How well do you know your microphones?
It’s easy to think of filmmaking being all about the visual content, but that isn’t the whole story. Sound design and production quality is another important factor, with filmmakers striving for high quality sound recording for their productions.
Recording high quality sound is often a challenge and requires skilful sound crew, as well as specialist equipment.
Here, we take a look at 6 different microphones used within filmmaking to help achieve impressive sound production.
Lavalier Microphones
Lavalier mics are small, clip-on microphones typically attached to a person (their shirt, tie, collar etc) and used to capture dialogue.
Lavalier mics are ideal for interviews, documentaries, and any scenario where discreet recording is necessary. They can be operated hands-free, with minimal visibility, and and can be positioned in very close proximity to the sound source, which helps capture the intended sound, whilst also reducing background noise.
Shotgun Microphones
Shotgun mics are highly directional microphones with a narrow pickup pattern, which means that they can be focused on particular sound sources and capture recordings with minimal background noise. They can be mounted onto cameras, on to stands around a film set, or onto boom poles, which means they can be used with versatility from different positions.
This means that they are effective for capturing dialogue and sound effects, especially in outdoor or uncontrolled environments, where they can also be shielded using windjammers (dead cats is a popular industry term) to protect from environmental noise.
Shotgun mics are excellent at isolating the subject’s voice from ambient noise, allowing for clear audio even from a distance.
Handheld Microphones
Handheld mics are designed to be held in hand. They are typically dynamic or condenser mics, which are commonly used in news reporting, live events, and on-the-street interviews. These mics are typically shown in view, they aren’t concealed from the viewer.
These mics are tough, easy for presenters to use and versatile, which makes them ideal for live and unscripted events, where they can be used for a range of purposes with allowances for different speaking volumes.
Boundary Microphones/PZM – Pressure Zone Microphones
Boundary microphones are usually placed on flat surfaces to capture sound from a specific area. These are commonly used in TV, where events use theatres and conference rooms to pick up sound across a stage or platform.
They enable a wide pickup pattern, excellent at capturing dialogue from multiple people, as well as ambient sounds. Often they will be used in tandem with shotgun or lavalier mics, with the recordings used over multiple channels.
Parabolic Microphones
Parabolic microphones use a parabolic reflector to focus sound onto the mic element from within the recording environment. They are often used in sports broadcasting, nature recording, and any situation requiring long-distance audio capture.
Parabolic microphones are extremely directional, capable of picking up sounds from great distances with high clarity.
Boom Microphones
A boom isn’t a type of microphone, but it is a piece of equipment found on many film sets, and is typically referred to as “a boom mic”.
A boom mic uses a shotgun microphone mounted on to a boom pole, so it can be held overhead and out of the frame. The boom pole helps the sound operatives to position the mic closer to the sound source, for a clearer recording and higher sound quality.
Sound in Sparks Film School Programmes
Sparks Film School offer youth filmmaking programmes for ages 5-18. Students taking part in our term time courses explore different aspects of sound production. S
Students in Studios 4 and 5 (ages 11+) learn how to work with specialist sound recording equipment, with students in Studios 1-3 (ages 5-11) exploring some of the basics of sound in filmmaking.
Find out more about our filmmaking courses >>>
