Pro Tips: Capture Crystal-Clear Audio Without a Recorder

Story time! A few years back, the day before I left NYC to London for a shoot, I realized my microphone was broken. It was a Saturday, and most shops that sell them in New York are closed on Saturdays but after a few hours of calling around and paying more money than I wanted to, I got my hands on a new microphone mere hours before my flight. I show up to the shoot in London and realize I left the microphone at home. I messed up. Rather than admit defeat I needed to improvise.

The solution

We live in a world where everyone is walking around with the solution to most video production problems right in their pocket. It’s called a phone. Lost? You have a map. Bored? You have games. Forgot your microphone? You have a microphone! It’s not an ideal solution, but it’s more than serviceable. There’s two ways you can use your phone to capture some crisp audio using the built-in voice recording app.

Use your phone to capture audio

If you have help, have someone hold the phone just out of frame while recording. You don’t want to hold it too far, 2-3 feet at most depending on how noisy the environment is but you can probably get a good medium close up shot this way. You’ll want your subject to speak directly towards the phone for best results. Another option is to place the phone in the subject’s shirt pocket if they have one. If it’s sticking out or otherwise looks strange, you may be limited to a close up shot above the shoulders. Once you’re back in the editing room simply sync up the audio from your phone with the video you shot. From there, you can ditch the audio captured by the built-in camera mic as your phone’s audio is almost certainly better.

The real solution: Check your gear

The real solution to this problem is to check your equipment more than one day before your shoot to make sure it’s all functional and to make a checklist as you’re packing to make sure you’ve got everything. If you’re like me and common sense escapes you from time to time, your phone is your best friend. Fire up the voice recording app and you’re good to go. Bonus: Make sure to text your friends back home to let them know how badly you messed up — so they can have a good laugh.

Pro Tips: Capture Crystal-Clear Audio Without a Recorder

The solution

Use your phone to capture audio

The real solution: Check your gear

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