk about choosing a microphone and finally the last step we are going to talk about the simple problems where you are into and how to fix them. I’m Tom Skowronski and this is audio for video. Now the first step is very simple, you basically need a shoot to your location, do a 180 degree turn and survey it. You need to make sure you understand everything that might be a problem in that areas especially for outdoors. Are there wind chimes there, are there cars there, is the wind very, very powerful. These are things you need to consider when your out in the field and especially when you're indoors you need to make sure that there is nothing that is going to give off any ambient noise and that you have surveyed your location and you are ready to go and everything is in your control. Now, the second step you are going to need to pay attention to is the amount of distance between the camera and the subject or whatever the source is that you’re trying to get audio from. Now, if you are four feet away it would probably sound like this. [Demonstration] If you are six feet away its’ going to sound like this. [Demonstration] And if you are 12 feet away, it’s going to sound like this. [Demonstration] Now, the simple difference there is that probably if you have notice the closer you are to the camera, especially if it’s an on-camera you choose is the better audio source. That’s the best way to pick up the audio, so number one that you are going to need to know on this scenario is get the subject as close to the camera as possible and close off that distance. Now, step number three is one of the most challenging steps, it involves choosing the right mic for you camera. Are you going to use the on-camera mic? Are you going to use a hand held mic? Or you are going to use a Lavalier mic? It all depends on what fits in your budget, prior the best way to go is to understand the possible solutions for each one of this mics. While on camera mic is good quality it tends to pick up a lot background noise. This is why if you going to use the on camera mic you need to be as close to it as possible so that the voice is the main thing that that on-camera mic is aimed at. Here’s an example of what that’s sounds like. [Demonstration] On the other hand your standard hand held cardio in mic is going to pick up a lot of the noise that comes in front of it and nothing that comes from behind it. This is very good for picking up vocals or even making instruments. Let’s take a listen at the hand held mic. [Demonstration] Now, for fitting your budget a Lavalier mic is perfect for capturing audio. It’s an omni-directional mic which means it’s great for capturing audio that’s up close and it captures audio from the front, back, left and right sides. It’s also very small and very concealable, perfect for interviews. Here is an example of what that sounds like. [Demonstration] Now, you have to use what you have to use so, sometimes an on camera mic is all you’ve go. If you do have access to a hand held mic or a Lavalier mic these are generally a lot better because in most cases you no longer limited to being only four to six feet away from the camera. You can go as far as that wire can take you or if you go wireless you can go as far as you like. The last step we are going to look at it is one you should take with you always for every video shoot you attend. You are going to need to understand how to recognize a lot of the problems when capturing audio and again understand how to fix to those problems. The first thing we are going to talk about is location. First of all when you had in into our location if it doesn’t fit and it’s not right for what you want o be doing if there is too much noise, always try to move the subject away from that location. So, let’s say you are going to interview someone about a basketball game. Is that the best idea to put them on the center of the game? Probably not move him into another room. [Demonstration] One thing that affects each in every one of us when we shoot outdoors is the wind. Take a listen to this audio clip and tell if you could hear it. [Demonstration] The simple solution to this problem is to block the wind somehow. Now, how do we do that? I know it’s not common but you are going to take a big piece of poster board and hold it against the camera. This creates a blocks so none of that wind can hit the on camera microphone. Now, for using another microphone, one thing we could do is also switch our location or position so that we’re behind the building is it said just out in the open so that, that wind is block by something you could also use a big truck, a big car get behind something you could also turn the cameraman’s back to wind so that again anything you could use to muffle that audio will be there. Let’s say you need to capture a voice over you want a very good story and you want to capture that person in their element and there environment. Once again, just like the example with the basketball game, you are not going to film that person inside the actual basketball game; you are going to take them an area where there is no noise. For this we always recommend the closet, a closet is great from muffling sound there is close in there, there is junk in there and there is probably a dead body in there, great from muffling sound. Now one of the last and most important piece to this puzzle is to make sure you have a decent pair of headphone. You want to make sure that you can isolate that audio coming to the camera and that you don’t have any destruction or that you are not listening to anything that might not show up on the camera. You are going to make sure that you are only listening to the exact audio whether it be from the on camera mic, the lavalier or the hand held mic that’s coming into the camera. Let’s review our four steps again. The first thing we are going to need to make sure we always do is look around when we end up at a shoot. We are going to need to make sure we survey our location and that we’re ready for the elements that are in that environment. Step number two, we are going to make sure that we close the distance, close the gap between the subject and the camera and/or the microphone. Step number three, we are going to make sure that we have the best mic for our job that we need to do. We need to make sure we choose the best possible microphone. And step number four, we are going to make sure that if there is any problems in the area we know how to fix them. Now, remember sometimes you need more than just visuals to tell a story and this bring you to pay attention to capturing good audio.