Videos are exploding all over the Internet, especially on MySpace and YouTube.
Some go viral, most do not. Many of us are making our videos public for the very
first time… while wild video camcorder work attracts attention, it’s good to have
some control over when it’s wild and when it’s not.

Sound, or “audio” is another story, if it’s bad, it’s just bad. If your audience can’t
hear the person who’s talking, they’re just going to click “next.” When people using a
camcorder get involved in what they’re shooting, (even those with some
experience), the first thing they forget about is sound.

Audio that accompanies video has a major impact on the perceptions of the audience, but when you are capturing a scene, you are part of that scene. Your brain tends to block out sounds that appear as normal until you watch the playback later. Then, Ooops!

This following article is from our book “How To Shoot Better Home Videos – Help
From The Hollywood Pros” We hope it helps stamp out bad camcorder video!
Shhhhhhh! The audience is listening…

No Talking!
It might seem that it “goes without saying,” but… don’t talk, laugh or gasp while
recording, unless you’re deliberately commenting on the scene. Your mouth is two
inches from the on-board microphone. Anything you say can, and will, be used
against you.

Once you have learned to curb your enthusiasm enough to shoot in
silence, you can begin training yourself to hear the sounds that are going on around
you. It’s not just enthusiasm that can draw attention to the camera operator -
shuddering sighs of boredom can bring the viewer’s attention to a standstill,
especially if it is accompanied by an unexpected camera movement that feels like a
huge wave just rolled under the boat.

Hearing your surroundings
If there is a loud air conditioner and you have control over it, turn it off. If there is
freeway traffic outside the room where you are shooting, get a “cutaway” shot of
the freeway, through a window. (A “cutaway” is a shot of an element that may or
may not be part of the scene but contains information helpful to the audience). Once
the audience knows why the sound is there, they will find it less disturbing.
Example:
You may be shooting a wedding outdoors and crows suddenly start making a ruckus.
Get a shot of the crows and you’ll be less likely to have to spend futile hours trying
to eliminate the screeching of the crows from the “soundtrack” (the audio track
that accompanies the video), once you start editing the ceremony.

Microphones
The “microphones,” those instruments capable of converting sound waves into
electric current built into consumer camcorders, are very good for general sound.
They are particularly reliable. If you’re getting picture, you’re getting sound.
However, they are very limited when it comes to interviews, acting scenes, and
important conversation.

The further away you are from the person whose words you are recording, the more
general audio the microphone is going to pick up. It will also pick up air conditioners
and any motor that may be humming away, including a desktop computer.

When you purchase your camcorder, make sure it has an external microphone
jack. That is, an input, usually a mini jack that takes an external microphone, if
you intend to use it to record clean audio such as interviews or narration.

Many camcorders are now being built without these, and audio capture is restricted to the
built-in microphone. This could really limit the usefulness of your audio. If you have
one of these cameras, try to shoot as close to your subject as you can to eliminate
unwanted ambience (general sound being generated by the location in which you
are shooting).

Camcorders and other electronic devices do so many things; a person is inclined to
assume it’s going to do the simple things, too. When we visit the sales associate in
the camera department we always ask, “What is it that this camcorder doesn’t
do?”

Besides the on-board omnidirectional mic (which captures sound from all
directions), you will want two types of additional microphones in your home video
arsenal, assuming you bought a camcorder with a microphone jack.

The first and most important is the shotgun. This is a unidirectional microphone and the
cardioid version (with a heart-shaped pick-up pattern) is designed to reduce
feedback. This means that the pick-up pattern of the mic will pick up the oncamera
subject at whom it is pointing, but sounds occurring at right angles are
greatly reduced. This results in much higher quality audio.

The second type of microphone is known as the lavaliere (lah vah leer), it attaches
to the speaker’s clothes and is perfect for interviews, so having a pair of them is a
good idea. The cordless lavs or lav mics are the most useful, but it’s important to
listen for occasional radio interference. The corded type is much cheaper and okay
for sit-down interviews.

Headphones
Now that you have some control over your audio, you will want to monitor it with
headphones. Any will do, but the better the quality, the more useful they will be,
and those that block noise coming from anywhere but the mic are preferred.

Once you’re monitoring the sound with a headset, you’ll be listening for air
conditioners, dogs barking, radio interference, and any other noises that distract
from the audio that you’re capturing. It’s good to remember that there are at least 2
sound recordists on any serious movie set (the boom person, and the actual
recordist). One catch-phrase in professional video production goes “If you didn’t get
the audio, you didn’t get the scene.”

This article is excerpted from “How to Shoot Better Camcorder Videos – Help from
the Hollywood Pros”, by Lawrence Benedict