Most viewers will put up with lower quality video if the audio is up to par. High audio quality means loud and clear voices, minimal background noise and little or no visual obstruction (you don’t want to see the microphone).
To make sure your subject’s voice is loud and clear, your microphone must be as close to the speaker as possible. This means you’ll need to use either an external microphone that plugs into your camera or an audio recording device. Placing the microphone close to your subject can also help minimize background noise, but other factors include the type of microphone, the volume and character of the noises and the distance those noises are from your microphone.
Microphones come in a wide variety of forms, available at prices ranging from a few dollars to several thousand. For basic video content, let’s narrow the massive field down to two basic types: lavalier and shotgun.
Lavalier microphone
A lavalier microphone clips to your subject’s jacket, shirt or tie, and does a good job of getting close to your subject. Your “lav” will either be omnidirectional—meaning it picks up sound equally from all directions—or cardioid, meaning it picks up most of its sound from the front of the microphone, with some pickup to the sides and none behind the microphone.
A cardioid model will cause problems if your subject is very animated and tends to turn his or her head a lot, but it will do a better job at blocking out some of the background noise in the room.
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Placement of a lavalier is a key element to successful sound.
In general, you’ll want to place the lavalier mic in the top third of your subject’s torso, either clipped to the button flap on a button-up shirt or to a jacket lapel. You might have to experiment to see what works best for your microphone. If you can, have the subject feed the wire through the shirt or tuck it in a jacket.
If your subject moves around a lot, instruct him or her to take care not to brush against the microphone, or else change the placement to work around this. You’ll also want to make sure movements don’t create tension on the wire, which can cause unwanted noises and even damage the cable.
Shotgun microphone
A shotgun microphone focuses on a narrow area directly in front of the microphone, rejecting sounds from the sides. It’s usually placed over the head of your subject on a boom pole. This is not the only way to use a shotgun, but it’s the best way to get the mic close to the subject without letting it appear in the frame.
A shotgun does a good job of isolating the subject’s voice while still maintaining some of the character of the room.
For optimal sound, place the microphone as close to the subject as you can get it, pointed past the mouth and toward the chest.
If your subject moves around a lot or faces different directions while talking, you will have some differences in sound quality. You might have to adjust the mic’s placement to accommodate them. If you have more than one subject, position them slightly facing each other and point the microphone between them.
(For a good description of omnidirectional, cardioid and shotgun microphones, read this short guide from NPR.)
Both types of microphones are widely available with either eighth-inch (3.5mm) TRS connectors (a standard headphone connector) or a standard microphone XLR connector.
Microphones with TRS connectors are generally cheaper (and therefore usually lower quality), but are easier to use because they can plug directly into your camera or smartphone. However, you will have to use an adapter to monitor the sound while shooting if your camera does not have a separate headphone jack, or if you are shooting with a smartphone. Microphones with XLR connectors are generally higher quality, but options are available at relatively low prices.
Unless you are using professional video equipment, you will need to purchase additional gear, such as a Zoom H4n, to capture the audio from the microphone. If your camera has separate line-in and headphone TRS jacks, you can send the output from your recorder right into your camera and use the recorder as a backup/failsafe. Our camera has only a combined line-in/headphone jack, so we combine the high-quality audio with the video in Premiere Pro. (Here’s some additional reading from Wistia on shooting video with adSLR and a handheld audio recorder.)
Tony Scida is the director of creative services at The Hodges Partnership. A version of this article originally appeared on The Gong Blog.(Image via)
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