LIVERPOOL DAY 2 & 3

Day 2 of filming and we are prepared for what we are going to do. I had my sound ideas and sound log sheets all ready. We started filming in the morning and we began with the interview set up. I synced all the interview sounds onto the camera and James recorded them on the zoom. James was helping me in holding the boom pole and we were both taking turns. Below are some of the production snapshots we took during the day. 

During the day I was logging in the sounds that we recorded. I logged the sounds synced onto the camera on a different sheet so as not to mix them with the zoom. 

This log sheet is for the sounds synced onto the camera

This log sheet is for the sounds recorded on the zoom

This log sheet is for the sounds recorded on the zoom

During the afternoon, Lee and Neil visited us during our filming to check on us. We showed them what we had done and what we were planning to do. They gave us some advise on what to do. I asked Neil how we could record some atmos sounds within the studio and he told me to leave the zoom recording whilst we were on a break, that way it will record what Michael does when his by himself and these could be sounds of him walking up and down the stairs or him using his tools or playing the stereo. He also checked the zoom to see if the settings on it were correct and they were. I was pleased with this as it showed I had a clear sense of what I was doing.  

Towards the evening I realised that there was buzzing sound which was interrupting the sounds. Inside Michaels studio he had a fridge and a heater which was giving off a buzzing sound and we turned them off. I listened back to some of the audio tracks we had recorded earlier on during the day and that buzzing sound was still present. I later talked to Neil and Lee about it and they said the sound was ok and the buzzing sound could be removed using pro tools, which was a relief .

In the evening Michael showed us the candle light technique which was fascinating.The scraping and gauging sounds sounded amazing with the headphones. 

With sounds like this, I synced them onto the camera because it would have been a bit hard to match up the sounds and images if they were separate. I brought the boom mic really close to his hands so that I could get a clear sound. Whilst recording Michael using his tools, each tool had its own sound pitch. Before we did any filming, we did some sound tests of some of his tools so that I could adjust the volume to the correct settings.

Here his about to do a stamp print with a hammer

Here he hits the table to get a sound test which allows me to adjust the volume so that its not too loud or too low

We did not manage to finish off all the filming on day 2 but we were coming back the next day to finish before we left. During the day, I learnt a lot of things in terms of recording sounds. Not all sounds are recorded in the same way and I need to listen to my surroundings so as not to record some unnecessary sounds.  

We came back the following day to finish off our filming. We managed to finish what we wanted to film but we had a feeling that we might need to come back to Liverpool and record some more after we had reviewed our footage. Before we left, we got a picture taken with Michael as memory keepsake of all the fun we had during the filming.