There is an adage in the visual communication business. Audio is 70% of the image (or some other high number that changes depending on how bombastic one might be). I’ve said it myself, usually in those filmmaker conversations where each person is trying to outdo the other by making increasingly inane statements. But my confession is that if you examine my filmmaking life, you would think that about 5% of the image is audio – on a good day.
Any filmmaker will gladly spend five, ten or twenty thousand on a new camera every other year but grimaces at dropping a thousand on a new microphone. Audio gear isn’t sexy so we cobble together something that helps us squeak by.
This problem is exacerbated by the style of documentary I prefer – fly-on-the-wall and observational. I purposely keep my crew skeleton thin so that we have a better chance of capturing authentic and real moments. However this past year I began to really feel the limits of minimal audio. It’s not fair for me to expect the director of photography to get great images and monitor audio. He or she is there for one reason, to capture the moment.
So I’ve got one of two choices. The first is to increase the size of my crew. The second is to tackle the audio myself.
I’m unwilling to do the former if it means missing moments where people begin to open up. So it’s time to trust my ability to follow the story and to capture the audio. This means developing skills, building some muscles (have you ever held a boom pole for a couple of hours?) and buying some new gear.
Happy New Year.
