Today we shot at the upstairs bar at the Tower Bar in Lincoln City Centre, which the film group decided would be a good replacement for the Home nightclub scenes. Unfortunately for us, the problems were even worse.

A band happened to be sound checking in the venue parallel to this bar, so a ridiculous amount of bass was rattling things on the bar, and obviously intruding massively on to our recording. Combine this with an already very loud bar, as well as refrigerators that could not be turned off, and we had a recipe for disaster.

Fortunately for us, we have the ability to produce good quality ADR at the University sound theatre, and so the decision was made to complete this scene there. This isn’t to say I didn’t try many different mic positions and techniques to attempt to at least get one good take, however it was impossible.

Practical Recording Techniques – Bruce and Jenny Bartlett

This book has been useful in many aspects of the recording process, mainly technical issues. It contains information on using different DAW’s as well as new digital media technologies, which have helped when trying to move projects from one DAW to another. It also contains a good section on workflow, which was useful for completing work quickly and efficiently

The book can be found here: http://books.google.co.uk/books?id=c8AY4GkVPRYC

Introduction and Overview of Location Sound Recording

This piece of lecture material available online was a good go-to guide for terminology when researching other books and sources. It contains a lot of information solely about recording on location including microphone choice, maintenance and repair as well as setting up on location.

The material can be found here: http://www.thompsound.com/old-site/Articles/QSFT/lecture%20notes_wk_1.pdf

Rode University – Location Sound Effects Recording

These videos provided by Rode provided a good insight into recording sound on location, including the recording of sound effects and dialogue. They were my main source of visual research as they are from a reputable source and contained huge amounts of information for working in different scenarios. They also contained information about foley recording, which was useful in the foley process

The videos can be found here: http://www.youtube.com/user/rodemicrophones

The Film Lab – Recording Sound: Room Tone

This humorous but very insightful video explains the need for room tones and how to properly record them. Before watching this, I had little knowledge of room tones other than why they were needed, and this video explains their need in much greater detail.

The video can be found here: http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=snETeThgVms

Sound Recording Tips

Although this article seems reasonably amateur, I felt that it contained information on a similar level to which I have been working, and for that reason I found it useful

The article is available here: http://www.lavideofilmmaker.com/location-sound-recording/location-sound-recording-shotgun-microphone-placement.html

Throughout my time at university, I have been in touch with audio recording world and have remained up to date with news and equipment releases. It would be impossible to list every source I have read, but throughout the last six or so years, I believe I have greatly broadened my knowledge around the subject of sound recording in general, with a recent particular interest to location sound recording.

Today was the Café Nero shoot, which quite frankly was absolutely awful! There were so many different problems that we knew it would be impossible to get a good take:

• The fact that this is a coffee shop had huge implications on the sound recording aspect of filming. The amount of noise made from the machines was not only loud, but was also consistent, meaning that we just couldn’t get a good dialogue take. The actors were also having trouble with their lines, and so when the opportunity did come to get a good take, it was spoiled by having to cut, and restart the scene.
• A speaker was poisitoned directly above the only place available for us to film in. We were unable to turn this off individually, nor were we able to turn off the whole system as this was a business and couldn’t afford to accommodate for us, which we fully respected. The problems with a speaker being directly above the microphone are obvious, and due to shotgun microphones having a polar pattern that still accepts some signal from the rear, there was nothing we could do about this

Essentially, capturing good quality audio today was impossible, and so we decided that re-recording the whole scene in ADR would be the only viable option. The original audio we recorded was still imperative however, as the actors needed a reference in which to complete the ADR.

Home nightclub agreed to let us use their ‘Tequila Lounge’ to film in this morning. The scene consisted of the two main characters infront of the bar, a barman, and extras sat around the room in pairs. We had many problems with this location, and have already been talking about possibly reshooting in a different location. The problems are listed as follows:

• The first issue we noticed was the amount of noise coming from the refrigerators behind the bar; they were very loud, but fortunately we were able to turn them off with the discretion of the manager.
• Secondly, the nightclub also served food and drinks during the daytime, meaning that it was open for business whilst we were filming. Music was being played in the rooms near us at a level which was very obvious on the recording; it would have been impossible to record a room tone that would have worked well in editing. Cleaners were also walking around the corridors, which was evident on the recording.
• The whole length of the bar contained a mirror, and after trying out several positions, it was impossible to stand with the microphone placed above the actors without it being seen in shot. To overcome this problem, we had to position ourselves behind the bar with the microphone pointing upwards. This was awkward as we could not freely move the boom pole without it either hitting objects behind the bar or moving in to shot. We had to greatly sacrifice sound quality in order to get a take.

Not only did we have problems with the location, but also with the equipment at first. After filming a few takes, we realised that our Marantz recorder was set to receive signal at mic level, and not line level as it should have been. Due to the restrictions with the equipment, our headphone feed was pre-recorder and so we didn’t notice this until we played back one of the files through the Marantz, and it was then that we noticed that the Marantz had amplified and already amplified signal, causing a lot of distortion.

This scene was very problematic, and it highlighted the key issues when using a location that isn’t perfect for the job.

Hilton Hotel Scene

In the early hours of this morning we recorded the scene at the Hilton Hotel in Lincoln City Centre. The room we used for the shoot wasn’t being used by any of the hotel occupants; however it did contain a walkway from the hotel bar in which occasionally occupants walked through. The problems we face today are as follows:

• The air conditioning unit could not be turned off. This unit was quite loud throughout the room and was very evident on the recordings and there was no way we could have reduced it. To tackle this, we had to use the shotgun microphone as close as possible to the actors and not take perspective into consideration. Had we held it any higher, the background ambience would have been detrimental to the quality of the recording.
• Occasionally hotel guests would walk through the room, usually with loud shoes which echoed around rather loudly! This could not be helped and as we have had the privilege to film so late at night in such a good location, we were very respectful to the guests and staff in the hotel.
• Other problems were noise from the bar in the other room, as well as the occasional noise from the kitchens. Again, these were problematic but after a few takes we managed to get enough audio that most didn’t contain any unwanted noise.

For this shoot, I mainly operated the boom (Andy had a problem with his shoulder), whilst Andy operated the mixer, ensuring it didn’t hit the limiter. We did have a few problems with the limiter due to the difference in levels of both actors but still having to hold the microphone as close as possible. These were quickly rectified and the gain was correctly. At one point we used two cameras at the same time, and so we had to be sure to make a note of the file number for each camera as to make the editing process quicker for everyone.

Overall, this was a successful shoot. We managed to work around the many extras involved and capture good quality audio even with the few issues we had with background noise.