Audio Challenges

As we began our first day of production, we encountered some unexpected challenges. The first challenge we had to face was ensuring our audio was up to our standards. The first scene we filmed was the therapy scene shown at the end of our short film. This was for multiple reasons. The first reason was that Saturday was the best day to film for our actors, and the second reason being that we wanted to film the other scenes (that are in public) on days that won't be that busy, like a Thursday. On the first day, our main tools for filming was a tripod and a smartphone rig. To ensure better sound quality, we attached a Rode microphone to the smartphone rig. The setup was working great in terms of achieving clear audio, until the house's air conditioning created a problem. The noise was too loud and easily picked up by the microphone. 

We first thought the solution would be simple: we could use the furry microphone cover (also known as a windscreen) to block out the AC noise. The cover is designed to reduce unwanted sounds like background noise and wind, and we figured it would work perfectly for the AC in the back. However, when we went to attach the cover to the microphone, we ran into another issue; The cover wouldn't attach correctly to the Rode mic.

Us filming without the windscreen

After several attempts with each member of the group trying to make it fit, we realized the issue wasn't something we could easily fix at the moment without our instructor. So, we decided to think outside of the box the solve the problem. Instead of continuing to struggle with the cover and loosing daylight, we simply turned the AC off in the house. While this wasn't exactly ideal, this solution worked perfectly to eliminate the background noise and ensure our audio was clear for filming. 

The windscreen that wouldn't attach to the Rode microphone

Although this was a minor set back, we were able to overcome it and continue to film while we still had daylight.