Recording Sound With an External Microphone

             

Sound

This footage we filmed in an old record shop. We basically wanted an interview with a worker about the music scene in Oxford so we could use the boom mic. As you can hear we had some problems with the boom mic as there was a speaker right next to where we had it positioned. The camera position and framing look really good and like a documentary style its just the sound that lets it down. For this shot we had the aperture set at f/8 so we had the ISO set at 400 and the shutter speed set at 1/250. We put the ISO up because we wanted to make the most out of the small amount of light that was in front of him. All of these made the shot look really nice and documentary style. The equipment we used in this was a Canon 500, tripod and the boom mic. Looking back on this shot if i could do it again I would make sure that we scan the room for anything that could damage the sound on the boom mic. This mistake with the boom mic led me to notice that in the American new wave film Easy Rider that I've researched for my contextual study, the opening scene is the two protagonists taking part in a drug deal but you can't hear anything they are saying because it has been smothered with the sound of aeroplanes flying over them. Seeing has made me realise i can still use the footage as a new wave influence.

Lighting

We chose to film in the window of the shop because we thought it would look good having the street behind him, which it did but we did not consider him being poorly lit. Looking back if i could have done this shoot again i would have ensured that we used the reflector to reflect light from the window onto the man so that he was evenly lit.

Health & Safety

For this shoot we were in a small record shop so we had to take a few risks into consideration. We had to make sure all bags and equipment we weren't using were stored out the way of any aisles so it weren't abstracting anyone walking. we also had to make sure the tripod wasn't in the way of any walking space so that people wouldn't trip over it. Every one had to be aware of the wires from the boom mic also.