21 Single person operation: shooting
On your shoot day, and before you leave home, you should consider if you, yourself, present the correct ‘image’ to your client and the contributors with whom you are working. ‘Cleanliness is next to Godliness’ is what I was told as a young lad, and I suggest you bear in mind that you may often be working in close proximity to a variety of people from all walks of life, probably for long periods at a time, some of whom may well be responsible for ensuring your continued employment. Your attire, freshly scrubbed appearance and demeanour all count to the good, if not more so than being able to competently handle the equipment.
So, having looked in the mirror, the next thing to do is to carefully check the details from the call sheet to satisfy yourself that you have all the required equipment stowed and ready to go. You should always check each item of equipment to ensure it's operating satisfactorily before you leave your base. (See Section 34, Pre-location equipment check.)
At the location
Meet production at the R/V as specified on the call sheet (see Section 38, Call sheet details). If you were unable to speak to them beforehand, spend the first few minutes discussing the shoot. They should:
Outline the finished product.
Indicate whether there has been a previous shoot, if shots needs matching, and if there is to be any future shooting for the same item.
Specify the order of interviewees and whether they should be facing right to left, or left to right, where applicable.
Provide details of shots/effects/problems specific to location.
Clearly indicate any hazards/risks following the location assessment if they are not included on the call sheet, and identify other possible problems, e.g. interviewee availability, parking restrictions, site access, etc. has enough time been allowed, is there any slack?
Contingency plans, or where things may differ from plan.
Discussion beforehand minimizes any risks posed by potential problems which may disrupt the shoot.
Line-up
You should always record a minimum of thirty seconds line-up (colour bars in vision, and camera mic selected so that tone is recorded, if the camcorder provides this as a facility) at the beginning of each cassette, and preferably up to one minute if you can afford the time. This ensures that you aren't using the first part of the cassette which often doesn't have the tape correctly tensioned (which may be due to possible loosening whilst being shipped/transported). Even in a tearing hurry, always spool into the tape so that you don't use the first ten to fifteen seconds for any vital pictures/sound.
Before you run to record, questions to ask are, will the soundtrack be used as a stand-alone piece, what comes before and after the piece, will it be edited, if so how, and at what length, and will any other sound/music be added/dubbed? As well as these considerations regarding the soundtrack, no shot stands alone, and most of the time you'll be concentrating on shooting a series or sequence of shots, with a view to how they'll be cut together, and providing the editor with as wide a choice as possible.
To achieve this end, if you're like me, you'll be mentally judging the edit points as you're shooting. But whilst managing sound and pictures together in this way, you'll soon notice that good edit points are rarely achieved in both at the same point. In an interview, the cut point is more often than not governed by the answers, i.e. the sound, so you must be aware of the consistency of sound level relative to the background/ambient noise. In other words, if a particularly noisy motorbike goes roaring past the window during an interview, the poor editor will find it impossible to disguise an edit within that time frame without the assistance of some covering sound from another source (see Section 15, Recording for the edit; Wildtrack). The ear is particularly sensitive to changes in both quality and level, so even a quietly ticking clock in the background will prove an impossible edit to conceal if a single tick is displaced in time!
However, in a sequence of someone physically performing a task for example, the edit is almost always visually led. But with their every movement, some sound will be generated, so it must be in sync, and if a cutaway is added in the edit, there must be sufficient relevant sound track to cover it. In many cases, the sound taken during the cutaway may not be used, but you should always record sound when shooting in spite of assurances that ‘It won't be needed’. In fact, a Golden Rule to observe is:
Never shoot mute pictures.
Always ensure that you at least have the camera mic selected (preferably to both tracks), as this will then provide the editor with a guide track of what's happening on location. Another advantage of this is that you can also add verbal notes relating to the shoot and the shot/s, a real bonus in post-production, believe me.
‘Did you get that?’
At minimum, always confidence check the last ten seconds of your first shot on location, and the final ten seconds of each recorded cassette. It is good working practice to develop the habit of checking the final few seconds of recorded material at each and every recording break.
Whilst recording, if you suspect a problem you should avoid stopping someone in ‘full flow’ if at all possible. Faults and/or warning lights may intrude during an interview, and if it's simply a case of an imminent tape or battery change, then you should let the contributor finish their answer before stopping. The fine point of judgement you have to make is when the fault is such that further recording becomes impossible until it has been rectified. Do you wait for the end of an answer, or butt in (with an apology) and notify production of the problem? Only experience can be your guide in this situation, but as a general rule, working with experienced contributors, it's unlikely that they'll be unduly upset if you interrupt. However, with inexperienced or nervous contributors, it's probably better to wait, if you're unlikely to lose more than a minute by doing so. More than that, and everyone's time is being wasted.
Cassette handling
Keep them clean. Dirt and dust will cause head clog and wear.
Label each cassette with the date, title, and a rough indication of content, plus any technical details that may assist the edit (e.g. interviewee on track 1).
When you remove the cassette from the recorder, immediately push in/slide the red indicator to prevent over-recording (record inhibit).
Do not re-use cassettes, they may suffer from tape distortion through previous maltreatment, or contain dirt or dust, or have a damaged oxide layer through over-use, all of which leads to drop-out and replay malfunction.
Never let your cassettes come into contact with, or be stored/carried close to mobile phones.
At the end of the day/shoot, ensure that all tapes/rushes are handed to production or safely despatched/delivered to a pre-arranged address.
Transcription recording
You may be asked to provide a transcription recording on a cassette recorder. Many reporters carry their own, and often find that its onboard mic provides sufficient quality for their purposes. Some camcorders provide outputs from channels one and two, which you could use to feed a cassette recorder, always providing you have the correct plugs/leads to interface with the one they produce. You may wish to carry one of your own, with reliable connections, but most people would consider this too much to ask of single person operation. See also Section 26, Sound recordist operation: balancing; Transcription recording.
Sync
When single camera video recording first began, the idea that you might have to use a clapper board for sync would have been considered ludicrous. These days, however, with digital processing and compression being applied to pictures, there's a distinct possibility that the sound can end up out of sync at a later date. You will be thanked by many an editor if you simply record an invision hand-clap on each of your takes. Better still, if you've time to write it up, use a clapper board to identify each take visually, together with its distinctive sound.
Figure 21.1 At the beginning of every take, record a hand clap in frame to provide a sound and vision sync point