This past weekend I did work for the city of Three Rivers Michigan setting up an audio recording system in the town hall conference room. While I specialize in image making, a large part of video production is sound related so I was able to draw on that experience to achieve a good mix for their recording set up.
I’ve always been an image maker from the time I was little drawing things in my schoolbooks to when I attended and graduated from a fine arts college to now working with the photographic image through video. Imagery and image making is a fantastic thing and I’m constantly challenged and rewarded by my work on a regular basis.
As an image maker I’ve always put a great emphasis on getting excellent creative shots with the video camera, however, as important as it is to get nice shots video making is also about capturing clean and clear sound. A little chirp or echo in a microphone can cause a big distraction at an important moment. I’m very careful about having my audio levels and mic locations optimized for the best results. If you think about it, being media consumers we don’t usually recognize good sound quality and say “Wow that’s incredible sound!” We basically hear sound in the background while we stare at the screen focusing on the images and the storyline. Usually the only time we really notice sound quality is when it is poor. That being said my goals when approaching any production are to make sure my sounds are consistent and interference free.