Today we completed the shoot for the domestic violence VT. This was a particularly tricky VT to shoot, as it required the use of covert film-making. As a result, we couldn't get the greatest shots we wanted, as we had to hide the cameras behind objects discreetly and capture the reaction of several unsuspecting people.
I had no part in the decision of where the cameras were placed really, and as such this gave me more time to focus on the placement of various sound capture devices. Sound would be an exceptionally important aspect to capture for this VT so I decided to be particularly careful with the placement of the equipment, and also who was mic'd up with radio mics.
Myself and Mike both agreed that we definitely needed the two contributing actors (that would be playing the abusive couple for this particular VT) to be wearing the radio mics to collect the best possible recordings of their conversation.
I also decided to incorporate a ZOOM recorder into the sound set-up. The ZOOM has surprisingly good sound capture capabilities, and as such I felt that this would be a perfect way for us to capture atmospheric sound from the room, and also potentially the reaction of the unsuspecting contributors that would be waiting for a fake "interview."
Before the shoot, myself and Mike actually found a small problem with the radio mics, where they were producing strange high-pitched sounds. At the start we didn't really understand why the microphones were making this noise, and blamed it on some faulty wiring. However, after some more investigation, we discovered that the sound was actually interference from the other microphone, which was caused by the fact that the microphones were on a very similar frequency.
After changing the frequency however, we managed to eliminate the strange sound completely and the sound recording went fine. Obviously there are some issues with the microphones making contact with the contributors clothing, causing strange sound artefacts, but this is something myself and Mike can work with in post-production programs like Audacity and Audition. The sound won't be perfect, but it should at least be very useable.
The problems we encountered with this shoot aren't too unusual to experience, as covert film making, while incorporated with using the radio mics in ways I have never done before caused some problems. However, all in all I feel that myself and Mike handled the situation and problems incredibly well and as such we know what works in covert film-making and what doesn't.
I have no idea if I will be involved with covert film-making ever again, but at least I have some idea of how this kind of recordings work and how they can be shot- which may or may not be useful in my future plans.
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