sound equipment workshop and chatham docks exercise

 sound workshop

we had a sound workshop in which we covered the basic of sound gear that would be used on a typical film/tv show shoot. we were given descriptions of what everything is and details about what they are used for during filming. the equipment we were shown included:  a boom pole, a blimp, a dead cat, a shotgun micorphone and a tascam. once we were debriefed about how they worked and what they did we were told and trained how to use them accordingly and did a small excercise in using them so we could get used to the techniques. the tascam took a bit of getting used to as it was a bit difficult at first to be able to press the buttons and dials on it whilst holding the boom pole up but after a while it got a bit better but i still need more practice.

chatham docks

a couple of days after the sound workshop we went to chatham docks where we allowed to film a short piece of media on the historic dockyard. my group decided to film on one of the boats and filmed a short pirate piece called "a pirates life for me". i was operating the boom pole and tascam so the sound workshop we did a couple of days earlier was a big help as it made me familiar with all the equipment and how i should use it on a proper shoot in a different environment. the hardest part of filming outside was the fact that the wind is always blowing and making noise so you have to position the boom pole and microphone in a way that prevents too much wind getting caught in the audio track and muffling the actors talking and line delivery. another problem we faced was that across the river there was construction happening and every 10 minutes or so there would be a massive banging noise that went on for about 2-5 minutes each time. since this was a variable out of our control, the only thing we could do was wait for the noise to end and then continue filming once we had silence back. overall, the final result of the film weas quite good, the sound i recorded was very audible and you could easily hear what the characters were saying with no unwanted noises such as wind or construction.