Documentary Voice & Vision

Chapter 14Location Sound Techniques

■ The Sound Recordist’s Job

The basic and most common production team on a documentary consists of a cinematographer and one sound recordist (Figures 13.3 and 14.1). The sound recordist is responsible for getting the best quality audio onto the recording format, and this is a big job. These responsibilities include:

• Scouting locations when possible, and doing a location sound survey
• Understanding the acoustics and ambient qualities of a given location, and controlling them as much as possible
• Understanding, as much as is possible, who and what is going to be filmed
• Choosing the most appropriate microphones for the situation
• Placing microphones, whether on people, handholding, on a boompole, or on a stand ...