Here's an example of how things should not be.
3 weeks ago I finished scoring a series of workout videos. Not the most glorious job ever but hey playing music for a living is pretty sweet. The video guy is apparently sooooo good at what he does. He even won a contest once. Whoopdi do. So here is what happened.
I wrote all the music beforehand. The fitness lady made up routines to the beat of the music, and they get all set up to film. After asking my opinion on mics, the video guy decides I have no clue what I'm talking about and proceeds to rent [because he doesn't actually own any] a cheap Apex clip on lapel mic.
Of course it's an omni mic, so he's worried about bleed. So he turns down the cd player they had while filming because he's just going to drop the tracks in after the fact. But they have nothing to work out to. So after day 1, they called me and told me about it and asked me what to do. I gave them like 10 options ranging from keeping the music in and adding it in over top [because it's going to be there anyway], separating the speakers equal distances from the mic and flipping the phase on one side to cencel it out at the mic to wireless headphones to just using directional mics.
Video man tells the fitness trainer that I dunno what I'm doing. Over the next few days, they film the rest of the videos. Without, of course, taking any of my advice. "Don't worry" says Mr. Video - ANY audio guy can sync up the music to video - with ease.
By the time he's edited the videos together and made her a reference copy it becomes clear that he can indeed point a camera at stuff and push the red button - but audio is not his thing. His omni mic in the fitness room has become nearly useless as the extra-reverberant room [hard floors/walls/ceilings/metal workout equipment/giant windows] bounce back into the mic.
He has since given her the video files all edited together with no music added. So the video is there, in HD, all ready to go if it has the audio problems fixed. He's also disappeared, not answering phone calls or emails or anything. I have a feeling he'll show up later to make sure I didn't cut his name out of the credits. I'm about to call the fitness place so that I can get the files delivered to me. I think I can fix the audio without butchering it... but they may be SOL.
- Ask A Question ›
- Acoustic Guitar ›
- Bass Guitar ›
- Beginners ›
- Electric Guitar ›
- GearTalk ›
- Manufacturers ›
- Music Theory ›
- Recording ›
- Vintage ›
- Promote Your Music ›
- Site Feedback ›
- Offbeat ›