Episode 19 – James Shettler – Calgary sound rentals – Behind the Scene Podcast

Episode-19 James Shettler

James talks to us about his experience with the digital audio program at sait and about his time on the set of “the missing link” as a boom operator.

Today on the podcast, we have some information on microphone pick up patterns, and an interview with James Shettler about his experience as a boom operator on the set of “the missing link.”

There are a few different pick up patterns that we need to be aware of for live sound and recording.
Basically a pick up pattern is the sensitivity of a mic to sound coming from various directions.
The most common pick up pattern is cardiod.
If you picture a kidney bean the crook of the bean would be pointing to the back of the mic and the flesh of the bean would represent it’s directionality.
A boom mic, which James will talk about a bit later in this podcast, has a hyper or super cardiod pick up pattern. This looks more like a mushroom, where the mushroom head is very focused on whatever you are pointing the microphone at.

The reason you might use a hypercardiod pick up pattern over a cardiod could be that you want to pinpoint your sound source without having to hear as much of the surrounding noise. Perfect for recording actors voices when the microphone needs to be out of the shot.

Some other patterns are bidirectional and omnidirectional. A bidirectional mic would be ideal for recording two performers facing each other and omni’s are great for capturing that nice room sound you have always been looking for.

On a side note, did you know that on site on film locations the sound engineer will take a sample of room sound so that they can mix that in under the dialog or for between edits?