The Challenges of Recording Sound with DSLR Cameras

I am getting lots of experience shooting with DSLR still cameras, such as the Canon 7D, 5D and 1D, and the Nikon 7100. These cameras are very popular with independent filmmakers because they shoot in high definition, are compact (which allows you to be stealthy), and they are affordable. I also love that they shoot beautiful stills, which come in handy when you are trying to promote your videos.

A major downside to using DSLRs is recording sound. It's essentially impossible to record quality sound with picture. And sometimes I'd like the ease of shooting something with all the media in the picture so I can quickly edit and export. Recording external sound and syncing means extra steps and equipment that sometimes, I'd love to avoid.

However, the in-camera sound on DSLRs is unusable. Sure, if you are fine creating videos and not worrying about a tinny, low quality sound then you're fine. I've watched a ton of videos online that have racked up the views and have low quality sound. I'm not recommending this path but the popularity of your video does not necessarily hinge on having perfect sound.

As a professional filmmaker, I do try to get the best quality sound I can manage in every circumstance. Of course, depending on the situation, the equipment, the resources, some shows will have the high-end professional sound mixing and some will have to be what we can pull together for no money.

For one of our low-cost shoots, i.e. free, we wanted to try to achieve the best sound with our Nikon 7100.  We have a Rode NTG-2 mic and thought it should capture the sound in higher quality. That's what you would assume, right? So we tried using it direct into the camera. Unfortunately, when we played back the sound we noticed an audible hiss in the recording, which actually sounded worse than the in-camera sound. At first, we thought it was our settings or our equipment but then we started to do our research and lo and behold, using external mics with DSLR cameras can introduce a hiss.

It's true that you can try to lower the hiss in post but we were so shocked to even hear a horrible hiss in the first place. Why do these cameras even allow for an external mic if you're going to get sound with a terrible hiss? Boggles our mind.

To address the hiss, some users have recommended using a pre-amp between your mic and camera to try to remove the hiss. We tried it with our Nikon 7100 and Rode mic and it didn't help. Perhaps this might work with other set ups but it didn't work with the Nikon 7100 and Rode mic.

Next we tried using our H2 Recorder as the pre-amp between the Nikon 7100 and the Rode mic and that didn't work either. The hiss was still there.

Finally, out of frustration, we decided to record the sound externally through our H2 recorder. We thought, well hey, why don't we try to use the Rode mic with the H2? Perhaps that will help make the recording even higher quality. Wrong... The H2 wouldn't even recognize the Rode mic.

Ahhh! We did so many tests and consulted so many videos and manuals and the end result was using the H2 recorder on a boom. It's not the best solution for capturing sound but it's definitely better than using in-camera sound or an external mic direct into your DSLR.

So for now, when the economics don't make sense to hire a professional production sound person, we are using our H2 recorder and having the extra step of syncing sound in editing. I was hoping to not have to sync sound in editing, as it's an extra step and can be frustrating as well, but if it means better quality sound than the in-camera sound, I'm willing to do it. But I will be on the look out for a better solution!

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Conversation with Writer/Director Leena Pendharkar - Psst...Our Series Overly Attached Andy Premieres Tomorrow!

As you all know, I have partnered with Leena Pendharkar on a new Web series called Overly Attached Andy. The series premieres tomorrow October 15th on our So Natural TV YouTube channel here: www.youtube.com/sonaturaltv. We also have a fun Tumblr blog for the series where you can see Andy Rants and get a sense for what kind of person he really is (cat images included): overlyattachedandy.tumblr.com.

If you haven't seen it yet, you can also watch the trailer for Overly Attached Andy here: 

Let's get on with the conversation! I thought it would be fun to talk with Leena about what inspired her to want to create Overly Attached Andy. Leena is a writer/director who grew up in Raleigh, NC but doesn't consider herself Southern, although she could definitely use some Bojangle's sweet tea right about now. For a more serious bio (who wants to be serious?), you can check out her Web site here.

Tell us about Overly Attached Andy, the new Web series you wrote and directed and we both produced. What inspired you to develop this story?
I was inspired to tell this story because of the wacky and weird dating stories I've heard out there! Also, I wanted to explore the idea of a guy who is really genuine and just truly wants to find love but is maybe approaching it with a little too much honesty. Too much honesty isn't always a great thing, you know?

