Wireless Microphone System
The U100 series from Audio-Technica is equipped with 100 tunable IMF channels and offers true diversity operation for reliable reception. The transmitter features an input level control to help keep your signal in check and the all-metal receiver provides balanced XLR output. Available with either an MT831 carded or MT830 omnidirectional lavalier.
The perception of natural speech is a combination of pacing and inflection. In some cases, pacing can be accomplished by tight editing of the dialog. But if you study the flow of the talent’s speech patterns, you’ll find some words are slurred together, and sometimes certain vowels and consonants are glossed over. Simulating these patterns requires some work. In a multitrack audio environment, you can put each word on its own track, shifting them until they flow properly. Inflection is tougher. To create the proper rise and fall of a person’s voice, you can apply some pitch shifting to words. Audition offers both static and progressive pitch shifting, allowing you to set start and end pitches. Another alternative is a pitch correction plugin. These beauties let you draw the desired pitch changes over time. In any case, it’s a challenge and the results may not be perfect, but it’s cheaper and easier than a reshoot.
Time To Play
After a little time and practice, these techniques will become standard tools in your box. Just keep telling yourself, “this was impossible ten years ago,” and now you can easily do it in your living room
When using reflectors, mirrors and bounce cards, you have to treat them just like lighting instruments. This includes the distance they are from the talent. To increase the intensity of the light coming off of a reflector, you need only to move it closer to the talent. To decrease the intensity, move it further away. As in lighting, the way it works is double the distance from the subject and it reduces the intensity of the light four times. Cut the distance in half and the light becomes 4 times more intense.
Setups – The Sun
Let’s start with the easiest setups and take advantage of the beautiful spring or summer sun. First of all, think of the sun as a very small, very intense light. The sun is best used during the morning and late afternoon hours to take advantage of its color, as well as the angle of the light. But, believe it or not, you can also use the sun at high noon!
If you do have to shoot at noon, place your talent in the shade of a tree with a shaded background. Place a smooth surface reflector in the sun at the 3 o’clock position and reflect the sun towards another smooth surface reflector or mirror positioned above and at the 11 o’clock position behind your talent. Focus this reflector onto the back of the talent’s head and shoulders. Use another soft gold reflector slightly above and at the 5 o’clock position and bounce the light from the back reflector into your talent’s face for a very nice soft warm light.
You’re Not Done Yet!
Don’t forget to interview the sports heroes after the game – their impressions, recap and analysis – as well as some of the fans, the coaches, and spectators. You can add voice overs to the action and have your sports hero explain what’s happening and how it felt to be there.
Don’t Get Stuck
No doubt half the parents who spy you with a video camera will suddenly become the targets of angry spouses, berating them for not thinking to videotape the game themselves. They’ll try and cajole you into giving them copies of the tape. Which is fine – just don’t get stuck spending your whole weekend duping tapes when you could be out tossing the ball with Junior or building that gazebo in the back yard. It would be useful to consider beforehand what you should charge for tape duplication and print that up on a card. There are plenty of weekend warriors out there who have turned their hobby into a small business that keeps them in the latest and greatest hardware and editing software.
Sun in your eyes?—will you be shooting into the sun from where you’re sitting? If so, you might want to consider moving, even if it puts you in the visitors’ bleachers – just try not to cheer too loudly.
Hey, down in front!—is there a space specifically for press? If not, get a seat where people won’t be standing between you and the action. When Junior makes his touchdown, you don’t want the back of some guy’s head to be the only record you have of it.
Randy Hansen, chief photographer for WINK-TV, has been videotaping sports for years and recommends that at a minimum you should have a camera with a good quick zoom and extra batteries. That, however, isn’t nearly as important as understanding the game. “That requires,” says Hansen, “you know where to be when it’s 3rd and 9 (down field about 10-12 yards). If you don’t know, I wouldn’t shoot the sport until you could learn more about it.” Randy also says it’s vital to grab a copy of the program with all the players’ names and jersey numbers to reference later.
