Recording Audio for a Feature Film

Here are a few tips for recording audio for movies using a directional mic:

Where to point the microphone

• Imagine that the microphone is a flashlight, with a beam projecting straight out from it.
• Aim the imaginary beam directly at the mouth of the person who is speaking (not at their chest, not at their forehead).
• If the mic is close to the actor you may need to adjust the angle slightly. For example, if you’re getting plosives or sybilants, adjust it upward or downward slightly... such as, angling up slightly past the mouth (toward the philtrum) or toward the chin. (If possible, aim it from in front of the actor, from above or below his or her mouth. So the mic will be pointing at the actor’s mouth, but he or she won’t be speaking directly into it. If you come in too much from the side, or miss the mouth, it may sound okay to you, but be missing some frequencies and sound tinny in the movie. If the actor is speaking directly into it, or is too close to the microphone, some consonant sounds like “s” and “p” phonetics may be distorted.)

Generally speaking, the microphone should be held as close to the actor as possible without being visible in the frame. It’s also important that the mic’s SHADOW not be in frame.

If you hear anything other than crystal clear audio during a take, let the director know. (That means, buzzing or hissing, vehicles going by, footsteps or creaking sounds when the actors are speaking, distant voices in the house, etc.) The mic picks them all up, at much higher sensitivity than the human ear, and they can make a shot unusable.

If you hear any buzzing, let the director know about it. Usually buzzing is caused by electrical interference. Make sure that if the if the microphone’s cable is near any cord with current running through it, that it crosses it at a 90 degree angle, rather than lying along side it.

Have fun making movies! The attention you pay to audio will make a big difference in the quality of your finished movie.

Nils Osmar is a Filmmaking Instructor who has worked as a fine and commercial artist, book and magazine illustrator, portraitist and cartoonist. His artwork has been published in the United States and Europe, and featured in several national magazines. In addition to his work as a visual artist, Nils has been active in Seattle's theater scene as an actor, director and playwright.

Tribeca announces filmmaking grants

The Tribeca Film Institute announced Wednesday its submission period for grants is now open. TFI will award more than $500,000 in filmmaker support through 2011 and more than $100,000 through its new TFI Documentary Fund, presented by HBO.


The Gucci Tribeca Documentary Fund provides finishing grants totaling $100,000 to feature-length documentaries that highlight and humanize topics of social significance. The TFI Sloan Filmmaker Fund will award up to $140,000 to support compelling narrative filmmaking that explores scientific, mathematic and technological themes.

The Tribeca All Access Program will continue cultivating relationships between filmmakers from traditionally underrepresented communities and film industry executives, and provide each 2011 participant with $10,000. And, the TFI Latin America Media Arts Fund will support film and video artists working in narrative or documentary film and living in Mexico, Central and South America.

“We are excited to expand the reach and depth of our programming to support individual artists in the field,”

 said TFI artistic director Beth Janson.


The early submission deadline is Nov. 8; final deadline is Dec. 8. More info: tribecafilminstitute.org.

Taiwan's Tsai Liang is Asian Filmmaker of the Year

South Korea's most prestigious film festival said Wednesday it has chosen Taiwanese director Tsai Ming Liang as its Asian Filmmaker of the Year.

The Pusan International Film Festival praised Tsai's work over the past three decades for pioneering unexplored areas that overcome the limitations of the art film industry.

"His 30-year-long devotion to filmmaking has greatly influenced Asian cinema and made considerable contributions to enhance the global status of Asian cinema," it said in a statement.

"He is renowned for seeking fresh ways of communicating with his audience... We can find the root of his endless spirit of challenging himself and the borderlines of art in his earlier works in the 1990s."

Malaysian-born Tsai is best known for "Vive L'Amour" that won the Golden Lion (best picture) award at the Venice Film Festival in 1994, and "The River" that won the Silver Bear/Special Jury Prize at the 1997 Berlin International Film Festival.


The 52-year-old has also won numerous awards with other films.

He is considered a leading exponent of the "Second New Wave" -- a group of Taiwanese directors in the 1990s who produced films with realistic and sympathetic portrayals of life rather than melodramas or action pictures.


The festival, held in the southern port city of Busan since 1996, will be staged from October 7-15 this year.