Filming In Liverpool: Sound

We faced many challenges to do with sound while filming in Liverpool, both with locations and the equipment. I chose to make sure each interview was covered with two microphones in case one cut out or didn't record properly. In Annie and Michaels interviews these were both plugged into the camera, going directly to sync up with the video, whereas Suresh and Veejayra interview was recorded straight to the camera with the shotgun mic and into a zoom with a pair of Radio mics.

The reason for recording with the boom and radio mics was that while the boom gets very good directional pick up of the sounds, we thought it important to be covered, and radio mics are much more discreet than lapels or any other kind of mic. However, in Annies interview as well as the one at the temple, the Radio mics cut out, leaving half the interviews captured only from the boom. This however was not too much of a problem as the boom didn't cut out at all.

In Annie and Michaels interview, we had a lot of background sound to deal with. In Annies, it was the constant blowing of the wind and Michaels had the sound of people in the pub. One of the solutions to this would be to use some of the cutaway footage to illustrate that the background sound is coming from somewhere, and stop it seeming distracting as the audience will understand why it is there. Also, as the mics are all pretty good quality the background noise is never intrusive, although a little annoying. In Annies interview, the better sound came from the Radio mic, as this was shielded from the wind more than the Shotgun. However, as it cut out on is halfway through we will only be able to use its sound for some of the clips.