Microphones, Microphones, Microphones!

by Leonard Aaron Caplan

Microphones! Without them what would we have? Silent movies! Ok, so most camcorders have mics. We know that. But microphones are as different from each other as Coakley from Brown (a soon-to-be dated reference but it’s funny now) ! The first thing I tell people about mics is that the built in camcorder mic is tinny, noisy, low quality, horrible, GARBAGE! Ok, you get the idea, I don’t like them.

Why? The built in camera mic is usually omnidirectional, meaning it picks up everything around it, the sound wave being received in a 360 degree circle. The result is if someone’s speaking and a couple of other people are in the area you’re shooting in and they’re murmuring, the murmuring is likely to be recorded just as loudly as the voice you’re trying to get!

The ideal when someone is speaking is to put a lavalier mic on them. This is a clip-on mic that the person actually wears which is mostly hidden on their clothes. The next best thing for great sound quality is a stic mic, also known as a hand held mic. On location, news reporters use these for person-in-the-street interviews or other situations when there’s just no time to clip a lavalier on someone.

Now, what do you do when you can’t get close enough to a person to put a lavalier mic or shove a stic mic in their face? Here I’m talking about plays, dramas, comedies, situations where lots of people may be talking and responding to each other. This is when you use the “boom” or “shotgun” mic. Sometimes mounted on a camcorder “shoe” (on top of a camcorder), more often (and with more success) on a “boom” pole that can extend 10 feet or more and held by a “boom” operator, a shotgun or boom does the same thing as all the other aforementioned mics do. It draws the viewer/listener deeper into the video by providing crisp, clear sound!

Audio can make or break your project. Which video are you going to follow; the wedding from a camcorder that allows you to hear every word of the wedding vows, plus all the “I dos”, emotional statements of the bride and groom, or the one that despite its great camerawork, simply uses a built in mic that lets you hear nothing but crowd noise, the clattering of plates in the next room as the reception dinner is being set up and the inevitable crying baby? Weddings or commercials, industrials or political ads, great audio helps make a great video. Use an external mic! ANYTHING but the built in one!!!

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