Overly Attached Andy will be the first Web series on our YouTube Channel So Natural TV. Why did you decide to start the YouTube Channel So Natural TV? What are your hopes for the channel?
I started the channel with a series of sketches called So Natural, about four wacky hipster moms. These sketches were based on some flash fiction/short stories I had been writing, and I thought one day, hey these might make good short films. I was always writing these kind of short comedic pieces for fun for years. I probably have over a hundred of them just sitting on my computer and never really thought there was much to do with them. I was mostly focused on writing features, had made some short films and was obsessed with the idea of making an indie film. 

I spent about five years making my indie film Raspberry Magic, and after, I was feeling like, what am I going to do next? I won a development grant for my second feature, A Day with Dandekar, through Tribeca All Access, but I knew it would be a long journey to making that, and didn't want to sit idle again for years and years.

At the time, I was really inspired by a lot of the work online, and thought I should experiment and make my own material so I made the So Natural sketches. I was really surprised at how many opportunities came about because of those sketches. Just even little things like being curated on sites like Funny or Die and Fail Blog felt really awesome. 

With the So Natural sketches, I also pushed my writing style a little more. Prior to those, my features were always more dramedy. But I took a lot of the weird comedic ideas in my flash fiction and built them into the short films, something I was always really nervous about. I had been taking classes at Upright Citizens Brigade, and it helped me gain some confidence and feel ok with pushing myself. From there, I just fell in love with working online, and have been developing more material. I just want to keep working with great people and making more content and shows.  

Had you ever worked online before? What was your background in media?
I was involved with new media for a long time, starting back in the late 1990s. In college, I wrote for newspapers and a friend of mine started one of "the first" online newspapers at UNC-Chapel Hill. I got involved and got really hooked. I got into making graphics, writing for the web and even designing web pages. I got pretty good at that stuff, and after college worked for Congressman Bob Filner (yes that guy) being a junior legislative aide, and doing a lot of media for the web. Plus, I freelanced for many web publications, some fun women's sites and made a decent amount of money doing it. This was back when web sites actually paid for content :) 

But then I went to graduate school, got a Master's in Documentary film production, and got very good at making videos + design + graphics for the web and had a small business doing that for clients. At the same time, I was crewing on movie sets and writing screenplays. Having my own business was fun and I learned a lot, but I got a little burnt out cranking our graphics for clients. I knew I wanted to focus on making movies, so I started focusing on making an indie feature off a script a lot of people had really responded to. So for a while, I stopped working in the online space but I found that I really missed it.  

What do you like about creating videos for the Web? How does it compare to independent film?
I actually really like short form content. I think it's a very different skill than writing a longer, more involved story as for a feature. I like both, it just depends on the story you want to tell. The nice thing about the web space is that there is definitely more creative control, and the budgets are smaller so you can do a lot with little. Distribution is always a challenge, though, and a lot of the work on online media is constant/nonstop social media and PR. But it all kind of ties in with the way that a show is created and can be fun.

You were an independent filmmaker first. Tell us about your experience making your independent film Raspberry Magic - the good, the bad, the ugly - and why you feel the Web is where you need to be right now? And will you still make independent films?
I grew up admiring independent film, especially the work of Deepa Mehta and Mira Nair, then later small personal movies like those of the French/Italian neo-realists. I really love the work of the Duplass brothers and others like them doing these kinds of small, character-driven movies. So, I still love indie film, and definitely will continue to make independent films. 

As a storyteller, I think certain stories are better for the web, and certain stories are better for movies. Of course, the distribution model for the kind of small, character-driven movies I love seems to be falling apart which is really disappointing. It seems like that sort of writing and storytelling is really now only on TV or the web. 

As for being independent, I always say, being an indie filmmaker is not for the faint of heart. It's a labor of love and you do it because you love it, but it's not easy. I think in making Raspberry Magic, the raising of the money and some of the organizational aspects started to really bog me down. I worked with some great people, but it felt like we climbed a mountain. I definitely am/will keep working on features, but I'd like to find innovative ways to distribute them. Raspberry Magic is currently on Starz, plus it played on a number of other platforms like Hulu and Amazon, but really we didn't see any money on that. But also, making features is a slow process. It takes a long time to get a screenplay right. I am still working on re-writes for A Day with Dandekar. 

