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mrpink89

I Know I asked this before but I am still confused, The problem is with Boom Mic placement. I know how to shoot a basic dialogue scene. You Shoot one person saying their dialogue then you shoot the other person saying their dialogue and mash it up in post.

But What about the boom? When you are shooting the person who is on camera saying their dialogue what about the person who is out of Frame I mean wont their dialogue come out crappy if the boom isn't placed in their direction? Do I have the move the boom back and fourth between actors as they say their lines even though the other person is out of frame?
 
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mrpink89 said:
Do I have the move the boom back and fourth between actors as they say their lines even though the other person is out of frame?
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Ideally, yes.

Boom operator isn't just standing there with his arms up.
He/she knows the lines himself, knows which actor is going to be saying them and when, and twists the pole to direct the mic towards the speaker, back and forth, back and forth.

Sounds like fun, eh? :yes::lol:



"Money for nothing, and the chicks for free."
 
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On a lower budget with an inexperienced boom op... stick to a single character at a time and don't use the dialog from the off screen character. Moving the boom will introduce handling noise that takes alot of practice to control -- they have to time their moves to site between the dialog, it's a dance that takes rehearsal so the movement NEVER happens when an actor is speaking. It's much easier to mic one character based on where the camera is pointing (editing reasons for it as well), then turn the camera and boom and cut between them in the edit (camera and dialog -- look to the L and J cuts to make this look good).
 
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Just to reinforce the lesson...

The mic should be above and in front of the actor(s). 18" in front and above is ideal, although not always possible. The mic should be aimed at the notch at the base of the throat.

Now you know why great boom-ops make so much money; they have an extremely difficult job. They have to do the above, while soundlessly changing aim from actor to actor - without casting shadows (imagine having to pan the camera from actor to actor without any visual references), without getting the boom in the frame, and without tripping over props, C-stands, etc. The boom-op should know the script as well as the actors. And all the while s/he has to monitor the sound.

As Knightly said, inexperienced boom-ops should stay with what is in picture. However, this is another reason to get dialog wilds.
 
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Thanks guys. guess i'll do one at a time. As time goes on and get more experience I will move to character switching. Had no idea the boom OP had such a hard task on his hands. very underrated job
 
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Ideally the aim of the mic should be changed from actor to actor as they speak their lines. If the boom-op is very inexperienced the mic can be aimed to a spot between the actors, although this will pick up more background noise and more of the "echoey" ambient nature of the space.
 
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for the overlapping dialogue.. get a take that is performed as written, then get a take where the actors do NOT step on each others lines.. even if the script has them interrupting and talking over each other. When editing you create J and L cuts to create the overlap in dialogue.. you use the first take as "reference"
 
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Are YOU going to be a boom-op? That's the big problem, you can learn everything there is to know about production sound, but once you begin shooting your film you are not the one swinging the boom or mixing the sound; someone else will be doing that, and you can't relay all of your learning, skill and experience in a short conversation the day before shooting begins.

The weirdest thing is that you already know a lot of what you need to know about being a boom-op, now you have to actually do it, and do it a lot. Many professional boom-ops start as a cable wrangler for a PSM/Boom-op team and then go off on their own.

Start with Ric Viers "The Production Sound Bible" and spend a lot of time on Jeff Wexler's site for production sound professionals.

http://jwsoundgroup.net/
 
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