Making a good recording
by Glenn Koenig
NOTE: This article is unfinished, but is presented here because it already contains information that may be useful to you.
Let's say you really do want to record that meeting. Perhaps you do have a ready audience for the recording, for some reason. OK, it happens. Here are some tips for making it successful.
1. Plan ahead. Plan the recording along with the rest of the event, not as a last minute adjunct. For instance, as you plan out the room arrangement, determine where the cameras will go by figuring out what you want it to be able to "see" and from what vantage points.
2. Think about your audiences first. Consider that you are now holding the event for two audiences, not just one. The viewing audience at "the other end" of the recording may or may not be just as important as the one attending in person. Consider what you want the viewers to see and hear, since they won't have a choice, once you make the recording. Ask yourself the question, "What would I want to see if I were viewing a recording of this event?" Would you want to see a variety of views of the presenter? How about some views of the live audience? Perhaps viewers would like to see people asking questions during Q & A? That's very likely. What about other things in the room, such as slides, charts, displays, etc? Attendees in person may choose to turn their heads to look at various things, but your viewers will be stuck staring at what you recorded and nothing else.
3. Think about the sound next. If you can possibly avoid it, don't use the
microphone on the camera to record the sound. Instead, use (or rent or hire
someone with) a camera that allows sound inputs to be attached. Unfortunately,
this rules out about 80% of consumer camcorders. If possible, have a separate
person on hand to be in charge of the sound and give them some control over
the sound levels, if necessary. Often getting good quality sound is more work
than getting a good picture, in a typical video recording. Many amateur video
folk do not realize this and the sound suffers. The art of sound recording is
a vast and complex one, but there are some basic questions to ask yourself:
• Is there a public address system planned? If so, can you get a "feed"
from it, even if it means putting a microphone up on a pole in front of one
of the loudspeakers (which works surprisingly well many times).
• What things in the room will make sound that you want to record faithfully?
The presenter, of course. How about:
- people in the audience? If they just shout out comments or questions, you'll
miss that unless the presenter repeats what they say (which they often forget).
- Is there a panel of presenters who may speak "out of turn" at times?
Do they each have their own microphones?
- Will there be recordings played back in the room, such as a video clip on
a projection screen? What about the sound that goes with that?
For each of these things, you want a microphone positioned as closely to the
thing making the sound as you can. Don't rely on fancy microphone technologies,
such as so called 'shotgun' microphones, if you can avoid them. Their performance
can vary from situation to situation and often don't get you the desired effect,
unless you test your entire audio system with them in use, all ahead of time.
For instance, it's always better for the sound recording to have audience members
who want to ask questions approach a microphone on a floor stand rather than
stay seated and have a crew member (we're up to three by now) try to aim a 'shotgun'
microphone at them to pick up what they're saying. If people will be too shy
to stand up, get them to put their questions on index cards and have a presenter
read the cards from the front.
• What about sounds that you don't want to record, such as:
- heating or air conditioning system noise
- lights buzzing
- beeping alarms, pagers, cell phones, etc.
- people in the back, talking
- dishes being cleared or other 'housekeeping' going on
- sounds from the next room or outdoors, such as traffic or construction or
aircraft
There are different ways to handle each of these, but the two best general bits
of advice are: make sure you have a microphone as close as possible to each
thing you want to record and "listen" to the room ahead of time and
make a plan for handling each kind of possible noise that may occur.
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4. The Picture
Then If you can only afford to have a single camera do the recording, ...
That is, attendees in person can turn their heads or gazes but the viewer of the recording will be stuck staring at exactly what you're "making" them look at. That's actually a awesome responsibility and needs to be taken seriously. Ask your self the question, "What would I want to see if I were viewing a recording of this event?" Would you want to see a variety of views of the presenter?