Toronto Videographer – Top 5 Tips for recording Audio

A Toronto videographer needs skills in many different areas other than camera operating. They need to know how to work with talent, crew, lighting, and audio. Thus, videographers need to be creative, technical and have good people skills to do their job well. These are all qualities a company should look for when hiring a professional to film their video. If you are using a video production company Toronto be sure they are providing you with a person who has these skills especially if a small production crew is working on the project. Over the years, VCM Interactive understands that providing an experienced and well rounded videographer is crucial to getting the best performance and footage when producing a video whether its for corporate or commercial purposes. Marketers are seeing more value in video so finding the right person to work with is very important. Internet Retailer reports that prospects that view videos of a product are 85% more likely to buy. And 65% of executives have visited a vendor’s site after watching a video.

It is important for a professional Toronto videographer to capture great video footage as well as record good quality audio. Smaller shoots don’t always have the luxury or budget to hire a sound recordist, so the videographer needs to be able to have the right expertise and equipment to get good sound quality. A lot of the times a video may look great, but the sound quality may be lacking; therefore, professional sound recording can make all the difference with how the video is received by your audience.  Your audience expects clear, crisp visuals and clear audio when viewing videos. As video becomes more of a marketing tool, make sure you invest your marketing dollars in good quality, professional video and the audio recording. In fact, Hubspot reports that North Americans ranked video as the #1 content asset they would like to see from brands.

Here are some tips to help you record professional audio for all your video production.

Top 5 Tips for recording audio for a Toronto Videographer

1. Location – be sure to pick a location where you have as much control over the audio situation. Locations with as little background noise are ideal so microphones don’t pick it up. Have access to fans, heaters and air conditioners so you can turn them off during filming. This is crucial so there’s no intermittent sounds during filming because that will affect how your video sounds in the edit. For example, if a fan is on in one shot and the its off in the second shot you will hear a noticeable difference in the room tone.
2. Good quality microphones – use high quality omnidirectional microphones so they pick up audio that’s close to them while reducing how much background noise is picked up. Sennheiser and sony microphones make excellent wired and wireless microphones for your videography Toronto needs.
3. Placement of microphones – when filming talent be sure to use a high quality lavalier and boom microphone. A lot of the times both are mixed together to achieve optimal sound. You can place a lavalier microphone a hands length under the chin on the lapel or underneath the shirt with special adhesive. A boom microphone should be placed just overhead to pickup the sound bubble of the person speaking.
4. Use 2 type of microphones – by using two microphones such as a lavalier and boom you don’t only achieve better sound but have a back up if something goes wrong with one of the pics during recording such as low battery, rustling of clothes etc. Recording with two microphones will also come in handy in post sound, so you have more flexibility and better sounding audio. Using on camera boom mic is always a good call.
5. Use a recording device – its advisable to record audio to an external sound device so you get the highest quality, uncompressed sound recording from your microphones. If you record audio straight into your camera the audio will be compressed more. You’ll have to make this call depending on the filming situation, use of the video and budget. For example, recording audio directly into the camera may be ideal for event videography Toronto. Broadcast and films usually record audio to an external recording device to maintain optimal quality with little to no compression.

They say that a picture is worth a thousand words and that a soundscape is worth  a thousand pictures, so make sure your audio is recorded well. We hope these tips help you out whether you start recording video on your own or choose to hire a video production company Toronto or hire a Toronto videographer. If you have any questions regarding video production please contact us at VCM Interactive. Our experienced producers are happy to answer your questions and provide a free consultation to see how video can benefit your business.