Digital Filmmaking For Kids For Dummies

PROJECT 18

Making It Sound Even Better

Have you ever watched a video and struggled to hear the dialogue or noticed how bad the quality of the sound is? What is the point in writing dialogue for your actors to perform if your audience can’t hear anything they’re saying? This is why it’s important to take the time to record the best and clearest sound when filming.

Sound is much harder to fix than video during the editing stage. Removing a noise that appears in the background of your dialogue is difficult to do without affecting the sound quality of that scene. Editing tools can help clean up the sound, but these only really make a small difference and can sometimes make it sound worse. The answer is to record the best quality sound when filming.

When filming, your sound operator needs to be constantly listening out for unwanted noises or sound issues. You need to make sure your sound operator knows that if he or she hears any unwanted sound, he or she needs to shout “cut” to stop filming. It’s pointless to continue filming if there is a problem with the sound. When the sound is clear again, the shot can be taken again.

In Project 3, I discuss how important sound is to your film and how to record great sound. In this project, I show you how to record even better sound when filming.

Microphone Techniques for Dialogue

The key to recording dialogue is placing the microphone as ...