> Hi all, a friend is doing a small documentary about a falconer. I offered=
to come and record some ambience and found out the first shoot is a hunt.
Stephen,
For a documentary, two distinct types of recording are needed, Sync and
wildtrack.
Sync recording is synchronous with the picture and can include action and
speech, for instance the sounds of the hunt being organised and the hunting=
.
If this is also recorded on the camera, a clapperboard can be useful, along=
with brief idents on the sound track indicating what the sounds are of. You=
r
closer sounds can be matched to the camera sounds later.
Wildtrack non-sync recording.
When the falcon is flying it's a different ball game. The camera is unlikel=
y
to get good distant sounds, so what I would do is to use a handheld mono
gunmic. A parabola is too inflexible as you won't have control of the
location.
It would be nice to get synchronous sound if possible but it is more likely=
that the video editor will dub in suitable non-synchronous sounds. Your job=
is to get what is likely to be useful in the finished dubbed film. These
tracks will probably be pan-potted later in stereo to match the picture, an=
d
clean mono is generally better than wider stereo. Record very brief comment=
s
about the recordings to help editing.
> I'm trying to work out the best rig to bring.
To summarise, the most useful setup would be a handheld gunmic for
everything. Priorities would be human voices, falcon calls and close wing
sounds.
I would probably also take along a wideangle stereo pair provided it can be=
moved around without handling noise, and possibly a clip-on mic for a falco=
n
handler if possible, This could go into a pocket recorder which is left
running to pick up vocals. Set the record level low in case of shouts and
whistles.
A parabola would get good sounds but it would be inflexible and probably ge=
t
in the way of the action. You've got to be able to move with the hunt. Keep=
it simple.
David Brinicombe
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