Meeting with Grant Bridgeman – Sound Recordist
Today we met up with Grant to discuss any potential issues with recording on location and how to overcome them. The meeting was very useful, and ran on for the best part of an hour! The main point of discussion was the ability to use the equipment correctly, namely setting the levels to an industry standard reference in which there would be enough headroom without accentuating any background noise. We covered many topics, which included how many boom microphones to use (in which we decided one would be sufficient), as well as the need for wild tracks of each room, how to interact with other members of the filming crew, and other general information.
Although the meeting with Grant gave us a huge amount of information and advice, the most important piece of information he revealed was the fact that another University lecturer, Ronnie Fowler, had been hiding a brilliant location microphone preamp in his office without anybody knowing! The chances of us being able to lend this piece of equipment sounded promising, and fortunately after meeting with Ronnie later today, he gave us the go ahead. The pre-amp was an SQN 5-Channel Location mixer which one of the best on the market for its purpose, and so obviously we are both very excited to use it. We will spend the weekend researching its capabilities before collecting the equipment on Monday; both Grant and Ronnie advised us to only use the equipment if we knew exactly how to operate it, so reading up online is essential.
The full specification for the SQN can be found on their website – http://www.sqn.co.uk/5Sspec.html
Preparations
I will be spending the weekend reading the script and making any notes in parts that could be problematic when recording. It is important that we both know the script in order to correctly move and position the microphone between each actor to capture the dialogue effectively. Knowing what is coming next in the script is vital; we do not have enough timeto stop filming because of small mistakes that we could have prepared for.
We will also prepare the sound log sheets, which will allow us to accurately log each recording along with the file name for the camera, which will allow the editor to match up each piece of audio with the visuals. As well as this, the sound log sheets will allow us to make any notes regarding the quality of the take which will be advantageous in the mixing stage.
Below is a full list of the equipment we will be using when on location:
- SQN 5 Channel Location Recording Mixer
- Marantz Solid State Portable Recorder (x2)
- Rode NTG-2 Shotgun Microphone (x2)
- Beyerdynamic DT770M Headphones
- Boom Poles with microphone clip attachments
- Cables (XLR, Jacks, USB, Power)
- Batteries (x20 AA)
- Laptop and External Hard Drive for Backup
Below are the call sheets for each day of location recording