When I think of sound in documentary film, I notice the great distinctions from other Hollywood films. The differences are explained easily by the fact that documentary filmmakers do not have as much control of the setting they’re filming. Whereas in Hollywood, every factor is controlled in a studio and every sound is put there intentionally. Because of that, most documentaries rely heavily on voice-over narration as it maximises control over sound quality. In fact, I’ve always associated documentaries with voice-over narration. Aside from providing clarity, voice-overs also help in making sense of the documentary. In Roger and Me (1989), the voice-over narration proved to be more than just an accessory as it was personal and more interpretive and it emphasized, by contrast, the images and sounds displayed throughout the film.

The practice of creating a sense of place made me realize the challenges of recording location sounds. The recording does not differentiate foreground and background sounds, instead, they’re all mashed together in the middle ground. We were fortunate enough in using the zoom recorders, which were able to give a sense of direction and focus through relegating other sounds to the background. However, we had to endure the embarrassment of standing close to the basketball players to capture their sounds. None of us had any specific relation to basketball or any sports for that matter, the only link we could think was High School Musical, specifically the “Get’cha head in the game”. For the sake of poetics, we decided to recite the song’s lyrics as poetry without the tune, which resulted in a hilarious outcome.