Sound

This is a vital area and one that often gets overlooked by first-time filmmakers. The most important thing that you have to remember is that you must record the dialogue well, everything else can be cheated in post-production, but getting actors back in to re-record their dialogue is annoying. It can be very expensive and should be avoided.

Once the dialogue has been secured, the secondary concern is to record the atmosphere of the room so that it can be used as background in post-production mixing. This is referred to as the ‘wild track’ by the sound recordist. There will need to be a moment of quiet on set while the sound mixer records the sound of the room.

microphone
The ideal is a good shotgun mike. These can be pricey, but it’s a good idea to have more than just the microphone on the camera.

mixers and DAT records
A mixer is a box that has different tracks from one to four. Its job is to control the sound levels. You can feed your microphone straight into your camera, but you will have very little control over the sound levels, so it is better if your microphone feeds into a mixer first. If you do record straight into the camera, be careful, as certain cameras have been known to distort sound. Even better is record onto a separate DAT machine. This is the ideal, as it gives you a better quality and will be more flexible in post-production.