Jun
15
Promoting our Video Production Company and Film Services though Digital PR
Our parent company Lifestory LTD has had such great results in getting the word out there about the fabulous product on offer (Transform your Life Story into a beautiful film that will be treasured by your family for generations. Lifestory LTD can help you create the film of YOUR life.) using Digital PR Consultancy Firm RetroFacto, that Silverspoon Films thought it was high time that we got the RetroFacto treatment ourselves.
Promoting our Film Services
So, we’ve hired RetroFacto to help us promote the wide range of Film production services that we offer here at Silverspoon Films. Right through our Corporate Video Production facility, offering high quality corporate training videos, recruitment guides, and conference filming; to tailored video production services for businesses to help promote themselves on the internet.
Silverspoon Films Video Production
Not only do we offer full video production services, but at Silverspoon Films we can offer daily camera operator, sound recordists, and many other individual production services.
Why don’t you call us now on FREEPHONE 0800 520 0946 and discuss your requirements and ask us for detailed information on costings for our rate card services.
Mar
13
Sound is half the picture – back to basics!
Watch any programme on TV and you’ll forgive bad picture more easily than you will bad sound. We’ve all seen poor quality images on the news, often user generated content ‘at the scene’ stuff shot on a mobile phone. But because we can make out what’s goin on in the footage, it doesn’t really concern us if the image is blurred, stuttering, over exposed, we seem to be able to rise above those qualitative issues and accept what we’re seeing as being passable. Turn your mind to the audio track and it’s a different story. Any quality problems with audio and we’re far more likely to comment about not being able to hear something properly and we’ll become aware that our viewing experience is being negatively affected, to the point where we may well even lose interest and switch off. This is why good audio capture and audio post production is so important, and why I and many others say ’sound is half the picture’.
I’ve spent nearly a decade working as a location sound recordist for television programmes (including factual docs, ob docs, current affairs, sport), corporate videos and commercials
A shoot for Aspect Television
and whilst I don’t profess to being a sound ‘engineer’ (understanding the physics of sound pressure waves etc), I can certainly draw on my experiences to pass on some hints and tips. So, if you’re a budding sound recordist, a keen home-video maker, or video blogger wanting to get better results with your audio, stick around for a few minutes! For the purpose of this blog, I’m going to stick with the interview set-up scenario and we’re going to look at some real basics which can form a good basis on which to build, in order to deal with more complex scenarios and set-ups in the future. This will be good back to basics stuff.
An interview with Ryan Giggs for BBC Wales sports.
Microphone placement: is crucial to achieving good sound. We want to get our microphone into an optimum position for recording the voice of the interviewee, and that means getting our microphone pretty close to the sound source (the mouth of the person speaking!). The optimum position for recording dialogue is usually above and in front of the interviewee’s head, with the microphone at an angle of about 45 degrees…aimed at their mouth! Since we can’t hang the microphone in mid air, we use a boom pole (also known as a fishpole). With the microphone attached at one end, and a reasonable set of triceps at the other, we have our mic placed perfectly. Perfectly that is, until the cameraman says that they want a wide shot, and there’s no WAY you can put your microphone there! But it’s funny how quickly you can think of somewhere else to stick it!! We’ll deal with that later. Let’s stick to the ideal World for now…it’s nicer there! The importance of microphone placement is one of the reasons why you should avoid at all costs, reliance on the camera’s on-board mic, how often is the camera likely to be in the optimum position to record the sound?
'Our Planet' for The Low Carbon Partnership
And in terms of consistency, in order to get a variety of shots, the camera is likely to be repositioned at different distances from the sound source during an interview, as soon as you move the camera….you move the mic, and suddenly you have different sound perspectives to deal with in the edit!
Unwanted noise: So, you have a pole in your hands with a mic on the end perfectly positioned. All you want to hear are the dulcet tones of your interviewee. There are things you can do to eliminate or reduce background noise. If you’re indoors, make sure noisy appliances are swithced off first (fridges, air-con etc), tell everyone in the room to turn their mobile phones off, close windows that let in sounds from outside. Ask the interviewee to empty loose change and wrappers from their pockets (people often fidget during an interview!), if the floor has a hard surface and there is likely to be any movement from any of the crew, check that their shoes aren’t going to make a noise, ask them to take them off if so (you must do the same of course!). The other noise you can reduce is microphone handling noise. Any movement from your hands could be mechanically transmitted along the pole and to the microphone). This is another good reason for avoiding reliance on the camera’s on-board mic, because any movement of the camera, including the noise of the servo that drives the zoom control, will be picked up from the mic.
Equipment: Always use the best that is available given the resources you have available. My main workhorse (and that of many a location sound recordist),
is the Sennheiser MKH60 in a Rycote suspension and basket. The mic is a great all round directional mic and perfect for about 90% of my work. The suspension is a method of suspending the microphone in essentially a set of elastic bands, so it ‘floats’. This is designed to help reduce handling noise. The ‘cage’ or ‘basket’ serves two purposes. Firstly it protects your microphone from knocks and also acts as a primary wind jammer, to reduce the audible effects of air moving across the microphone/or the microhphone moving through air. The ‘fluffy’ or ‘windjammer’ is the very familiar fluffy grey thing that covers the basket, and considerably reduces the effects of a strong wind when outside. I currently have a cheap one that I bought as a replacemment on Ebay from India, which is fine and does the job…
but you can’t beat a Rycote windjammer in my opinion. A Rycote windjammer will allow you to record dialogue on top of a very windy mountain and get great results, I speak from experience!
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