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June 8, 2022
Jessica Goldfarb
Social Media Account Manager
Sounds good to me! In the era of viral sounds and songs, audio has become a bit of an afterthought for anyone shooting video. Speaking videos are starting to sound less and less professional as people are forgetting their good audio basics!
What does good versus bad audio sound like? I’m glad you asked! Check out the video below from our Instagram for some great examples!
Environment. Your environment is just the surrounding area where you shoot your video. In terms of good audio, it can be broken down into two portions: acoustics and background noise.
Background noise is a bit self-explanatory. People talking, music, a busy road, and even birds and nature can be a bit noisy and distracting and diminish the quality of the audio in your video. Have you ever heard the phrase “Quiet on set”? When shooting a video with a speaking portion, consider the noise level of your surroundings.
Acoustics are a bit different. It’s not them… it’s you. In this instance, the bad audio isn’t coming from an outside source, but rather from your own voice interacting with the room. Small enclosed spaces with no noise padding let the sound waves from your voice bounce around like crazy, causing an echo.
Once you’ve found a good place to shoot, the next thing to consider is the distance from your subject. If you’re filming all the way across the room it’ll probably be a little bit hard to hear. However, if you’re too close to your mic, you’ll be muffled and too loud.
Finding that sweet spot can be a little tricky, but we find that for a front-facing phone camera you’re generally in that goldilocks zone when holding your phone about an arm’s length away. For your rear-facing camera, you can be anywhere between 3 to 5 feet for the best quality audio.
Maybe one of the biggest things to consider when filming someone speaking is their tone! It’s important to make sure the tone of the speaker matches the tone of the video and the discussion topic. If you’re discussing something a bit more serious, a fun, bubbly voice might be a bit confusing. Conversely, if you’re shooting something fun and exciting, a robot voice is boring and off-putting. for the best quality audio.
Let’s talk about another cool way to use sound that’s a little more advanced. Have you ever heard of sound design? Subtle sound effects recorded separately and edited in later add a little bit of extra “oomph” to your video. For example, check out this compilation of some of our past apartment lifestyle shoots!
Did you hear the train go by? How about the cheering fans? You’re not meant to notice these sounds off the bat, it’s more of a subconscious recognization, but if you listen for them you’ll hear them! great examples!
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