Recording Audio at a Crowded Event for Narrative Feature

J

JGradus

New member
Hey Everybody,

I am currently in the script stage for a micro-budget feature that I will be directing. The story is a high school drama, and one scene has a teen couple going on a date at a county fair. This will entail guerrilla filmmaking at a real county fair (including filming w/o permits). My question is how to record the audio. Can lavs be used effectively in that type of crowded setting?

Any advice would be appreciated, and let me know what additional information I can provide about the project. If filming a scene like this will just be a fool's errand, I can easily rewrite the teens' date to take place somewhere else. Thank you in advance.
 
If a few of the audio guys here see this they'll provide more specific advice - but, yes, lavs can be used; usually they are under clothing in movies or hidden in places around the body (sticking out just a tiny bit) as best as possible when boom mics aren't around.

Although personally I'd choose another location to make it easier on yourself (not only because of how loud fairs get but you have way too much going on there to deal with later if your feature would ever highly succeed, like other legal stuff besides permits like other people, any company signs, etc).

And if at night, sometimes the lights can be a nightmare for camera sensors (depending on the system).
 
It will work. Use lavs. The trick is to be sure to experiment with placement so clothing noise is eliminated. This is a bit of an art and there are tricks on how to do this. Too much for me to write up here. But go to Youtube and there are several videos on how to do this.

One problem you may encounter is that the background sounds between cuts will be dramatically different and this will be an issue that distracts the audience. To deal with this:

1. Record some 'room tone'. Record a good on minute of background sound of the carnival.
2. Use a dialog isolator software. For example Davinci Resolve can isolate dialog from the background cleanly.
3. Add the sound you got from step one and lay it over the clean dialog.

Be sure to experiment beforehand to be sure you understand how this works. If you can't do that then:

Use ADR (Automated Dialog Replacement).. That is; re-record all the lines in a studio.
 
AI may be worth checking out, you can run a free test on some products, so you can check out how well it works.
 
Like others said you'd need to use lavs for obvious reasons but what's more of a concern is the background noise and unexpected nature of filming in an uncontrolled location. You can also replace noisy audio via ADR but I get the feeling it would be difficult and out scope for budget production such as this.

Although there's probably creative way to make your life easier. For example rom-coms often do a montage of going on date. One such comes to mind is the comedy Naked Gun. Point being lot easier without dialog. If you can film them squirting mustard on themselves what could be more romantic?

 
Last edited:
I'd shoot with lavs, but be prepared to ADR the entire scene. Don't just do a single line - it's more difficult to make that work. Also bring an audio recorder and capture plenty of atmospheric sound while you're there.
 
First things first: shooting like that without permission can land you in some hot water. I would advise against it. Talk to the fair organizers and see if they’re willing to allow you to film. They might surprise you, but the worst they can say is, “No.” And since you’ve said that you can rewrite that scene for a better location, you have a solid backup plan.

As far as clean dialog in a not-so-quiet setting, lavs are a great starting point. A boom can also be very useful, but should be equipped with a shotgun that has laser-focus and excellent off-axis rejection. The Sanken CS-3e is one such mic.

Also, this is just the type of scenario that helps reinforce the need to retain a skilled sound mixer.
 
JGradus said:
Hey Everybody,

I am currently in the script stage for a micro-budget feature that I will be directing. The story is a high school drama, and one scene has a teen couple going on a date at a county fair. This will entail guerrilla filmmaking at a real county fair (including filming w/o permits). My question is how to record the audio. Can lavs be used effectively in that type of crowded setting?

Any advice would be appreciated, and let me know what additional information I can provide about the project. If filming a scene like this will just be a fool's errand, I can easily rewrite the teens' date to take place somewhere else. Thank you in advance.
Click to expand...
You are directring a feature.

So you have directed 20 shorts to get to feature 'level'. During that time you learned what you need to learn about the pros and cons of different approaches to audio. You got 10 phone numnbers of audio folk.

--

Personally id worry about the uncontrolled noises (beeps, canned musak) and the lack of consistency in those noises.

Im not a soundie but reckon a well aimed boom is the cleanest thing in a challenging environment.

I think stealing a location is probably not the thing.. Not because I care but because you should know how to ask'/blag it before embarking on a feature?
 
The critical thing is to have somebody tasked with audio as a job role who has headphones on and can hear what is being recorded so they can tell if the take is usable. Somebody who has the skills to say STOP when something happens that spoils not just the take but perhaps the success of ADR. Replacing dialogue is much simpler nowadays - much can be automated. Using the recorded track with it's audio to stretch and shrink the ADR tracks to make them fit - but this needs a person to manage the process. With people constantly recording video selfies nowadays, as long as you don't have hugely large cameras and gear, you'd probably get away with it - but like stills cameras, bringing in big lenses and kit rings danger signs with the people at the entrances.
 
You must log in or register to reply here.
Back
Top