Learning Experiences

                The two most important lessons I have learned about moviemaking are: 1) The Importance of Good Sound and 2) The Importance of Proper Lighting. These lessons are based upon my own mistakes, which eat away at me and make me want to make another film.

1. The Importance of Good Sound/A Designated Sound Recordist

When interviewing people, it is probably best to avoid shooting in a location with background noise. You can always add in background noise in post, but you can’t always get rid of it. It is not uncommon for background noises to be barely noticeable when you’re shooting, but completely distracting when you’re playing back footage in the editing room. Each location presents its own challenges. If you’re shooting outside, you want to avoid things like chirping crickets, hissing cockroaches, buzzing cicadas, singing toads, planes flying overhead, traffic, wind noise, street lights, and air conditioning units. You can always add any of these sounds in post, to create ambience, but if these sounds are already present in your location sound or under your interview, it’s going to be very difficult to control them. Similarly, if you’re shooting indoors, you also want to avoid air conditioning units, water fountains, refrigerators, overhead lights, etc. Basically, you want to avoid anything that could produce a low-level hum, hiss, or buzz. This is really hard to do, because we naturally tune out those sounds since we hear them on a daily basis. You have to re-train your ear, which is why it is important to have a designated sound person. This person should not be the director or the DP, because those people need to focus on other aspects of production.

In my last film, we didn’t always have a designated sound person—the DP usually monitored the sound, which was almost all recorded in-camera. I shot an interview outdoors, in Ohio, in early September. I didn’t think about it at the time, but summer is cicada season in Ohio, and I had to scrap most of the footage from that interview because the cicadas were so loud! One of my favorite editing techniques is to pull sound from an interview and lay it over other shots, but I couldn’t do that because the forced cicada ambience was so recognizable (not to mention distracting), that it would have been completely disorienting to hear while seeing footage of people skating in a rink. Another interview, which I shot indoors, had a noticeable 60-cycle hum in the background. I was able to run some filters on it in post, but it is still there. I suspect a refrigerator caused it, because we turned off all of the overhead lights and the air conditioner.

Not only will my next film have a designated sound person, but sound will be recorded separately, we will avoid shooting outdoors (too hard to control the environment) and we will avoid shooting near air conditioning units, refrigerators, drinking fountains, overhead lights, etc.

2. The Importance of Proper Lighting/Manipulation of Existing Lighting

Documentary production usually involves a lot of location shooting under less-than-optimal shooting conditions. It is not practical to lug around an entire grip truck, nor is it within my means to do so. My last movie had some scenes that were shot in a rollerskating rink with garish, very green lighting that I was not able to completely color-correct in post. We were following a competition, so we couldn’t change the existing bulbs or set up light kits—if we had rented the location, that would have been an option, but we were covering a pre-scheduled event, so this was not an option for us. In retrospect, we could have brought some reflectors and a white balance card, but I don’t know what else we could have done. This particular location and event were central to the story—had they not been, I would have cut these scenes out of the movie. If I could do that shoot over again, I would have wanted to scout the location prior to the shoot to gauge existing lighting conditions, so we would have been better prepared for the shoot.

I don’t know if I will have access to light kits during production of my next film, but if I do, then I want to use them whenever possible to ensure even lighting and make my production look more professional. If not, then I shall depend upon reflectors, work lights, and practicals (fitted with daylight-balanced bulbs) to achieve my goal.

If I can afford to do so, I may purchase a DSLR camera (which has been recommended to me by a trusted source), which is more sensitive than the digital video camera I currently have, and also has adjustable shutter and f-stop settings, so that I can have more control over my images.
I want this next film to be more stylized than my previous one, and for me, lighting is a huge part of it, so I plan to put a great deal of thought into that element, as it can make or break the “look” of my film. Even though I am shooting a documentary, I want to plan my shoots and control the shooting environment as much as possible to help avoid making past mistakes. It is a huge relief to know that the MFA feature is a long-term project, with specific courses designed to guide you through the production process—I can’t imagine trying to make a feature film without having that level of guidance!