BioBlitz was a School of Life Sciences led event on October 3rd 2016 at Lincoln University. It celebrated the diversity of wildlife that can be found on our university campus. The university invited Chris Packham to present a lecture on the current state of UK wildlife and to run several activities across the day, where participants would examine insects and birds.
A camera crew and I were tasked to film a short promotional video of the event, which would be shown by the University.
My job was to record interviews with the lecturer’s and Chris throughout the day and to also capture wild tracks of the activities. This was a documentary style shoot and was a job that I hadn’t done before.
I needed a light set up so the equipment used were: Sound Device 633, Sennheiser MKH416 rifle microphone, Rycote Modular Windshield, Carbon fibre boom pole and 2 Sennheiser SK100 Lav microphones.
My main microphone was the MKH416 and my back up microphones were the SK100’s. I wanted more experience with following talents with a boom microphone whilst being able to manoeuvre quickly, so the boom wouldn’t enter the frame.
This was a new and challenging role for me, as it was a different project compared to the films that I had done previously. I had to make quick decisions as to where to boom from and to determine whether any microphones needed to be placed on the talents.
It was also a fantastic experience to work alongside a professional such as Chris. There was one particularly great part of the day where he explained to the camera what a ‘BioBlitz’ is and we had to move with him in order for him to show the wildlife that was in the grass.
Overall, a superb experience that has given me confidence in quick decision making and working with an industry professional. I can apply the knowledge gained from this on the set of Cognition.
‘Callback’ was an external project from audio production graduate Matt North, who is now a freelance port-production sound designer. He needed someone to source ambience sounds and also record some foley. So he got in touch with tutor David McSherry asking if there would be any students that would be up for the task. David then asked myself, Sam and Dan to become part of the project and be credited as Sound Designers.
Matt assigned us a deadline for each week to have a section of the film completed. There were 4 reels spread across 4 weeks, we felt like this was a manageable timeframe to stick too.
We sourced ambience tracks for scenes across the films which consisted of rural streets, a beach, an arcade, a park, a cafe and a house. From then mixed SFX to this and then recorded and mixed our foley to it. It was a great way to experiment and be creative with of sound design and the chosen SFX really brought the scenes to life. The external street in the cafe scene was an interesting aspect to include SFX as it was busy with traffic. We played around with spot SFX for car sounds, we had to carefully think about the levels and applying EQ to make it seems like it was outside.
A very different experience to what I am usually working on as what we were doing wasn’t the actually finished piece. It strange to send off our work to then be finished off by someone else but a worth wile experience as a believe it was a great way to practise for the post-production for ‘Cognition’.
This workshop was to explain the onset relationship between a sound recordist and a DOP. Jack is a distinguished camera operator and a cinematographer. He has worked on a variety of projects, from corporate jobs to high budget films.
He explained what sound is considered to be onset and that when the camera is running that is when the whole day is running and when the camera wraps, the day is at an end. The camera dictates the day, and audio follows it. He stressed that that doesn’t mean the camera is more important then the audio, but thats just how sets work.
He works closely with a location sound recordist named Paul Fairey who has only been in the location business for about 4 years but has been in the sound industry for his whole career. Jack said that his set etiquette is what gets Paul hired across the country, and thats is one of the most important aspect of being on set; How well you work with each other.
It is expected of a sound recordist to know the camera and the camera lenses that they will be working with on the day of each shoot. This means that each time you begin to set up for a new shot, the sound recordist can figure out where he can boom from and how close he can be close to the talent without entering the frame. The smaller the smaller the number on a lens, the wider it is going to be.
He then showed us the camera that the university offers and the different settings they have. The sound recordist need to know the audio settings in the camera and also where to find the timecode settings. I asked about timecode and his experience with syncing up to the audio equipment. Timecode syncing is an industry standard method of linking sound to picture and is essential when on set. When you”jam” the timecode, you are syncing up your audio mixer to the camera. There are two types of timecode when on set. ‘Record Run’ is when your timecode stop and starts when ever your camera is running and the there is ‘Free Run’ which is when your timecode is continuously running. Jack said he usually used free run as it time effective when on set and only requires one jam session.
Overall a fantastic workshop that explained how a sound recordist should be like on set and what is expected of one. This will help greatly for future projects.
Just a short meeting. We were in the process of post-production and David wanted to know where we were. We told him about the technical difficulties that we had been having and he noted them and was going to see what he or any other members of staff could do. He told us just to keep trooping on and I left feeling better about the project knowing that he was aware of the issues we were having.
