Foundery – A technical Behind the Scenes with Trylife
Sound
We were delighted that Paul and Nicky agreed to the interview. However, it was our first 3-person interview (Paul, Nicky and the interviewer – Craig) and this proposed the first problem to resolve. We needed to figure out the best way to record the sound. As with our ethos of wanting to film the foundery interviews at a local establishment (as a way of promoting them too!) that means something to the Paul and Nicky, Heaton Perk Cage is a very popular place and that means a lot of background noise. We decided to use 3 individual wireless packs, (2 sennheiser and 1 Sony UWP) connected to a zoom recorder.
Sennheiser – http://amzn.to/2yo07L4
The Sennheisers are great options as they don’t require any set up (simply plug and go) – the benefits of using digital. However, the downside is that they are always on an auto setting. This means they are auto adjusting the gain to pick up what it thinks is the right sound – this can have some horrible effects if the background music of the café is too loud. Nevertheless we managed to make do and use the levels on the zoom.
Sony UWP – http://amzn.to/2Ai9tKa
These are not digital like the Sennheiser options above and require pairing when you arrive at any filming location (to be fair this doesn’t take long). The main advantage of this set is that one can set an attenuator, which is great when you need to control the background noise. However, I found that these are more unreliable at producing clean audio – I have never managed to understand why but I can only assume that it is radio interference as I think I can only get 70% clean results.
Zoom Recorder http://amzn.to/2AC13RO
Not much to say about this really – solid piece of kit!! I like the way you can control the levels with the gain controls and visually see the levels via the colour screen. Furthermore, the 4 XLR inputs were essential for this 3 person interview. In terms of syncing the audio, this has now become almost forgettable as most editing software provide a syncing option.
Last note
We decided against using shotgun mic’s as we have a very small crew (2 in fact). Therefore, we tested the audio levels at the beginning of the interview and a couple of times throughout to double check the levels were ok.
Visual
With all our interviews we aim to film with at least 4 cameras. So that means 1 camera is focused on the interviewer and another camera is focused on the interviewees. That leaves 1 camera to be used as a wide shot that focuses on both the interviewer and interviewee. Then the remaining camera is a roaming camera – this is given to the director to free roam around the interview focusing on anything he/she thinks is interesting. The best thing about cafes is that there is always plenty of angles and options (shooting from outside looking in is a favourite).
One of our aims is to promote the local business/café that we are filming in so that means we allow for plenty of time to capture shots of the venue in action. This is something we leave to the roaming camera.
Camera 1 Set Up – interviewer –
Sony A7s 2 http://amzn.to/2AjuDrg
70 -200mm sigma http://amzn.to/2ACaFvT
Metabones adapter http://amzn.to/2AkIb5S
Manfrotto 502 Tripod http://amzn.to/2Bh0nRB
Camera 2 – interviewee –
Sony A7S 2 http://amzn.to/2BlWOK1
50mm canon http://amzn.to/2BlWOK1
metabones adapter http://amzn.to/2AC6IaN
Manfrotto 502 tripod http://amzn.to/2ABabGr
Camera 3 – Wide angle on both interviewer and interviewee –
Canon c100 http://amzn.to/2ATAXXv
17-55 canon http://amzn.to/2ACnAOJ
Manfrotto 502 tripod http://amzn.to/2Aje2Uk
Camera 4 – roaming camera
Sony A7S 2 http://amzn.to/2C8I6mV
Canon 50mm http://amzn.to/2ASXq6Z
Metabones Adapter http://amzn.to/2ATwqo8
Sirui Monopod http://amzn.to/2AiCsgQ
Editing
We know there are a lot of haters for Final Cut Pro X but this is what we use (you cant teach an old dog new tricks!). We edited between 2 editors on an 2016 iMAC and a 2017 Macbook.
Apple Macbook Pro http://amzn.to/2BiyTuD
Apple Imac http://amzn.to/2ASgn9L
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