Sound Reasoning: The Great Outdoors

Have you ever spent hours trying to get a perfect outdoor shot, only to find the audio consists of nothing more than freeway noise, wind and the far off barking of a dog? Don't be discouraged -- clear, quality outdoor audio can be difficult to achieve. But with just a little forethought and the information given here, you can come back with the best possible audio every time, even if the elements conspire against you.

Redundancy
Equipment failure is one of the worst things that can happen on any kind of shoot. When shooting in a studio, if something goes wrong with a piece of equipment there is usually something else around to replace it. But in the great outdoors you have nothing more than what you brought with you. If something stops working, it can bring your shoot to a dead halt.

Most videomakers are under-equipped for outdoor shooting. If you're getting great sound from your expensive directional mike, but your mike cable gives up and it's the only one you have, then what? You'll have to switch to the camcorder mike and risk the drop in sound quality. Or what if the batteries in your expensive directional mike give up and the closest replacements are at a drug store twenty …