Shooting theatrical productions part four: Audio, the audience and you

One of the most overlooked aspects of video recording is the audio. Because the focus is on what you see, people tend to forget about what they hear. The internal microphone on the majority of consumer camcorders is not of high quality, and since most camcorders are built for convenience, the microphone tends to get packed in close to the mechanics of the camcorder. Consequently, you may hear the sounds of the camcorder during the taping of the performance; the zooming and focusing of the lens, and the whine of the tape motors. Also, you'll pick up the various clicks and pops of buttons being pressed and the camera being turned or moved. All of this makes the case for an external microphone all the stronger.

An all-in-one solution is an external shotgun microphone. It's the simplest and most versatile solution. You can set it to zoom mode and point it directly at the actors, so you pick them up more than you pick up the sounds of the audience. Also consider that if you are set up in the back row, you might not have the best audio recording.

Alternate solutions include a separate audio recording, a lavalier microphone, or tapping into a stage microphone system. The separate audio recording is pretty simple; set up a separate microphone and recorder closer to the front of the stage (an audio operator in the front row is a good idea) and then match the audio to the video in post-production. A wireless lavalier microphone (the type you clip onto a collar) will give you great audio, but it requires the cooperation of the talent. Definitely go through the stage manager of the production for this kind of setup. For a play, you will probably face resistance as this was not envisioned during the rehearsal; for a debate, speech or recital it's probably not as bad. In fact for these kinds of events, the theater may already have a microphone set up and in place, so that the sound on stage can be amplified for the space, in which case you can possibly just patch into the sound system of the theater, and get a really good signal. Just take care and make sure you know what you're doing in this case - standard 1/8" mic adapters on consumer camcorders are not made for taking connections from anything other than microphones. Ensure that the level being fed out from a sound board is not going to blow out your mic jack.

Other considerations

Your camcorder's tally lamp. As an actor, there’s nothing more distracting than looking out into the audience and seeing a blinking red light. All camcorders have an option to turn this off; be considerate, and do so.

The audience. Keep in mind that the audience has come to enjoy a show, and that as a paying customer, they usually have more of a right to be there than you. The exception is if everyone knows that the sole purpose of the event is to tape something and they're a studio audience. With this in mind, the audience is going to cough, laugh, clap, stand up, arrive late, walk in front of the camera and generally pose a challenge to your situation. Your job is to minimize the effect of these interruptions.

If you have extra seats to spare, you can (with the stage manager's permission) tape off seats in front and/or beside you so the audience won't be sitting in them and getting in your way. If the theater's packed, then you might not get that luxury.

You and the camcorder. You are probably not going to be invited back to record a show if a show gets a bad review because the critic was bothered by your presence. That said, small things can help. In a darkened theater (i.e., the only lights are on the stage), use the viewfinder instead of the LCD screen, or put a piece of blue gel over the LCD to minimize the light being spread by the camcorder (taping from the back of the theater will help here, too). You are probably going to make some noise in the process of recording; each stop and start of the camera may make some grinding noise of the tape motor. Changing tapes or batteries may also make some noise. So, if you can, find good opportunities to do these things where it's not going to bother the audience, like at intermission or between acts.

In the next and final article in this series, I'll go over a gig I did recently in a theater, which will put all this stuff into practice.