Conversation-Distance

Robbie Comeau

Robbie Comeau

Como's back. back again
I wanna have a shot whre i have to two girls walking in a forest. Then the shot swirtches to a p.o.v shot of a killer kinda thing, of them walking. So hes watching them. Buyt i wanna hear them talk. Since i dont got an LAV mics, or wireless, should i just film them like i normalyl would (bout 4 feet away)
then wen i switch the scene to the killer, i can just add the audio in, and bring down the volume, so its sounds like there talkign froma distance?

thanks
 
you should try to get closer than 2 feet if possible when doing dialog.

You can add effects to make the sound more distant, but if the shot allows, why not just record the sound with the mic more distant (say 4-6')? It could save time in post
 
Start watching main stream movies closer, in wide shots the lips don't match all the damn time. Actually watch the head and jaw in a OTS shot, almost always out of sync.

Supposedly your killer would be behind them so lips should not really become an issue. You would still want an audio track to match major arm and body movements to what is being said.

As much as lowering the volume will help, you will want to add in more ambience, sounds of POV subject's footsteps, breathing, etc; fun stuff.

Cheers
 
OTS is an abbreviation for "Over The Shoulder". Its a particularly common type of external reverse shot. Typically the subject of interest gets two thirds of the framing and the actor they're talking to has their back to you and you see that in the other third of the frame. How close you are to the eye line is often determined by how well you already know the character speaking. Not from the shot order but where the shot comes in the script and how often you've been exposed as an audience to that character.

OTSes are generally followed up by matching internal reverses and if there are more than two actors then switch ups are made with externals that may include a two shot or a host of other variations.

Unless you specifically practice blocking, lighting and shooting dialogue based scenes between two, three, four or more actors I can almost guarantee your camera work for narative projects will not cut very well together.
 
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