You Don't Hear a Movie! Except you do.

Photo: Public Domain Clker image.

Ever heard someone say "Hey, let's go hear a movie!" What would your response be? You would probably think that person is crazy. You don't hear a movie. You watch a movie! Believe it or not, this statement is somewhat untrue. Pictures can't expel sound (not unless you go up to the canvas and rip it up because that will make a sound), but movies do. That is the topic of today: audio.

So, what makes sound important? This is one of the most overlooked concepts of making movies. Early filmmakers use cameras to record sound, but camera audio sucks! It is terrible in every way, shape, and form. When you're on set, have at least one person on set that knows everything there is to know about sound. For audio equipment, it depends. There are many different microphones out there and they each have a purpose. Lapel, shotgun, and handheld microphones. Most of the time making a movie, a crew uses shotgun microphones or boom microphones. They then plug it into a handheld audio recorder. Here are two pictures of a shotgun microphone and a handheld audio recorder:

Photo: By Galak76 (own pic) [GFDL (http://www.gnu.org/copyleft/fdl.html) or CC-BY-SA-3.0

Photo: By Evan-Amos (Own work) [Public domain], via Wikimedia Commons

When on set, make sure your audio levels are around -12 db (decibels). If your audio goes above -12 db, then that is okay. It is better to have sound louder than quieter. Trust me. Once you are done figuring out your recording, record one minute of everyone on set being completely quiet. You are capturing the background noise. It is vital to record this. After the background recording, begin the shoot and make sure the audio person knows what they are doing. Finally, once you are done with your recording, you can begin editing which I will post about soon. Remember, the camera is not the most important part. What is behind and in front of the camera is equally important if not more important.