Using Sound Equipment

I realised, halfway through production, that changes to sound were needed. Using the camera, the rushes picked up external noise that was counter-intuitive to a successful short film. Therefore, I decided to go ahead and use a boom mike plus sound recorder. This required a pair of extra hands and ears, to both hold the boom and listen through a set of headphones.

Yours truly attempting to master the art of the Boom Mic

In the same way I imagine making a film using 3D cameras might slow down production, on a much, much smaller scale this extra piece of tech meant that everything at first was, well, just a bit stilted as I will attempt to reconstruct:

A: Are you recording the sound, proverbial soundman?
B: No wait, hold on, which is the record button?
A: ... Are you ready, now?
B: Oopsy, got the headphones tangled up-
A: OH FOR FU-

And so on. But, as it is in most cases, practice makes everything that bit more perfect. Eventually, we were able to be on the same page, cameraman and sound-man and, eventually, we set up a little clap system so that synching up audio would be a bit more easier in the edit. It was a little bit D.I.Y, but it worked.

The importance in making this slightly laborious change to filming was massively rewarding in the edit. The sound had markedly improved and made the diegetic sound a bit more crisp, clear and attuned with the non-diegetic music. Therefore, I heartily recommend the use of some professional sound equipment...

B: How do you turn it off again?