The first day ended with a short discussion relating to improvements. We discussed how the whole production could benefit from changing things around. I commented upon Sheryl’s toughness. I think that she is doing it well and I reinforced this thought. “Sheryl, be tought, be pushy, cast and particularly the crew must feel that you are pushing them to go forward” I said. It’s true. In my oppinion, there is nothing worse thatn waiting around on set. That gets me out from the mindset of shooting and I get bored. When I’m bored it slows my brain down and I loose the rhythm. As a result my mixing technique degrades enormously.
Today possibly the biggest problem was that the lighting conditions changed a lot. After lunch we had to put up some scrim outside the sitting room’s window, to block sunlight. Unfortunately it didn’t really do the trick. I’m unsure how we supposed to put it on, but I believe the silver side should face outwards.
Max, the stills photographer arrived today. I am very pleased to have him around, I think we all will benefit greatly from his work. He is doing a behind the scenes series and some production stills. I am sure that it will be great once we finish and look back at the final product!
Today was the first time when I used the Sennheiser Radio mics. They take 9V batteries, which I had to get in a rush this morning. (The ones I ordered didn’t arrive from eBay yet). I give myself a tap on the shoulder for checking the equipment on Monday before we started filming. They seemed to be working as they should, altought I will need some more time to fully understand what the different funcions do on the units. Later.
I established that recording sounds will only be possible on saturday, BUT I have to remember that the ROOM TONE WILL CHANGE. (As it changes whenever there is somebody missing from set.) So, for this I have to remind myself to hook up the SQN mixer with the Marantz and record some roomtones at the end of the takes. I also will have to remind Sheryl about this.
Last night I thought that we could use two boom mics for the interior scenes. So the MKH 416 and the ME66 would nicely work together while I mix them separately onto the L and R channels. This will give me the option of having crisp and separated dialgoue in the edit. (This is very important and I learnt from Time and Tide that putting two mics onto one channel means that they have to be mixed!)
My aesthetic decision is to keep the audio compressed. ie: I let the SQN mixer turn the limiter on reasonably a lot, but gradually playing on the border of mixing so it’s on almost constantly. This might get back on me, but I think it is worth it. (I liked the sound recordists recordings on the Biz Idea competition last year. He used compression a lot. This is the production when I am going to be using it.) I have come to a decision after a couple of minutes of thinking. Maybe it’s the wrong decision, I will see it in the edit. (I could always put on a compressor to the final piece.) I believe it is hard now to back off. Two day’s footage has been shot with this technique.