"Most inexperienced video entrepreneurs make the mistake in the beginning of their careers focusing a lot on capturing the best quality visuals for their videos and, all too often, completely blow the sound."
This can speak heavily towards students such as myself who are just starting out and developing their filmmaking skills. From an outsiders view, audio isn't talked or thought about much when discussing a film or it's production but its one of the most important elements, and If done correctly, its quality will go unnoticed because it's done its job. For many of us on the course, it wasn't until the editing stages till we realised just how important and skilful audio capturing is to the final edit of a film. Now this is not to say that you can neglect the video quality of your production also, but the misconception of a videos quality needing to be high for it to be successful just isn't gospel. L. Scott Harrell goes on to talk about how that even if the video component turns out to have flaws and be less than perfect, that with the right quality audio, that is clear and free of distractions, that production can still go on to be a success. This talks mainly more to the pre-production and production side of making sure you always capture high quality audio. The article however goes on to discuss the opposite side of this and how studies have shown that even if the audio quality of your production is just medium to marginal quality, then no matter how high quality or good looking the video picture turns out to be, that audiences are likely to react to the production as a whole negatively. But again, just another reason to be precise in your audio recording. The article is accompanied with a short list to help you capture audio better.
Tips for recording superior quality audio:
1. Voice-Overs are Easy and Reliable!
There’s no doubt that while shooting video and sound in an outdoor location, recording high quality audio can be quite difficult. However, with a little preparation, you can prevent a potentially disastrous situation. Perhaps your best option in windy or noisy outdoor environments is to record most of your audio track indoors, or in-studio, and simply apply it is a voice-over. In other words, you will be recording the audio off-camera separately in a different location and later add it to the video during the editing process. I know several very successful video entrepreneurs that don’t even bother shooting video and use only b-roll or stock video clips that they’ve either shot previously or have purchased online instead. They tend to focus more of their time developing a killer script and recording great audio for their projects.
2. Set Up a Sound Booth
It is best to record audio in a small, carpeted room with wall treatments (pictures, curtains, etc) in order to avoid a harsh sound characterized by an echo. If audio is more important than video for you then you should be recording in some sort of studio. When it comes to make-shift recording studios, closets are actually the best choice.
3. Be Prepared and Have the Right Equipment
If your video production requires you to record your audio and video at the same place and time, then be prepared for the wind and ambient noises you may very well pick up from the background. Try to choose a quiet location and shoot the video when there’s no wind if at all possible. Definitely use a dead cat, or wind muff, windshield which are microphone covers designed to minimize wind noise when recording in less than perfect wind conditions. Keep in mind that a little wind noise is enough to ruin your audio track and is almost impossible to edit out. With most camera configurations you can monitor the quality of your sound during or immediately after recording using a pair of headphones. They’re a pretty cheap insurance policy against leaving the shoot only to find out that what you’ve recorded is essentially garbage.
4. Get Close!
Getting the microphone physically closer to your subject ensures better audio quality, less background noise and better fidelity in your sounds. Although, a full length body shot may seem like a better option, the audio quality will be affected, since you will be far away from your mic. Make it a point to plan your outdoor shots at a closer distance to the camera if you must use a smartphone, iPad, tablet or other mobile device or your camera’s onboard microphone.
5. If You Are Going to Be a Video Professional, Use Professional Gear
Most of the microphones built into cameras are omnidirectional and record unwanted sound from every direction, the microphones in mobile devices like iPads can be even worse. When recording audio dialogue a uni-directional mic is really best. If audio is more important than video in your situation, the perfect situation is to use even a decent quality off-camera directional microphone plugged into a separate audio recording device. The second best option would be to use a microphone plugged into your camera. For professional video content creators and entrepreneurs running video businesses, we consider an external microphone a MUST HAVE piece of gear.
Source: http://vtrep.com/audio-is-more-important-than-video-picture-quality/
It's shocking to discover how much of a disruption bad audio can be to a film production. In the early days of cinema, quality was not to the standard to which we have it today. During the silent film era, the quality of the video was not incredible high, it would be grainy and somewhat shaky but it was very often accompanied by backing music. This might be one of the first experiences of filmmakers using good audio to attract and audiences attention. Silent films completely silent are not the easiest films to watch and keep your attention, but suddenly with the addition of sound and music, they become interesting and easier to view. If this was switched and a silent film had amazing video quality and low audio quality, even though its a silent film, I think the switch would be negative on the film.
Raindance Canada uploaded a video to their YouTube account in 2014, showing their own example of why they find audio quality to be more important than video quality. He discuss how in some cases the bad audio can be forgiven in such a purpose of stunt videos where a man might be skydiving, the audio here could be forgiven cause its main focus is on the video. Vice versa with found footage films, the video quality is not high but thats to support the style in which it is been filmed. The video discusses how with bad audio, the content is hard to take seriously, insinuating that bad audio may lose you professionalism and give a sign that your work is not legitimate. The video ends talking about how you shouldn't have to choose but if you have to choose, maybe good audio is the way.
Source: https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=-PLMiA18tBc
The majority of my research so far has strongly sided with audio quality been inferior to video quality, and have made very strong arguments to why. I want to continue my research into this argument and search more for reasons that a film might consider having better video than audio for a legit reason. A case where its more important to its purpose for the picture quality to be stronger than the audio. So far my research has given me new ideas to what my experiment is going to entail, and to try and make it dig deeper than just the surface question. Hopefully finding some useful results worth reporting.
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