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Directing: Dual-Role Directing (page 2)

Sidebar: Headphones Required

Headphones are the director's best friend. Never go on a shoot without a good set of headphones. The best kinds are those that completely cover the ear and cut out all outside noise. With headphones, you will be able to maintain close attention to the talent's words, inflections, tone and overall performance. You will also be able to pick up every plane, car and squeaky chair within the range of the microphone. It is amazing what you hear while on the set. It is also amazing what you miss if you don't have a good headset. Later when you get into the editing suite and listen to the audio through your good studio monitors, you'll be kicking yourself because the scene that you thought was perfect has the buzz of an airplane rolling from the right to left speaker. It's better to catch it on the set than try to fix it later in post.

Even when you are acting as both the director and camera operator, it is important to have a good headset. If you are using a dual system, plug your headset into the tape out or headset connector (use a splitter so that both you and your recordist can listen in) of the DAT or flash recorder. Do not monitor from the mixer. All that will tell you is that you are getting sound to the mixer. Always monitor from the audio recording device or if you are recording into the camera from the mixer, plug your headset into the camera. This will tell you that you are getting audio to the recorder or camera. If using a dual system, check to make sure you are recording a good audio signal but plug your headphones into the audio recorder. You are monitoring the audio to make sure it is good. By plugging into the camera, you are only monitoring the performance, not the true recording of that performance.

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