SOUND
In our first class, Paul introduced us to the course what it would entail. Then we went straight into basic camera operation. The camera we used was a lot more advanced than anything I am used to. So the activity we took part in was an opportunity for me to familiarise myself with a new piece of technology. Before we took to the streets to record an action Paul showed us how to be cool.
So lets explore WAYS OF LOOKING COOL:
- Setting up the tripod in the correct order while looking cool
- Holding a camera properly while looking cool
- Using the camera and tripod together while looking cool
In a later class we looked at recording sound. Audio is something I definitely need to improve on, as I pretty much have no idea what I am doing. This lesson was a good introduction. We used a zoom recorder with a boom microphone attached. The set up was quite simple, but it helped us understand directional sound. We had the recorded sound coming into the left side of our headphones, leaving our right side to listen to the ambience we were not recording. This was really interesting as we headed out to Swanston Street and stationed ourselves at a busy intersection. With so much happening around us, I often find it hard to concentrate on one thing. The microphone in my left ear directed my focus on a single element, but I could still hear the world around me in my right ear. There was construction work taking place just outside the state library and when standing next to it all other sound seemed to be drowned out. To the ‘blind ear’ it sounded the same from every direction – it just sounded like noise. However, when pointing our boom mic at different sides of the construction, we were able to isolate different sounds and see each piece that made up the ‘noise’. This task helped me to understand the importance of different layers in creating good sound.