. Film Sets: Outdoor Microphone Setup How and where to position the microphone outdoors When you’re shooting outside in an uncontrolled environment you’ll be faced with many obstacles. You never realize how much noise there is on any given day on any given street until you’re responsible for recording audible and non distracting sounds. Cars will seem much louder, birds chirping will be annoying and other people’s footsteps may even get on your nerves. In these cases it may mean that you need to get your microphone closer to the subject than you would normally be comfortable with. In other times it might mean repositioning yourself in relation to the action. For instance, if you’re interviewing someone on the street, try to position your camera and / or microphone in the direction away from the sound. Remember, if you’re using a directional microphone, sound coming from behind will not be high in the sound recorders priority. Instead, shoot the subject against buildings, other objects or areas that have less distracting sounds coming from them. If the sound is just too loud making it impossible to render audible voices, you may want to consider moving locations. If that’s not possible, that is when a super cardoid microphone will come in handy as it will be able to isolate the sound of the person talking while getting rid of background noise. However, this may pose problems as well. If the speaker is in a busy restaurant or on a crowded street, the background noise may seem unnaturally silent. Remember, as a filmmaker or documentarian, you’re trying to recreate a world which closely mimics reality. This means if humans are used to hearing ambient sound in a restaurant then you should make sure if a character is in a busy restaurant you recreate the sound and look of the restaurant as best you can. This means if you choose to use a super cardoid, you may need to insert ambient noise in post production (i.e. car noises, footsteps, dinner crowds etc). However, when forced with the decision to over isolate a sound or muffle it with distracting background noise, it’s better to over isolate the noise and then add sound effects in post production. Fixing inaudible, distracting and noisy sound is sometimes impossible whereas adding sound effects is much easier. Continue Below... Filmmaking: Windscreens Lavalier Microphones Positioning the microphone in a film How to position a microphone outdoors Sound Continuity       .

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