I recently found myself thinking about this extremely basic question, but when I searched on it I couldn't find much on the subject, and what I found seems to be largely subjective. The question is; where do you actually point the mic?
A year ago I read the introductory book "location audio simplified" by Dean Miles, which was the first time I encountered the concept of lobeing - aiming with the axis at the sternum and not the mouth. Maybe it also goes under a different name, but that's the one I know.
The page can be read here (it also has pictures to clarify)
http://locationaudiosimplified.com/assets/Axis-Lobeing-Sample.pdf
It's a simple concept, and the book makes a clear distinction between loebing on documentary style shoots where it's hard to predict how someone will move, and maybe not on film where it can. Some time after that, I was told by a lecturing sound technician that loebing is how it should be done - aiming a bit in front of the person instead of directly at the mouth, with the explanation that a persons voice is projected out in front of them. This seemed a bit vague to me as it still projects from the mouth, so why not point it there?
Searching on the subject, I also found this article on booming by Colin Hart:
http://www.colinhartonline.com/?p=336
"Aim the microphone at the solarplexis.
Not in the general direction of the talent, not at the talent’s head, mouth, face, etc…
(The solarplexis is basically the sternum area.)
The human voice has many components and emanates from different parts of the body. The deep part of the voice comes from the chest and throat. The mids and some highs come from the mouth and nose, and the high highs come from the skull. Aiming at the solarplexis grabs all of these.
Aiming at the solarplexis also gives you a bigger target. If you aim at the mouth, you have to move the boom with every head movement in order to keep the same frequency response. If you aim at the solarplexis, you have a much larger target, allowing the talent a much larger range of motion without having to follow without having to move the boom as much, all while maintaining a consistent frequency response and overall sound."
About the same thing as the article above is said on this thread:
http://www.dvxuser.com/V6/archive/index.php/t-69597.html
This makes more sense in explaining why, even if it's mostly based on the subjective opinion that it simply sounds better than aiming at the mouth. I guess this might be because the drop in volume as sound comes from the mouth and skull in by the lobe area instead of on-axis, is compensated by the fact that the mouth and skull is positioned closer to the mic than the chest, thus making the sound more balanced and closer to what we would hear with the mic at the same height as our ears. But then again, maybe not.
So, I understand that this might be an area where different people simply prefer different things, or may adapt according to the situation and level of predictability and movement. I would like to hear though if the general practice for fiction really is to point at the sternum or closer to the mouth.
A year ago I read the introductory book "location audio simplified" by Dean Miles, which was the first time I encountered the concept of lobeing - aiming with the axis at the sternum and not the mouth. Maybe it also goes under a different name, but that's the one I know.
The page can be read here (it also has pictures to clarify)
http://locationaudiosimplified.com/assets/Axis-Lobeing-Sample.pdf
It's a simple concept, and the book makes a clear distinction between loebing on documentary style shoots where it's hard to predict how someone will move, and maybe not on film where it can. Some time after that, I was told by a lecturing sound technician that loebing is how it should be done - aiming a bit in front of the person instead of directly at the mouth, with the explanation that a persons voice is projected out in front of them. This seemed a bit vague to me as it still projects from the mouth, so why not point it there?
Searching on the subject, I also found this article on booming by Colin Hart:
http://www.colinhartonline.com/?p=336
"Aim the microphone at the solarplexis.
Not in the general direction of the talent, not at the talent’s head, mouth, face, etc…
(The solarplexis is basically the sternum area.)
The human voice has many components and emanates from different parts of the body. The deep part of the voice comes from the chest and throat. The mids and some highs come from the mouth and nose, and the high highs come from the skull. Aiming at the solarplexis grabs all of these.
Aiming at the solarplexis also gives you a bigger target. If you aim at the mouth, you have to move the boom with every head movement in order to keep the same frequency response. If you aim at the solarplexis, you have a much larger target, allowing the talent a much larger range of motion without having to follow without having to move the boom as much, all while maintaining a consistent frequency response and overall sound."
About the same thing as the article above is said on this thread:
http://www.dvxuser.com/V6/archive/index.php/t-69597.html
This makes more sense in explaining why, even if it's mostly based on the subjective opinion that it simply sounds better than aiming at the mouth. I guess this might be because the drop in volume as sound comes from the mouth and skull in by the lobe area instead of on-axis, is compensated by the fact that the mouth and skull is positioned closer to the mic than the chest, thus making the sound more balanced and closer to what we would hear with the mic at the same height as our ears. But then again, maybe not.
So, I understand that this might be an area where different people simply prefer different things, or may adapt according to the situation and level of predictability and movement. I would like to hear though if the general practice for fiction really is to point at the sternum or closer to the mouth.