When I was younger, I was impatient just to do something. Now, I would wait for all of the right elements to come together before doing it. I want to get it right. With the web, it's true as well, but at least with shorter content that doesn't need a big budget, you can make things more quickly.

What are your future plans for Web series and the So Natural TV channel overall?
I would like to do a series that is more involved, like our "Mom" project (Leena and I are developing a new Web series involving urban moms - so stay tuned!). I'd like to have longer episodes, more story and deeper audience engagement. I love the web because there are so many amazing things you can do on the interactive side, almost like a video game. The technology is always growing and changing and I think we are going to see series that do incredible things, so I'd like to get into that on the directing side.

What advice would you give new filmmakers as they figure out what kind of media (Web series, films, television shows etc) to explore?
I think its important to constantly "make things" and stay creative. The other thing is to find people you really enjoy working with. Whether its web series or film, this is a highly collaborative medium and it's only as fun as the people you surround yourself with. But taking control of your own career, being entrepreneurial and making your own road map is key.

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I Love My Annoying Spouse - My New Web Series as Director!

I have been producing media for a long time now. If you include the years I produced books then we're looking at over 20 years. Wow! How does time fly so quickly?

For the longest time, I thought that all I would ever want to do is produce. And, honestly, I would have been happy only producing. It makes me happy and I think I'm good at it.

Then a realization came over me. I spend so much time searching for new projects. I read countless scripts and books and articles only to come up empty-handed. I attend festivals in the hopes of cultivating relationships with new writers and directors that may lead to a greenlit project. This is something every producer should do, however, it's not easy. Once a writer or director is at a festival, he or she usually has a creative team in place.

And incredibly, I currently work with some truly amazing writers and directors but we often go through waiting periods between projects and I would find myself constantly searching for new material. It finally hit me after years of searching and only finding a handful of projects I wanted to produce that with all that time I was spending looking for another great project, I could be spending time figuring out my own voice.

Finally, I decided it was time to self-generate. That way, I could still produce but also write and direct during periods in which I'm not producing other people's works.

I've been writing the last few years and I do have a co-writing credit on my film Not Since You. I love the process of writing. It's an amazing creative outlet that helps to reduce my stress. So in addition to the material I am developing with other writer/directors, I want to be developing my own. I want to be able to produce what speaks to me, whether it's written by me or someone else.

I am now trying my hand at directing - eek! I never thought I would say that. But instead of waiting around for someone else to like my work enough to want to direct it, I figure let's use that time to experiment and practice and work on developing my skills as a director.

If anything, I will become a better storyteller and producer! It truly can't hurt to expand myself and take on a new challenge.

About a month ago, I came up with the idea of doing a Web series about exploring how a loving couple deals with their spouse's annoying habits. I'm calling it I Love My Annoying Spouse. I have a Tumblr started here. Please check it out and Follow it!

I've been married for twenty years and I love my spouse more every day - but along with that love are, shall we say, annoying habits we inflict on each other. I wanted to take a hilarious look at these relatable annoyances we all experience in relationships.

The series is super fun - and I hope funny - and purposefully simple. We have a cast and crew totaling five - check out how cute they are (even my husband is my DP - and let me tell you, he offers up his share of episode ideas):

From left: Annie Bydlon, Jonny Loquasto, Ann Tierney, me, Steve Kosek

Our lovably annoying spouses are being expertly performed by Jonny Loquasto and Ann Tierney. These two are a laugh. I had to bite my lip as we were shooting so I wouldn't laugh out loud and ruin a take.

Here they are as Bobby and Susan Parker - our lovably annoying spouses:

Jonny Loquasto as Bobby & Ann Teirney as Susan

We had a wonderful first shoot this week. With our wonky schedules, we had to shoot on a weeknight!

I am now in the middle of post and learning all I can about Adobe Premiere. I am not going to get caught up in the Final Cut 7 v. X drama so I'm choosing Adobe as my editing software. Plus I know Photoshop so that will hopefully help with graphics etc.

So wish me luck as I tap into this new adventure of directing! Don't worry, I will still be producing. I love working with other directors and have some awesome new projects I'm developing with them. The future is bright all around.

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