So the day had finally arrived to start filming ‘Cognition’. For the three day shoot we rented the following Equipment :
Sound Devices 633 Mixer x1
Tascam DR-100mk11 Recorder x1
Sennheiser Radio Microphone x4
Boundary Microphone x1
Sennheiser MKH416 Rifle Microphone x2
Carbon Fibre Boom Pole x2
Rycote Wind Jammer x1
Line Input Cable x3 (for the radio microphone)
Rode NT4 Stereo microphone x1
XLR Cable x3
From my research, I understood that there were many consequences using lav microphones as there can be phasing issues, frequency drop outs and interference between the microphone and cloth. Therefore we made the decision to use the Sennheiser MKH416 Rifle Microphone as the main microphone to boom, use the boundary microphone as a second choice and then use lav microphones as a last resort.
As the script had very little dialogue, we used the opportunity to record on-set foley. We made the choice to do this as it would give us the option to eliminate the need to record foley in post-production and it would also give us a guide track to record foley too, if it was needed.
Me, Dan and Sam split the roles into three; production sound mixer, boom operator and sound assistent. We alternated the jobs throughout the shoot so it would give us all the opportunity to learn and become more knowledgeable in each role.
What I achieved and learned in performing each role:
Production Sound Mixer
The role of production sound mixer is to mix and record dialogue into the mixer/recorder. In this case, the recorder was the Sound Devices 633 mixer, but usually you would also/either have a mixing desk with physical faders, routed to a monitor for you to track when to mix certain microphone levels to the actual picture. Since this is a low budget film and we don’t have the equipment to do this, we only used the Sound Devices 633 mixer. Throughout my time as production mixer on ‘Cognition’, I had to keep in mind the 3:1 rule to solve any phasing issues or frequency drop outs that might of occur when using the lav microphones. This requires you to deactivate any microphones that aren’t needed to be used whilst recording so there isn’t any inference between them. This also applies to any phasing issues between plant microphones. This commonly occurs when using a lot of microphones, so luckily we didn’t have this issue, but as a production mixer you need to be aware of these problems so you can quickly fix them.
Boom Operator
As a boom operator, it was my job to make sure the set was quiet and ready to record clear dialogue. I was to mic the talent, communicate to the sound mixer and sound assistant about good and bad takes, follow the action and cue booming when recording, position my boom correctly, decide what techniques needed to be used for certain shots and positioning plant microphones in zones if needed. From previous shoots, I felt confident with the role of boom operator, but new sets come with new challenges to overcome. The challenges that I faced as a boom operator were:
Noisy Exterior- Even though we were shooting everything inside, we still had to battle with traffic noises from outside. Originally, we were to film in a bedroom in a house on a quiet street, but since our location changed to Lincoln Big a few days before we were to start shooting, we had to adapt and rethink our techniques for our new location. Lincoln Big is in the centre of Lincoln and the main noisy sound source was traffic. To counter act this, I made sure that in each shot I positioned my rifle mic the opposite way to the traffic, this way the rejection from the side of the microphone would reduce the traffic picked up. This didn’t eliminate the traffic entirely, but it reduced it dramatically as to not potentially cover the dialogue.
Not knowing the particular framing of shots- This was an issue due to the change of location. As it was decided only a few days before, I didn’t know what was going to be in the frames. This meant that I couldn’t prepare where to boom from, and whether I needed to scoop or boom overhead. It also prevented me from knowing exactly where I could place plant microphones. This wasted time on set, which is precious. To overcome this I had to make quick decisions to reduce time wasting.
Booming- Following talents movement for foley guide track
Sound Assistant
When performing the role of sound assistant, I needed to act as a second boom operator when needed and create a chart that consisted of the scene, the shot, the take and a comment section on the take. By making this chart, it allowed me to take notes on what takes in certain scenes had good audio and which didn’t. This had to be communicated between me and the mixer. I assisted the boom operator if plant microphones needed to be re-positioned and assisted on cable management.
What did I learn and improve on whilst filming ‘Cognition’?
One key skill that I developed more was communication between myself, the director and the producer on set. I maintained a positive work ethic in order to keep on track with the day’s timeframe. By having good communication on set with director and producer, it allowed me to do my job, and for them to do theirs. It was great for me to be able to use my research on plant microphone techniques to be applied on set. Using plant techniques improved my knowledge, allowing me to further my confidence with them. The outcome proved effective as well, but even if it didn’t, it was useful experience experimenting on what worked and what didn’t. I got the chance to hide lav mics in various locations on the talent. One position was directly on the sternum to get the most central position possible. Other positions included underneath the collar of a shirt and one clipped onto the inside of a shirt pocket.
On the set of ‘Cognition’ I learned how to overcome problems when booming and mixing. I gained knowledge and experience with lav and plant microphone positions. I believe my communication with director and producer was professional, allowing us to execute our jobs competently. Overall a successful shoot and I am now looking forward to working on the post-production for the film.
ter the frame.
