‘Clickbait 2019’ is a 15-minute-long drama/comedy genre film. I was interested in being a crew member of this film, in particularly to have a role in the sound department, where I knew where my strengths lied. I specifically asked for the role of the boom operator and sound mixer as I know I am fairly confident with this role which is due to having prior experience in this role from other projects such as, the directing and producing module from 2^nd year and also last year’s video project, where I also boom operated and mixed the sound on set for the film ‘The Branch’. During the interview I had made it very clear to everyone in the room that I did not want any part in the post-production side of sound, such as sound design and conducting ADR sessions, Foley etc , this is due to my inexperience in those sectors and we briefly discussed that I most probably wouldn’t have to do so if someone else was on sound with me. Later on, I discovered that I was successful with my interview and was appointed “the head of sound department”, Brett Fawkes was also a part of the sound department however, his role was ‘sound assistant’ for me to have an extra pair of hands on set if needed during the production. Brett also didn’t mind dealing with the post-production side of things which, was good news for everyone.

 

Throughout the production I was working very closely with the DOP Matty Woodcock and the director Weronika Okroj, this was for me to gain and insight and better understanding of the framing of each shot. With this knowledge it allowed me to work out roughly which side or angle was best to place the boom so that it doesn’t end up in shot. The sound equipment I used to conduct audio recordings are the following, the zoom (H6) which is a sound recording device attached with 4 mono inputs and 1 stereo input. Next, is the boom pole, which I used to attach the shot gun mic to if necessary, which 9 times out of 10 it was. I also used a shotgun mic with a windshield for when filming out on location, “When using only one mono microphone, such as a shotgun, you would only record to one channel.” Lastly, I used a pair of studio headphones and clapperboard which both the sound and camera department used in synergy. Before production had taken place, the sound department had to make sure we were prepared for the upcoming shooting days we did this by participating in technical rehearsals, doing practice audio takes alongside the DOP with his camera equipment. At this point the director had begun blocking scenes to help guide the cast and crew with the movement and pace of the scene. This helped to guide me with my vision as to where best to place myself and the boom during actual takes. Another aspect of the preparation the sound department did was going out on location, to all of the locations the location manager had found for the film and conducting audio tests. Myself, Weronika our director and Brett my assistant thought this was necessary as we didn’t want to find out on the day of filming that we can’t use any locations due to any extraneous factors such as the area being too busy with people constantly walking by or cars going by or even noisiness. If the location is too busy or too noisy it could dramatically affect the dialogue of the scene and remove the authenticity of the mood of the scene, such as construction maintenance. 

Not every location was usable for the above reasons alone, so we reported back to our producer Oliver Hill and locations manager Meghan Challinor for trouble-shooting. However, our producer insisted we stayed with what we had, which was very unfortunate as myself and the director knew these locations could potentially ruin the future scenes to be shot there due to the amount of disturbance taking place. 

 

The production stages had its ups and downs due to long days of filming and tensions running a little high however, we got the job done non the less. Shortly afterwards, we moved onto the post-production of the film where the editors were busy creating the film and sound needed to do ADR due to the locations that we used being too noisy. Unfortunately, I was left to do conduct the ADR sessions by myself with no help from my sound assistant due to his questionable absences. This was frustrating for me at first as I knew doing ADR would not be my strongest point. However, our director helped fill in for him when needed and we both learned to conduct ADR sessions together. It wasn’t an easy task at all we had a couple attempts at it but we seemed to run into a variety of problems along the way such as the video lagging, not knowing the set-up process of the software ‘Pro tools’ that good etc. It was a bit of a nightmare. However, we asked other peers for some assistance and lecturers, but I know this definitely could have been improved a lot better.

 

To conclude, my role as the head of sound department was quite easy going throughout the production process. However, during the post-production stages is where my skills were ultimately challenged. With the assistance of Brett I believe we could of done a much better job with the ADR sessions as opposed to without him. However, overall, I am pleased to say I believe I did a good job with the recording and mixing of sound on set. I was faced with some challenges but thanks to quick troubleshooting this did not create a barrier fro the entirety of the Clickbait production. I am happy with my work on this final project for my university and will use the skills and experiences I’ve had recording the sound for this production for future reference on other projects.

 

Viers, R. (2012). The location sound bible. Studio City, CA: Michael Wiese Productions.